Frankfurt

This tiny little section is mostly a follow-up from last blog. I came back to Frankfurt, and to Frankfurt's airport, which happens to be the rist airport outside Mexico I ever met. It was indeed very interesting to see Frankfurt from the perspective of a US resident, and after knowing several other airports and many more cities. This time the center of my attention were not the buildings (Seattle has more of them), nor the shopping scene (New York?). I was impressed and happy to be back at a place where public transportation is really world-class, and not the silly joke we have in Seattle. But most impressed I was with the surprising melting pot that Germany has become. Seattle is famous for having people for all over the place, speaking their own native languages freely while walking in the streets. In Frankfurt you can see people from all different ethnicities, ages (and judging by the cars... income) melted together in the fantastic subway and the amazing railway system, but all of them speaking Deutsch.

Prague

[Speechless]

[Still Speechless...]

There are completely practical cities in the world, where each street and interesection has a calculated purpose. There are completely aesthetical cities, completely designed to show off or to accomplish ceremonial roles but with very few inhabitants (DC, Vatican City). Of course the great majority of the cities in the world lie somewhere in between, but only very few cities have the golden ratio between habitability, glory and practicality. In my own personal opinion and limited experience, I had only seen 2 cities like that: London and Paris. Well, now 3.

Prague is a city of exhuberance. Exhuberant palaces, monuments, bridges, walkways, cars, and (a well-deserved fame) beautiful women. From the Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad) that spans across 1000 years of continuous history, to all the little sections of the city, Prague captivates slowly, unlike perhaps Paris or New York, whose appeal can be shock-based at first. It is a city that has not hesitated to destroy useless stuff, rebuild or modify historic places based on current need, survived to endless wars, "mergers" and "reorgs" [by the way I hope to survive to the next one back home], and still keep a wonderful charm.

Prague also has the definite charm of a lively city. Driving here looks like something that would scare a Mexico City native or even a New Yorker, people actually live, work, play here. It's not like many cities in this continent where everybody has to live in the suburbs. The metro and tram system is surprisingly good (frankly, any West Coast city would envy a metro like this one). People in general are multilingual, and they speak fluent German, English, and sometimes Spanish and French. Which is good, because at least for me, it has been quite difficult to understand Czech so far.

So far I have not been able to publish any pictures (no place lets you plug a USB cable to the computer ... yet ;)), but rest assured. There will be plenty of them.

[Los Dioses del Espaniol me perdonaran, pero en este teclado ni el ALT+tecla funciona, asi que no hay acentos ni caracteres unicos al Espaniol].

Frankfurt

En forma subsecuente al articulo anterior, regrese a Frankfurt despues de casi 9 anios de no venir al aeropuerto, y 6 a la ciudad. Indudablemente mi perspectiva fue diferente, despues de vivir en Seattle. Esta vez mi motivo de asombro no fueron los rascacielos (Seattle tiene mas), o el area de shopping (para eso si los estadounidenses se pintan solitos)... mas bien me llamo mucho la atencion la integracion de diferentes culturas, etnias, religiones en una sola meta-cultura germanoparlante. En Seattle es sumamente comun encontrar gente de todo el mundo hablando sus propios idiomas sin que nadie se income; sin embargo me parecio curioso que en Frankfurt de verdad practicamente todos hablaban aleman (con la obvia excepcion de los turistas con claves de aeropuerto de otros paises). De Frankfurt tambien extraniaba el sistema de ferrocarril de primer mundo, y un sistema de transporte adecuado para una ciudad de ese tamanio (y no las ridiculeces de la costa oeste).

Praga

[Sin palabras]

[Todavia sin palabras]

Hay ciudades totalmente practicas en el mundo, donde cada cosa tiene un proposito logico y concreto. La posibilidad de encontrar un museo o atraccion que valgan la pena es remota. Hay ciudades totalmente pensadas para ser visitadas y glorificadas de una u otra forma (Washington DC me viene a la mente). Hay grados diversos de combinaciones entre ellas, y finalmente esta la proporcion aurea de practicidad, habitabilidad y gloria. Para mi habia 2 ciudades que yo no conocia asi: Londres y Paris. Definitivamente hay una tercera en la ecuacion.

Praga es una ciudad donde la arquitectura, las plazas, monumentos, castillos, puentes, jardines, las mujeres hermosas y sobre todo el bullicio de una ciudad viva, son inusualmente abundantes. Desde la majestuosidad del Castillo de Praga (Prazky hrad) y sus alrededores (Mala Strana), la elegancia de Stare Mesto (la aldea vieja), el bullicio de Nove Mesto (la aldea nueva), lo inusual de Josefov (el barrio judio)... definitivamente es una ciudad que te va cautivando poco a poco. Y es una ciudad que no le ha temblado la mano deshacerse de las cosas cuando sencillamente ya no sirven, adecuar los monumentos historicos a las necesidades actuales, sobrevivir a siglos de "reorganizaciones" y guerras... y aun asi de alguna forma conservar su encanto.

Al llegar honestamente me costo un poco de trabajo entender a la ciudad, y a su idioma (bueno, sigo tratando). Afortunadamente la gente aqui habla suficientes idiomas (ingles y aleman de cajon). Me gusto que llegas a una ciudad con vida propia, y no algo hecha y pensada para el turismo (como mas de una ciudad en Italia). El sistema de transporte es muy bueno, conveniente, y de verdad que casi cualquier ciudad de la costa oeste de Estados Unidos palideceria de envidia con algo como esto.

Por ahora no he podido subir fotos, pero creanme, cuando regrese habra y muchas.