The day I landed in Paris, France for my layover to NYU Prague, I heard the wind buzzing through the glass panel hallway that lead you uphill to a new beginning. I zoomed pass many French citizens, whispering a simple "pardon" as I was quite late due to a delay in flights. Passing by Laduree and Longchamp, I make my way to my final destination.
Prague, Czech Republic, or now currently known as Prague, Czechia (though they'd like to keep it casual) has been something I'd dream about whenever my mind wanders into lucid sleep. Gothic architecture added to the gloomy morning fogs that linger and leave red marks on your body (hands and ears mainly), tram rides that arrive punctually according to the timeslot situated on the large red pillar, and cities after 8pm so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, it is as if all was peaceful, all was still.
Even so, I quickly recognized the faults in my perception. My rose-tinted glasses of the city were stripped from my sight, showing me the truth in what I had been seeing. I have been quite the traveler since a very young age because my parents would take me to study new cultures and customs from each and every of the continents. Though I had appreciated the tour buses that traveled to historical landmarks and everyone had their puffer jacket and professional DSLR cameras, I knew that these were the memories that I wanted to see. These experiences weren't what was really there. To describe it in a better way, I idealized the notion of the land.
From every travel that I've taken, every plane trip, bus ride, and subway/metro/tram destination, I had always ignored the sense that anywhere other than my humble abode could be just as casual. After what came such an indispensable realization, I felt a little homesick. No- not homesick, uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable that my idea of beauty, sanctuary, and peace were internally destroyed by my characteristically dreamer self as characterized by an ENFP (jokes). Prague, Czechia is a land rich of history and I had disregarded it to keep the vision. Knowing this and feeling uncomfortable, I decided to mature a little and force myself out of my comfort zone to accept its past and its future. There was no sparkling glitter on my chimney cakes and certainly no red carpet leading to Old Town Square.
Despite everything, it is when one truly understands the context of a foreign land is when one truly begins to respect and appreciate his or her surroundings. Now, when I look upon Old Town Square or Staromestske Namesti in Czech, I think about how its close in proximity to Wenceslas Square in which college students held demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution and even further back in history, how the square's significant central statue commemorates Jan Hus who was beheaded for his beliefs. It is no longer a "tourist destination" where people take photos of the Prague orloj (astronomical clock) or fancy some type of sausage for 49 crowns. It is a place of history each to their own with a defining past and a promising future and a timeless city that continues to keep still in the present.
Dekuji.
