The Wild East
"Even in the
dark, everywhere seems civilised:
people are sitting outside at tables
drinking, live music is playing..."
Praha (2)
We walk into a local's place recommended by Hans. We feel awkward- the
management seem to dislike us (its costing £1.20 for a meal and drink)
because we're Western.
A bizarre Czech TV programme is playing in the
background, with people running up children's' slides ("I don't know the
rules"). The meal is beef in cream sauce, with yellow bread and a slice of
lemon!?! (the menu was in Czech). I don't find it especially appetising, but
I don't want to cause further embarrassment by not eating it all. I attempt
to thank the waiter in Czech, but he completely ignores me.
Afterwards we go into the centre of Prague, via the metro. I've noticed in
the past few hours that there are thousands of pretty girls, a far higher
proportion than in England, who are slim, tanned, wearing really nice
clothes....We walk round the centre across Charles bridge, and up towards
the castle. There are loads of tourists everywhere, although outside the
centre they drop drastically.
There are a fair number of Mercedes, and BMWs
around. Not everyone is poor. The streets are very clean- it could be
Austria.
We walk round a park, and into a museum. There's a great view from
the top of Castle hill. We don't really find the proper castle. Then we join
the hoards of other tourists around Wenceslas square to watch the clock
tower.
At 5.30 we go back to the Metro, changing at Florenc, like last time
(Metro = 12p, for journey up to 30mins, i.e. anywhere). We blend in quite
well- all the Czechs are wearing western Shorts and T-shirts. We admire the
'view' from the flat window onto a concrete flat roof/various bits of
rubble.
I sit and listen to my radio for a bit, while MT writes out some postcards.
Western music pumps out of every station- although its mostly 10 years old.
We go for a meal which costs 280Kc for large main course, sweet, coffee, and
beer, in a really smart restaurant. The waiters are more friendly, and seem
impressed at my attempted Czech.
We go back to the city centre, after struggling with ticket machine, "These
machines (like women!) take practise to use." (Taylor 2000).
Even in the
dark, everywhere seems civilised- people are sitting outside at tables
drinking, live music is playing...but then Prague isn't really Eastern
Europe. There are no prostitutes around Mesto or Perlova, the Guidebook
warned us there were! At 12.00 we get back to the flat. We struggle to open
the door to the flat and stumble around in the dark. After eventually
working out the random locking, and lighting system, let ourselves in.
There
is some meat in a dish on the kitchen table- Taylor thinks it's a snack for
us. I don't, as they've completely ignored us so far-I don't expect to be
invited to breakfast.
There are noises coming from the next room- a woman is
crying, and Hans and another man (brother?) are shouting at each other.....
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