Prague – America in Europe

Ryan — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:44:00 +0000

This past weekend I went to Prague. I flew on CSA (Czech Airlines) because I can collect frequent flyer miles from CSA since they are on the same program as Northwest.

Prague is basically America in Europe. I say that because everyone in Prague is an American. Ok, maybe not everyone – but an impressive majority. Almost everywhere I went I ran into Americans. Various sources (from a guy we met in Prague to a few minutes of online research) place the number of Americans living in Prague between 10,000 and 40,000. This doesn’t surprise me.

Prague is unique in that it made it through WWII relatively unscathed meaning most of its historic buildings are still intact. The government has obviously put a fair amount of money into up keeping and restoring their historic buildings and sites as well.

Central Prague is essentially catered to tourists. The old town is made up of narrow cobblestone streets filled with souvenir gift shops, restaurants and pubs. Most pubs were highlighting the Olympic and football (soccer) events they were showing that day. There are a variety of museums, churches and buildings which were open for viewing and tours (for a fee, of course).

The Vltava river flows through the center of Prague separating the city into two. This setup reminded me a lot of the layout in Budapest – only Budapest has the Danube (a much wider river) instead of the Vltava. Both cities even have a castle on the west side of the river. However, the Vltava wasn’t meant for heavy boat traffic. The river has a series of small dams and narrow locks where boats can pass through.

Most of the first day was spent touring Prague Castle on the west side of the Vltava. Charles Bridge, which is the main tourist path between the east and west sides of the river.

On the east side there are a large number of museums and galleries to view. On Sunday I went to the Communism Museum which detailed life in Czechoslovakia during communism. It also has an interesting video of some of the violence that happened at the start of the “Velvet Revolution“. It wasn’t as large or as artistic as the Terror Haz in Budapest, but interesting nonetheless.

I also visited the Jewish Quarter of Prague. Although most of the Jews perished during the holocost and much of the quarter was destroyed, there were still 6 well preserved synagogues. The synagogues were open to the public and have been turned into museums that document several centuries of Jewish history in Prague as well as Jewish customs and traditions.

Being in a place with a large number of Americans means that there were several Mexican restaurants which made me quite happy. I ate Mexican a couple times in addition to multiple samplings of the tasty Czech beer.

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