Tales from Suburban Bohemia: Wind of Change
This post originally appeared on Stumpy Moose on 19 January, 2002, and was migrated to PraguePig.com on 6 January, 2019.
We’re 19 days in and the New Year optimism hasn’t worn off yet.
The pollution in Prague is terrible, there’s still a lot of dirty snow hanging around and it still gets dark before dinner.
But it really does feel as if good things are happening.
The sun even broke through the smog on Friday afternoon giving everyone a shock. What was all that blue stuff up in the sky?
During an idle moment at work I searched the Internet for the lyrics to Wind of Change by Scorpions, thinking I could use it in a joke at some point and now I can’t get the damn song out of my head.
I’m drinking less and eating better.
I’m also exercising a lot, which is putting me in a better frame of mind.
I went to the pool last week for the first time in ages.
At university I used to swim every day. This time, after half an hour my arms felt like string and it took me a while to stop shaking. But I felt better.
The bus back from the pool took me through Ruzyne, a suburban village near our flat.
President Vaclav Havel was imprisoned in Ruzyne for a while during the Communist regime but times have changed.
There’s a new addition to the village now. Someone’s opened a brothel called Night Club Pussycat directly across the road from the jail. The inmates might even be able to see it from their cells.
Today I went for my regular Saturday walk down Evropska, the ugly highway that leads out to the airport. It’s a grim kind of pleasure. I walk hard in one direction down the long straight road until I’m tired, then I get the tram back home.
It was raining and the rain was turning to sleet, but I had a mission.
On a previous walk, I’d spotted a small children’s playground between two ugly apartment buildings. In the playground there was a small wooden moose on a big metal spring that kids could ride.
I’ve been meaning to take a photo of this stumpy moose since I saw it, and I finally got around to it today.
The simple pleasures of life…
–Sam Beckwith
