Czech Republic

My dad and I went to Czech Republic, or Czechoslovakia as it was called back then, by bus from Sweden to go and see Sweden play a hockey game against the Czechs. All the stars like Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin were in the team and if I remember it right it was because NHL was in a lockout. 

The only thing I saw on the way from the border between Germany and Czechoslovakia into the capital of Prague were gnomes and women for sale. I was just a kid back then but I could still figure out that the women who stood by the road were trying to get cars to stop by so they could sell sex. I remember I thought it was weird that one of the women even tried to stop our bus for the same reason, I thought it was way too much people on the bus for her and I felt sorry for the women.

When we arrived at our hotel in the outskirts of Prague I took a picture of the view from the hotel window and a picture of my dad in the room.

That was about the only pictures I took on the trip and you can see how different it was back in the 90's compared to today when everybody takes a picture of everything they do, even if it's just a visit to the toilet. 

We went to the hockey arena and I understood that hockey should be watched on TV and not in real life, because I couldn't see anything. If you need a red light to flash to show the audience when it's a goal, then what's the point in watching the game. But Sweden won so I was happy about that until my dad told me to hide my yellow shirt with three blue crowns under my jacket, it was the official Swedish jersey. I didn't understood why at first but he told me that the Czechs could get upset by me wearing it in the city after they had lost the game. I didn't understand why they would be that, the match was over and the fight for the win was in the rink and not outside, and the Swedes had won fair and square. I actually think I wore the shirt anyway because I thought they had to be able to accept their loss.

I was amazed by how cheap everything was, I can still remember standing in the supermarket and asking my dad about the prices because he had to convert the currency for me. Everytime he answered I got a big smile on my face because it felt like I was the richest boy ever. I felt like I could buy the whole store when he told me that the crisps and Cola were almost for free. 

I saw the downside to being in a poor country when I saw people sitting in a restaurant eating something that looked like three squares of different colours, it didn't even look like food. I refused to eat something like that and my dad told me that we could eat at the restaurant at our 4 star hotel. When the waiter had served my food I started to cut the steak and blood was pouring out of it. After a while my fries were drenched in blood and I asked my dad if it was supposed to be like this. He lied to me and said yes because he wanted me to get food in my stomach, but I couldn't manage to eat it, it was too gross after a while. He still wanted me to eat something so he said I could have strawberries and ice cream for dessert because he knew I love that. When the waiter served me gray strawberries we gave up.

We went back to Sweden by bus again and when we reached the border between Czechoslovakia and Germany I took up my camera. It was the last chance to take a picture of my dad in Czechoslovakia and the flash went off.

Suddenly the customs officer drew his gun and ran onto the bus, because he thought someone had fired a gun or that a spy took pictures. I quickly hid the camera and acted like a saint and I thought that I would be in big trouble if he found out it was me who had been taking a picture. I pictured myself rotting away in a prison in Czechoslovakia but after a while they would let the bus cross the border to the freedom in Germany!

* Best things about Czech Republic – to spend time with my dad in a foreign country, it was so fun that he agreed on my crazy idea to go and watch hockey in Czechoslovakia, it was also pretty amazing that I could buy so much candy and soda because of the cheap prices

* Most mediocre thing about Czech Republic – the hockey game itself was actually the least favourite experience of the trip, it was alright but I understood that it should be watched on TV instead and that was a let down, because I thought everything would be better in real life

* Worst things about Czech Republic – the food was awful and it was a weird experience to see the hookers in real life for the first time, and I probably needed to go to the toilet after the custom officer scared me to death on the border when he came rushing in with a gun in his hand, I also remember getting cheated at the breakfast at the hotel when a waiter brought us fresh juice and we thought it was amazing service, then after we had taken a sip he flipped a sign and there was the price that we would have to pay for it

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. Croatia

2. Montenegro

3. Andorra

4. Cyprus

5. Greece

6. Italy

7. Spain

8. Monaco

9. Malta

10. Netherlands

11. Iceland

12. Denmark

13. Sweden

14. Lithuania

15. Macedonia

16. Portugal

17. Slovakia

18. Slovenia

19. New Zealand

20. Ireland

21. United Kingdom

22. Belgium

23. Poland

24. Estonia

25. Czech Republic

26. Switzerland

27. San Marino

28. Kosovo

29. Romania

30. Finland

31. Latvia

32. Moldova

33. Norway

34. France

35. Bulgaria

36. Luxembourg

37. Liechtenstein

38. China

39. Serbia 

40. Bosnia And Herzegovina

41. Albania