Prague

Prague is one of the most unique places in the world. Living in the suburbs of Seattle, I always end up seeing the same boring, suburban homes everywhere I look. While I love my home, in Prague, I got to see great architecture like I had never seen before. Traveling to Prague was an eye-opening experience for me.

While I was in Prague, I noticed that Prague was different from other European cities. In places like London, Paris, Milan, and Venice, there is always the main tourist area where almost all of the main attractions are. Think Buckingham Palace in London or the Grand Canal in Venice. These are these big tourist sites which are incredible to see. However, Prague is beautiful everywhere, not just in the main touristy places like some other cities. Even outside the main tourist destinations like the Charles Bridge, there was a lot to see. I fondly remember walking around Prague, stumbling across many little stores and backstreets, surrounded by some beautiful architecture while eating my gelato ice cream :).

On one of these side streets, I even saw a Lamborghini Aventador. That was one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me. While I have seen Lamborghinis and Ferraris driving around on the road, they were never parked for me to take pictures with them. I was ecstatic at the chance to take a picture with a supercar. After taking millions of photos with it, I made my mom promise me that I would get a picture of me with my dream car in my room!

My time on the St. Charles Bridge was something I will never forget. Again, being the car nerd that I am, I remembered the Prague racetrack in Forza Motorsport 7. In the game, the developers took the famous streets and walkways of Prague and created a circuit. While the Charles Bridge is not part of an actual race track, it is part of the Forza Motorsport 7 circuit. However, the real thing looked way more beautiful than what I saw in the game. Looking around at the bridge, I enjoyed seeing the vast Vltava river. It is easy to see why countless movies have been shot at this bridge once you are standing on it. The bridge looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale. The statues were magnificent and were very detailed. Contributing to the fairy book vibe were the street performers. These performers played their hearts out on the bridge and the music was splendid. I made it a game to try and guess the song they were playing and, surprisingly, I got many of them right :). While I was standing on the bridge, my dad read out to us the bridge’s history from his beloved Rick Steves guidebook. The information was interesting at first. However, I eventually got bored as he tends to get a bit too detailed 😝. 

I realized how fortunate I was to travel around the world so freely after speaking to my grandparents who had traveled with us to Prague. When they were young, they had thought it was impossible to go to places like Hungary and the Czech Republic because these places were behind the Iron Curtain. We have come a long way since then. My entire family, all three generations of it, stood together to admire the view. I sure felt lucky and in awe of the history of the place where I was standing.

What was even more remarkable about the beauty of Prague is how recently it was under the Soviet Bloc. As a satellite state, Czechoslovakia was economically and politically dependent on the Soviet Union. Additionally, Czechoslovakia could only import Soviet goods. They also were only allowed to export to the Soviet Union. These factors led to a weak Czechoslovakian economy. Alexander Dubeck, a reformist, tried to increase freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the freedom to travel. He also tried to help the economy by introducing a few capitalist practices. This period of reform in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was crushed by the Soviets as they feared these reforms would lead to independence. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, rebuilding efforts began. We now have the glorious city of Prague to see in all its grandeur. This city shows how human perseverance can shine through. Despite Czechoslovakia losing territory in World War 2 to the Germans and then being a Soviet Satellite State, it came back stronger than ever and rebuilt itself. Thanks for reading about my trip to Prague. Catch you next time on Pranay’s Seattle Departures!