February 3rd, 2024
I flew back to England from Uganda, had a quick turnaround
of two days at my aunt’s place in Weymouth, and then flew to Prague. Back in October I visited a couple of my
paragliding suppliers and now I wanted to see two more of them who are located
in the eastern part of the Czech Republic (also
known as Czechia).
Ahoi Praha!
I had one full day to hang out in Prague, a city that I visited
once before, way back in 1995 while backpacking through Europe after
university. I remember having a fantastic
time in this city back then, so I was excited to return. One memory that sticks out from that visit
was walking/stumbling back to the hostel with some British guys I had met late
one night, and we couldn’t cross the famous pedestrian-only Charles Bridge as
it was closed for some reason with some very bright lights on the far side of
it. It meant that we had to walk an extra
2-3 kilometres on a detour. We later
found out that Tom Cruise was there, shooting the Mission Impossible Movie…okay,
not a bad reason to close the bridge.
Arriving at the airport, it was easy to use public transport
to get into the city by taking a bus and then the subway, followed by a ten-minute
walk to the hostel I was staying at called the “Czech Inn”. It was a large hostel, almost more like a
hotel. My room had only two bunkbeds and
there were only two other guys staying there.
Jeremy was a young guy from Michigan, on his first real trip abroad and
he was only on day one. He asked me a
few questions about traveling which I was happy to answer. I could tell he was still getting over the “big
trip jitters”. The other guy I didn’t
interact with much. His name was Mo, probably
short for Mohammed as he was an Egyptian living in Dubai. They were both good roommates to have as they
were quiet and considerate.
The streets of Prague:
The next day I planned on visiting the Museum of Communism. The Czech Republic and Slovakia used to be one country known as Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, after the first World War. In 1948, the Communist Party seized power of the country, turning it into a satellite state for the USSR. There was a period of political and social liberalization in 1968 known as the Prague Spring. Not liking this, a half a million Warsaw Pact troops were sent by the Soviet Union to invade Czechoslovakia. There were some protests including some self-immolations, the most famous one being Jan Palach’s suicide. Communist rule would remain until the non-violent transition of power during Velvet Revolution in 1989.
I ended up spending about 2½ hours in the museum. I had planned to visit the National Technical Museum but it was almost 2
pm and I hadn’t had lunch yet. I decided
that food was the priority and that I was already “museumed out”. I found an Irish pub called the Dubliner and
the place was packed. Sure, it was Saturday,
but it was the middle of the afternoon! Ah,
but there was Premier League Football on the TVs and a little later, a game
from the Six Nations rugby tournament featuring England versus Italy.
After some not terribly great chicken wings and a few pints of
IPA, “Irish Pale Ale” and not “India Pale Ale”, I went wandering around for a
while, soaking in the awesome architecture of this city before returning to the
hostel. In the morning I will be
catching a train to Frydlant nad Ostravici, a small town south of the industrial
city of Ostrava, on the east side of the country. One of the suppliers, Sky, is located there
and the other, Macpara, just 40 kilometres away.
See you at the end of the week Prague!
very cool dude be well
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