Berlin → Prag

[amw]

I shouldn't just leap into a travel blog without a goodbye to the city i spent 3.5 years living in, but i left with a whimper - not a bang. I guess that's how it always goes when you leave a place, but it feels odd to leave Berlin - world capital of techno, raves and parties - that way

Comments

[benicek]

Very interesting to read your take on this city I've visited many times. It's changed a lot over the decades I think. Very exciting in 1990. Quite a seedy dive in 1993. Quite plush now but, as you say, just like Vienna. Still, a fairly liberal place in an often small-minded country. My old American Livejournal friend Lawrence is the most interesting character I know there: http://benicek.livejournal.com/398874.html

[amw]

Cheers for the link. It's a little bit sad to me how commoditized "old towns" have become across Europe. They are certainly beautiful and each does have its own interesting story to tell, but it's hard to not to be a bit fatigued when they all have the same fashion stores and coffee shops and made-in-China trinkets.

I am just riding through the rest of Czech Republic now, and I have to say it does look like quite an interesting place to visit. Perhaps it is my Cold War army brat background showing, but I'm surprised how developed it is over here. I guess I expected everywhere this side of the Iron Curtain to be a desolate wasteland like East Germany still is. But there is lots of beautiful architecture and nice buildings and lovely looking bike paths and countryside. Perhaps it helps it's a beautiful sunny day. I could see myself coming back.

[tsuki_no_bara]

i've never been to prague but i want to go, so this is really interesting. also a botel sounds pretty cool. i mean, hotel on the river! tacky or not, it's neat.

i assume you have your maple leaf pin and/or patch ready to complete your canadian presentation? :D

[amw]

Tacky isn't bad! I think I made a great decision with the botel. It was moored far enough away from the main tourist drags that it was fairly quiet and a nice place to "escape" to after wandering the rest of the city.

I think the secret to enjoying a place when you travel is to do exactly what you like to do. So for me I like wandering about for hours and eating Chinese food and sitting on rocks and visiting cathedrals and getting drunk with people whose language I don't understand. Prague delivered, and I think it would deliver in lots of other ways too, if that's your bag (history, culture, architecture and so on).

I don't have a Canadian patch, though a keen observer might spot my backpack as Canadian. To be honest the only time citizenship embarrassment strikes is when I need to show ID/passport. I trust my apologeticness every time I try and fail to speak a foreign language immediately brands me as Canadian, or at least not "one of the bad ones" 😉