Last Day in Praha

I spent the afternoon exploring Josefov (the Jewish quarter) and the collection of synagogues in the area. In the evening, I went to dinner with some folks at an organic vegetarian restaurant - I didn't believe those existed here.

I wonder whether I took the right approach to my time here. Like any big city with healthy tourism, Praha can be both welcoming and impersonal. The locals are desensitized to tourists, and its rare to interact with them on a deeper level without staying a long time and speaking Czech. Most of the people I met came to Praha from abroad to work or study. Few were fluent in Czech, and only one was a native.

Don't get me wrong, people were friendly in general and the ones I met were warm and affable. But (understandably so) there is little impetus for a local to spend time with someone so transitory. So I visited the tourist attractions, and met whomever I met along the way. Most human interactions and existence itself is fleeting, so is sharing a beer and having a conversation with someone really 'worth' more than visiting a castle or a cathedral?

There is a spectrum of experiences that travellers seek. In general, I leaned towards the latter for my stay in Praha. Visiting a castle and learning about its history was an experience that I consciously chose more often than sitting in a cafe and trying to chat with people. I also intentionally sought the types of interactions that went a bit deeper than spending just an hour with someone. The people I met, I met multiple times. Limiting? Perhaps. More meaningful? Definitely.