Praha 21, or A Question of Attitude

Hi everyone! It's good to check my blog again, although I must second one of the comments on my last entry - why do I get such trivial responses to my poetry? Was it that bad?

I had a great time in Vienna, but unfortunately forgot to bring my camera! Therefore, I'm going to regale you all with "snapshots" from my trip that you'll just have to use your imagination to see. Here's the first one:

Snapshot 1: Vienna vs. Prague

Paps argues that Vienna is a backwater, a has-been, a city that was once the most driving intellectual center in Europe and now is little more than a vehicle for tourism. On the one hand, he's right - Vienna is hardly cutting-edge in terms of anything. But it is beautiful. Vienna greets you with excitement, "Wilkommen! Look at my beautifully large buildings, my wide and clean streets, my extroadinarily fashionable and good-looking people! See the pale yellow Hapsburg buildings, scrubbed clean of two hundred years' grime. Never mind that we don't have our own language - who needs a national identity when one has such beauty!"

Now, granted, there are some issues with this sort of attitude. But compare it to Prague, which greets you more like this. "What, you want me to jump up and down in excitement because you're visiting? You wanted me to maybe wash my face? Tough, you stupid foreigner. You're lucky the McDonalds menu is bilingual." You have to get to know Prague quietly, wander the ever-winding streets, sneak yourself into her embrace. But be warned, friends, that this city is deceptive. It wasn't until the late hours of last night, when the train rumbled into Hlavni Nadrazi that I looked out at the city and realized, for the first time, that it looked almost welcoming.