• Welcome to Maher's Digital World.

Introduce yourself

Started by Maher, January 28, 2011, 05:43 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Guliver

Since multiple people have asked me about my geographical location and I realized there's no need to be quite as secretive, I'm fine with letting you guys know I'm from Prague, Czech republic. Hope that dispels any fears that I'm living in a dictatorship :)

scarface

#481
Quote from: Guliver on June 29, 2022, 12:58 AMSince multiple people have asked me about my geographical location and I realized there's no need to be quite as secretive, I'm fine with letting you guys know I'm from Prague, Czech republic. Hope that dispels any fears that I'm living in a dictatorship :)
Actually, I first thought you were a political opponent in Byelorussia. Then I rejected this hypothesis due to an usually high level in English: this user was probably coming from a country with a very high proficiency level in English such as Germany or Sweden, there was practically no doubt about it. Places like Yemen and Democratic Republic of Congo were not part of the most likely presumption as they are at the bottom of the English proficiency index.
I've been to Prague in Spring 2002 when I was a student. I think I've been to the old town square. If I'm not mistaken I saw this building (photo below) which is apparently an old town hall. Maybe you know this place.
I've been to the Charles Bridge too.
At this time, Prague was pretty cheap. I remember that for the equivalent of 4 francs (0.6 €) you were served a large half-liter glass of beer in the bars of the town, but Czechia was not in the euro (I don't remember the former currency, Czech pound, Czech dinar, Czech dollar, no matter...)
You know Gulliver, you should be proud I visited Prague, because it's the only country of Eastern Europe I visited (in fact I visited only Prague, not the rest of the Czech Republic). It's not very surprising, because Prague is a must, when you want to visit something in the east of Europe, usually you have the choice between Prague, Vienna and Greece. I don't know if I would visit it a second time, but I really enjoyed what I saw at that time anyway. However, when you only speak French, English and Spanish (at least I can read Spanish pretty well, but I would lack training to use it in a conversation), the language barrier is a real problem when you travelling just a few hundred kilometres in Europe.
When humbert moved to Texas from Florida, I'm sure he had no difficulty with the new language.

PS: after investigation, I found out the Czech Republic is apparently not in the euro, I was mistaken. I thought it was the case because Slovakia adopted the euro a long time ago. Actually I read a few years ago that it was less interesting to go to Prague now because prices are almost as high as in the rest of Europe (I mean Germany or France, prices are probably somewhat lower in Poland or in Bulgaria), and I thought that it was due to the euro, hence my mistake. Apparently, a beer costs around 45 Czech crowns in Prague nowadays (or 1,8 €). It's sill less expensive than a similar beer in Paris (around 6€). Note that the usual glass of beer in France contains only 25 cl of beer and it is called "un demi" (literally "a half"). It's not half a liter but half a pint. So if you want to get half a liter of beer in France you need to order "une pinte de bière".
Note that I checked the price of a beer back in 2002, after all maybe I was wrong about the price, but this old article of the New York times confirms that the price of the beer was indeed below 1€ in Prague: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/magazine/our-correspondent-in-prague-too-picturesque-for-its-own-good.html



Shadow.97

I was looking through old posts on the forum, it surprised me that I had no posts from when I was in Prague, or mentioning I was in Prague. I was there 2015 :) And also been where the picture above was taken.
There used to be a direct flight from my hometown to Prague, but it does not exist anymore.

The heat was way to hot when I was there, so I was almost only out during night. Walking in just a tshirt and shorts.


scarface

Quote from: Shadow.97 on July 01, 2022, 12:13 AMI was looking through old posts on the forum, it surprised me that I had no posts from when I was in Prague, or mentioning I was in Prague. I was there 2015 :) And also been where the picture above was taken.
There used to be a direct flight from my hometown to Prague, but it does not exist anymore.
This square is probably quite famous in Prague indeed. In fact, I was wondering if I've been to Place Venceslas, I don't think so.

Quote from: Shadow.97 on July 01, 2022, 12:13 AMThe heat was way to hot when I was there, so I was almost only out during night. Walking in just a tshirt and shorts.
In fact, despite its latitude, it must be quite hot in summer in Prague because of its continental climate. I guess the pleonasm of the first sentence was not intentional.

humbert

I just checked the weather in Prague. You must have gone during a heat wave. It says 24-28°C during the day and 12 to 15°C at night. I wish I had those temps here!

With respect to languages, keep in mind in Europe every country has it's own language except for Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and the small countries such as Luxembourg and Monaco. I'm not too sure what the deal is with the countries that resulted after the breakup of Yugoslavia. By comparison in this hemisphere, Spanish predominates all the way from the Rio Grande to the very end of South America. This with the exception of Brazil and the Guyanas. Portuguese isn't all that different from Spanish. North of the Rio Grande to the North Pole there's English and French only in Québec. I'm not counting indigenous languages because they don't have enough speakers.

Shadow: Just curious. Have you ever been to a place with a tropical climate, or otherwise generally hot?

Guliver

Yes, of course I know the Old town hall, it's one of the most famous places in Prague, and also a huge tourist trap. So is the Charles bridge. But it is true that if you are in Prague those places are a must. As for the price of beer, it varies a whole lot, depending on how touristy the place you're getting it at is. I am certain in 2002 you could get a beer for 0.6€, or even less. Today, in a normal pub it could cost around 1.3€, but in one of those fancy bars for tourists right next to the Old town hall it could be 3-4€. But if you buy it at the store then a 0.5l bottle of the best czech beer will cost around 1€, with plenty of cheaper options. I think even today you could get some low quality beer for like 0.4€, but it isn't worth it. It's true that prices here are approaching those in Germany, but that has mainly been the case for the last six months since we have a pretty strong inflation going, one of the highest in the EU unfortunatelly. It used to be significantly cheaper here.

I am indeed proud that you visited my city, especially since many people in the west still see the Czech republic as "basically Ukraine" (if they know where it is at all). But I'll have you know, Czechia really isn't all that "eastern" geographically, for example Rome is only about 160 km to the west of Prague.

With respect to languages, there definitely is a great variety across Europe, but then again if you know some anglo-saxon language (English, German), some romance language (French, Spanish, Italian) and some slavic language, then a large portion of the other languages are at least somewhat intelligible. For example if you speak czech, then you have a fair chance of understanding (at least on the most basic level) many of the languages to the east/south-east of Czechia.

Finally, I have also visited France multiple times, Paris itself of course, but also other places like Reims, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse... France is lovely, so much to see!

Guliver

Quote from: Shadow.97 on July 01, 2022, 12:13 AMThe heat was way to hot when I was there, so I was almost only out during night. Walking in just a tshirt and shorts.
Temperatures here vary a lot, it can be 20°C one day and over 30°C the next. It can get hot, 35°C is not unheard of. For the past week or so we've been having a big heat wave with temperatures like 32°C and higher, and huge thunderstorms with lots of rainfall during the night, so the air was incredibly humid during the day. Hopefully that's over now.

humbert

Temperature extremes can happen anywhere and everywhere. Here in SA last winter it went down to -12°C. I went for a walk, slipped on the ice and almost cracked a rib. This is at 29'40" N with an altitude of just 250 meters. On the other end it's been as high as 44°.

It was here on the forum what I found that Guliver's country was named "Czechia" -- I thought the name of the country was the "Czech Republic".

Guliver told us there's high inflation in Czechia. This prompts another question: why is Chechia not in the Eurozone? The Chechs are members of the EU and NATO, why not the Eurozone?

I should also mention that, as Guliver said, is hardly another Ukraine. Chech citizens don't even need a visa to  visit the USA. So if Guliver, Scarface, or Shadow want to come here and meet me, all you need is your passport.

Guliver

Quote from: humbert on July 02, 2022, 05:09 AMTemperature extremes can happen anywhere and everywhere. Here in SA last winter it went down to -12°C.

Oh right, I remember that! It was talked about everywhere, even on the news here, that there was snow in Texas and big power outages. It must have been crazy.

About the whole Czechia thing, the full name of the country is still the Czech Republic, but in 2016 the goverment approved the term Czechia as a legitimate single-word name for the country, just like the full name of Germany is Federal Republic of Germany and Russia's is Russian Federation, for example. The problem is that many outside observers interpreted this as "they are not the Czech republic anymore, they are only Czechia from now on!", and it was all kind of pointless anyway.

As to why we're not in the Eurozone, I think it has to do with the fact that the people have learned, throughout history, to be very cautious and skeptical anytime someone from the outside tries to exert any form of control over them. There was a fair bit of skepticism even about simply joining the EU, but in the end the people were in favor. But I guess accepting the Euro was seen up until now as ceding too much control (and I mean it is also a symbol of sovereignty to have your own currency). The public opinion has been slowly shifting this entire time, and even more so now thanks to the inflation as well as other factors.

humbert

So even in Europe you heard of the freeze here? How about that! What made it so bad was that the electric utility was caught with their pants down. There was not enough gas to produce the needed power, not to mention supplying gas to people who (like me) are fortunate enough to have gas service at home. Even so, the furnace won't work without electricity. I had no heat and the temp inside the house went down to 11°C before power came back. Next day it snowed all day nonstop. I had never seen anything like that so far south and not mountainous.

I know that the Czech people have been occupied and bullied by their neighbors since time immemorial. I believe that Czekoslovakia was even created artifically by outsiders. Those days are gone. As a member of NATO Czechia would be protected if Putin decided to pay a visit. Former enemies are now friends. I'm glad that slowly but surely the Czechs are slowly realizing that. I should mention Slovakia is in the Eurozone, and they suffered the same as their Czech brothers.