Prague, Czech Republic

A fascinating aspect of geography in Prague is the demography of where and how people live. In the Midwest, we are used to people living in both houses and apartments. Within a large city, many people live in apartments. In smaller towns and suburbs, most people live in houses. In the Czech Republic, 1/3 of the population lives in large housing complexes in apartment form. We saw one of these complexes in Prague where 100,000 people live. This blows my mind. Living space is sued differently in Prague. They use less land space for housing and build vertically instead. In the United States, we use so much space for individual houses and yards. This makes sense for the size of Czech Republic, though. It is very small compared to the size of the United States—it’s about the size of 1 of our states. These apartment complexes allow people to live in smaller spaces.


Nove Butovice Community

My two favorite academic experiences in Prague were the John Lennon Wall and the Nove Butovice Community. Lennon’s songs have such good meanings, especially Imagine. The song promotes peace, love, sharing, getting along, no war, etc. I love this song and the meaning behind it. It has everything I stand for. Because of this, it was so awesome to see. I love how people from all over the world come to out their artwork on it as a symbol of people. The song Imagine was created in the late 80s, I believe, when communism was still strong in this area of Europe. The world still has many, many problems and injustices, so the message it sends is still very relevant today. I even noticed is said “Say ‘I do’ to equal marriage 2013.” I thought this was so cool!

 

I also enjoyed going to the Nove Butovice Community, which is in the suburbs of Prague. I was amazed by this apartment complex. 100,000 people live in this specific complex and 1/3 of the whole Czech Republic population lives in complexes just like this. The complex was built by the communists to promote equality—both the poor and rich would live in the same type of housing. The communists no longer control this, but people still continue to live in them. There have actually been more and more buildings built very similar to these. It seems like a good idea, but at the same time people are losing their individuality. Everything is the same.

Nove Butovice Community

As for eating, I would recommend eating at Martin’s Irish Pub, right next to the hostel! It had delicious pasta and beer! It also had a cute environment!