Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire back from the Czech Republic

When my wife suggests a trip like this-----My only question---what do they hunt there?

Russians?

If you have time I'd suggest a couple of things - one, do the Taste of Prague tour where they will take you to traditional Prague/Czech food places and if you want to see the natural beauty (the outdoor photos) then I'd would suggest a tour with Bohemia Adventures. You'll probably hit the standards - the main castle and Charles Bridge but there is another castle that is off the beaten path a bit, has its own beer garden and picnic area called Vysehrad Castle. Its definitely worth going to if you want to get away from the crowds.

Sorry, can't answer any questions about hunting or gun laws, although I did see a gun shop in the city advertising a few weapons, I didn't see much about CZ while I was there.

well I think my second sentence pretty much sums of why you'd want to be there - the reasons why not are taxes, socialism, -standard Euro issues.

Cost of living seems tolerable though and they have a good balance of industry, farming and tech. I went there for tech.

Cool, thanks.

Great pics! Thanks for sharing them

Do you know to what level the Czech's practice socialism? Does the government control what industry make, quantities, prices, etc? Are there multiple parties in the country?

no expert - they are multi party with a parliament but socialist and communists drive their version of the democratic party as I understand it.
They are part of the EU so I don't think they are still in that state run industry concept, and certainly small business is thriving. I suspect they have really backed off the bureaucracy required to open and run a business. Its a fairly wealthy country from the post soviet era blocks that broke up and they want the business protections and opportunities afforded to them as part of the EU

Are you the the pretty lady in the pics? If so you look very Czech yourself. Probably fit right in

I spent a few days there in 1996 when on leave from a deployment to Italy. It hadn’t been too long since the iron curtain fell and they were rebuilding from that. It was good to get to see it before it became touristy. Beautiful city with beautiful women, Czech girls are stunning. At that time I saw zero blacks, zero Muslims, & zero Asians. You could get by with English but it sounds like they’ve adopted it much more now.

It was really cheap then, the exchange rate was crazy & the cheapest place for beer was a bar that had been built in a nuke fallout shelter below the city. Some guy had rented it and put in a bunch of big oak tables and had a guy with a guitar singing in the corner & a few busty blonde Czech waitresses slinging beers. It was packed and the (good) beer was 11 cents a pint. Capitalism at it’s finest. There wasn’t really any public transportation and you had to watch out for the cab drivers, they’d rip you off once they figured out you were American and had money. As a rule though the Czechs loved Americans at that time, I hope it’s still the same.

I agree with KFWA about it still being Europe and having all the Euro issues, you’re never going to get them to give up on socialism, it’s too ingrained in them. Heck, we can’t get 90% of the U.S. to toss that garbage. I think the Czechs are probably more receptive to freedom than most of Western Europe though. Nothing makes you appreciate it like living under the Soviet Union for 50 years.

Looks like a great time. If I could stand being cramped on a plane I'd like to see Poland, The Czech Republic, and Hungary.

When it appeared it set the standard for golden lager beer. If you're drinking a mass market American version you're sucking hind tit in comparison.

Those guys came over here and started our beer industry.

for October I found out that Pilsner Urquell makes a special batch of beer that isn't pasteurized or heavily filtered - its made just like it was (or close to it) back in the 1800s. It has a shelf life of about 20 days but that doesn't seem to be a problem there. So I was drinking that all week.

my wife's heritage is from that part of the country

Ours has decayed since.

I've always wanted to visit there. My brother spent some time there mid 90s and loved it.

Bb

Great thread, thanks for sharing!

Great pic’s.

From the places I’ve been to and the pictures I’ve seen (admittedly pic’s are inherently biased toward their goal), western Europe is generally clean and neat. The US with its tradition of individualism and property rights has allowed much of its beautiful landscape to intermittently resemble a dump.

While full-on socialism fails miserably and I dislike top-down rules and regulations, there is no doubt many folks need “guidance” as to the state of their property.

I'm sure the novelty would wear off fast enough but being suburbs guy, I loved being able to walk 2 blocks, hop on a tram and 15 minutes later I was anywhere in the city I wanted to be.

You just don't think like that where I live, to drive anywhere downtown, with parking its at least 45 minutes.

I'd never think to leave at 8:00pm to go downtown - not only for traffic but for various potential undesireables, but with a tram, you're just like - screw it , lets go get Vietnamese pho at that place we saw last night. It never occurred to consider if its a bad part of the city, there wasn't one as far as I knew.

our last night there we had about $150 in various Czech currency so we picked out a higher end grocery store with a wine selection and loaded up on chocolate and wine to bring back