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Thirty-five years have passed since I found myself unexpectedly writing a travel guidebook on newly liberated Czechoslovakia. I would be the co-author, along with my then-girlfriend Delia Meth-Cohn, for what would be the first English-language guide on that country to appear in the aftermath of 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 my first post on the guidebook, “Fodor’s Czechoslovakia,” I wrote about how the whole project came together. Last week, I covered the leg of our trip through Prague and Terezín. This week, I finish up the journey in Bohemia and on to Slovakia.
