I stopped in Prague

The Prague staple.

Prague is a cool place. I have been here for the last few days and have enjoyed getting to know the place a little. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the country before I showed up. Prague is special because the Czechs rolled over quickly in WWII so the Nazis didn’t have to destroy the place and it escaped Allied bombings as well making it pretty much the only undisturbed major city from that period. It is a charming and romantic town that people always look for in a European city. That being said, tourists flock here. In the summertime, tourists outnumber locals by 9 to 1. I have always felt that an economy that relies on tourism this heavily is not as rewarding as places that stand on its own feet. I don’t want to see what the locals think I want, I want to see what they want and to not give a shit about me. Towns seem to be watered down this way. It turns out to be not that bad though. Yeah, the tourists were overwhelming in a few spots but it is unbelievable how little the stray from the main areas which left a big portion of town for the things I wanted to see. I got to experience the architecture hidden down allies, panoramic views of the town, lazy pubs with only a few regulars drinking their paychecks away, and the seedier parts of town where few tourists go.

an overview of the city.

This story is getting a little redundant for me. I have seen quaint towns and cobbled streets and overhyped tourist attractions and places that claim to have the best beer in the world before. It starts to blur together after a bit. Prague was different though. For the first time I am in a distinctively Eastern European town. Things are a little less developed and lax. People openly smoke weed on the streets and I was looked at like a crazy person when I asked what time they stopped selling beer for the night. The rules that have enveloped the States and Western Europe don’t apply here. The Czech Republic hasn’t been accepted in to the European Union yet so their currency is the Koruna, not the Euro. One U.S. dollar is 19 koruna and one Euro is 26 koruna. It was actually a pain in the ass doing conversions in m head all day but things were cheaper. People have a chance to live a little without scrutiny to every detail of life. There of course are pluses and minuses to this, but it was nice to experience something different.

the town center that didn't get rocked in WWII

Prague was up to date with their fashions and cars and such, but the same can’t be said for the rest of the country. Outside of Prague towns are made up of tall concrete communist buildings that are in serious need of repair and rusted out industrial areas lay abandoned. Maybe one in ten cars has been made in the last fifteen years but they are shitty hatchbacks that come with the bare minimum. The rest of the cars are the old paper mache communist block cars seen in the movies. Still, the towns look nice nestled between the side of heavily forested hills and grassy plains. In a way it reminded me of old Appalachian mining towns that long ago worked but has dwindled away over the years. Things have obviously been hard here for the last 50 years but it is getting better. I’m glad I got a glimpse of how others lived.