I almost didn’t come back to Prague... I had such amazing memories from my visit in 1995 that I didn’t want to spoil them... it was just 6 years after the fall of communism here and the city was gritty and raw and cheap and dark and brooding.... It was amazing and I felt like I was discovering the place before the rest of the world. I was worried that commercialism had taken over, and that concern was enough to make me think that maybe I would forego Prague and preserve those memories as they were.

It is true, there is a whole lot more commercialism, and crowds, and souvenir stands, and bad restaurants AND PEOPLE... around the river in the Mala Strana, Starre Mesto and Nove Mesto areas (either side of the Charles Bridge), but that same gritty, raw city with romantic views, black statues, intimidating and barbaric towers and intimate alleys still exists, and I am so glad I came back.

Prague is located in the Czech region of Bohemia, roughly the western two/thirds of the country, and to me the word ‘bohemian’ is very appropriate to Prague... or at least my understanding of the word ‘bohemian’’, inferred mostly from popular culture and Keruoac novels... so it might not be absolutely right on, but probably pretty close... lets call it more of an intuitive understanding... anywho... a city of thinkers and artists creating and fostering a place that encourages discourse and exploration. The French started calling the region ‘Bohemia’ believing this is where the Roma came from (not true...), and the word ‘bohemian’ came to be applied to those people living an unconventional lifestyle. When Puccini wrote the opera ‘La Boheme’ about poverty stricken artists in Paris, our modern definition was established...

My visit to Prague in 1995 generated the idea of traveling down through Eastern Europe to Turkey. I wanted to find more of those places like the one I came to love in Prague in 1995, traveling to the places that still hadn’t ‘sold out’... or at least hadn’t yet had the opportunity. In the coming months I am hoping to find that rawness, for better or worse... But for the time being I was back in Prague seventeen years later, and really enjoying it.

I got a room in a flat on the back side of the castle in the Hradcany neighborhood. The location was great, an enjoyable walk through the castle grounds to downtown and the neighborhoods east. Also a very easy location for the tube and the trams if I was just too tuckered out. I was feeling a lot better from the cold and the weather had warmed to about 60 degrees F. I busied myself with some long walks through the castle grounds, around the parks at Letna, through the Kinsy Gardens south of the castle, along the boulevards of Andel, over the river, back along the Vltava River through the Old Town (past the pub cralers, the segways, the nick-nacks and the pickpockets) to Josevov, the old Jewish Quarter. It is pretty easy to while away your days in Prague, discovering little alleys and and views across the river.

A few random notes and observations. The return here has stirred up a lot of memories from my visit seventeen years ago. I remember, as I am sure all my fiends at the time, and a lot of others, having to decide beforehand whether or not we would shoot color film (or slide) or black and white... it is nice to eliminate that aspect from the decision making process... using compact flash cards and an iMac has opened up a world of possibilities... and let me land somewhere in the middle exposure wise with the photos... perhaps I should just decide on one or the other though... Another observation, smoking is still alive and well here in the Czech Republic. It is like being back in college, coming home from bars, waking up in the morning and your hair just stinks of cigarette smoke... maybe it is better than it used to be, but there is still a lot of it happening. But this is what I was searching out right?

While it is an historically dense city with plenty to see and do, I didn’t have to think too hard about my agenda (which is nice sometimes), because Marek had my visit to Prague pretty much figured out for me...