When did these commies become so damn rich anyway?
Well okay, perhaps rich is too strong of a word. But the people over here are certainly more than just getting by. As I boarded the train in Frankfurt for the Czech Republic, I was not quite sure what to expect. I knew there was cheap beer and absinthe was legal, but that’s about it. I also knew that up until 1992, the country currently known as the Czech Republic was the communist state of Czechoslovakia, where almost half the country lived in towering, bland apartment blocks built by the soviets called . I suppose I could say i expected something hardcore, but that doesn’t quite evoke the correct mental image. Given the devaluation of the currency and the fact that a pint of beer, after the exchange rate, was about 75 cents, I expected something bland, industrial, and a lot of poor people. So what happened?
I arrived in Plzen, home of the Pilsener beer, at about 6AM. I could not take a train directly to Prague from Frankfurt for whatever reason. I arrived in the little town of about 150,000 just as the sun was coming up, and my train to Prague was not until 3PM. I docked my gear in the train station locker and went out with my camera to capture some hardcore Eastern Europe scenery. Instead all I find was a lot of cars, cell phone shops, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Fuck, I couldn’t even find the God Damn brewery! I could not find any of the apartment blocks either. Okay, i thought, maybe this was just the wealthy town or something. I suppose even they needed their own place right? I stopped in the pub, had a 50 cent beer and a 75 cent plate of potato croquettes (still can’t beat the prices), and then I headed back to the train station. I counted 6 BMWs on my 30 minute walk back. I was sort of sad. I didn’t even bother to take my camera out, though there were a number of cute little houses, decorated festively for the holidays, pillows of smoke rising from the chimneys with a light dusting of snow covering the ground. It was like I was in Switzerland or something.
The train to Prague took 2 hours, though the distance was only 100 km or so. The train was the oldest, loudest, most rickety contraption I ever rode in. Now here was a piece of old soviet Europe, i thought to myself. Things were looking up. I suppose that sounds kind of disturbing, now that i think of it. I should have been happy, i suppose, that this country of atheists and drum’n’bass lovers had managed to catch up with the rest of Europe. I suppose it shouldn’t have been all that surprising, considering their entrance to the EU and all. Perhaps it was the sociologist in me, but I just wanted to see poor Eastern Europe. I wanted to see endless stretches of soviet housing blocks, statues of Lenin (or Stalin?), Yugos, smoky trains. Instead, all I found was McDonalds, people chatting endlessly on their cell phones, Hilfiger Jean stores, and an 800 year old cathedral every 100 meters or so. It was just like the rest of Old Europe, which I guess isn’t a bad thing. I’ll gladly take Old Europe over, well…American Europe, I suppose I will risk calling it.
I was to spend 5 days here, but I really wanted to see Eastern Europe, so I booked a train to Budapest for tonight. Unfortunately, the train broke down somewhere in Slovenia, and now there’s no train to Budapest. Why must the dysfunctionality rear its ugly head when I least want it? Namely, to get me the fuck out. So now I’m here until Monday when i head back to Germany, but at least I’ve got the cheap beer and potato soup to keep my company. And the drum’n’bass…for whatever that is worth. Not much, let me tell you. Not much at all.
