Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa] ⓘ)[a] is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic[9] and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 million people
"Everyday People" everyday, everywhere.
Traveling the world, I observe things that make me not only appreciate the life that I live but also the little things that people overlook. We as humans are so involved in own reality that we forget to look at things that happen around us fairly.
We compare ourselves to others never understanding the struggles or wins that others are experiencing. With my camera I have the ability to freeze time and observe, and I do it often.
It's not up to me pass judgment or even understand, but to share to others to make you remember that the world we live in, is not just the world "We" live in.
I never knew what a "Bohemian was.
Growing up I always heard it used as a derogatory term. "You Bohemian!"
Naming my youngest "Galileo" has always evoked the famous song by Queen, hearing his name screamed by everyone familiar with the songs iconic break. Thinking now while walking these "European Baroque" streets, I contemplate on their bohemic rhapsody. The inner city seems to be aligned with people who don't seem to "care" about the common classist things I've noticed in most other EU countries I've visited.
This attitude is not just evoked by those that live on the street, but a sense of careless freedom carried by those who aren't tourist only here to "capitalize" on the beauty of the city and have made it their home.
What is a Bohemian?
"The city is black, and everything is done by rote. I want to be alone. I want to go to the Bohemian Forest. May, June, July, August, September, October. I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds."
Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele
Walking the neighborhoods and alleyways always invigorate my senses.
There is something about the smells of a new city.
The local food permeating out of random kitchen windows lets you know you're not home anymore.
The spices just smell different, the sounds of pans and plates, forks and knives, and voices that seem to echo in foreign tongues eerily sound so similar.
Where the foot traffic thickens, my feet tend to trek, I notice the small things, a cigarette bud, a used syringe from a dope fiends late night binge all seem to allow me to peer inside a side of life that most step over but I ingest without tasting.
"In Prague, even the air feels romantic. The city lights of Prague illuminate your dreams. It's a city of a hundred spires, but at night, each one seems to whisper a different, golden secret."
After arriving home, still an alien in another European land, I look back on the time I had strolling the streets, bridges and alleys of the Capitol of the Czech Republic.
The amazing number and uncanny feel of the number of American restaurants like Starbucks still linger in my mind.
Every street had one, where usually the casual patron sits to sip an overpriced coffee, the atmosphere was quite different In Prague. The cultural impact of a coffee shop now being used as local hangout was quite a juxtaposition of culture that floats in my memories as I sit now waiting for my "very English" tea to brew.
A baroque city with Bohemian people....
....European architecture that seemed reminiscent of my travels in France, but the people, the Everyday people seemed to have the relaxed attitudes of a inner larger city with free people able to be whoever they wanted to be. I didn't feel the weight of the culture asking me to bend to fit in and that in itself honestly made me feel more at home than I expected. The mix of cultures of every color reflected their international place as a capitol as the multinational tourist nature seemed to keep a constant flow of comfort to my own sensibilities.
So much as it caused me to ask myself, "Am I Bohemian?"
Vienna (/viˈɛnə/ ⓘ vee-EN-ə;[8][9] German: Wien [viːn] ⓘ; Austro-Bavarian: Wean [veɐ̯n]) is the capital, most populous city, and one of nine states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants.[10][11] Its larger metropolitan area has a population of nearly 2.9 million,[12] representing nearly one-third of the country's population. Vienna is the cultural, economic, and political center of the country, the fifth-largest city by population in the European Union, and the most populous of the cities on the river Danube.