Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A lard-eater with a big moustache made history fun for a 14-year-old future travel
writer.
In Prague, my Czech friend Honza took me on the walk he had taken every
night for a week in 1989 with 100,000 of his countrymen as they demanded free-
dom from their Soviet overlords. The walk culminated in front of a grand building,
where Honza said, “Night after night we assembled here, pulled out our key chains,
and all jingled them at the president's window, saying, 'It's time for you to go now.'
Then one night we gathered… and he was gone. We had won our freedom.” Hear-
ing Honza tell that story as we walked that same route drilled into me the jubilation
of a small country winning its freedom.
