Prague buildings

I've been saying to myself to years that I must get over to the old communist block countries and see what it was like before that era disappears. Last weekend I had a few days off so I slipped over to Prague.

It was very nice. The tramways dominate the cars in the streets which brings a sort of calm. I saw a huge variety of building styles. My hotel was in "Soviet Realism" style, and full of Russian tourists (fascinating).

I spent ages searching for Salsa clubs only to find they'd all disappeared. They were all in the middle of 1930's Art Deco buildings. Here are a few of my favourites:

1, 4, 5 Off Vodickova
2, 3 Near Muzeum

Nice stuff, Charles.
So different than anything you'd find here, but with its own appeal.

Nice shots, it's funny though, the ONLY one that looks remotely Soviet is the second shot of the chandeliers. The rest are reminiscent of other styles from other places and time periods (or at least based on what I observed in my Soviet travels).

Here are a few more from the communist era (I think). The Art Deco stuff was prestige building in the center of the city. Most of these are done in the suburbs where I guess they had to build accomodation for the masses which means concrete.

1. My hotel with the telecommunications tower (near Olsanske Nameski)
2. A back street near my hotel
3. Metro Flora. The Metro is very good
4. Near Novomesska radnice
5. Near Flora

YES SIR! Now these are looking Soviet! Especially the 800' metro escalators :D

Wonderful shots! The Escalator shot is wonderfully trippy!

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm getting out of the habit of doing buildings. I tended to shoot them from too close on too wide-angle which gave me problems afterwards making them look straight and undistorted.

Now I have a rather bizarre question, just in case somebody knows the Czechs really well. Usually I do a few pictures of people in the street. It's delicate, I don't hide but I don't like to bother people.

In Prague I now realise that the only people I took in the streets - were Russian tourists (I MUST go to Russia). It's difficult to explain but I felt a certain reserve on the part of the Czechs that stopped me doing anything daring. I stopped off in Germany on the drive back and I immediately felt the difference. At the last stop getting into Paris to check the traffic - I was back in the world I knew. It was like people had become playful again.

Does this make sense to someone?