Fuel in Prague

As we crossed the border from Austria to Czechoslovakia in 1985, I presented our papers, and asked to buy gasoline coupons. Then the girl taking care of the coupons said she had made a mistake, and would have to redo some paperwork. So we waited. We received coupons for 50 Liters of gasoline (we thought), and 880 Czechoslovakian Crowns in cash.

The next day we filled the tank with 50 liters of gasoline. When I tried to pay with the coupons, we found what the paperwork problem had been. We had asked for gasoline coupons, and the girl at the border had prepared diesel coupons. The man refused to accept the coupons, so we had to pay with money, which made the gas more expensive.

We now wanted to exchange our diesel coupons for gasoline coupons. We walked through the Old Town Square and when we got to a Prague department store, we decided Emmy would stay there, and I would return in an hour with the gasoline ticket problem solved. Inside the store there were a couple of floors of goods and a small lunch counter, but it was a dark gloomy place, with nothing she wanted to buy.

In the meantime I was having all kinds of fun with the coupons. I finally arrived at the gasoline company office, and they said the only place to solve this problem was a large bank.

I ran down the street to the bank, and ran up a wide marble staircase into a magnificent room with a very high ceiling. It’s a beautiful room with statues, a stained-glass ceiling, marble everywhere. This Prague bank office would be an improvement over most banks in the US. Although it was dark and could stand renovation and cleaning, I can’t remember seeing a more elegant bank office. Hundreds of people in this Prague bank were standing in several lines, and others were sitting in line, waiting to stand in line.

A man told me they could do nothing about the coupon problem. I insisted, so they took my passport, and I was told which line to stand in. One thing led to another, and an hour plus, disappeared. I offered to do anything they could suggest in order to get my passport back so I get out of there. Finally, the transaction was completed and I ran through and over and around the street construction and found Emmy standing in front of the department store. Wow, that was scary.