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They don't make weekends like that anymore...
So, Prague then...
I love Prague. It manages to contain the history of Europe within walking distance. I almost said "easy walking distance", but there was nothing easy about the walking. It was my fifth visit, I think, and three of the previous four had been to see my friend Bill. The last time was my first visit there with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unblinkered , in the depths of Winter. Prague was still beautiful in a grey, wet November, but for the first sunny spring weekend it was a knockout.
We'd taken a room at the Charles Bridge Residence, a renovated building a few steps from Europe's most romantic river crossing. It's half dug up just now, but in the still of dawn or a humid midnight, it was still as romantic as all hell. The room was excellent, the landlord friendly, the breakfasts at Bohemia Bagels gigantic. All of the portions were gigantic, as is usual in Prague. We visited the Slavia Cafe three times. If I'd had my way we would have moved in. Even when churning with tourists, it's the sort of place that reminds you that cafes were what we had before we had television - the only place in town to entertain and be entertained. The view of the hrad doesn't hurt.
This time around we weren't the only visitors in town - Mr Obama had rolled in too. I don't think I can do justice to just how surreal an experience it was to hear a US President pledge nuclear disarmement. It really did feel like the world had turned, becoming just a little more like the place I wanted it to become as an eighteen year old. Next thing the UK government will nationalise the banks and we'll have a Scottish parliament. Anyway, back to Prague. We did go up to the castle to hear that speech. It took a little ducking and diving to avoid the worst of the crowds, and in the end we watched on a screen, but it was still worth going. There wasn't the fervour I would have expected. Partly this would be down to most of the crowd reading the speech in subtitles rather than hearing it, but a lot of it had to do with just how polite the Czech people seemed to be.
Seeing Bill (and his smart, funny wife Radka, and their soon-to-be-teen son Daniel) was just a joy. I miss Bill more than I can say. I can't think of anyone I mesh so well with intellectually (certainly no one male) and no one who makes me laugh more easily. I can honestly say that the beauty and history of Prague doesn't tempt me to move there, but the fact that Bill is there does. And that's as far as we West Coast Scottish Males go. Pictures on Flikr, memories in my head...
www.flickr.com/photos/9548943@N08/3418586245/
I love Prague. It manages to contain the history of Europe within walking distance. I almost said "easy walking distance", but there was nothing easy about the walking. It was my fifth visit, I think, and three of the previous four had been to see my friend Bill. The last time was my first visit there with
unblinkered , in the depths of Winter. Prague was still beautiful in a grey, wet November, but for the first sunny spring weekend it was a knockout. We'd taken a room at the Charles Bridge Residence, a renovated building a few steps from Europe's most romantic river crossing. It's half dug up just now, but in the still of dawn or a humid midnight, it was still as romantic as all hell. The room was excellent, the landlord friendly, the breakfasts at Bohemia Bagels gigantic. All of the portions were gigantic, as is usual in Prague. We visited the Slavia Cafe three times. If I'd had my way we would have moved in. Even when churning with tourists, it's the sort of place that reminds you that cafes were what we had before we had television - the only place in town to entertain and be entertained. The view of the hrad doesn't hurt.
This time around we weren't the only visitors in town - Mr Obama had rolled in too. I don't think I can do justice to just how surreal an experience it was to hear a US President pledge nuclear disarmement. It really did feel like the world had turned, becoming just a little more like the place I wanted it to become as an eighteen year old. Next thing the UK government will nationalise the banks and we'll have a Scottish parliament. Anyway, back to Prague. We did go up to the castle to hear that speech. It took a little ducking and diving to avoid the worst of the crowds, and in the end we watched on a screen, but it was still worth going. There wasn't the fervour I would have expected. Partly this would be down to most of the crowd reading the speech in subtitles rather than hearing it, but a lot of it had to do with just how polite the Czech people seemed to be.
Seeing Bill (and his smart, funny wife Radka, and their soon-to-be-teen son Daniel) was just a joy. I miss Bill more than I can say. I can't think of anyone I mesh so well with intellectually (certainly no one male) and no one who makes me laugh more easily. I can honestly say that the beauty and history of Prague doesn't tempt me to move there, but the fact that Bill is there does. And that's as far as we West Coast Scottish Males go. Pictures on Flikr, memories in my head...
www.flickr.com/photos/9548943@N08/3418586245/
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So, how easy is it for WCSMs (or anyone else for that matter) to move anywhere they might like in the EU, Prague in particular. Is it as simple as a visa and proof that you can afford to live there?
I ask this because I am an ignorant USian.
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Now that we're all Europeans, I think there is an automatic right to residency - or so my UK resident German partner says...