tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post6366731362030541774..comments2024-03-05T21:04:43.133-05:00Comments on The Cahokian: Living Franz Kafka's "The Castle"ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-43783882235373757182011-06-07T20:49:18.034-04:002011-06-07T20:49:18.034-04:00Annie I went to Prague in the mid-1990s, which I g...Annie I went to Prague in the mid-1990s, which I guess was not long after the end of communism. It was a beautiful town, but I was surprised how quickly they had divested themselves of most of the trappings of communism. There were more ATMs on the main drag in the old city than in Manhattan. Fascinating!<br /><br />6 months in Berlin in 1978! THat sounds exciting. Another time, wasn't it?ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-31368696498083850412011-06-07T12:44:19.252-04:002011-06-07T12:44:19.252-04:00I loved this story you told, ish. We were just a c...I loved this story you told, ish. We were just a couple of years off of ‘almost’ being in the same place at the same time. From June 1978 thru January 1979 I was residing in West Berlin, to go anywhere outside of the city we of course had to transit East Germany to get there.<br /><br />I can’t remember the exact date we drove to Prague, Czechoslovakia for a little visit. I was hoping my passport would shed some exact light on the subject, but alas no recognizable stamps. It was an interesting time, as this was my first visit to a Communist country. Being the free-wheeling American that I am, I wasn’t sure I liked being sent to a particular state run hotel to stay or the state sponsored tour of the city that we took that extolled the virtues of the Communist party at every turn or stop, but that was the way it was done. Our tour guide was a woman, mid-seventyish, soft and grandmotherly sweet, she was noticeably happy at being able to show and guide us through the city, to tell us about the churches that the government had supplied restoration funds for and allowed to be re-opened. I remember Prague being markedly different from the relatively close non-Communist city of Vienna.<br /><br />The reason why I wanted to go to Prague was that my mother always said that her ancestors came from Czechoslovakia – though I realized later that was not exactly the case since Czechoslovakia didn’t emerge as a country until 1918 and her ancestral period was earlier than that. I was able to find the ship manifest that showed the ancestors in question as coming from Bohemia. Which I delighted in as I have always believed my mother came from gypsy stock – a fact she would neither confirm nor deny, but a story I am sticking with to my grave.<br /><br />I relate this little vignette as another example of the appearance and disappearance of countries over the years. There are many cases where indeed, ‘you can’t go home again’.Anna Guess Pickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312345846201371477noreply@blogger.com