Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Prague

nxtclass

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 22:45:22 +1300

I visit Prague very often and reccomend for everyone to do the same !

Russell Brown

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 21:19:14 +1300

And finally – Czechs like to remind you that they are a Central European country, Prague is west of Vienna!

Yep. I heard that more than once.

Chris Waugh

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 16:16:24 +1300

they speak a slightly different language and have a different culture,

Some commentary on the mutual intelligibility of Czech and Slovak. It seems to be a classic case of a language being a dialect with an army and navy – though I doubt either the Czech or Slovak Republics have…

Omar Crawford

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 15:12:16 +1300

Oh Prague!

I lived there for a year in 2012/2013 and I'd go again in a heart beat. A really gorgeous city and tremendous fun. Winter is tough, but summer is magnificent.

Russell, did you do any research into the drug policy there? As far as I remember, possession of…

andin

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:03:01 +1300

Slovaks. They were like the cousins you didn’t talk about any more.
My guess is it probably dates from Austro-Hungarian empire days. And in WWII being a Nazi puppet state wouldnt have helped either.

JacksonP

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:38:19 +1300

Was looking for more photos of Prague, and found this of the remaining wall in Berlin instead, from the same trip in 1993.

Have been trying to find an English version of the quote by the first post-war President of Germany, Theodor Heuss.

The best I can gather is __'man…

Mike O'Connell

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 16:34:59 +1300

When I think of Prague, I'm reminded of the Daniel Day Lewis 'doctor-turned-window cleaner' character in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

At least, what it was. I was fortunate to get there in Sep 1989 when the country was still Czechosolvakia – or the CSSR – Czechoslovak Socialist…

stephen walker

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:47:34 +1300

four days in Prague in the summer of 1990 was an amazing and unforgettable experience. the interregnum, except the new top (Havel) was in place while the old bureacracy and rules continued. it was still full of East German tourists, with very few westerners. and no McD, thank god.

Robyn Gallagher

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:30:06 +1300

The Czech Republic is entering Eurovision next year, after previously having entered in 2007.

This is interesting because as Eastern Europe opened up, the free (and sometimes new) countries used the competition to showcase themselves to the rest of Europe. Except the Czech Republic didn't enter until 2007 (compare with…

Steve Barnes

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 11:22:16 +1300

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Come on, you gotta hand that one over to Rich, Light in a Shed good enough for ya?
;-)

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:57:24 +1300

Also, my memory of the Czech Republic is going to a dance party on a disused Cold War airbase. The image below is of one of the stages which were in the dispersal shelters – the marks on the floor indicate the turning circle of an Su-22.

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:48:46 +1300

My Czech friend talked about them – there are quite a few Slovaks living in Prague (both nations being in the EU, they have full rights of residence in each others countries). I get the impression it’s like NZers and Australians – they’re perfectly fine people, but they prefer to…

Russell Brown

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:37:25 +1300

Also: people talked about the Russians, they talked about the Germans (who of course are meshed into the country's history in various ways) — but no one said a word, ever, about the Slovaks. They were like the cousins you didn't talk about any more. It seemed inappropriate to even…

Russell Brown

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:34:33 +1300

Not an aberration,
but the Abba-rations they were forced to consume… ?

Also, the Czech hits of the day, which sounded fine in a Peter Sarstedt sort of way.

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:03:45 +1300

They like the hits of the 70s and 80s in Plzen.
Not an aberration,
but the Abba-rations they were forced to consume... ?

Russell Brown

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:43:54 +1300

Did you know Dina Jezdic worked there a while back? She may have some good contacts there for ya, being the bright young woman that she is. :)

Yes, she mentioned that. If and when I get back ...

Russell Brown

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:42:52 +1300

“Wind of Change” by the Scorpions was also played a lot during the Reunification, as well as riding the wave of Glasnost and the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact itself.

Ironically, we heard a lot of pre-Velvet Revolution music in bars. They like the hits of the 70s and 80s…

Sofie Bribiesca

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:16:16 +1300

Did you know Dina Jezdic worked there a while back? She may have some good contacts there for ya, being the bright young woman that she is. :)

Russell Brown

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:10:27 +1300

Havent had the first snow yet by the look of the piccies, still must be nippy out

The locals were saying it was unseasonably warm and that most years it would have been snowing by now.

andin

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 07:08:02 +1300

Havent had the first snow yet by the look of the piccies, still must be nippy out

Kumara Republic

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 02:12:33 +1300

"Wind of Change" by the Scorpions was also played a lot during the Reunification, as well as riding the wave of Glasnost and the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact itself.

Paul Campbell

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:42:34 +1300

we were in Berlin summer 1990, East Berlin was having a going out of business sale, the currency was being merged the next week, things were very different from 3 years before – back then there were these stops on the subway under the East that the trains just slowed…

RichardBody

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:34:32 +1300

Thanks Russell. I've had the luck of being in Prague a few times and it really is one of those cities that requires revisiting. In a city that is full of life and tears Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral is a place that is extremely moving. This is the last…

JacksonP

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:05:45 +1300

We stayed there for two weeks on our big trip in 1993. The memory of what came before was very fresh in the people we met and stayed with. I think the first MacDonalds had just opened, or maybe there was a debate going on over its opening.

It seems…

Russell Brown

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:06:11 +1300

I now wish to visit Prague.

And I wish to go back, for longer.

Outside the brief of the post: we went to a great restaurant (Cestr) and stayed in a really cool hotel (Hotel Josef), neither of them expensive by international standards, both of them really well thought-out and…

nzlemming

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:41:59 +1300

I now wish to visit Prague.

Russell Brown

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:28:36 +1300

Lovely post. Eclipsed by Slatergate today, doubtless, but lovely nonetheless!

Thanks Rob. I knew it wasn't going to get 100 comments, but it felt like it needed to be written.

Rob Stowell

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 11:43:30 +1300

Lovely post. Eclipsed by Slatergate today, doubtless, but lovely nonetheless!

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 10:25:15 +1300

Exploding... the inevitable?
Vaclav Havel, the Lou Reed-loving poet who became the president after leading Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989
So that's why it's called The Velvet Revolution
...such a perfect day!

No iron hands, nor crushing curtains...

Steve Curtis

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:55:04 +1300

” She has an economics degree from Cambridge."

I have noticed that in other non english speaking countries, their best and brightest become tourist guides to a partly crumbling or faded past.

Public Address

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:55:04 +1300

Discussion from blog post.