Prague Confessions: With Kasia at Riegráče – Part 2

Prague Confessions: With Kasia at Riegráče – Part 1

Kasia hands me a beer and keeps a glass of wine for herself. She sits next to me on the blanket and waits for me to hit the record button. “One great thing about Prague is that it’s an international city and you can meet people from all over the world. I like to be in different countries, but I don’t like to spend time traveling on buses or planes. Also, planes cause a huge amount of pollution… But here you have the chance to meet people from any country in the world. And you can practice any language with a native.” Apart from Polish, Kasia speaks English, Czech, Spanish and French.

“Some expats find fault that Czech people don’t smile when you ask them how they are; that they complain, they don’t say everything is great… I like it because it’s similar to Poland.” She takes a breath. “Czechs are not very open to foreigners but it really changes a lot when you learn the language. It’s much easier to make connections with your neighbours, with your colleagues and make friends… Besides, I think It cannot be real if a person you just met is overly excited about you. I think it’s normal to work a bit for somebody’s trust.” 

“Waiter is the king in his bar and he doesn’t need to smile at anybody, my Czech ex-boyfriend used to say.”

“Also, I hear a lot of criticism about the Czech service. I don’t mind it because I don’t like when people take too much care of me.” We both laugh with a quiet understanding. I know well how confusing, intimidating or annoying it can feel for a person from the former Eastern Bloc to get excess of smiles, questions and attention. “Then I feel pressured to buy more. I like when people leave me alone in general.”

“There is this bar in Prague 7, called U sv. Antoníčka,” Kasia continues. “I used to go there with my previous boyfriend. It was always full of cigarette smoke before it was banned. Old Czech men went there, drank beer, ate typical Czech food and sometimes watched ice hockey on TV. There were maybe three items on the menu. Everything very cheap, very greasy and the portions were huge. The waiter didn’t smile or behave according to Western standards. I didn’t like it at the beginning but then I started to appreciate it.”

“See, when you go to McDonalds, Costa Coffee… all those globalized places, it’s predictable and it’s boring. After my work experience in the shop, I started to understand that there are scripts of what you should say and how you should behave. So when I recently got the chance to recommend some places to a Finnish CouchSurfer, I pointed her to U sv. Antoníčka. She went for fruit filled dumplings and really liked it. Her only complaint was that the waiter smiled… So I guess it’s not like it used to be anymore.” I get a dose of Kasia’s sarcasm and play along, “He screwed up, huh?” She nods, “Yeah, he screwed up a bit.”

“When you come to some country you always discover that the people there have more dimensions than what you learnt from the stereotypes.”

“Czechs are in Europe the number one favorite nation for the Polish people, according to all the research and statistics. But we judge them based on Czech comedy movies.” I crack up, curious what’s the consequence of that judgment. “For us, Czechs are easy going, drink beer in a bar and have a distance from everything. That’s obviously a caricature. Czech people can also organize a protest. For example against Babiš currently. They won’t just take everything. And they are also not always that easy going, because you can see a lot of frustrated, angry people around.” Images backing up that statement run through my head. 

“I don’t like the conservative part of the Czech nation. As in Poland, we don’t want to help the refugees, many of us are against the EU because we think we’re better off alone… It’s human to help those in need if we have the resources. And we do have them. I hate the priority of money and getting rich. Everything has to be bigger, better, every year. The governments should rather focus on how to make people happy in the long-term…” Kasia frowns.

“I’m a vegetarian, I try to be vegan. But it’s difficult.”

How does Kasia personally contribute to shaping the world more to her liking? “I participate in this cooperative shop obŽiva.” I google later that it’s an association formed by consumers, farmers and producers. Members can directly influence the form of the shop and its range of offers. The vision is to have access to better food and products for better prices; all of this within a community of people who share the same values about the way to grow and get food. “I invested some money and I get fairly produced, local, organic food with a minimum of packaging,” she enlightens me.

“I support places that have some good cause behind them. For example at Mlsná Kavka, you can get coffee with Purpose – Smysl; you pay 15 Crowns extra that go directly to help people with mental health issues.” Among other places that offer Purpose are also Antonínovo pekařství, Pisco café, Café Jericho, V. kolona or Café Na půl cesty. “Bistro Střecha at Žižkov hires people released from prison,” Kasia lists other movements that build on solidarity. “I like a lot the initiative Food not Bombs. There are people that go to trash-containers next to big supermarkets, they take the food out of there and cook meals, mainly for people without home or poor people, but anybody can go there and it’s all vegetarian or vegan.”

Kasia sparks with ideas and inspiration but I’m aware how time flies; “We have to wrap up for now and go meet the jam people, it’s almost eight.” We rise again to the top of the slope. It’s filled with people witnessing the sun setting over the Castle. “Hey, we know that guy with a dog!” We wave at our friend and rush to meet him and write our part in the story of the many hangouts at Riegráče that evening.

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