CZECH OBSERVATIONS 99




The first weeks in Prague in December 1994, I noticed that as I walked the
streets and looked at people, they would automatically look at my shoes.
No idea whether this was to see the brand or out of a mixture of embarassment
at my open faced gaze. Another soon spotted pastime was the lifting of baby
girls to wee in the gutters, parents actually shaking them to extract the last drop.
The idiot London tourist found this amusing.... Carp for Christmas and in front
of my girlfriend’s family for the first collective meal, my mouth packed with bones
and too English to spit them into my hand – into my pocket they went…
The beating of animal meat with grooved hammers, the ritual checking of dustbins
by most - not just the tramps, ‘Iron Friday’, Spring welcomed by all the cutting
and bringing home the very first blooms seen.

Dogs in bags or muzzled for trams, the returning of beer bottles for three crowns a time.
The actual punctuality of the public transport a real shock of delight. The staggering drunk
on the streets at any hour, the dumplings and goulash, smelling of comfort, sacrements
of beer and cigarettes, restaurants and pubs with smokesouped air. The accepted norm to
piss and spit anywhere outside, the drawings of female parts, resembling a spider, sunrise
or a tick, the national passion for all sport, camping and building their own houses.
(Ask any Czech and they will tell you they had to do everything for themselves under Communism.) Self - sufficiency born from opression can be a great thing.
Another good quote- ‘They pretended to pay us and we pretended to work’

An understanding of Nature, cycles, the deep love of music, most Czechs can actually play
an instrument and know old songs... The lack of concern over anything like sexual
harrassment-men are men, they wear the belts and drink the beer, drive the cars and expect
food on the table even when the wife works the same hours as they do. Porn mags on the
streets in the same area as children’s comics, The Easter fertility rites of whipping females to recieve handpainted eggs and hard liquour in return for the sap to make them beautiful for
another year. I laugh myself mad when I imagine how many other white countries could view
all this. The tradition of name days has a simple but lovely charm…

The respect to Grandparents for help/love or wisdom like the Red Indian tribes, their stregnth
for survival and carrying ridiculously heavy bags, demands that you stand for them on the tram. The duos of ticket inspectors on said machines, silently appearing with badge in hand beside you. (Getting caught out once was enough shame for me) The cottage/summer houses in the country where Czechs go to work hard in a different place, most without water or electricity, so an exciting time of dry toilets, smoking fires and candlelit rooms is guaranteed. Smog hanging over Prague in the basin between the hills and clouds of dust raised by trams and ambulances. Don’t forget to touch a button and make a wish when you see a chimmney sweep.

Watching the change over the last six years into a true consumer society, all American uniforms being adopted. (Perhaps this is an improvement on the homemade purple suits) The styles of talk shows, game shows, adverts, soaps, and business dealings. The Sveijk Zen still underlies all but has become a little hidden as the generations roll on. Taken over by any arrogant and larger state with the necessary firepower or finance, the identity is starting to become a touch blurred. All sides of politicians learning from their lying foreign brothers. Still it remains magical to walk across the bridges and into the labyrinthal streets beneath the spires, the markets a collage, Jazz band in the Old Town Square, the sword swallower, gypsy buskers or tram pickpockets. Houses where famous alchemists, composers, writers and poets lived and worked their dreams…

As a boy, I thought Bohemia was imaginary, only existing as a description in fairytales, now after five years of visits here, I still wonder.


///And fours later, I still do and love it.///