OK. You’re on a tour in Prague. They are taking you to the Presidential Palace. But then the bus stops and they say they can’t drive any closer because of an event. No problem as your tour guide says we can easily walk there and still be there in time for the changing of the guards. “Sweet”, you think because you’ve seen changing of the guards at other places and its usually pretty cool. Now as you approach the “event” that has kept your tour bus from approaching closer, you realize that this event has shouting and that it is not an event but a protest. As you start to wind your way into the crowd following your tour guide, you are not sure what they are protesting but then you recognize the American flags which are either upside down or painted with Swastikas. That is, of course, when your seven year old son decides to say loudly in English, “What’s going on? What are they protesting about?” You figure that this is not the time to have a lengthy discussion while speaking English with an American accent so you say “I’ll tell you later. Now be quiet!” Now one of your partners on the tour gets your attention as he is looking all around “starry eyed” and says to you, “Are they protesting us?!?” He even included the pointing hand gestures. That’s when you say softly, “Yes. Now English isn’t probably what you want to be speaking right now.” And your tour guide is still taking you through the maze of people to get you to the palace on time.

Now your heart rate hasn’t really gone up that much yet but as you start to go past a bunch of people lined up against a wall, all of whom are wearing face masks or bandannas so that their faces could not be recognized, your blood pressure does seem to spike but not as much as when you realize that your tour guide has led you (and your family) between these disguised figures and the police officers.

End of it all, they were protesting the missile shield project that the US is wanting to base on their soil and everything ended peacefully with a Techno song . And for us, we got to see the changing of the guard.

So what did you do on Spring break?