For all of you lucky enough to have already witnessed this beautiful city for yourself (and I've talked to many), it's no question as to why I chose it. But for those of you that grew up with it being Czechoslovakia (or maybe just learned it is now Czech Republic) my decision might have been a little bit of a shocker.I'll start my first little blog off with a mini history lesson.
While the Czech Republic does have its own distinct culture and language, it has been a member of various countries and empires throughout the centuries, including the Holy Roman Empire and the Hapsburg rule. In 1918 after WWI Prague became the capital of Czechoslovakia, which remained until the Czech Republic, and Slovakia peacefully split into two countries in 1993 (two years before I was born). During much of that time (1948-1989) the Czech Republic was under communist rule by the Soviets. On November 17th, 1989 one of the most important events in recent Czech history occurred when university students began the Velvet Revolution, which peacefully overthrew the Communist Party of the Czech Republic. Having been spared the damage in WWII that many neighboring cities faced, Prague is virtually an open-air museum, full of famous theatres and opera houses, open parks with political protest history, and centuries-old buildings to modern-day architecture.
As you can see, the Czech Republic is less than 25 years old. However, it is already extremely up to date with an advanced high-income economy and high living standards, joining the EU in 2004, being recognized by the World Bank as a developed country in 2006, and joining the Schengen Area in 2007. It is the fifth most visited city in Europe (after London, Paris, Istanbul, and Rome).
How rare it is to walk through a city that has state of the art structures right next to buildings from around the 6th-9th century. Pursuing a finance degree, I am thrilled to learn more about how this up and coming country has grown so rapidly from communism to a market economy.
Oh, and did I mention that the Czech Republic has the highest beer cunsumption per capita in the word? Ha.