well we have just returned having spent 4nights last week i thought i would share my thoughts,I had high expectations and was a little let down.We are lucky as we take 3/4 city breaks a year and was very excited to be trying some where new.We booked a fantastic hotel and it lived up to all the reports i read.Now for the negative,every one smokes the bars the restaurants only twice did we manageto find non smoking sections,it was terrible i actually lost my voice through the effects of the smoke the food was fantastic we tried lots of different local dishes and ate in the local bars and restaurants as much as thesmoke allowed us.Secondly and this is a big issue for us the people are in our opion very rude and surley not at all friendly they hardly raise a smile even when you leave them a nice big tip.We speak a little of the language but it didnt have no effect.We would not go make we like to feel welcome in a country to chat and make friends has we have done in many other countries visited.The cheap beer and food does not compansate the people.We traveled outside the city and visited different places i found it depressing and need another holiday away to get over this one.I realise this sounds very negative and i am not been rude you my honest opion.The city has many beautiful buildings,and is very lovely in the evenings when lit up perhaps when there is snow on the ground it becomes more majical but for us the fairy tail did not come true
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Czech do come across rude, but not everybody must be. Please except, that this nation is not smiling at everybody. I am very critical myself of bad behaviour and I do experience that a lot, I admit. But still, there are hidden smilies that do not come out for everybody (unfortunately).
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I think you%26#39;ll find that even the Prague experts favour certain places above others. As tourist arriving here 10 years ago it was all I could do to stop myself throttling some of the waiters with their %26quot;couldn%26#39;t care less about you%26quot; kind of attitude. Now I%26#39;ll give you a good example. We were in the Cafe Savoy last week and one of the waitresses spent 10 minutes (TEN MINUTES) playing with our youngest which gave the rest of us a chance to drink in a bit of peace. Of course standards vary but, the longer you spend here the better it gets. Not one to quote Kafka very often but %26quot;this mother has claws%26quot;.
Jason
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I only spent a week or so in Prague, but all the people we met were friendly and helpful.
The best example was maybe out of prague, in the little %26quot;dragon%26quot; retsurant nr Karlsyn castle, were we just lucky
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The smokey restaurants and rude people ruined your fairy tale?
Here%26#39;s a quote for you:
%26quot;An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.%26quot;
-G.K. Chesterton
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wear a smile and have friends wear a scowl and have wrinkles what do with live for if not to make the world less dificult for each other George Eliot
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Yes, Czechs can and do come across rudely in the service industry. I%26#39;ve lived here for over 8 years, and I must say things HAVE greatly improved - I remember the days when beers were slammed down in front of you, the checkout assistants would give you a filthy look if you even tried to ask for a carrier bag, and getting a smile out of a shop assistant would make my day! It took me a while to realise, but it really wasn%26#39;t personal at all - everyone got the same treatment - Czech, tourist, old, young, it really didn%26#39;t matter.
Things have got a lot better, and nowadays it is more of a shock to me when people are rude - more and more Czechs have had the chance to travel and/or work abroad, and are learning good (and bad) things from other countries. It does make me sad that some visitors get a false impression - Czechs are lovely when you get to know them, but they are generally quiet, and a lot more closed than other cultures. They don%26#39;t wear their hearts on their sleeves in the same way as other cultures do; some think it is %26#39;fake%26#39; and ingratiating if they are friendly with people they don%26#39;t know . Also, bear in mind that Prague people are generally more distant and aloof - the same is true for the people of many other capital cities around the world (I come from London, and know how rude SOME Londoners can be if you%26#39;re an outsider). I%26#39;m not sure which places you travelled to outside Prague, but have to say that generally South Moravians (the wine region) are the friendliest Czechs, and I always love visiting there.
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I do wonder whether the people living in Prague get very fed up with drunken stag and hen party Brits (and possibly other nationalities too) and tourists behaving badly, and this makes them less friendly than they otherwise would be. Just a thought but after seeing a TV programme on the subject, I have a lot of sympathy for the people of Prague.
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Yes, we all are anoyed by the stag/ hen parties. Some people know how to behave some don%26#39;t. Whether they are Czech, English or whatever. But there seems to be a dull attitude in general; just think positive and act positive - one day it%26#39;ll rub off...
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