A View from the Outside
As one of many ex-pats who have quietly and contentedly settled in that “outer-Prague” region of the Czech Republic known to its proud inhabitants as Moravia, I don’t have much contact with the Capital City. Occasionally we are reminded of its presence on the news, for example when viewing a statistical map of the average Czech income, or in winter when the first snow-fall brings traffic chaos, but in general Prague remains a kind of eccentric and exotic neighbour whose habits are somewhat different to ours.
Meet the neighbour
Not being the type of person who has embraced the concept of commuting to Prague every day by Pendolino my visits to Prague are rare, but relished. Here at last is a chance to meet the exotic neighbour and see what makes him tick.
Such an opportunity arose recently with the arrival of my young nephews for a summer holiday. They arrived late afternoon, so I decided to pick them up by car to simplify the journey home. I was a little apprehensive about this as I remembered a nerve-wracking drive through Prague one time when friends drove us to the airport. We got hopelessly lost and ended up having to pay a taxi-driver to lead us there, we didn’t even have time to transfer the suitcases. Fortunately this has all been resolved by the opening of the south ring-road, so I enjoyed a wonderfully smooth journey around the city and right to the airport. This can’t be said about the rest of the D1 motorway. Although the endless juddering of the road surface put my nephews to sleep, it didn’t do anything for the state of my old Škoda car or my nerves. I therefore resolved to make the return journey to Prague by train.
Airport Express – not quite
There are lots of morning trains to Prague, it’s like everyone is going there, so it was something of a surprise to have a compartment to ourselves the whole journey. With our integrated transport tickets we just had to transfer to the AE bus for a smooth ride to the airport. But first to find it! I don’t know what the homeless people think about the newly renovated train station, but it certainly isn’t any easier to navigate if you don’t know it well. When we eventually found the AE bus there were enough people waiting for it to fill it three times, so it was back down to the metro rather than wait 30 mins for the next “Express”. The journey Out beyond Dejvice it was like a guided tour of Prague’s industrious determination to go further west, with the new metro as the major tunnelling project.
The best exhibition
Nephews safely dispatched I had time to enjoy the big city – cafes, book-shops, exhibitions, culture, the choice is bewildering. I browsed, I sipped, I viewed. To my delight I found that, besides the sights I planned to see, there was a more fascinating spectacle that took no finding at all. Sitting at an agreed meeting place waiting for a friend I watched the colourful, diverse and eclectic mixture of people going about their business on the streets of Prague. This in itself was an exhibition worth coming to Prague just to see.