Yesterday's "Damn, I'm alone" feeling has given away to the travel stage that always comes next: "Whoo hoo! I'm alone! Let's go!" I am planning to spend the day wandering around just to get my bearings (my hotel is within walking distance to the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter -- where much of my research is to be done) before settling down to serious work. I am sitting at an Italian restaurant for lunch/breakfast trying to figure out if my Prague culture book was right that I'm not supposed to put my napkin on my lap but leave it folded on the side of my plate. I do see a lot of napkins on the table, but it is still unclear if I'm allowed to use it at all, or if it must stay neatly folded. My culture book also says I'm supposed to crumple up the napkin and throw it on my plate when I'm finished, but this goes so far against every bit of etiquette I was ever taught that I don't think I can do it.

What I don't remember from said book is whether or not I'm allowed to ask for a doggy bag (anathema in France, I know; perfectly acceptable in Israel) and the question is fairly important as I sit looking at the 2/3 of my pizza left sitting on my table. It would be ok if I weren't already so afraid of the waiters here. What is it about non-American waiters that they feel perfectly comfortable giving you their opinion about your order? (Or, I suppose, not to be culture-centric, what is it about American waiters that makes them so quick to agree with anything you ask for? Wait, I can answer that one! TIPS!) Last night at dinner, when I asked for a side-order of spinach with my plate of goulash, the waitress looked at me with the kind of look a US waitress reserves for someone who lights up a cigarette, and said: "Spinach??!?!? With goulash?!?!?!"

I backed down instantly.

As I write, I am in fact drinking my first caffeinated cup of espresso that I have had in two years -- because I was just too afraid of the look I'd get if I asked for a decaf.

Wow! Dilemma solved! The waiter just asked me if I wanted to take my food home!

I think that man deserves a tip. . .