Happy Czech Independence day!!!!

As you can see from the title, today is Independence day in the Czech Republic. 20 years ago today Czechs got their freedom. It's crazy to me that it was only 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate much in the festivities as I worked last night, all night and slept until about 2pm today. Eduardo went to a museum in morning that is dedicated to young Czech art that was made after the end of communism. After I woke up I had some re-fried beans for breakfast thanks to Eduardo, yum! After I ate and checked my email we watched Glee and then relaxed on the couch. In the evening, before work we went out for a lite dinner to this vegetarian restaurant. Neither of us are much for vegetarian food as we love meat but there are two vegetarian restaurants in Prague that have amazing food and atmosphere for pretty cheap prices; Lehká Hlava (clear head) and the other Maitrea . After we ate we walked together to my work. This is something that I love in Europe, we walk everywhere. It's so easy and so convenient and I will miss this wholeheartedly when we leave Europe. On our way to my work we walked through some of the events going on for the holiday. They had a concert going on a parade (more like a march of students and people protesting communism) and of course fireworks.

I say, "of course" because fireworks are so common here. I'd say at least once a month there are some going off somewhere in the city for some reason. Guests at the hotel are always asking, "why there are fireworks"? Most of the time I have no idea. I usually make something up as I hate to disappoint. To me answering, "I don't know" alludes the idea that I don't care. So I say something like, "Big soccer match" or if they look like they know something about soccer or like they know nothing about this area then I would say, "it's an old Czech king's birthday". (so far no one has caught me, well no guest) The guest's reaction of, "oh wow, that is interesting" is so much better than, "how do you not know?" Once there were fireworks going off in front of the hotel on the river bank. I told the guests that it was the birthday of the mayor of this municipality in Prague. They were all satisfied with that answer and probably went home and told that story to their friends and family. The way I look at it is, I create a story to along with the fireworks. By doing this I make the fireworks more memorable to them. In turn making their whole experience in Prague better and more memorable. It really is a service I am providing them. Hopefully they don't go home and check the facts. ;)

Back to independence day... There were riot police everywhere toting German shepherds to prevent the skin heads and commies from really having a word in the days events and to prevent them from getting out of hand. It all seemed pretty peaceful and I didn't hear of anything violent...but then again I was asleep for most of the day. I am happy for the Czechs and happy that they are so proud to have stood up against the communist. So lets eat some Svičková drink some pivo and Na zdraví!!!