From Prague to Nemilkov from David's point of view

After weeks of promising, it is finally happening. I am sitting at my computer writing. Our blog has not been updated for more than 2 years. It’s unbelievable…. So, I am getting into it with a topic I have been thinking about for a long time. What did the whole Nemilkov adventure look like to me, my parents’ son?

It seems to me that we had been talking about buying a chateau forever. It’s not like going and buying a new pair of shoes, although I imagine, that choosing good shoes can be a very tricky task. Maybe it was very similar with the chateau, but you cannot hide a chateau in the closet like shoes after a year if the fashion style changes. Nonetheless, it was like buying shoes. My mom said, “It was pretty clear what we would buy this chateau the moment when we entered the courtyard.”

I remember one chateau that I went with my dad to inspect. In the end, we discovered that Pirkštejn was more like a castle than a chateau. Right from the start, I remember that there was one problem. The castle was not for sale. The Church owned the property at that time and would only rent us the castle. There were other issues from the beginning which resulted consequentially from the construction. Castles were not built for comfortable living in the first place. Pikrštejn was not an exception. The main building was small, cold and uncomfortable. The most interesting aspect of the whole castle was the dominating tower which makes the castle unique. “That tower can be a game changer, and this place has something the others are missing,” my dad told me. He said he might really be thinking about renting this place. Mom didn’t have a same opinion, and thus, Pirkštejn was out of the question. Now there is a blank spot in my memories which we must skip. Let’s move to the crucial day.

We are at our cottage near Slapy. We were spending time there almost every weekend. I am not sure why, but that weekend the entire family was there. Dad was maybe celebrating his birthday, was that it? There was a special present hidden in the kitchen. Most of our family knew that my parents were looking for a special place to move to. Then I came back to that moment in my memory, I think that everyone assumed my parents were joking. On this day, everything changed. The everyone in the living room was watching as my mom passed around a big ginger bread house in the shape of a chateau. The model chateau was traveling to dad’s hands. In that moment everybody knew. “This thing is, they are crazy.”

It was real. We are leaving everything we have built, everything we have worked on and we are leaving, you see.

I had no idea how I felt in the moment. It probably wasn’t anything too bad. I knew before that this was their plan and we had to count on it. Anyway, it was a big change. A year after I came back from an unsuccessful ice hockey adventure to the USA, I was dealing with the idea that ice hockey was in the past, I was starting to attend university, and then this. After a year of “mom’s hotel” I will have to do my laundry by myself again….

I asked myself, if I was happy for my parents. Partly, I was happy and I admired them. On the other hand, there was fear and a little bit of anger. Hopefully everybody will understand the fear. My mom was leaving to some “stone cave” in Šumava and they were leaving me here. Where was I going to live? How is it going to be without a “safe nest” where there are my guardians waiting for me every evening? Thoughts that were going through my head where very troubling, but in the end, everything was coming back to my admiration of my parents.

I did not expect that admiration about such a big decision would be one of my feelings. Yes, I admire my parents for their strength in making such an essential decision. Leaving everything behind to start a new life from scratch. Finding a life-long project. A project which is interesting to them, fulfilling them for the rest of their lives. Personally, I still do not totally understand how they gained this kind of decision-making ability. How to find the courage to do the deal making step. Trust your steps on the journey to the unknown. To know that in the end of the journey everything will be alright. “In the end of the journey everything will be alright, because if it is not, the journey is not over yet,” said my mom.

Apart from my journey this story is coming to an end. I could find many more views which I can describe. I could dig deeper in my memories and tell you what was going on, but too much digging into the past is pointless. I do not remember any time when my parents were happier than they are now. I don’t remember a time when I was more pleased to spend time with my parents than I do right now.

I am happy that we have Nemilkov. My home is now out of Prague, I am always looking forward to come back home.