Is Prague in Eastern Europe?

Upvotes8

 Prague is CENTRAL EUROPEAN.

Historically Prague has been part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which was part of either the Holy Roman Empire or the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Historically, I would probably put Prague down as Western Europe but twentieth century history has changed that.

But let’s get something straight. First of all, Europe is big and varied enough that it can bear more separation than into simple ‘East’ and “West.”

That division made some sense in the era of the Iron Curtain. They tore down the Iron Curtain 27 years ago, folks.

Prague(and the Czech Republic and Poland, and Slovakia and Hungary) is Central Europe. Basically the bit of the non-Balkan Austrian-Hungarian empire that fell into Soviet orbit after the War. (You know which war I’m talking about.)

For me the Czech Republic has the business culture of Germany with the engineering culture of, well, the Czech Republic, but there is an eastern flavor to the country; an unkempt don’t-give-a-fuck attitude towards public places; an ability to cut free and improvise in a fun and creative way that I don’t associate with Germany; some embarassing politicians, most of whom seem selected from the ugliest humans Czechia has to offer; too much graffiti; good-looking young women; and of course, some weird-ass home-brewed liquor.*

Yet the homes are perfectly kept with bright flowers and freshly mown lawns and landscaped gardens; sturdily-constructed houses built to last for two hundred years, not too different from Germany.

But old communist-built panel blocks still dominate the landscape. Again this mix of ‘East’ and ‘West.’

I’ve always thought of the Czech Republic as the perfect balance to the procedure obsessed, ultra-organized German thinking and the free-spirited, fun but chaotic thinking of the East…but nowadays, I think it’s more German than ‘Russian’ influenced.

Czech food is like most food of the former Austro-Hungaria super-state: meat, potatoes, sauces, dumplings, cabbage, stick-to-your-ribs, savory, filling, food you crave after a hard day skiing in the Tatras. I’m not sure what people in Eastern Europe eat, but my impression is it’s all, like, turnips and beets.

Czechs in Bohemia drink beer like there’s no tomorrow; Moravians drink more wine; everybody drinks slivovice, a kind of plum brandy that doubles as jet-plane propellant. Eastern Europeans drink vodka.

Now, I will confess, sometimes, when I’m communicating with Western Europeans or North Americans, I will refer to the Czech Republic as “Eastern Europe”.

But it is simply a service to them: because you can’t always deliver a lecture on the different areas of Europe and how to divide them up to people still stuck in a three-decade dead mindset.

But I have to grit my teeth when I refer to Prague or the Czech Republic as Eastern Europe.The Czechs don’t like it and, worse, it is not really accurate. It’s not Eastern Europe. It’s not Western Europe. It is Central Europe. And quite a pleasant place to be.

*(Well, it’s not really home-brewed any longer, but the fermentation starts at home and then is brought to distilleries.)

387 Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Matthew Lance