The panelaky

Upon flying over switzerland the first thing I felt as i looked at the landscape of the Czech Republic was this odd feeling of fearful bewilderment at the site of this ocean of what looked like giant concrete legos. They are the Panelaky the cheap prefabricated concrete projects built all over during the soviet era to try and house a massive population cheaply. Now days most of them are still in use but I hear people try and soup them up to make them more livable and welcoming, while others have turned to massive towering ghettos.

all i can think of now is the crack stack although apparently thats nice.

one interesting opportunity this trip has granted me is the chance to talk to people who have lived through or right after the communist era. It's very strange at first listening to someone talk about the reality of what I've only ever read about in history text books. They have quite interesting things to say too. Being American even if i disagree with it I have a the very villianized and onesided view of communism handed down to me by history and the news. The general consensus I get though was that it was tough, difficult at times and bad but it wasn't necessarily all bad or as bad as we think, life still went on. Most people still wish they had free healthcare and it was nice to have a guaranteed salary, and at least in the Ukraine drug where never a serious problem till after the fall of the U.S.S.R.. Of course a lot of it still sucked too, the czech republic was ruled by an idiotic puppet government that took its cues from Moscow for example. A ukrainian guy told me something that summed it all up quite well to me. He said during the communist era you'd go into the store and there was only one brand of eggs or bread or milk, now you walk into a market and there are like 10 brands of milk and eggs and bread and thats nice all but is it really necessarily?