I’ve just come back from a sales conference at work in Prague. A good time was had by all, and the people were very friendly. What I didn’t realise was that I was arriving in Prague as the country was going through the closing stages of the Ice Hockey World Cup that was being held in Austria.
We arrived at the airport in the middle of a quarter-final game against the USA. Everyone at the airport was glued to the screen. The strange thing was that it was about 5.00pm and that seemed early to be playing a match.
On the coach from the airport, our bus-driver was listening to a radio commentary.
Then when we got a cab from the hotel into town, the driver was also listening to the game. I asked him what the score was and he told me sadly that the US were winning 2-1.
In town we found a bar, and before long a great roar went up all around us. The Czechs had equalised. I really should have gone into the bar, but it was a while later that we heard another roar, and I went in to investigate the TV where a jubilant Czech team could be seen. The Czechs had won on penalties.
A little later, I was helping out in a technical capacity for events later that evening when two drunken and delighted Czechs came into the club that I was working in singing as they went. I established what had happened even though I have no grasp of Czech and they had none of English. But I joined them in a celebratory brandy.
As it turned out, the Czechs went on to beat the Swedes in overtime during a Saturday night semi-final (I was back in the UK by then), and they went on to defeat Canada 3-0 in a Sunday night final. I bet the streets of Prague would have been a good place to be that night!
Some of the sights in Prague are more disturbing, however. I didn’t see it myself, but a few colleagues told me that on one of Prague’s main streets, they’d seen an old man fondling a young teenager – possibly as young as 14 – right out in the open. Actually, whether it was in the open or not is neither here nor there. But it’s just child abuse pure and simple. Prostitution is rampant and open. The sex shows are lurid and everywhere. The city gets over-run by British stag parties (a downside of cheap Easyjet flights), and drug-dealing takes place openly in the streets.
On the otherhand, the buildings are beautiful and the place has an old-world charm. But the Czech authorities really need to clean up their act.