Disappointing Prague / Enttäuschendes Prag

We’ve just arrived home after a rather disappointing trip to Prague. We had a good time, don’t get me wrong, but as an overall trip, it was disappointing. It was disappointing because it was really, really cold. It was disappointing because both Nikolas and I were recovering from a bad cold/flu bug for the first couple days and really didn’t feel like doing much of anything. But mostly it was disappointing because Prague has changed so much.

Peter and I fell in love with Prague on our first visit together in 1994. It was five years after the Wall had fallen and Communism had been shooed out, and one year after Czechoslovakia had split into independent states: Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It was before Prague had been rediscovered. It was like another world, magical and ancient and remote and unexplored. There were virtually no hotels, only big business hotels which you could not afford to stay in. There were no little hotels. There were no hostels. Some clever pioneer had opened an office in the center of the old town that rented out rooms in people’s apartments, and so that was where we stayed – in a room in old Mrs. Rudolfova’s apartment on Dlouha Street, just off the Old Town Square. It didn’t cost very much, but was clean and comfortable and in a great location. We loved Prague for its gorgeous architecture and its great food. You could wander the streets for hours and always stumble across new things to see and you could explore typically Czech shops that had typically Czech goods and you could eat a fantastic meal at a lovely Hospada for only a couple dollars.

We have been back to Prague more than any other city in Europe in the last fourteen years, this trip being our sixth. Every time we’ve noticed that things have changed a little. In 1995, we stayed in an atrocious hostel in the early days of cheap hotels. Many of the buildings in the Old Town were being restored and the city was really being cleaned up. By 1997, when we stayed in another apartment room, you started seeing more souvenir shops popping up and restaurants offering menus translated in multiple languages. By 2003, the room renting place was out of business. Internet cafes were on every block, intermingled with money exchange places, souvenir shops, and gorgeous hotels in carefully renovated ancient buildings. Hotels could be a bit pricey, though there were lots of good finds, the city was still a great place to explore, and food was still a bargain. In 2007, we came with Pennington students and stayed at a great hotel on the Kampa Island, which had super rates in the off-season. We knew the cheaper restaurants and had a great trip…despite the crowds. The increase in tourists by 2007 was astounding. The streets were thick with camera toting visitors, the Charles Bridge being so packed that our group got split up, one student disappearing in the sea of people which carried him all the way back to our hotel.

So here we are in Prague in 2008-2009, and the dreamy place that Prague once was is gone. The airport is looking spiffy with legitimate yellow taxis outside it (taxis here have always been notorious for being a little shady, people offering rides in their own cars at their own prices). Hotels are everywhere, offering Internet access, which means the Internet cafes are all gone and replaced with more souvenir shops, all selling basically the same thing. Many of the money exchange places seem to be gone, too, even though the Czech Republic hasn’t switched over to the Euro and so people need to change money. The streets are PACKED with people, in some places so packed that you have to look at the people and your feet instead of admiring the place that you are in. They might as well give people numbers to cross the Charles Bridge because it is swarming in bodies. And, to top it all off, Prague is no longer a bargain. In just one year, the old faithful cheaper restaurants we have visited have raised their prices by 50-75%. Eating out costs as much as it does in Salzburg, but it’s the same simple presentation you got for a couple dollars not so long ago instead of the A+ presentation you expect in Austria.

I suppose Prague couldn’t stay a secret, exotic location forever. It just has too much to offer. But, unfortunately, it’s lost a lot of its feel of quaintness and authenticity in the process. It’s still a marvelous city with so much to see and do (you can see some of our photos here), and well worth the effort if anyone reading this has always dreamed of visiting Prague. But for us, well, I can’t imagine that we’ll be back anytime soon. There are other places to explore and discover, and hopefully we’ll find a new place that is yet untouched by tourism.