Watch out, binge drinkers and pigeon-feeders! Offences such as feeding pigeons, spitting, urinating and vomiting in the streets will soon be punishable in Prague.
As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, Prague is trying to lure wealthy tourists. It’s sick of budget travelers. That’s not exactly how the government officials put it, but I can read between the lines. They want to accomplish this not only by creating commercials that advertise Prague as “the city with beautiful women. Come here and check them out,” but it is now trying to figure out how those solvent tourists are going to feel about Prague when they step into dog crap the minute they get out of a cab. And probably get ripped off by the taxi driver at the same time.
Well, you know, those folks don’t really see that as adventure travel.
To help things out, Prague City Hall has come up with a new decree that will come into effect this July. According to the Prague Daily Monitor, people in Prague will be fined CZK1000 ($70) for throwing away cigarette butts, chewing gum, food scraps and other waste, feeding pigeons, failing to remove their dogs’ excrements, spitting, urinating and vomiting in the streets.
A lot of people consider Prague a dirty city. Those people include me. And I am from here and like it here. However, I honestly wouldn’t mind if people picked up after their dogs every time.
The thing is, Prague will never be as clean as Singapore. It’s, in essence, a dark, sinister, messy kind of place. How clean is too clean for deal old Praha?