Prague was a very pleasant surprise. The same sense of excitement that pervades eastern Berlin can be felt here. Capitalism is coming to the Czech Republic bigtime, and it is shocking how apparent the effects of almost fifty years of communist rule is. Prague looks like [zoom] it enjoyed a prosperous Middle Ages and then suddenly everything stopped. In places, monuments, roads and buildings are covered in black soot (or snow!), and the architecture is ancient, as if there were no advances in construction for decades. Some areas were very well maintained. I found service at restaurants to vary from what you would expect from people who are not rewarded for being pleasant to bend-over-backwards nice. It would be extremely interesting to revisit Prague and Berlin in 2020.
