prisioner in prague

in am in europe for business, my kids were flying home after the summer visiting dad, and there was a meeting planned for the prior week, i got the meeting moved so i could attend. then i heard there were two of my peers coming here the next week, so i extended my visit and gave myself a couple days to have more “meetings” with them. the plan was to go see my best friend in belgium this weekend, but things don’t always work out as planned; especially when i am driving the agenda.

as i flew the kids to AMS, i realized i had not had any time alone in months. the little man comes to the office most days and i wake up with him in my bed almost every morning. i had taken to slipping out around midnight to do email and drink coffee or wine before going home to be dad again. the network was down but i also did it just to give me time that was mine. it started to dawn on me that i needed time alone more than i needed to see my best friend. barcelona sounded nice. what about the greek islands? there had to be a cheap flight somewhere with a beach.

she took it better than i expected. really, i expected to have her beat me about the head and neck. unfortunately, he boyfriend thinks it was him i was avoiding. i just needed to be alone, but you try telling that to a flemish woman with the tendency to believe the first thing i say. now i need to find a way to make that up to him.

as the week went on, i started thinking about the fact that i didn’t have flights anywhere, that i wasn’t taking the time to look and that i had a hotel room paid for here. why should i leave, i mean i have seen this city, but i didn’t really want to sightsee anyway, i wanted to sit in a cafe, have a coffee, write and just relax. prague is crammed with cafes, why not just stay here?
one of the reasons i wanted to leave the city was that the coolness of living in a hotel that looked like it was a set for a sean connery era james bond film had been replaced with a sense of pity that no one saw the need to upgrade anything in the hotel. but as the week passed, there were new things on every corner.

the coffee outlet that had opened last year now had three locations within eyesight of each other, i found a starbucks, and then another that is “coming soon”. the thought of tourists stopping for a caffe latte before standing 20 people deep to see the under-impressive astronomical clock, or walking over the charles bridge with a familiar green logoed cup was funny to me.

prague is changing, its being upgraded, there is a new mall that made me think i was in LA, not the former communist bloc. i found a new hotel, one with a modern and hip esthetic. i moved and felt like i was in NYC. is it possible that prague is copying the best of the US? one late night with the boys there was a feeling that we were in vegas, but as was repeated that night, what happens in prague stays in prague so there will be no details shared after talking about the 20 dollar mojitos.

so what did i do this weekend? absolutely nothing. well not true, i was freezing yesterday so i went and bought a jacket, which lead to buying two buff scarves; very cool try them. i also got a pair of teva sandals, my croc flip-flops were not making it walking around this city on cobblestones. waking up with aching calves was fixed by adding some footwear that stays attached to foot. also very cool, prague never had this 5 years ago.

the hotel has a great restaurant downstairs, so good that i am eating breakfast and dinner here almost every day. the outside patio is great, not many people, lit with art deco lights from inside and candles on the tables outside. people speaking at least 4 european languages all around me, and hip music on the stereo speakers hidden in the bushes behind me. there is an istanbul kebab place across the street, and a thai noodle bar down the road. there is also a shortcut to the square that runs through the largest bookstore in town on the other side of the lobby. how cool is that, it’s like they built this hotel for me.

james bond movies be damned, this is the new prague, we are going to build a hotel for the middle-aged, software manager and world traveler who we are targeting as our customer.

i don’t feel like a prisoner any more, but what about the people here? salaries have gone up, way up, six times what they were 5 years ago, everything is more expensive, those lattes are not discounted that is for sure. even the beer here is no longer cheap. i spent 6 dollars on a beer, after spending 18 dollars to get into a very small salvador dali exhibition. by amercian standards not too bad, but when did prague become america.

so the question really is, who are the prisoners here? the locals who grew up wanting to live in the west, the expats who came here looking for a city that was cheap and easy to live in even if they did need to struggle with czech, or the brits who come here to party and find out that they could have gone to amsterdam with a shorter flight.

i made the right choice by staying here, not sure if people around me feel the same way.