Spring finally arrived with a string of warm sunny days towards the end of April. One weekend we decided to take advantage of the weather and went for a walk through Hyde Park and ended up in James Park which lies on the north side of a complex of government buildings, including the War Cabinets and the Foreign Office. As it turned out, the FO had an open house to celebrate the upcoming EU expansion and so we queued up to have a look.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) The EU related event was rather forgettable, but it was fascinating to see the inside of what was obviously designed to impress the assorted visiting potentates and lesser officials from the far flung reaches of the British Empire.

Not to break our traveling streak, before April ended we were on the road again, this time to Prague. The initial timing of our visit was a bit of an accident. We wanted to go sometimes in the spring, after it became warmer than it was last year in November, but before the summer crowds showed up. I was cruising the internet one day and noticed that EasyJet, which normally flies from Stansted airport, was initiating a much more convenient, Gatwick-Prague connection. Related to the novelty were some very low prices. If one was flexible with respect to a date, it was possible to fly to Prague for about 20 quid and return for 8. However, as usual I took some time to think about it and by the time I was ready to buy the tickets, prices have gone up. The days originally selected still offered the lowest price and so I stuck with them. It was only when I started to look for a hotel, that I realized something was not quite right. Most of the hotels were showing fully booked for the period. Only later did I find out that our planned stay coincided almost exactly with the World Hockey Cup and thus a large number of visitors from European hockey countries.

Eventually we did find a small pension for a reasonable price and the championship only added interest to our visit. Not surprisingly all the seats at the brand new arena were completely sold out, but even those who did not feel like paying $300 plus to scalpers could find enough excitement around town. No matter where you went you saw fans dressed in the jerseys of their teams, oddly enough the most common and vocal were the Latvians. And then, of course, there were the pubs, where one could view the match in comfort and participate in “expert” analysis of each game. It may be hard to believe, but there are more pubs per street length in Prague than in London. But maybe that should not come as a surprise in a town where even the KFC tries to attract customers with a two-for-one deal (two beers, that is). Pub on the corner of the block where we were staying was advertising a 2 meter screen and we, somewhat naively, decided to have supper and watch the Canada-Czech game there. The place was decked up as if for a wedding and it turned out that a long term reservation was necessary to get a table. Luckily, and not altogether anomalously, there were other 4 pubs in the same city block (just on our side of the street) and so we had no problem finding a spot, albeit in front of a smaller screen. The match ended with an impressive win for the Czech team, which has so far won all the matches in their group. Few days later we were eating in another pub and watching the first quarterfinal game USA- CR. When the score was 2:0 in favor of the Czechs, we decided to go out to the Old Town square, where several gigantic TV screens were installed in the open air. We wanted to catch a bit of the atmosphere of jubilation after another win. To paraphrase the late Japanese Emperor, situation has developed not necessarily to the Czech’s advantage. The third period ended up in a draw, overtime did not help and the Czechs finally lost when the match was decided by a series of shots on the goal. Needless to say, the atmosphere was not what we expected. Actually, only that morning the smart money was on a Czech – Slovak final. Ironically, the only happy people were the investors in the national bookmaking company (which owns the new arena) because they made millions on the unexpected turn of events.

The championship was not the only big event in town, however. On midnight from 30 April to 1 May, the Czech Republic, along with other 9 states officially became part of the EU. There was an official celebration at the Old Town square (psychological equivalent of the Trafalgar S. in London, even though I think they never used the Trafalgar square for executions). It turned out to be a quite boring, staged for TV cameras type of affair, and so we went on to see what else was going on. We found a little spot on the bank of the river just below the castle, where several large fires were lit (this was part of the Witch burning celebration, which traditionally takes place on the 30 April, and which according to the local paper, is a custom going back to the Keltic inhabitants more than 2 000 years ago). There were several stands selling sausages and beer and an accordion player and overall it was much more fun (and warmer) than the official celebration. We stayed around until shortly before midnight when we went on to one of the bridges to watch fireworks on the Letna hill, around the place where the large Stalin statue used to stand.

This was the first time we stayed in Prague for more than a couple of days (10 days, to be exact) and it gave us the opportunity to see just about everything we wanted to see. (I need to qualify this a little. We met an Irishman in our pension on his 15th visit to Prague. When I asked him if there was really that much to see, he said: “Do you know how many pubs are in Prague?”) As it turned out, we were also very lucky, because the weather was completely on our side. With the exception of the very last day, it was sunny and warm. This was even more surprising when we looked at the weather map of Europe. The Czech Republic appeared to be sitting in the middle of a orange blob of temperatures around 20 deg C, while places like Spain and Italy (not to mention UK) were shivering below 15. We went up to the old Vysehrad fortress, took a short riverboat cruise, visited the Brevnov and Strahov monasteries, the National Gallery, the old brew pub U Fleku and just wondered around. We even made one out of town trip to the Konopiste castle, home of the Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg throne before he was blown away in Sarajevo. After touring part of the castle, we concluded that he was a total psychopath and if Gavrilo Princip had not pumped 7 bullets into him, Animal Rights Activists (if they had been around at the time) would have gotten him. The man apparently killed 300, 000 animals, many of which are exhibited in the castle, with date and location – sort of sick postcards. He also took a 9 month trip around the world to, you guessed it, hunt new animals. But the castle is nice and is situated in a pleasant park which at the time was totally yellow with dandelions. In this part of the world, dandelions are considered pretty spring flowers and not enemy number one.

While in Prague, we were able to try out new restaurants. Some of them situated in picturesque spots, like the one on the river, accessed by a street so narrow that they installed a pedestrian light at the entrance. Prague prices (with the exception of beer), while cheaper than London, are not a bargain any more. Overall the quality if fine, even though we experienced some forgettable meals. In general, the best food was in small pubs and restaurants away from the center, which probably has to do with the need to deliver a good product to regular local clientele, rather than the non-returning tourists. Interestingly the menus now incorporate a large section devoted to salads, but it is still possible to order traditional dishes. I had an excellent roasted duck, very good smoked meat and lots of sausages.

These days Prague has a little more to offer than just baroque, but like most modern architecture some consider it beautiful others ugly. What do you think about the “dancing house”? The new television antenna, looks remarkably ugly, and when we visited for the first time in 1990, Kumiko at the time suggested that it was used to emit mind-controlling waves, which would explain all the surly zombies we saw in the subways. To the extent that the television transmissions were the main mouthpiece of the previous communist government, whose incessant propaganda made most people mentally switch off, she was not too far off the mark. But this was a long time ago and so I decided to go and have a closer look. I found a rather interesting addition, which makes the tower little bit less offensive close up than when viewed from a distance.

The extra time gave me the opportunity to take a few trips down the memory lane. I visited the area where we first lived when we moved to Prague and where I started elementary school. All together not exactly a place of happy memories ( I did not want to live in Prague as a child, or go to school) but with time the place gains some interest. I was happy to see that the Copenhagen Street we used to live on has been basically restored to its former shape, all buildings freshly painted, no falling stucco anywhere. The park where we used to play looked fine and this time little boys were playing soccer on the grass, something we would not have been able to get away with. The apartment where we used to live has been combined with the adjacent shoe repair shop and another apartment and is now a wine bar. I had a glass of very inexpensive Chilean white there and watched the action for a while. People would come in with empty 2 liter plastic Coke bottles and buy wine from the barrel, do not remember exactly how much they were paying, somewhere in the vicinity of 2 – 3 dollars per 2 liters. With the entry into the union, the cheap south American imports will probably not be so cheap anymore. The house across the street where at one point we thought we will be able to get a larger apartment through a complicated exchange the details of which I do not recall, but remember that the fear of bed bug contamination played a role, has also been nicely restored. The pub on the corner where I sometimes was sent with a pitcher to get beer for supper (I believe it was the Velkopopovice Goat brand) is now a Chinese restaurant. Almost everything changed with one bizarre exception: the feather (used in comforters) cleaning store is still where it was 40 years ago.

Shortly after we returned to London, Alice, who is graduating from University of Calgary, joined us in our little apartment and is starting to look for work. I went back to my Thames expedition and managed to do another segment. With the Tenington-Sheperton segment almost outside of Greater London as defined by the M25 circular motor way, the path is much more rural and very relaxing. Almost felt like taking my shoes off and going barefoot. Maybe next time I will!