I am visiting Prague, Czechia, for the first time this weekend. I am attending my final spring CEESA Directors’ meetings. It was originally scheduled for Baku, Azerbaijan, a much shorter flight, but due to Trump’s war in Iran, it was changed to Prague. Azerbaijan shares a border with Iran in the north.
The Czech Republic is special for me as it is the home of my great-grandfather, Andreas Kralovec, who immigrated to the USA from “Bohemia” in 1888. I am adopted and do not have any Czech DNA, but I feel a special pull to the country with my surname and my relationship with my father. I never met Andreas, nor my grandfather, as both died before I was born. I was thinking of my dad during the trip, he would have enjoyed the Pilsner at the monastery brewery and the sour kraut served with my duck.
The flight departed on time from Tashkent at 9:30 AM. I got a lot of work done before the flight so feel like I put in a half day at school. I had a window seat and this particular Turkish Airlines plane, an Airbus 330 had more legroom and space than some other planes in their fleet. One of the challenges of belonging to CEESA, is Tashkent is on the far eastern side of the association, a long way from Central Europe where the meetings are being held. It is a 5 hour and 20 minutes flight from Tashkent to Prague.
I arrived at the hotel from the airport around 7:00 PM. It was cool and a bit rainy so I went for a walk out of the Diplomat Hotel. It is located out of the city center in the Hanspaulka neighborhood of Prague. I walked up and along the Osada Baba a ridge overlooking the Vlatava River Valley. There were some lovely 1930s villas that were part of the Werkbund Architektur Design Association. As you can see above, in the dying light, I did get a glimpse of the Prague Fortress. There were no tourists and it would be a lovely suburb to live in. The highlight of the walk was watching a rock band performance at an outdoor festival at a university near the hotel. College kids are the same the world over…
Bill's Blog 