2003/05 Prague and Sussex trip - Prague's Wenceslas Square |
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I headed off to Europe on the Friday evening. Northwest had cancelled so many of their other flights that this one was packed, overbooked even, so it wasn’t a very comfortable trip. The guy sitting next to me was on his way to Kiev in the Ukraine, selling agricultural equipment and services. He said the Ukrainians and Russians were having difficulty in adapting to the capitalist way of life.
I took the bus from Gatwick over to Heathrow to pick up a Czech Airlines flight to Prague and was relieved that we had a 737 rather than some ancient Ilyushin left behind by the Russians. Flying in, the Czech Republic looked very green and welcoming.
Getting through passport control involved long queues and took forever, but once I got through my driver was waiting patiently for me, and whisked me off to Prague’s city centre. Prague’s taxi drivers have a reputation for abusing and cheating their passengers so the conference organizers had recommended that we prebook our taxis and settle on a price in advance. It worked well.
I was staying at the Jalta Hotel on Wenceslas Square rather than the Conference Centre’s Holiday Inn. Wenceslas Square was where Alexander Dubcek proclaimed the Prague Spring in 1968, where Jan Palach committed suicide in protest against the Russian invasion, and where Vaclav Havel led the demonstrations against the Russians in 1988. Interestingly, it doesn’t look particularly historic and it isn’t a “square” at all, and is more like a Parisian boulevard, with trees and hedges down the middle of the road.
The square has the massive National Museum at one end but the rest is a jumble of stores, hotels, bars, restaurants, casinos, and clubs. They included Macdonalds, a C&A, and a Ramada Inn. I was on the top floor of the hotel between the letters “A” and “L” of Jalta.
I even had a balcony overlooking the square, unusual for a block-booked room for a conference. You usually get a view of the garbage cans out back. The balcony had a three-feet thick concrete wall, looked like I could repel tank attacks if necessary. I had dinner at a sidewalk café, people-watching. Wenceslas Square seemed to be Prague’s place for people to see and be seen.