Welcome to Beautiful Prague!

I’ve been here a week now – the transition from the metro New York area to a small, Central European country 20 years out of Communism a little rough around the edges as usual.

It’s not that I don’t know the country and Prague, its architecturally legendary capital - well. I’ve been working summers here for 4 years now – and my husband and I have spent vacations here with an adopted Czech family since 1990.
But every time I think I have it down flat – this living in a foreign land – the country calls my bluff.

The transit unions were supposed to hold a huge general strike last Monday. They want to stop the social system reforms that are necessary here as well as in Greece and Spain. The unions would shut down Prague and other Czech cities, halt all trains, blockade major highways and roads. Wait– I forgot. That last part – the blockade – would be courtesy of the miners’ union. I’m not sure what they have to do with running the trams and buses and trains – but hey ---let’s all pile on.

Everyone, including me, was in a panic. How would we get to work on Monday.

My boss said – quite seriously – you might want to bike. Well, OK, that’s fine for full time Praguers. But I’m working here just 2 months. I haven’t GOT a bike. Or a car. Well, then, people said, call a taxi. But again – what about the huge traffic jams which were predicted? Walk? I don’t think so. I’m maybe 7 miles as the crow flies from work. And not even crows can fly in a straight line through Prague’s meandering streets.

As it turned out –the government pulled a fast one on the unions. It went to court. And on Saturday, the Prague Municipal Court ruled the strike would be illegal because the unions didn’t give the required 3 business days notice. They could strike but they’d be liable for all the financial damages the court could assess. Kind of like New York’s Taylor Law which forbids public employee strikes.

So the unions reassessed, called off the strike, and announced it Monday for Thursday. Quite legal now. And it did indeed shut down much of the city and to a lesser extent, parts of the country. The trains didn’t run. The Metro was closed for the first time ever. But officials managed to get the basic tram system running – slowly. And there were some city buses and some private buses contracted for the day.
The unions held a medium-sized rally and march through the city to the government’s offices. By New York standards – everyone was extremely well behaved.

People who had to get to work, did. I saw a lot more cars speeding down our street at 7AM. And lots and lots of bikes. Even a taxi or two.

But the anticipated traffic jams never developed. In fact – all over the city and the highways that feed into it – it was like a holiday. No trucks, almost no cars. A lot of Praguers just took a 4 day weekend. No wonder they mostly supported the unions!

And then there is the matter of my package.

You see, on my flight to Prague I didn’t want my checked bag to be overweight again. Delta has some pretty stiff fees if you so much as go one pound over the limit. Which keeps getting lower every year.

So before I left, I mailed a small, 4 and a half pound box of vitamins and supplements from myself in the US, to myself here in Prague. I figured the package would arrive around the time I did. And that it did. Arrived at the customs office of the Czech Post Office that is. And there is stayed with thousands of other packages. All held up by a new regulation which came into effect in April, which requires every foreign package to go to this customs office first – so the postal employees can determine if you will be required to pay for the privilege of collecting your package.

Technically, if the contents are valued at less than 22 euros, you don’t have to pay any duty. The Czechs – desperate for money to cut the huge budget deficit below 3% - lowered that valuation from 75 euros – which was already pretty low. And technically, if a package is sent from another European Union country, it’s supposed to sail right through and get delivered in a timely fashion.

Ha!

The notice of my package’s whereabouts which was supposed to be sent to me never arrived. And a week after the US Post Office traced it to the Czech customs office, I traced it as well on the Czech Post Office website. At least they have an English option!

So today I got up early, took all my tracking printouts and US customs declarations – and took a bus, a metro and a tram to Prague 5, the section of the city where this customs post office is located. I managed to find the right floor, reading directions in my very limited Czech. And I lucked out. A very nice postal employee who spoke more English than I do Czech helped me out. And an hour and three additional office visits later, I had my stamped declaration and I could stand in a very long line to collect my package.

But this is the Czech Republic. It wasn’t that easy.

Most of the people in the line were Czechs. Very angry and loud Czechs by the time they got to the final window and discovered the payoff for their wasted morning.

You see, the nice man in the first office explained to me, Czechs are buying all this stuff over the internet instead of in the proper Czech stores which charge them the country’s 20% value added tax. You know – we talk about using it in the US also. It’s like a sales tax on steroids. And over here in Europe where some countries have VATs as high as 24%, the money collected underpins the extensive social safety net. Which is now becoming a lot less extensive, even as the VAT keeps rising. Thus – Thursday’s transit union strike.

The Czech government thinks Czechs are cheating. They think the online stores - like Amazon for example – are in cahoots with the Czech buyers, valuing packages low so their customers can escape paying any duties which might be imposed.

So everyone who buys anything over the internet now has to jump through hoops to get it, and then pay up as well. And what about me – who mailed vitamins already bought and paid for in the US to myself here in Prague? Well, sorry. But I have to pay up too. 96 crowns to get my own vitamins. That’s around $6 dollars. About what I would pay in VAT taxes on the (purposely low) valuation I put on my package.

When in Prague… do as – well you know the rest.