Letter from Prague | All stories

Have you ever noticed that half or more road construction or renovation projects always begin in September? The first week when everyone who still has holiday time returns from their summer vacation, their kids go back to school, and every man and his dog or soccer mom or dad seems to be travelling somewhere by car? Early September, just about every major artery in the city centre - from Prague's magistrála throughway to major streets like Evropská and Milada Horáková – are jammed with traffic, routed and re-routed around landfills, tunnels, tram

One time a few years back I went to record vox pops outside Prague’s Nový Smíchov shopping centre. However, a strikingly high percentage of the men and women in the street whose opinions I was attempting to elicit were not what I was looking for. They weren’t Czech but were from Ukraine or other states east of here.

Earlier this month, literatis in this country and all over the world marked the 130th anniversary of one of the most famous Prague writers – Franz Kafka. Outside of the Czech Republic this was a chance to take another look at one of the best known writers of the 20th century, but locally the occasion brought to the fore the unresolved relationship that this country, and particularly the capital, has with the German-speaking Jewish author.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is now in full swing. This year’s KVIFF is, I believe, my 11th. And one thing I’ve realised over the years is that there are so many things happening over its nine days that it’s difficult to think of the festival as some kind of unified event.

As an American student travelling to a foreign country, it is easy to sound like a “wide-eyed” tourist when discussing the abundance of cultural differences that are observed. However, when it comes to the drinking culture in Prague, young American are like kids in a candy store.

I’ve found myself paying increased attention to significant Czech anniversaries recently and was intrigued by one the other week: May 21st was the 132nd anniversary of the installation of the first telephone in Prague.

The Czech Republic today remains Europe’s only nation which does not restrict smoking in pubs, bars, cafés and other establishments. The government is pushing to change this, with the Czech Parliament soon due to vote on a comprehensive smoking ban. But despite strong public support, the initiative may run aground over opposition against the bill among lawmakers.

Around a decade ago I had a flat in Vinohrady, near Flora. One day, not long after I’d moved in, a couple of older residents, members of the building committee, knocked on my door to check on something. While we were talking, one of them asked brusquely how much rent I paid.

A friend of my wife’s once said the good about the Czech Republic is that wherever you go from here, the food is always better. That’s probably no longer true, if it ever was, but Czechs have certainly had a tough time adapting the often appalling communist-era fare into a modern cuisine. But in some ways, such as in the quality of groceries, Czechs are still stuck in the past.

Prague welcomed Easter early this year, maybe even earlier than usual. The cold weather and the return of snow almost made me forget a few weeks ago that spring and the Easter holiday are around the corner. But the rows of identical house-like stalls that one morning landed on one of my favorite squares in Prague – Náměstí Míru – served as a somewhat cynical reminder.