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Prague by manu_cz
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I have started reading a play by Albert Camus, Le Malentendu. The story is set in a small Czech city. In the preface of the book I read as I wrinkle my brow that the play was meant to be called Budejovice — the name of a city in South Bohemia, not far from Prague.
Le Malentendue is about a murder. And it is because of the bad weather. A woman, Martha, and her mother, who run a small hotel, are so sick of the harsh endless Czech winters that they decide to kill some customers to steal their money, till they are wealthy enough to start a new life in a Mediterranean country. Let´s see what our dear Martha has to say about Czech weather: "Ce que nous appelons le primtemps ici, c´est une rose et deux bourgeons qui viennent de pousser dans le jardin du cloître." Hard, isn´t it? But let´s continue listening to her: "Je n´ai plus de patience en réserve pour cette Europe où l´automne a le visage du primtemps et le primtemps l´odeur de misère." Enough, Marta. Thanks you very much.
12th March, Prague. Streets full of ice and snow after a two-day ice storm. I´m on my sofa reading the third act of Camus´ play and half listening to the telly. Euronews is on, and here comes the weather forecast. The camera goes across the map of Europe, while a catchy jingle melody sounds: "Jingjing jingjing jing jing jiiiiiiing jing." Madrid 20º. Jingjing… Paris 12º. Jingjing jing… Berlin 5º. Jiiiiiiiiiiing… Prague 0º. What the fuck!! Warsaw 4º. Bratislava 4º. I can´t believe it. We´re in the coldest place in the world. "Hey, Ben. Have you seen that? 0º. Worse than ever."
"Yeah…" he says, and something else I can´t understand.
Jingjing jingjing jing jing jiiiiiiiiing…
I wanna kill somebody.
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