Preconceived Notions: Prague, Czech Republic
It’s old, cramped and the most provincial international city in the world. That’s what how I imagine Prague - where we’ve arrived today.
I have heard the good word on the city from many travelers. It’s no business hub or modern metropolis, but an old destination along trading routes.
I expect a lot of cobblestone and winding roads where even the cracks of globalization - like what I expect to be the inevitable McDonalds or two - are forced to fit into an architectural mission.
It is a city of 1.2 million residents, smaller than Philadelphia but certainly a large urban center, so I am not foolish enough to think there won’t be a serious American influence, but I expect it to be far less than, of course, in places like London but even in Milan or Brussels.
So, beyond that inevitable McDonalds solvent in Prague-design, I don’t see much in modern style or great skyscrapers, but rather a more traditional Eastern European-influenced construction.
Any large city has its hip, Bohemian crowd particularly younger people moving in from the countryside or other smaller cities, but I see families that have lived in Prague for generations, warm, hardy people.
Let’s go find out.
Photo courtesy of University of Utah.
