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Incredibly, thirty-five years have now passed since I found myself unexpectedly writing a travel guidebook on newly liberated Czechoslovakia. I would be the co-author, along with my girlfriend at the time, for what would be the first English-language guide on that country to appear after the 1989 Velvet Revolution*. Back then, Czechoslovakia was still shaking off the dust of communism and tentatively re-opening its doors to the world. These days, I keep a well-worn copy of the book in my office. Reading through it still vividly evokes the mix of feelings associated with that immediate post-communist era. It reminds me of all that’s changed -- and all that’s stayed the same -- since then.

What began as an accidental travel-writing assignment became, in retrospect, a snapshot of a vanished moment in history. In this first of four blog posts on that guidebook, “Fodor’s Czechoslovakia,” I’ll revisit how the project came together and set our journey into motion. In subsequent posts, we’ll all travel together around Czechoslovakia as it looked and felt at the end of 1990 and start of 1991.