The exchange students were invited to tell their experience in my college, and I remember that moment, that very moment, when a glittering blond and blue eyed Czech girl started talking in Spanish and complaining, a little bit, about our transportation system, which is far from being good. The whole classroom was laughing and I told myself “I gotta meet this girl”. After half a year since meeting her, I arrived to Prague in order to have vacation with the person I love the most in this world.
It’s pretty funny because we started our relationship in Lima at spring, and I came to Prague during spring too, so we actually honor the word spring. I remember the day when I got the visa and listening 40 times Slunečko from Čechomor repeatedly, I remember my little farewell party at one of my best friend’s house and, suddenly, after making a stopover at Caracas and a pit stop at Frankfurt, I saw her there, at Florenc, waiting for me at 4:30 AM.
Prague received me with the last snowfall of the season, but the first one in my life. The transportation system is extremely easy and efficient, and cheaper than most of the European cities I’ve visited. Its unique architecture is a delight for the eyes of any single human being and, if you try speaking Czech, the Czechs will love you. I remember that I learned all of the most common phrases in Czech, like to ask for food or directions, for example, and I always got a huge smile and a “dobrý česky”.
Becherovka cleaned my mind and Tuzemak my intestines. You’ll understand that I like the night life here pretty much. “Dva piva, prosím”, a basic phrase to move into a Prague bar, it means “two beers please”. Czechs also have the best and cheapest beer in the world I think, it’s literally cheaper than water, and that’s another reason to love this place, everybody is happy dopoledne (from noon). Although I think it’s pretty hard for Latin Americans to break the ice with a group of Czechs they had just met, if you get to break it, you won’t have only fun, but you can feel proud of yourself. Czechs are a curious society, though a little shy, so they first have to establish certain degree of confidence, but once they do establish it, they’ll just be the coolest and funniest people on earth. I find Czech sense humor pretty much alike as Peruvian: Fine, intelligent, double sensed.
I come from a city that is extremely different and varied, like 20 cities in one. So is Prague. This city has the most beautiful city center I’ve seen in my life, you can watch that in Old Town, or Staro Městska, but also conserves the buildings from the communist time that can be found at Jižní Město, Nové Butovice or Sidliste Červený Vrch, and the very modern buildings that arise in Budějovická or the famous Dancing house or Tančící dům, located near the Karlovo Náměstí metro station.
About the food, I’ll recommend řízek with French fries, mashed potatoes and, also, the spectacular Indianek, a sweet temptation covered with chocolate, but after also trying the dumplings, or knedlíky, as they´re called in Czech, accompanied with a cold glass of Kofola, the Czech version for coke, or Top Topic, one of the most delicious sodas I’ve tried, made from white grapes.
I feel I need much more time to see Prague and its attraction, but Prague’s Castle, the old town and Aquapalace are the ones you just can’t miss.
Prague is, for me, the most beautiful and complete city in the face of the earth, and only a city like this could have a daughter whom I completely, truly, madly and deeply fell in love with.