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Radio Free Europe
Sep. 10th, 2019 04:00 pmIn February 1994, I went to Prague and 25 years later I went again. In 1994, I travelled 18 hours by coach through Europe, waking up in Germany in the middle of the night in a snowstorm and no Deutschmarks to spend at the service station. 2019 we went by Easyjet, which was probably worse.
1994, a man asked us at the metro station if we were looking for somewhere to stay; fortunately he didn't turn out to be a white slaver and he took us to flat somewhere near Wensceslas square, which was basically one room between three with a bathroom attached; I think we paid £9 each per night. Whereas 2019's lodgings were a a sort of industrial chic hotel in the Nove Mesto.
1994, I don't think we saw any other tourists, 2019 was stag party central. All types of stag dos - 2 guy stag dos, t-shirt stag parties (The Terminator, The Stallion, Big Marco), electric scooter stag dos, craft beer stag dos, the pissing in a public square stag do, the "look lads I don't want a stripper, let's go to a museum" do. I only saw one hen party, but to be fair, Prague's rainy cobbles and four inch heels do not mix.
When I first visited, the vegetarian options were: potatoes. I remember we ate at a pizza place and a Chinese where we kept having to double check with the waitress that food stuff were meat-free. This time we dined at two very impressive vegetarian restaurants; one, Estrella, had the best mushroom pate I've ever tasted, more like a mushroom mousse.
In 1994, no-one spoke English and we got by with a mix of Russian and GCSE German. This time everyone spoke English automatically at us, and I realised that some of the people working in cafes, bars etc wouldn'thave been born on my first visit.
Last time, there were a couple of Czech department stores where I bought a) some Soviet sanitary towels and b) a bottle of water which turned out to be salty This time, you couldn't move for shopping experiences, whether it be tourist tat (cannabis lollypops), slightly posher tourist tat (Bohemian glass) or outposts of British companies - Tesco, Costa and M&S were all here, as well as the usual Subway, Starbucks, McD etc.
In the nineties, there was no street food, now there are 1000 kiosks selling Trdelník - a sort of churros type cake baked on a sort of spit and filled with ice cream. Most restaurants also offered "traditional" Czech deserts - applestrudel (Austrian), Black forest gateau (German) and Sachertorte (Austrian again).
In the nineties, we drank in brownish bars and you could have anything you wanted as long as it was Pilnser Urquell. In 2019, there are craft beer bars serving bluberry IPA, black lagers, and lemon thyme sours. We even had a beer in a candle lit cave in a monastery where they brewed their own "cloisters" ale.
In said '90s pub, a group of lairy lads tried to send some beer over to our table in order to chat up the three anglické ženy. This time we were seated next to a man who'd brought flowers for his date and leapt up to kiss her and take her coat when she arrived, holding hands with her throughout the meal. In most places we went to, tables were placed close together but it ddin't matter as Czechs create a nice, low background hum of chatter rather than the braying of London restaurants. (it made me feel more awful about the large groups of lads shouting STAG or BEER in the Old Town Square).
With my friends, i went to a nightclub in a former nuclear bunker til 4 in the morning (we waited in the tube station until the first train back to Stare Mesto), with David, I went to the Jewish quarter, saw the old synagogue (now a clothes shop) and the old-new synagogue where the myth of the golem began.
In 1994, we did two bits of culture - the Muzeum, which was full of stuffed animals. I mean full of them: if an animal exists, or had once existed, it had been caught, killed, stuffed and mounted. We also went to the art museum near the castle, which was just depictions of Jesus - paintings, sculpture, baby Jesu, adult Christ. This time, this museum was showing an Impressionist exhibition. Tastes have changed.
1994
2019
1994, a man asked us at the metro station if we were looking for somewhere to stay; fortunately he didn't turn out to be a white slaver and he took us to flat somewhere near Wensceslas square, which was basically one room between three with a bathroom attached; I think we paid £9 each per night. Whereas 2019's lodgings were a a sort of industrial chic hotel in the Nove Mesto.
1994, I don't think we saw any other tourists, 2019 was stag party central. All types of stag dos - 2 guy stag dos, t-shirt stag parties (The Terminator, The Stallion, Big Marco), electric scooter stag dos, craft beer stag dos, the pissing in a public square stag do, the "look lads I don't want a stripper, let's go to a museum" do. I only saw one hen party, but to be fair, Prague's rainy cobbles and four inch heels do not mix.
When I first visited, the vegetarian options were: potatoes. I remember we ate at a pizza place and a Chinese where we kept having to double check with the waitress that food stuff were meat-free. This time we dined at two very impressive vegetarian restaurants; one, Estrella, had the best mushroom pate I've ever tasted, more like a mushroom mousse.
In 1994, no-one spoke English and we got by with a mix of Russian and GCSE German. This time everyone spoke English automatically at us, and I realised that some of the people working in cafes, bars etc wouldn'thave been born on my first visit.
Last time, there were a couple of Czech department stores where I bought a) some Soviet sanitary towels and b) a bottle of water which turned out to be salty This time, you couldn't move for shopping experiences, whether it be tourist tat (cannabis lollypops), slightly posher tourist tat (Bohemian glass) or outposts of British companies - Tesco, Costa and M&S were all here, as well as the usual Subway, Starbucks, McD etc.
In the nineties, there was no street food, now there are 1000 kiosks selling Trdelník - a sort of churros type cake baked on a sort of spit and filled with ice cream. Most restaurants also offered "traditional" Czech deserts - applestrudel (Austrian), Black forest gateau (German) and Sachertorte (Austrian again).
In the nineties, we drank in brownish bars and you could have anything you wanted as long as it was Pilnser Urquell. In 2019, there are craft beer bars serving bluberry IPA, black lagers, and lemon thyme sours. We even had a beer in a candle lit cave in a monastery where they brewed their own "cloisters" ale.
In said '90s pub, a group of lairy lads tried to send some beer over to our table in order to chat up the three anglické ženy. This time we were seated next to a man who'd brought flowers for his date and leapt up to kiss her and take her coat when she arrived, holding hands with her throughout the meal. In most places we went to, tables were placed close together but it ddin't matter as Czechs create a nice, low background hum of chatter rather than the braying of London restaurants. (it made me feel more awful about the large groups of lads shouting STAG or BEER in the Old Town Square).
With my friends, i went to a nightclub in a former nuclear bunker til 4 in the morning (we waited in the tube station until the first train back to Stare Mesto), with David, I went to the Jewish quarter, saw the old synagogue (now a clothes shop) and the old-new synagogue where the myth of the golem began.
In 1994, we did two bits of culture - the Muzeum, which was full of stuffed animals. I mean full of them: if an animal exists, or had once existed, it had been caught, killed, stuffed and mounted. We also went to the art museum near the castle, which was just depictions of Jesus - paintings, sculpture, baby Jesu, adult Christ. This time, this museum was showing an Impressionist exhibition. Tastes have changed.
1994
2019
