Michael’s story: Travels in Czech (part 1) / Michaluv denicek: cestovani po Cechach (cast 1.)

Our friend Michael and his dear wife went to vacation in the Czech Republic this last spring. I told Michael to keep a mental “diary” of his travels and he did a very good job. Here is the first part of their Czech adventure – the driving part!

CZ: Nas kamarad Michal a jeho manzelka  jeli na jare navstivit Cechy. Michal mi slibil, ze si poridi denicek, a ze si do nej kazdy den bude psat :0)). Prvni cast jejich zazitku je tady a pripoutejte se protoze se tyka ceskych ridicu!!!

Travels in Czech; the lighter side

The answer to the question you’ve always wanted to know is . . .

Yes, . .  it is possible to get a traffic ticket for driving the wrong way in a gas station in the Czech Republic.  Luckily for us, the policeman who drove up to us in the gas station was dazzled by my knowledge of Czech and did not give us that ticket.  More likely, he found my Czech so abysmally bad he wanted to leave before he exploded in laughter.  Or, even more likely, he liked my wife’s blue eyes and let Her off, not me.  Anyway, it was enough to make me a little nervous. This was not our best day driving around this wonderful country.  I had just found out inside the station that our credit card had been cancelled and I did not have enough cash to pay for the gas.  Hint: tell your credit card company that you are travelling abroad before you go.  Fortunately, I had just received another card for my business and I had it with me by chance.  And, before the gas station incident, we had been stopped in Ceske Budejovice for driving down a one-way street the wrong way.  Our innocent, tourist-like faces and my halting Czech got us out of that one too.  So, not our best day.  But, it got better once we reached Tabor.

Driving in a foreign land is best done by fearless drivers with no adrenal glands (and, therefore, no fight or flight reactions).  Type ‘B’, ‘C’ or, better yet, type ‘X’ personalities should do the driving.  Type ‘A’s should never be allowed a license.  But, contrary to popular travel-guide opinions, driving in the Czech Republic was not all that bad.  It is listed in those guides that the Czechs have one of the highest accident rates in Europe.  I’m sure that if we had known this fact before our trip, we would have stayed in Prague with all the other stranded tourists waiting for the astronomical clock to strike the hour.  But, our adrenal glands were on vacation so out into the countryside we went in our rented red Panda.  The big advantage one has driving yourself around is the freedom to go where one wants; if, of course, you can find the place you want to go.  We were not smart enough to get a GPS device so we had to rely on our wits, a map and my navigation (?) skills.  I really only got lost in the Josefov district of Prague but we were not supposed to be there anyway – just one of those times and another of those one-way streets leaping in front of you at the wrong time.

There is a certain philosophic yin-yang about driving in the Czech Republic.  Along the primary freeways, it is all pumped-up rush (especially with a Panda).  “Do we have enough space/time to pass this slow poke and retreat to the right hand lane before we are squashed by that speeding giant truck?”  And, then, there is the laid back experience of country driving, slowing to 50 kph every several kilometers to pass through another small village with its requisite picturesque church steeple, looping over and around small hills and viewing the beautiful fields of yellow flowers.  You don’t dare stop for there is no shoulder to stop on so it is all very relaxing.

Michael

PS: Michael says that Czech drivers are pretty mellow after all but I found THIS video (it’s kind of long so you have to fast forward it a bit):