My Impressions of Prague

A few weeks into school, a couple of students asked me to write about my impressions of Prague for the school newspaper.  Here's what I wrote.

- Elliot

Writing about my impressions of Prague is more difficult than it might seem.  If I came to Prague as a tourist for just two or three days, taking pictures and buying overpriced souvenirs and never once speaking to a Czech, I would be able to record my impressions easily.

I would look at the castle, think it was nice, and take pictures of it.

I would go to Old Town Square, stare at the astronomical clock for a while, and take pictures of that, too.

I would fight through the crowds on the Charles Bridge, pay an artist to paint my portrait, look at all the saints... and take lots of pictures.

If I had time, I would go to Wenceslas Square and have someone take a picture of me smiling in front of the statue. When I got back to America, my friends would ask me, "How was Prague?"  And I would tell them everything that I did and everything that I saw.  And they would tell me how jealous they were that I got to go.

But now I have already been in Prague for over a month, and it is becoming difficult to say what my impressions are.  And that is a good thing.  I think that traveling as a tourist encourages people to see things in a very shallow way, and to think that they know everything about a place after having seen it for just a few days.  When I had been in Prague for just a little while, I had gone all over the city and had eaten Czech food and had ridden on public transportation and I knew what I thought about all of it.  I thought the city was beautiful. I thought Czech food was good.  I thought the trams were crowded.  Now that I am teaching, I am really beginning to experience Prague.

And the best way to experience any place in the world is through the people who live there.  When I buy meat at the grocery store or stamps at the post office, or order a heaping plate of fried cheese at my local pub, I learn much more about Prague and Czechs than I would if I hung around Mala Strana or went to the National Museum and looked at rock samples all day.  As much as I enjoy spending time in certain places in Prague, like Vysehrad or Old Town, I am much more interested in the people than I am in the "sights."  The people I see around town, on the tram, or meet on the street are more interesting to me.  I enjoy going to museums and churches and plays, but what makes those experiences memorable is the people I go with.

Since most of the people I know here in Prague are teachers and students, my impressions of Prague have mostly been based on them.  And when I am an old man, thinking about the time that I spent teaching in Prague, I will remember the people I met here more than the things I saw here.