Doesn't kill you, makes you stronger
Recently new EU regulations came into effect requiring average or less than average Czech pubs to clean up their act - in terms of hygiene that is. No longer allowed are simple bathrooms in pubs with only cold-running tap water, and what until now was a sad excuse for a towel to wipe one's hands in, hanging from a rusty nail. And of course the new regulations don't stop there: they also stipulate stricter handling of food and rules for food preparation, which most, I believe, will greet as a welcomed and necessary improvement. I don't know, perhaps it is just me, but it is getting hard to romanticize at least some of the old-style pubs anymore. Anyone who has ever peeked into the back of some of those kitchens will know what I'm talking about. Quickly regretting they had ordered that wiener schnitzel, or goulash, that was indistinguishable from a dish rag. Sure, you can just visit some nicer pubs - downtown. But it is with regret. I would happily visit the pub on the corner if it wasn't quite such a dive...
Lest you get the idea that I'm overly prissy about hygiene let me say I am reasonable, no Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets who dispenses of a new bar of soap after every washing. Nothing like that, not like that at all. But, what's wrong with regular standards, a clean, well-lighted place? As for as pub-owners now lamenting they have to make investments in improving their overall services? I find it hard to feel sorry for them - they should have seen the changes a long time coming, and after all, I was getting tired of chewing on that reheated dish rag anyway. Who did they take me for?! It's not like I was paying them Monopoly money...
So, changes are abreast - and in case you think I am being overly harsh, I will admit that so-called ctyrka's or number fours - the lowest on the ranking of drinking establishments one can visit, once held a certain magical appeal... though certainly not for most. How many were really true aficionados of the grungiest dive Prague ever saw, long gone under before EU regulations could ever take effect? Not me, although I was a witness. Only the stuff of legend now, U Zpevacku, for years stood beside one of the most posh restaurants in town where prime ministers and presidents met. The place had a history of dissent well before the Velvet Revolution. But, once the Iron Curtain fell, was it really anything more than a dump, attracting a few students to come stare at the drunks?
The scene I witnessed struck me as brutally funny as any I have ever viewed in any pub, at least on one level. A young man, well into his umpteenth beer, and a blonde who probably couldn't remember his name, if she had ever known it. He was thirsty; he stood up to order a beer. Then he stripped. She put his underwear on his head, and he stood there stupidly grinning as they called the waiter. He arrived, and without batting an eyelid asked 'Another?' Then, as he went to refill the pint, the young man opened the smoky glass window by his side and proceeded to relieve himself into the street. I cringed in suspense whether he would streak a prime minister or president walking by. None did. Sound like your kind of place? Too late anyway. Anyhow, imagine the kind of hang-over those two must have had in the morning.
So it is with welcome that I greet the changes at hand. I don't think there is anything wrong with appreciating a far friendlier place to join with friends, and enjoy better customer service. That day, at U Zpevacku's, when I looked at the rubbery goulash I was eating and looked into the dubiously-washed glass of beer I was holding I thought to myself, "Doesn't kill me, makes me stronger". No matter what they had put in. Only, I don't need to have such thoughts every time I go to the pub.
