Prague

Just coming back from Prague. Lots of problems. People who cannot or do not
want to speak english or german or french. Very bad service. Dangerous
drivers. They almost killed us. We had to pay for using plates in the
restaurants, They cheated on everýthing, the police took our car, even tough
there was no reason for it. We had to pay 1450 Kc to get the car back but,
as I wanted them to call the embassy, I didn't have to pay "the penalty". If
you want a good advice: Buy a book with pictures of Prague and go to
Budapest. This is a nice city in a nice country.
Bruno

"Alan S" <nothere@there.com> wrote in message
news:4tig74pvhuj72ner9enqscqd2mn2p4so9l@********...
> On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:13:33 +0200, "HBD" <logten@ofir.dk>
> wrote:
>
>>Just coming back from Prague. Lots of problems. People who cannot or do
>>not
>>want to speak english or german or french. Very bad service. Dangerous
>>drivers. They almost killed us. We had to pay for using plates in the
>>restaurants, They cheated on everýthing, the police took our car, even
>>tough
>>there was no reason for it. We had to pay 1450 Kc to get the car back but,
>>as I wanted them to call the embassy, I didn't have to pay "the penalty".
>>If
>>you want a good advice: Buy a book with pictures of Prague and go to
>>Budapest. This is a nice city in a nice country.
>>Bruno
>>
> Sorry you had such a bad time.
>

This is quite a shocking post! I thought Prague was the epitome of a modern
Central/Eastern European destination; if anything, overtouristed. My
relatives are trying to lure me to meet them there around Christmas.

>
> You had to pay for plates in restaurants? Never struck that
> one - but tell me, how much was the total bill? How did that
> compare to back home? Bloody cheap, wasn't it? What was the
> food like - ours was marvellous in Czech.
>

Your food was marvellous, but only in Czech?

Is the plate charge like "bread and covers" in Italy? Like a basic entrance
or cover charge.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

HBD wrote:
> Believe me, I've been all around the world. I'm not the kind of
> "turist" expecting all the time perfection for little money. I tried
> Russia, Hungary, Eastern Germany before and after the wall, Slovakia,
> Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, The Netherlands,
> The Scandinavian Countries, Asia, Africa, Australia backpacking and
> more and even Ireland

Oy! What do you mean "even Ireland?

Am Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:46:13 +1000 schrieb Alan S:

> You had to pay for plates in restaurants? Never struck that
> one - but tell me, how much was the total bill?

This is common in many countries, like Italy. You pay a certain amount for
the plate, I think it's called "coperto"(sp?) and is something like 2 or 3
EUR per person.

Regards,

Frank

On 2008-07-12, Alan S <nothere@there.com> wrote:
>
> And of course very few spoke English; much the same as when
> we wandered through Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia or Poland.
> The most common second language in those countries is
> German, not English, so we got by with some basic
> dictionaries and a good English/German dictionary and lots
> of charades and mistakes and confusion - and sometimes some
> fun. The difference is that we didn't expect them to speak
> English. It was nice when they did - but we were guests in
> their country. Why should they speak my language? Or any
> second language? I accepted that it was my responsibility to
> find a way to communicate, not theirs.

I don't consider it unreasonable to expect those working in the tourist
industry to make an effort to be able to communicate with their clients.

> How many hospitality industry staff in your town or city or
> country speak Czech? Any?

The OP wasn't expecting service in his own language. He was expecting
some service in a very widespread second language. For that language,
the answer to your question is "pretty much all".