The statue above is of Charles the 4th and sits at the foot of the bridge of the same name. My Czech friends insisted that I take another picture from another angle as the in joke in Prague is that it appears his highness is relieving himself after a night of black beer.I'm not sure.
It kind of looks that way..........
The weather has been nothing short of tropical. The sun is shining and the temperature has hovered in the low 80s.
Nice.
Past trips here have been characterised by rain and grey skies.
I'm up at 6 and flying back to the UK. After a day in the office I'll drive to the East coast to bid my folks "bon voyage" as they set off on a Scandinavian cruise.
A full day ahead indeed.
The Czech republic has come a long way since I first visited 15 odd years ago. The first time was with a backpack and was escaping the UK for the weekend. I found the place crawling with yanks , drinking cheap beer and chasing the women as they played at a Bohemian lifestyle of pop philosophy and self conscious navel gazing.
The locals were bemused at these youngsters with impossibly white teeth who saw it as an intellectual badge of honour to slum it in the Emerging East.
They did figure out fairly quickly how to separate them from their dollars.
The Americans enjoyed themselves immensely, so I guess everyone was happy.
Taxi drivers were a band of cutthroats who thought nothing of ripping you off in the most shameless manner.
Though not as bad now, THAT still goes on.
Last night I got out of a cab and shut the door loudly.
The driver jumped out and proclaimed at the top of his voice that I had jammed the back window (he'd locked it with the master switch).
My Czech colleagues appeared and a loud discussion ensued. Foiled in his bid to extort 3,000 KR, he drove away giving us the finger through the rising back window.
I just smiled through the whole thing and watched them yelling at each other.
On my 30th birthday I remember a friend and I saw the sex pistols at a drafty hockey arena in the suburbs !It was surreal surrounded by 18 year old czechs screaming the words to Anarchy in the UK at a fat, cynical Johnny Rotten waddling around the stage.
Most comeback tours are a bad idea.
That one was bizarre.
Its still cheap"ish" but the budget travellers have moved on to Poland and points East.
A couple of years ago I was here about this time of year and watched the celebrations on the night the country was admitted to the European Union.
Now THAT was a party.
Today the country is affluent, pretty much free of overt corruption and very much a part of the EU. The hangover from the communist era seems to be a fading memory from another time.
Prosperity has not come to all however.
Too tired to say much more.
Too tired to say much more.Turkey next week.
Love
T
1 comment:
I remember that trip and seeing the Sex Pistols as well. Good to see pictures of Prague again and remembering those times. It's hard to believe that much time has past. Oh well!
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