Called for a quick job on the other side of the world, scrambling to get things together, gear, clothes, tools, maps... What did I know about Prague? Next to nothing, except what I had seen on television, which can be summed up in one word: communism.
My imagination reeled with shady noir visions of me being hauled up in some dark misty street by shadowy figures in trench coats.
"Where are you taking me? Je sui Canadienne. Pendejos!"
Anyway, I'm not a spy, so there wasn't any chance of that happening, but still I got this vague uneasy feeling about a place whose history is so turbulent. I don't speak a word of Czech, and the strange glyphs of the Czech written language frankly made me uncomfortable because there are too many extra lines and squiggles floating around the words. My tongue hurts just thinking about it. So the idea of having to navigate a new environment not knowing how to pronounce the words put me on edge. This was no pleasure trip after all, but a quick mission of going in and out. In and out. I can't tell you what that was in case I betray secrets, but let us just say, you can sleep well at night knowing you're not going to wake up in a spacecraft in the middle of an alien probe 👽👽👽
I kid.
I remember standing in front of the transit ticket machine after my long flight and thinking, I don't want to deal with this right now. Thankfully, a damsel came to my aid during my distress. I told her where I wanted to go and she punched the ticket for me. Problem solved. Then into the train I went, sliding smoothly over rails, and giddy to be in one of the most important cities in Europe, not only as an economic hub, but a cultural and historical center. Too bad I was going to spend most of my trip in meetings, but in my free time I conducted a reconnaissance of the settlement.
The train traveled through tunnels, and when it exited, the first vistas of Prague opened up before me. Rows of concrete buildings in the brutalist style architecture popular in the dour communist era. I groaned. Thankfully, once the train slid into the city centre, things got more architecturally, technologically, and aesthetically piquant.
Prague's history extend back to neolithic times, so there has been plenty of time to build some majestic architecture. I was in awe of the colorful facades as I walked through bustling city, the sound of the Czech language around me sounding almost surreal.
Geared with a few essentials, including the Xperia Arc with which I documented the trip, now I had to use my knowledge and wits to get the job done in this strange land, so I made my way through the unknown streets and dove in head first into a new adventure.
