I flew home at the end of that month having enjoyed the experience but without any inclination to return. Then, as it happened, I couldn’t get a job back home, the British weather was also miserable, and my ex-classmates from the teaching course were emailing me from their new Prague apartment, telling me how wonderful everything was, and how everyone had managed to get a job within three weeks. They had a spare bed so I flew back. From the time I saw Prague again as the plane was descending, it felt, strangely, like home.
And it has felt that way since, although my impressions and opinions about the city have greatly changed. In the beginning, I found it austere and hugely foreign, not so much because of the language, but the habits of the citizens and the buildings. The metro in particular, such long escalators to get down there, and carriages full of unsmiling people who would stare at you without blinking. I found that very disconcerting, but put it down to a hangover from Communist times. If that still happens, I no longer notice it.
Prague seemed to belong to another era, a fact exacerbated by the bad winter. I spent my very first night in the city in the Café Imperial, in a room accessed by a double set of heavy wooden doors so that it felt like walking through a wardrobe to get inside, which was claustrophobic and strangely charming at the same time. My first apartment had much the same feeling, all wooden floors and heavy old furniture, and walk-through rooms which just added to the foreign flavour. I didn’t realise that most apartments would be furnished by Ikea, and walking through someone else’s bedroom to get to yours very quickly loses its appeal.
Most of the local customs delighted me and still do. Saying hello to people in the lift, for example, which would be a very odd thing to do in Britain, and having waitress service in pubs (even if they are surly). And I love the way that people can take their dogs everywhere and there are little local shops that have bottle-openers on the wall for people who want to walk and drink.
Of course, there are still things that really frustrate me here, the most irritating being charged higher prices in restaurants because you are foreign, something I accept as par for the course in Old Town, but when I get a printed bill in my local Zizkov pizzeria, complete with extra charges and a service tip handwritten at the bottom, while all around me the Czech locals are being given the usual handwritten bills, I get annoyed. Especially when I have ordered in Czech, and they have served me in the bar many times before.
In general though, the negatives for me are few. I think the reason I have stayed here so long and felt so comfortable, is mainly because of the attitude to life in this city. It seems to me that Czechs do not take themselves too seriously, they know how to strike a balance between work and pleasure. The pace in Prague is relaxed compared to just about everywhere else I have lived and worked. Also, I think Czech humour is very similar to British humour, maybe a little blacker, and so it has been easy for me to settle in here and find good Czech friends.
Now, if only we could do something to persuade more people to pick up after their pets, perhaps I could walk around and admire the gorgeous architecture and not have a permanent crick in my neck from watching what I might be stepping in……
