Today we encountered the best “why are you here” story. Andy and I had dinner in a real Czech pub with real Czech food and real Czech beer and very American conversation. Our Americanisms were overheard by a fellow yank who invited herself to join us. As-per-usual, the getting to know you questions started to flow. The first one we asked was “What brings you to Prague?” which she completely brushed aside stating that it was a “long story” in the “I’m not going to tell you” sort of vein, and quickly turned the question right back around at us. We obliged, continued the conversation, but eventually asked her for the abridged story of her finding herself single & alone on her first international trip and in Prague on a half-week vacation.
She flew from Denver to Prague to get pregnant. More specifically, to have in vitro fertilisation in a small southern Czech town. She went on to explain that her eggs were fried in an unfortunate bout with cancer at a very young age, and that she’s planning to be the oven for a bun for which she didn’t mix the dough. This led to a discussion as to why the Czech Republic; apparently the procedure costs around $36k in the U.S. and only $8k here. Plus you get the adventure of a European vacation as sort of a pregnancy honeymoon. The woman had done her research, and other sources have confirmed that this is a growing trend.
The questions that didn’t get asked were along the lines of why is this single, attractive woman is essentially having someone else’s child? How does picking both the mother and father work in a doner situation like this? How do you go about making that kind of choice, where you are essentially shopping for all of the traits of your to-be-born child? All-in-all, it was none of our business, but it got me curious.
Obviously, there was more today than just that… Andy and I spent the day with Greg and Andrea exploring again, this time mostly at the Prague Castle and in the Jewish district. The picture below is outside the castle standing next to one of the guards in his designer uniform. There’s obviously more I could write about that part of the trip, but I think I’ll save that for when I post all of my pictures online.
