Letter from Prague | All stories

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is timeless American coming-of-age novel and a richly-plotted narrative of three generations in a poor but proud family, offering a detailed, unsentimental portrait of urban life at the beginning of the 20th century. Brooklyn, of course, is one of the five boroughs that together make up New York City.

When we heard that the pope was dead, my housemate Olena and I wanted to go to church and light a candle. In we ventured from the suburbs to find ourselves some suitable holy location. Olena knew of a cloister in central Prague, but when we got there, only the adjoining 'cloister restaurant' was open. We forewent the appeal of a refreshing ice tea and trekked onwards.

Nowadays, Britain and some of its former colonies are almost the only countries where people drive on the left. Sticking to the left was originally the general rule, and was legislated by a papal decree around 1300. Under Robespierre, France switched to the right, or from my point of view as an Irishman, the wrong side of the road. This was evidently a gesture of independence from Rome, and Napoleon imposed the change on the countries he conquered around the continent.

There are few countries in the world that can boast having as many castles as the Czech Republic - be they 14th century Gothic ruins, Renaissance chateaux or Baroque Palaces - something I could not help but consider on a recent return to my native Canada, which is proud to boast only one: Casa Loma.

Prague is a city renowned for its historic architecture. Most of its visitors come to admire the little narrow streets, full of old houses, palaces and churches. But many do not venture to the suburbs. But if they did, they would be surprised how different a city can be. A great part of Prague's outskirts is made up of huge housing estates consisting of ugly tower blocks - the so-called panelaks.

International Women's Day came and went this week without too many people noticing. Although Women's Day was first marked in 1908 in the United States, in the minds of the vast majority of Czech women it will forever remain a communist holiday - a day on which women received identical red carnations and a small gift, like a set of towels or the same cheap perfume for all women working in a given enterprise.

I used to visit my relatives in the countryside quite often when I was little, stealing apples and peaches, taking long walks, or riding horses with my friends. But, for some reason, I could never relate to the people from the country. They always seemed to be far too backward and simple-minded. Much to my embarrassment today, I must admit that I somewhat pitied them...

For most of my life I lived in the northern Prague district of Bohnice. For many Czechs that place name has a metaphorical meaning of "madhouse". That is because between 1906 and 1911 when Bohnice was still a tiny village north of Prague, a large mental hospital was built there, with small houses scattered around a large English-style park, centred around an Art Nouveau church - all up to the standard of the time.

The chicken had his own, hotly debated reasons for crossing the road. As for me, I crossed it to ring in the New Year (Chinese style).

TG Masaryk, the founder and first president of Czechoslovakia, gave the new state one memorable piece of advice: Nebat se a nekrast (don't be afraid and don't steal). But during the Communist era an equally well-known phrase arose: ten kdo nekrade, okrade rodinu (whoever doesn't steal deprives his family). It sometimes seems to me that the second "philosophy" still prevails, 15 years after the end of Communism.