Prague (Weeks 2-4)

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Prague (Weeks 2-4)

19 Sep 2013 – 16 Oct 2013

Noha

Did anything interesting happen?

Peter fell in love with Prague, I did too but maybe more gradually than him. We had our first Couchsurfing interactions and met some nice people. We also had some misadventures due to out of date guidebooks. Last but not least, I ended my remote work agreement prematurely, this being the first time in my life I quit without securing an alternative.

Whom did you interact with?

We met Lucas and Patricia from Couchsurfing. We spent a few hours with Petra and her son, and went two Couchurfing events. We even ran into Locus on our second to last day in Prague which was quiet a coincidence given how big Prague is. We made some acquaintances but we weren’t really sure how to bring it to friendship. I think a big part of it is that we have each other, so we don’t have enough motive to try hard to seek society.

What is your favorite thing about Prague? What do you think Peter liked the most about Prague?

I spoke before about how I liked to see Pianos everywhere and how affordable it is (for non residents). As we stayed longer, I discovered how Prague is full of beautiful and interesting parks. I used to think that Central Park is the pinnacle of parks, but now I know that maybe true only for the U.S. (or at least the east cost). Every park i have seen in Prague, had a different personality to it, (Petřín hill felt like an adventure, Vinohrady park felt like a local hangout and Průhonice felt like a retreat), the first two had breath-taking views of the city, a merry air to all of them (dogs and kids running free) and an overall sense of peace and relaxation.

I also liked how people here don’t radiate that sense of superiority I get from Western Europeans and New York inhabitants. They are nice, humble and mostly pleasant to interact with.

Peter liked how peaceful it is, and I know he loved the parks too. We both enjoyed discovering a new artist Mucha.

What is your least favorite thing about Prague? What do you think Peter liked the least about Prague?

Cigarettes smoke everywhere in my face. Most cafes and restaurants have a non-smoking section, but often smaller or dull. Some don’t even have one. Sometimes we sat in the smoking section which was unpleasant (I felt – unrealistically – as if I am slowly acquiring cancer). Also, I did not take to Czech food. While it is usually a big portion, i feel unsatisfied afterwards (opposite to french food, where the portion is so little but rich in flavor)

I don’t think Peter disliked anything about Prague. It was all good for him. The only thing I can think of, is how crowded it can get with tourists.

What is the most over/underrated thing about Prague?

Prague is underrated as a former communist city and maybe not considered as developed as Western European cities. However, I am very impressed by how developed they are and how they achieved it all in such a little time. I noticed that with sadness because I compare it to Cairo and I wonder, if Czech republic was able to make so much progress so quickly and become so flourishing, why can’t Egypt? One difference that comes to mind is obvious and maybe shallow, Czech people don’t mix Religion with politics and don’t size other people based on their religion.

How did the reality compare to your expectations for the past three weeks?

It was as wonderful as I had imagined it would be. It was a little disappointing on the social level though, we did meet a lot of people but didn’t know how to bring it from acquaintance to friendship.

Would you go back to Prague?

Absolutely, this was the best trip I (we) have ever taken.

What do think about living in (i.e. relocating to) Prague?

I would not want to live in Prague for materialistic reasons. Earning in Korunas would make the value of our income and savings very low if we decide to move or even visit other countries. I would love to live close enough to Prague though, so that I can visit it often.

Did you learn anything new about yourself? About Peter?

I have a problem with ending things. When making a life change, I subconsciously try to keep a link to it. I did this with work, by volunteering to keep working part time. I realize now that the only reason I did it (no matter how many others I used to list) was because i was afraid of putting an end with no return. When the arrangement didn’t work for me and I made the bold decision of ending it, I am still feeling uneasy about it.

I learned two things about Peter. One, I thought it was only me who had the fever to hit as many new cities as possible, while he preferred to visit fewer places for longer periods. However, it is not true. The one time I tried to eliminate a stop for the sake of a longer one elsewhere, he would not let me do so.

Two, my first and continued impression of Peter was that he is more sociable than I am. He seemed much more comfortable in social gatherings (except in Egypt). In Prague, I found out that socializing is as difficult and draining for him as it is for me.

How do you feel about this experience so far?

We had a blast in Prague. We had a lot of time on our hands, our surroundings were beautiful, people were nice, our lodging was comfortable. We were blessed with great weather the majority of the time. It felt like a vacation, because we were eating out and sitting in cafes most of the time (due to Prague’s affordability) and didn’t have money worries. We developed habits and had favorite activities and places. Leaving it felt like leaving home all over again.

I know that the time we will have in other stops will not be as special for a lot of reasons. So while i am more upbeat now about this experience, I know that my old feelings of homesickness might come back as we move west. Paradoxically, I worry about the time going too fast. Also, I am still trying to reconcile myself with the fact that I quit my job.

Any regrets?

I regret quitting, but I also regret regretting quitting 🙂 I know i did the right thing, but I need to work on my insecurities. I also regret not working on learning German. I was a little lazy but I can excuse myself that this was equivalent to two weeks of vacation, since I was still working through the second week in Prague.

Additional comments?

My newly acquired bangs got really long very quickly and covered my eyes. I felt like that girl from the movie “The ring”.

I decided to try my luck with a hairdresser in Prague (Toni & Guy) asking to just trim them. I expected that they will insist on washing my hair (which would result in a curly disaster they can’t handle) and charging me the equivalent of our daily budget, even though it is not a full haircut. I was wrong, they were very nice, accommodating and did the job for $5!

Also, I wanted to mention how practical and efficient Czech people are in a lot of aspects. Menus show the portions in grams and drinks portion in liters. Portrait street artists write on their advertisement how long a portrait will take, Restaurants mark tables reserved by putting a sign on the table with the time of reservation. You are welcome to pick any table as long as you leave before the reservation time. Also, my favorite is a tray of napkins and silverware that they place on the table so you never need to ask them for extras.

What are your expectations for Budapest?

I expect Budapest will be a less beautiful Prague (I am sure it will still be very beautiful). I expect it will be affordable, and the people will be nice. I expect a lot less tourists. The time in Budapest will be more hectic. In Prague we had the gift of time, so we were able to relax while doing everything we planned to do. Given that we only have 6 days in Budapest, it will be more busy. Thankfully, Budapest does not have too many important sites and museums, so we will be able to enjoy the city without feeling obliged to be in museums all the time (something impossible to achieve in places like Florence)

Peter

Did anything interesting happen?

It depends on how low one’s bar is for interesting. In the past three weeks, we did a lot of sightseeing, we made some attempts to meet people and socialize, and we took it easy some days. We also took day trips out to Kutná Hora, Terezín, and Průhonice.

And we had our first anniversary, of our civil wedding that is (Oct 12). We consider Jan 31 as our „real“ anniversary, which makes Oct 12 our pre-pre-pre-anniversary (and Apr 6 our post-anniversary).

Whom did you interact with?

Several people that we met through Couch Surfing, including locals (Lukaš and his wife Patricia, Petra and her son Ruben, Karolina and her son Andrej, Zdenek), other travelers (Arkady from Belarus, Alfredo from Mexico, Jaakko from Germany, Kostas from Greece, Zyed from Tunisia, Joe from New Zealand, weirdo Bob), and some expats (Kevin and Maria from Canada, Daniel from US, Olivia from New Zealand). That list makes it sound like we did a lot of socializing, but most of the time we just had brief awkward conversations. We spent the most time with Petra and Ruben, I think, followed by Lukaš and Patricia.

What is your favorite thing about Prague? What do you think Noha liked the most about Prague?

Specifically in the past three weeks, I’ve come to really appreciate the parks scattered around Prague, like the ones in Vinohrady and Vyšehrad, Petřín Hill in Malá Strana, and the big park out in Průhonice. We had a lot of good fortune with the clear weather. I think Noha liked Petřín best, because it’s a decent climb to the top with a lot of great scenery and views of the city. We should try real hiking some time.

What is your least favorite thing about Prague? What do you think Noha liked the least about Prague?

I’m still not a big fan of the tourist overcrowding in certain areas, but they can be avoided. I don’t think Noha’s opinion about Prague changed that much in the past three weeks: I think she still would like to see it more lively at night.

What is the most over/underrated thing about Prague?

I got the impression that few tourists visit Petřín Hill. We saw some but it felt far less crowded than Charles Bridge, &c. And I think many of them take the funicular to the top directly, rather than walk, which is a shame because the walk is the best part about it.

How did the reality compare to your expectations for the last three weeks?

A reasonable match. I had expected that we would make more efforts to socialize but after being a little disappointed by the Couch Surfing meetings, we stopped worrying about it. I think it’s still a great tool for us to meet locals, but I don’t care all that much about meeting travelers (not that the two categories mutually exclude each other), or at least not in a party/bar atmosphere. Maybe because I feel that our travel experiences seem rather tame and limited compared to other people, and we don’t have many interesting anecdotes to share. It could also be my discomfort with party/bar atmospheres in general, and not specific to travel meetings; I hate that feeling of everyone (myself included) being only half-engaged in a conversation, discreetly and not-so-discreetly looking around the room to see what the other groups of people are doing, how lively their conversations are.

Would you go back to Prague?

Yes, absolutely.

What do think about living in (i.e. relocating to) Prague?

When I wrote our entry for week one I was on the tail-end of infatuation with Prague. I started to feel a little down on it (too many tourists, nothing going on, &c.) but then my opinion started to rise again, and it has remained steady for a while. I can easily imagine our living happily there for a few years, though I think the weak koruna would make traveling elsewhere difficult.

Did you learn anything new about yourself? About Noha?

Nothing terribly interesting about myself. I have a bad habit of interrupting Noha when she is mid-sentence, with a thought or question unrelated to what she’s talking about (often some minor observation that just pops into my brain and immediately heads to my mouth), which drives her a little crazy. I also get impatient and annoyed sometimes (unfairly) when she wants to optimize our travel route. I find decision-making draining and often I just want to make a quick decision and stick to it, without thinking too much further about it.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this already about Noha, but she generally prefers people who are a little awkward; I think because they seem more genuine, less polished and smooth like some more sociable people. It has gotten to a point where, if we are in a group of people and get cornered into an awkward conversation (I imagine other people feel that we trap them), I know that later she will tell me how much she liked our interlocutor. So that’s the type of person she likes; you can draw your own conclusions about what that says about me.

How do you feel about this experience so far?

I have many feels about this experience so far. It still shocks me how quickly the time has passed, not only our month in Prague but since we started putting our plan in motion, packed and left New York, flew to Cairo, &c. It makes me melancholy and wistful. I wish we had more time, and money, natch (Now money is the first of things / And after that the human heart / Which beats the time it can afford.) to travel.

I miss Prague already but I’m excited to see new (old) cities as well, and I think it’s good that we’re leaving Prague before our routine becomes stale.

I worry a little about returning to normal life. For practical reasons (the poor job market for chemists, the gap in my résumé) and also about adjusting back to normal life, and needing to make money (The slope / Is steep, the precipice / Is near. And I / Now know that money is the rope.) That makes it sound like I’ve been roughing it in the wilderness for ten years away from civilization, as opposed to bumming around common tourist cities for six weeks.

Any regrets?

I still haven’t gotten my sleep schedule arranged properly. In fact in the last few weeks I gave up trying to wake up at a reasonable hour and just let myself sleep in as long as I wanted, which generally resulted in our waking around 11:00 am and going to sleep around 3:00 am. Our late start to the day didn’t affect our sightseeing since after the first week we didn’t have that much to cram into the day. But I still feel that I ought to accomplish more in the mornings. I hope that since for the next few destinations we don’t have such long stays planned (about 1 wk each) that it will spur us to wake up earlier, at least to get out of the apartment and do sightseeing.

I wish I had packed more underwear. Doing laundry in the sink has started to get old.

It would be great to have a better camera and the technical knowledge of how to use it. I find myself perusing fancy cameras online a lot (which reminds me of that charming French phrase, lèche-vitrine, literally lick-window) and looking at the myriad brands and types that other tourists carry.

I wish I had studied something more flexible than Chemistry. It’s hard to imagine, say, getting a job in Europe at a comparable level to the one I left. But not impossible… question mark?

Additional comments?

On our penultimate day in Prague we went to a restaurant and snuck in a bottle of water. We knew that we would be eating spicy food, and Prague restaurants charge outrageous amounts for water (ballpark 40 Kc, ca. $2, for maybe 200-300 mL), so after we finished our drinks we started filling up our glasses from the bottle. We hid it but I think even if the waiter had seen us he would not have cared. I wish we had thought of this earlier, when we were carefully rationing our drinks throughout the meal. In Prague the same amount of money would probably buy you 0.5 L of beer, so one can see why having a beer with a meal is so attractive.

(This is our idea of adventure.)

Also, for the whole time we were in Prague and used the Metro (not that often really), our tickets were never checked. I like the system of tickets and timestamp validation with occasional checks, which seems to be common in (Central?) Europe. We didn’t use the trams at all but they seem quite convenient.

When I was doing our laundry in a laundromat in Vinohrady, a drunk Russian man came in and spoke Russian to the employee there, who could only respond in Czech and English. The man started to put money on the counter and kept asking for massage, and refused to believe that it wasn’t a massage parlor until the employee showed him the washing machines. Then he kept asking, ‘где? где?’ (where? where?) until he eventually left. It amused me. I hope he found satisfaction somewhere.

What are your expectations for Budapest?

I expect to fall as hard for Budapest as I did for Prague. What I like about Prague is the feeling that you’re in a city with a lot of history and culture but without the hauteur of a Western European city, and I hope I will find that same feeling in Budapest. I also hope that there will be fewer tourists… but probably not.

I’m curious about how Hungarian will sound. It’s an interesting language because it has neither Romance, Germanic, nor Slavic roots, but it’s distantly related to Finnish and Estonian. It seems that the more we travel, the more diacritical marks — those little things that adorn certain letters, like in é and č — the Latin alphabet picks up. I guess we ought to head to Turkey at some point.

I read recently that the far-right party in Hungary is prominent and well-organized (like Golden Dawn in Greece, minus the overt neo-Nazism) and that the government has become increasingly nationalistic, mostly with bad consequences for the Roma. I wonder if that will manifest in Budapest somehow, or if the tourist veneer will manage to cover it.

Edit: Holy crap. And more. Also I was probably wrong in saying, ‘minus the overt neo-Nazism”, what with the anti-Semitism.