Notes from a Vacation
My wife and I just returned from Belgium and Prague, where we took a wonderful vacation. I’m not going to pretend that a few days in the home of the European Parliament or a few more days in a former Soviet bloc country-come-tourist trap gives me some special insight into these cultures. This is especially true given that there are plenty of American ex-pats who are far better suited to do so.
Still, if you travel with your eyes, your ears, and (perhaps most importantly) your liver open, you can learn a lot more about the world around you (if not necessarily the specific culture you visit) than you will sitting on some packed tour bus giving you a sanitized and stock explanation of a bunch of old monuments and buildings. This counts double if you are keeping your ears open in a local pub rather than a tourist-trap restaurant filled with other American tourists.
Anyways, some little tidbits that our loyal readers may (or, more likely, may not) find interesting:
– Though by no means the purpose of this trip or this post, this latest trip has just reinforced my longstanding belief that the differences between Europe and the US are pretty minimal. The notion of Europe as a socialist hell-hole continues to befuddle me – a befuddlement that seems to be backed by, you know, actual data.
– I wound up (briefly, I jump to add) talking politics over beers at various times with two Belgians, an Australian electrician, and a Slovak. It is difficult to underestimate just how much the torture issue, Guantanamo Bay, and the notion that international norms don’t apply to US foreign policy or the GWOT have undermined American moral standing. Indeed, the whole combination of these issues was the very first thing that came up the second I indicated in the slightest that I was unafraid of discussing politics. Also – it’s worth remembering that one need not be part of a country’s cultural elite to take severe umbrage at the notion of a foreign power telling your country what to do, which is exactly how these folks perceived US foreign policy in recent years.
– If there is a more beautiful city than central Prague, I haven’t seen it. If there is a more ugly form of architecture than Communist-era brutalism, I likewise haven’t seen it.
– This picture says a thousand words:
It’s a plaque in St. Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle. You’ll note that part of it has been completely erased. That part is the name of Tomas Masaryk (more here), founder and first democratically-elected President of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire in WWI. The Communists deemed him a non-person and erased virtually any mention of him from the public arena.
Anyhow, if you’re ever in Prague, I can’t recommend enough that you hire Martina Gregorcova as a personal guide. For the equivalent of about $30 an hour, she’ll take you around town in this magnificent relic of Communism, Salvador the Trabant, with a chassis made almost entirely out of fiberglass and an engine that requires you to pop the hood and pour oil in to the tank to fill up with gas:
Martina is easily the funniest, most free-spirited, and most openly opinionated guide I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve encountered a number. To call her a unique individual would be an understatement. If you want an unvarnished, unsanitized view of Prague as opposed to the stock and sanitized view promoted by the big tour companies with their mammoth buses, you couldn’t do much better than to drop Martina a line.
– Finally, a giant sign in Brussels National Airport promoting the upcoming EU Parliament elections asked the question “How Much Airport Security Is Too Much?” The odds of a government-sponsored sign asking this question appearing prominently anytime soon in a US airport? Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath. Nonetheless, Europe is clearly an emblem of totalitarian socialism.
If there is a more beautiful city than central Prague, I haven’t seen it.
Amen.Report
I really do wonder at people who, in the course of their 20something hipsterish tourism ‘experience,’ denigrate the “masses” on their “tour buses”; I don’t really see how what you’re doing is any different (in a sense, it’s even worse; you’re not experiencing the “real Europe” any more than they are), except that you’re incredibly smug about itReport
Paul – you’re probably right that I am being overly smug here, but I should note that I’m a few years into my 30-somethings now. I was pretty up front, I think, that I don’t pretend to have “experienced the real Europe” – which is something that requires actually living in a place for quite a while.
But I’ve taken the mass bus tours, and I suppose for some they’re probably enjoyable, but for me, I wind up losing my mind because they do tend to be so sanitized and free of any kind of opinion. It often seems to wind up treating the host country as a zoo, or a curiosity, that is supposed to live up to a certain set of stereotypes.
Anyhow, I’ll admit that there are some elements of this post that I’m not happy about writing, and generalizing based on a handful of conversations is of course pretty arrogant. That said, I don’t think most people who travel are even aware that personal/small group guides exist, are affordable, and offer an opportunity to actually interact with someone from a different background in a way that large bus tours don’t even attempt to do.
Again, for some people, those types of tours are perfectly fine, especially if the purpose of your vacation is simply to relax for a few days in a beautiful setting and maybe see the sites just so you can say you did. But if what you’re interested in is making new acquaintances, or hearing a different point of view, or just generally recognizing that there are real, honest-to-God people beyond the borders of the United States, then you have to actually interact with people who live beyond those borders at some point. I suppose for many older travelers, this need has passed them by – either they fulfilled it when they were younger, or it just can’t shine a candle to the need to simply relax for a few days. But for younger travelers who still have much to learn about the world, sitting in a tour bus that gives a sanitized version of something that happened centuries ago and which they can read almost verbatim in their old High School history book doesn’t do much to teach them anything of value.Report
Mark, don’t sweat it! Travel writing is all about relating your experience. And if four Europeans sitting around a table all were sour on the U.S. b/c of our behaviour the last few years, well that’s just consistent with broader trends we know are true.
Moreover, this is intended as a happy report of an enjoyable vacation. Don’t worry so much about how it might read! Having been to Prague, I agree with just about everything you had to say. I haven’t taken a bus tour there, but I definitely had the experience of a colorful guide on a foot tour I took. What a city! And the beer is fantastic!
Did you have a chance to climb up the clock tower?Report
Thanks, Michael! Unfortunately, we didn’t climb to the top of any buildings in Prague, although I’m not really sure why not. But we definitely climbed to the top of the bell tower in Bruges (a plenty beautiful place in its own right), which was a pretty cool – and dizzying (366 tightly spiraled steps!) experience.Report
I’m jealous. 😉Report
Hello from Prague Mark, I am for the first time here, and I like your blog post. I absolutely agree with you about the ugly architecture communists left here in Prague, I would say it’s a crime if you compare to the great architectural style in Prague historical center. But that’s not all, communists had their bad influence on the intellectual side of Czech people, the behavior, the attitude..etc and it will take generations to recover from. My personal opinion is that Communists were supposed to be judged the same as Nazists, if the Nazists killed people, the Communists killed their brains and kept them alive, which is even worse. But never mind we will keep smiling and looking forward to a better future.Report
King Wes, know that there will be at least one American toasting you tonight as he gets nice and drunk before a four-day weekend.
Would that we had millions like you. Billions.
Cheers.Report
Good King Wenceslas:
Thank you for your comment – well said! Na zdravi!Report
Mark –
There’s a word for Americans who voluntarily visit Europe. It begins with a “c” and ends with an “ommunist.”
Welcome back!Report
Mark — In that case we each have been up one tower, and have one yet to climb! In Bruges is a hilarious movie, btw, (if you like blood and midget humor) in case you haven’t caught it yet. Shot on location; some key moments occur at the top of the bell tower. I’ve always found it fun to see locales one knows in film.
I think between the two towers you might have the better end of it thus far, but hopefully we can both eventually experience both. Cheers!Report
(Little person, should it have been? My apologies, in all honesty. That was written too hastily.)Report
Heh. Actually, I did see In Bruges a few weeks before we left. As it turned out we even wound up staying in the hotel where Colin Farrell’s character stayed (this was not intentional, believe it or not). Of course, when we got to the bell tower we were shocked, SHOCKED! to learn that Hollywood had lied about the tower’s configuration in order to move their plot along. For starters, the top of the tower is completely enclosed by wire fencing, so there’s no way the guy in the movie could have thrown himself off the tower. Second, one of the funnier scenes in the movie, IIRC, involved an interaction with the cashier at the entrance to the tower. In reality, this entrance doesn’t exist and the only way to enter the tower is by climbing a set of outdoor stairs from the interior courtyard; the cashier’s room is well-lit and at the top of those stairs, not some counter guarding a ground-floor entrance on the main side of the building.
Ticky-tack, I know, but dammit is it really too much to ask for Hollywood to make an attempt at accuracy and honesty? I felt a little bit lied to by Colin Farrell when I got to the top of that tower.Report
Mark,
I’m not sure Hollywood deserves the blame for this one, as the film was written/directed by an Englishman and was filmed on location, i.e. nowhere near Hollywood… and I think their money came from a British development company. (Not that it matters.)
-wrbReport
William – I’m sure you’re right….but it’s just so much more fun to blame Hollywood!Report
“Also – it’s worth remembering that one need not be part of a country’s cultural elite to take severe umbrage at the notion of a foreign power telling your country what to do, which is exactly how these folks perceived US foreign policy in recent years.”
You know, there’s no small amount of irony that stems from European complaints of being told what to do by a wealthy and powerful state. Irony that would no doubt be appreciated in New Delhi, Beijing, or Harare.
Also, that article in Prospect you linked to was fascinating. Glad you enjoyed your vacation.Report
Kyle: Believe me, it was all I could do to hold my tongue on that point when having that discussion in Belgium. I mostly succeeded, thankfully, by reminding myself that whatever wrongs Europe may have committed in the past, those wrongs have little bearing on the validity of their positions in the current debate, at least insofar as they’re taking the anti-imperialist position.
The conversations I had in Prague on this issue were far less in-depth, but obviously the Czechs don’t have that history of imperialism, but instead have a long history of being its subjects.Report