I still get stared at rudely on the metros or the bus both by young and old, well of course now I’ve learnt to ignore or wink back if required, but those first few months were terrible with people staring into you without as much as blinking an eye. Friends, expats of-course, tell me it’s probably a hangover from communism and I begin to think what hangover, what has communism got to do with their inherent cold attitude.
Talk of the city, those magnificent buildings with baroque architecture, those pockets of greenery tucked unexpectedly in the midst of concrete buildings, those egoistic cold yet pretty women with skimpy skirts and proud of that high slavic cheek bone, those pivovars brewing out fresh beer etc and that’s a whole different story. Almost every pivovar I have visited was different and had its unique appeal.
Even after 4 years, Prague continues to enchant me with its never ending places to discover, be it some little path leading up to a lovely garden or curiously dark tunnels leading up somewhere new and those perched up places at Vysehrad or Barrandov with wonderful panoramic views and angles ready to be captured onto a camera, it got me going so far and I bet I would for much longer. If not for these, I would have long gone from this city. In most non-english speaking countries, language is usually the first barrier and learning it usually helps break the ice with the locals or so I thought, until I learnt that it seems to work elsewhere except here. But this may be more with the older generation, as the younger generation seems to swing towards accepting globalization and foreigners as a way of life.
Food!
Yummy,.. is yet another captivator in this city. Gulaš, Svičkova, Knedlíky,..the sheer variety accompanied by a choice of good Moravian wine is just yumtastic. Little did I realize that lentil (cocka) soup could be prepared as deliciously as served here in Prague. Beer Gardens, that’s pretty cool, watch tennis or Grand Prix on a huge screen in the open air with buddies downing beer after beer and digging into Klobasa and mustard, and this happens almost every day just in Prague, I would say.
Adding to the excitement are the theme based restaurants, such as “Pod Kridlem Noci”, that offer a unique ambience and driving a subtle message “an experience in the world of darkness” to their patrons. After having visited this restaurant more than once it has changed and softened my perception and view towards physically challenged people.
Biking and walking trails snaking up to castles perched atop hills is just perfect on warm days for an active chill out. I remember a friend from my bikers group, a rather huge guy with a much huger beer belly who actually musters up enough muscle to pedal up a few kilometers on his bike only to down a few liters of beer and prepare enough muscle for the next beer stop a few kilometers away. Call that a calories balancing act. Quite often I find myself walking down forests picking fruits, berries, mushrooms, nuts and even carrying a handful of them back home for a tart filling.
Living in Prague certainly is getting expensive year-on-year, but so it is almost everywhere, pity that the pay cheque isn’t keeping up and is far from catching up.
Well life’s been good with me so far and did I say I missed home, nope not yet
