My Life in Prague

The third day I was in London it occurred to me that I could move to Europe. London seemed so colourful compared to what I was used to, and I am always up for change and adventure, so my future prospects suddenly seemed more interesting to me.
But since I was born in the Czech Republic and, through my mom, had many contacts and relatives there, it seemed logical for me to make my final decision once I had visited Prague.

The first day I arrived here I went for a long walk through the centre. I didn’t follow a map but rather wandered aimlessly, which I would recommend. When Hitler attacked during the Second World War, the country’s president at that time, Benes, decided not to defend, because he knew we were outnumbered and it would only result in unnecessary death. However, many Czechs wanted to fight and we had quite a respectable fortress defence system against the German border at the time. Czechs generally agree that it is in their nature to back down from a battle. Historically, the country has been on the crossroads of many wars and empires across Europe, and any resistance could have easily resulted in our eventual extinction. There is one resistance that does come to my mind though, and that is the one by Jan Hus (his statue is on Prague’s Old Town Square).

These reasons, in my mind, make Prague the most beautiful city in the world. I would rank Vancouver as the second most beautiful, but nature and architecture cannot be compared, like apples and oranges.
I must say I was quite inspired my first day here while randomly walking the streets of this city.
Halfway through the day, I ended up at the castle (top left of picture to right) and finally had to sit down for a rest. Because I am a firm believer in God and want to live my life according to His will, I asked him what he thought of me moving to this city. Immediately I felt as if he came over me and filled me with his spirit, as strong a feeling as I had ever felt. I was shaking, and I shed a tear. I looked up at a tram pulling away and noticed how an old woman was staring at me with her mouth gaping wide open, as if I was shining like a lightbulb or something. Nevertheless, I understood this experience as a clear YES!

Black and white photos on this page by
Craig Robinson - Prague Photographer

So I imported twenty mattresses - using a credit card – and I found myself a carpenter who produced bed frames. I was just waiting for the Czechs to just rip these babies out of my hand. Unfortunately, as I later learned, queen sized mattresses are simply too small for Czechs and they are not used to wood furniture (under communism, most of the wood was sent eastwards to Russia and Czechs were left with this, what I consider, extremely tacky upholstered plywood-type furniture). So I learned a hard lesson about the necessity to research the LOCAL market.
I kept going. I tried importing and exporting various items, and after a year of tinkering with different ideas, I was out of cash and ready, albeit unwillingly, to pound the pavement and look for a REAL job!

So now, after a year of hard work, I felt disillusioned. I could not see any fruits from all my labour, and now I was fired, the reason being that I "lacked initiative". This depressed me and it turned into anger against God. I remember shaking my fists up at Him, promising never to heed His word again.

Two days later I went to pick up my last cheque from this investment company. I sat down in their conference room and was talking to their marketing director, a much nicer person than the one who had hired me. Perhaps he was interested in English lessons, since he eventually hired my girlfriend, but he said to me, "Karel, I don’t want to lose contact with you. Here is your cash for your last month’s work and, because I do not want to lose contact with you, I am prepared to offer you office space which we are not using and which is located near the centre of town. By the way, there is a computer and a fax there at your disposal."

It has been a magic ride over the past ten years. Between around 1989 and 1994, there were allegedly something like 50,000 Americans living in this city. Most of them were drawn by its dazzle – and the notion that Prague was the Paris of the 90s. It was great fun and party indeed. Many would be traveling through Europe with just three days to spend in Prague. Instead, that became three weeks, then three months, then three years. There was an air of optimism and everything seemed like a new frontier. The city is spectacular in its architecture, <links> and one never tires of looking up while walking along its streets. There were also many westerners who were sent by multinational corporations to train local employees for their new branches, as part of their rapid endeavour to carve out a piece of the new capitalistic frontier.
 

However, over time, the multinationals trained enough local employees, saved costs in the process and started sending these expats back home. Others were disgruntled with the endless red tape and Czech attitude, and also left for home, or followed the wave eastward for more adventure.
The Czech Republic, and all of central and eastern Europe, is renowned for its bureaucracy. It was the norm under the Austro-Hungarian empire (in power until World War I) and is firmly entrenched in the Czech mentality. In fact, one might say they use it as a form of protectionism, to help their native comrades while stifling the efforts of foreigners. If you don’t know who or how to bribe, you will very easily find yourself standing for hours in endless lines, just to get a stamp for some piece of paper, so you can go stand in another line for another stamp.

So many foreigners simply left in rage and exasperation from having to deal with all this, not to mention the fact that every second cashier would try to rip you off, no matter what you were buying (groceries, beer in the pub – I won’t even MENTION Prague taxi drivers, considered by many to be the worst in the world.)