Discovering Our Roots: Traveling To The Prague To Find Out

Before I begin I want to mention I knew I'd love Prague before ever visiting there. I always say London is my spirit home. But Prague is like the fun uncle house you always want to visit. And I'm not talking about that creepy uncle either that your parents keep you away from... Jokes, all bad jokes.

Moving on. Lets get it into it.

Why do simple questions never get a simple answer? Such as where’s your family from? It's a question that plagued my family for years. We are the Jason Bourne of nationalities. I know where part of me comes from, from my mother's side. But my father's side always remained a mystery. We were told we were Czech. But the people we've encountered from that part of the world often told us we were Serbian, Croatian. Or from Montenegro. When people saw our last name they would ask where's it from and we could never give a simple answer.

Depeche Mode on the Charles Bridge

It was fun for a while, from time to time even entertaining. But finally it got annoying. Naturally the Ancestry got done. The Genaology. Different tests gave different results. Eventually it becomes an obsession. It creeps inside of you. The not knowing.

Then the deeper question sets in. How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're from. No past, no purpose.

So once again the famous or infamous family question. Are we Czech or not? So with the help from understanding the locals and what makes them up and one pet detective. I can proudly say that my family of filthy animals... Are. Bohemia exactly, a region on the western side of the Czech Republic. So yes our people are in fact Bohemians.

This made a lot of sense to me as Bohemians and Czechs in general are made up of a very unique constitution. Given their history its understandable that they want and did find their own identity on their own time.

Time. Probably my first observation that I noticed they have an interesting obsession with. An obsession I share. From watches, high end to low end. Every church seems to have a clock on it. To the center piece, the Astronomical Clock at Old Town Hall. More on that a little later.

The people, myself included because now I see a lot of crossover between myself and the natives. I oftened wondered where I get some of my odd proclivities came from. Snobbory, everyone says Europeans in general are snobs. Can I be a snob? Yup. Check.

Czechs can be snobs. Especially about their beer. I guess when you lead the world in beer consumption per capita, you're allowed to be. Beer in the Czech Republic is like baseball to Americans. It's their past time. They're not complete unless they got a glass in their right hand.

Kozel Cerny (dark beer). Lighter than a Guinness

But it isn't just snobbery of having the attitude that 'we're like better than you'. It's more in the vein of 'we know what we like and don't like. And wont comprise.' It's that level of decisiveness that I deeply admire. Because nothing turns me off more than indecision.

Can be stubborn? You bet I can. Double check. I challenge though, what's the difference between being stubborn and doing what you say or better yet, standing up for your beliefs? I guess in some regard you have to be stubborn to stand up for your beliefs. Like with snobbery, stubbornest isn't about being right or wrong. It's about standing up for their beliefs. I mean after being told what to do for years by communist Russia, I’d hate being told what to do too. No one understands what it's like under communist occupation until they have been told what they can and can not do. But when the masses have the same bulletproof belief, stubbornly so, delusionally so, you could vanquish communism for good in 1990.

Astronomical Clock with Christmas Market

Satirical humor. Check. Or by now is it Czech? The obsession with horology is based on minutes and hours closer to death. Seriously, the Astronomical Clock the rings with the Saints the gentleman pulling the strings is a skeleton. So don’t wait to have that second Kozel Cerny. Speaking of the famous Astronomical Clock. Old Town Hall that houses it was accidently bombed during WW2 by the US, their ally. All because they didn't know where they were going. I guess all the clocks are so they know what time it's bombing time.

History is pop culture. I repeat history is pop culture. What you think is original is not. Oscar Wilde once said, 'anyone can make history, but it takes a great person to write.' Such as the true story of Statue of St Wenceslas. Not only was he a king, a good king to the Czech people. He ultimately got shanked by his brother and their mother suffocated their grandmother. They were Game of Thronings before R R Martin.

The Prague Castle was used during filming for Mission Impossible Ghost Protocal. In the film what you think is the Kremlin in Moscow is actually Prague Castle. The lights that light it up at night were funded by the Rolling Stones when they wanted to perform a concert in Prague.

Forgetting the Christmas markets for a second. The city of Prague , is glamorous in its own right: The Dark, Rich and Gothic macabre of German expressionism with a double tap of Tim Burton. Acute edges, sharp streets, timeless. It's more Gotham than Time Square. Which I find beautiful as I'm a Batman fanatic. Fun random fact, in Boxton Smash Burger joint, there's a picture of the band LazerSword for the song Batman.

Like the Linkin Park song, In The End, Prague and the citizens that built it, inhabit it and continue to support it are proof that they are individuals who march to the beat of their own drum. Originals who wanted nothing more than to live the way they wanted to live. Through repression they understood that, what people call stubbornness, they call self belief; wasn't a curse but a superpower that helped them to take back control and keep it.

The best way to experience Prague isn’t sitting center court and watching the game go by. Take control and use time to your advantage to explore the city. It’s getting outside, get some mileage under your shoes. But when it's time to rest, rest. And make sure you hydrate with a Pilsner Urquell.