After we had left The Jewish Cemetery in Prague we felt that lunch was in order.
So we found a cafe, after we had all decided on what to eat I went to the bar to order.
Sitting at the bar were two Americans. They were discussing the beer. Gee, one opined, it tastes just like American beer.
I couldn't help myself, Ah well I offered, the clue is in the name, Budweiser, a brewery in the city of Ceske Budejovice, right here in the Czech Republic. so it's no wonder it tastes the same, your American Beer is in reality Czech beer.
As I turned away from the Bar with our order I heard one American say to his countryman, what an ass ........
Of course they were right, I should not have listened to their conversation and I should have kept my mouth shut and my opinions to myself.
But it always happens to me when I visit another country.
I become infatuated with its culture, its history and its people.
I always hope to be taken for a local even though I don't speak any language other than English.
Although on one memorable occasion in Czech over an evening with my daughter's friends and their family I found myself drinking with Horst, the father and by the end of the evening we were getting along very well indeed, conversing in a language which I think should have been called Bekerovka after the famous Czech liquor.
Thoughts about the Czech Republic have come to the fore with the news that Vaclev Havel has died. His life is a reminder that there is Statesmanship and there are politicians.
Unfortunately at the moment we seem to have as a choice which is no choice, to choose between politicians who appear to have set out their political strategy as sixth formers or undergraduates, worked their way up the party apparatus until, without having worked in any other arena or capacity and without any real experience, have emerged as Government and Opposition.
Vaclev Havel both as a writer and a lifelong opponent and critic of the regimes that governed Czech was invited to exchange the prison cell for the Presidential Palace.
We are in a parlous state here in the UK, isolated now in Europe, with the Banks still calling the shots over our flat lining economy, with the deficit refusing to respond to the economic strategy agreed between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor as though they were answering a question for an upper sixth economics exam where the consequences for real people are not taken into account or considered to be of no account.
The big society is no more and now we are being offered the open society but truth to tell big or open makes little or no difference if we are sidelined in Europe and there is 'no money left' and now we are reduced to listening to platitudes, and seeing vague attempts to legislate for goodness, such as the proposed tax breaks for being married.
Back at the bar the Americans continued to drink their Czech Beer.
An altogether better American beer experience happened in 1985 sitting in a restaurant in Boston with my family, we were drinking Rolling Rock with our burgers and pizzas.
The people at the next table had ordered a pitcher and two arrived, but instead of sending it back they handed it over to us at our table.
We poured the beer and raised our glasses, Cheers we said.
As they got up to leave one of the party came over and asked if we were visiting, yes we said we were, he asked if we were Australian. No English, we replied.
You like American Beer? Yes we do, we love it ...........
So we found a cafe, after we had all decided on what to eat I went to the bar to order.
Sitting at the bar were two Americans. They were discussing the beer. Gee, one opined, it tastes just like American beer.
I couldn't help myself, Ah well I offered, the clue is in the name, Budweiser, a brewery in the city of Ceske Budejovice, right here in the Czech Republic. so it's no wonder it tastes the same, your American Beer is in reality Czech beer.
As I turned away from the Bar with our order I heard one American say to his countryman, what an ass ........
Of course they were right, I should not have listened to their conversation and I should have kept my mouth shut and my opinions to myself.
But it always happens to me when I visit another country.
I become infatuated with its culture, its history and its people.
I always hope to be taken for a local even though I don't speak any language other than English.
Although on one memorable occasion in Czech over an evening with my daughter's friends and their family I found myself drinking with Horst, the father and by the end of the evening we were getting along very well indeed, conversing in a language which I think should have been called Bekerovka after the famous Czech liquor.
Thoughts about the Czech Republic have come to the fore with the news that Vaclev Havel has died. His life is a reminder that there is Statesmanship and there are politicians.
Unfortunately at the moment we seem to have as a choice which is no choice, to choose between politicians who appear to have set out their political strategy as sixth formers or undergraduates, worked their way up the party apparatus until, without having worked in any other arena or capacity and without any real experience, have emerged as Government and Opposition.
Vaclev Havel both as a writer and a lifelong opponent and critic of the regimes that governed Czech was invited to exchange the prison cell for the Presidential Palace.
We are in a parlous state here in the UK, isolated now in Europe, with the Banks still calling the shots over our flat lining economy, with the deficit refusing to respond to the economic strategy agreed between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor as though they were answering a question for an upper sixth economics exam where the consequences for real people are not taken into account or considered to be of no account.
The big society is no more and now we are being offered the open society but truth to tell big or open makes little or no difference if we are sidelined in Europe and there is 'no money left' and now we are reduced to listening to platitudes, and seeing vague attempts to legislate for goodness, such as the proposed tax breaks for being married.
Back at the bar the Americans continued to drink their Czech Beer.
An altogether better American beer experience happened in 1985 sitting in a restaurant in Boston with my family, we were drinking Rolling Rock with our burgers and pizzas.
The people at the next table had ordered a pitcher and two arrived, but instead of sending it back they handed it over to us at our table.
We poured the beer and raised our glasses, Cheers we said.
As they got up to leave one of the party came over and asked if we were visiting, yes we said we were, he asked if we were Australian. No English, we replied.
You like American Beer? Yes we do, we love it ...........
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