hoekstra.co.uk

Spent tonight wandering around Prague. Very different to what it was mere days after the iron curtain fell 22 years ago, when the ultimate sign of capitalism was owning a Lufthansa duty-free plastic bag. People queued up to buy potatoes, beers were 4p and one joyfully spent hours of bureaucracy to book a hotel room with someone who was only allowed to speak Russian to tourists. Now we have MaccyDee's & Starbucks galore, strip clubs, every other shop selling rubbish glass trinkets, and crass designer labels everywhere and as always Nigerians hassling you everywhere. At least they kept the buildings intact. Absolutely lovely architecture! But I would love to see the old socialist Prague again.