Canadians Abroad: Prague

Yuko and I just spent 5 days in Prague kicking down the cobblestones and skipping the light fandango with an old friend I haven't seen in at least 15 years and maybe even as long as 25. And I've got Facebook to thank for it. If not for this magical matchmaker of the ethersphere I wouldn't have met up with Steve, his Czech partner, Tslata, and their beautiful baby boy, Elvis.


Since Yuko and I finished traveling across Russia about 2 weeks ago, we've been making it up as we go along. "Finland? Sure! Lithuania? Of course!" When we found ourselves in Kraków in southern Poland, we decided to head west. Neither of us had ever been to Prague and I thought it would be a cool place to spend my birthday and hey! - maybe I could meet up with Steve. We reconnected just last winter and have kept in touch via FB ever since. It was weird enough experiencing a cyber-reunion, but were we ready to take the next step - full, frontal, face-to-face communication?! What would I wear? One problem - due to our whimsical travel schedule, I literally gave Steve a day's notice. It turned out to be good timing - he passed on his contact info and we were ready to rock!


We've all been there before - the dreaded reunions with people we haven't seen in ages...I mean, we were basically children the last time we "knew" each other and who's to say what might transpire? It turned out to be a blast. Steve is an excellent guy, a geniune gent. He's been living in Prague for a few years now, painting these beautiful canvasses, falling in love and...oh yeah, having a baby. If not for him, I never would have played the ultra-cool Red Room ("Wild Mountain Thyme", "Men Who Drank Canada Dry", "All Day Eggs"), seen the sun set from Letna Park, met Ilan or got an insider's perspective on life in one of the world's most remarkable cities. So here's to Steve, Zlata, Elvis and Ilan...long may you run.