What Kind Of Hair Do Lala Wear

CHRONICLE OF A JOURNEY TO PRAGUE (I)

a decade and a half ago, when the euro did not exist and travel by train through Europe was a kind of rite of passage for students in American universities, I bought a Eurailpass and undertook a two-month vaje started in Amsterdam and ended in London. Over time, European cities and the experiences of those days, the Expo in Seville, the Barcelona Olympics were melting and intermingling, but there was a town that maintained its originality: Prague. There was something grim fairy tale in that city with Hradcany Castle presidential trimmed at the bottom of the landscape and the houses of heraldic facades with towers pointing heavenward.

That's why I decided to return to Prague. It was traveling to the past with the hope that it remains intact, albeit accompanied by the inevitable and disturbing feeling that, as part of the European Community, the capital of the Czech Republic would have undoubtedly lost much of its originality. What would remain of the large spectral Prague Franz Kafka considered his "prison" and that in which Gustav Meyrink had the atmosphere of the Golem, that being that "sometimes roams the streets to spread horror among the people"?

Prague has been modernized, but not enough to lose their romance. The city on the banks of Moldova has new bridges that cross it, though it has left untouched, as a tourist attraction, the stone bridge of San Carlos, where one can find sellers of typical Prague pictures, reproductions of Mucha - that great art nouveau artist -and trinkets, tourists crowd in front of the portrait artists offering to draw your portrait for a few crowns. In December, in the booths of the main square, and those found around the pedestrian streets of Mala Strana, vendors offer Christmas births, necklaces and earrings and bracelets with Bohemian crystal Matrioshkas Russian puppets and puppets everywhere, and are also the Czech food stalls, which does not differ much for its originality as it is a mix of the cuisines of neighboring countries, local specialties here are the German sausage with sauerkraut and Hungarian goulash. Eating strong, very greasy, with little sophistication. The only truly Czech is roast duck.

Starbucks has not yet come to Prague, but several chains of Italian coffee (Lavazza, Illy). As for fast food, the Czechs seem to have a penchant for Kentucky Chicken (is everywhere, and she's always full). Abound exchange houses and bars irlandeses, que ofrecen sin descanso partidos de fútbol de todas las ligas (y en los que hay cerveza de todas partes del mundo y posters con conocidas beldades checas: Petra Nemcova, Eva Herzigova).