This was posted on another board by a recent US ex-pat in the Czech Republic:
I spent last night in a geniune, honest-to-God, bars-on-the-door-an'-everything speakeasy.
My new roomate took me out drinking last night to celebrate my having gotten hired yesterday afternoon. It didn't hurt that the Czech Republic was playing Slovakia either. The joint was down under what I believe was a cellphone store, down a long flight of stairs. When we got there, I was confronted with a locked, barred door and some gaurded looks until Zdanek ( roomate ) vouched for me...and then we were inside probably the most outlaw place I've ever seen in my life.
I immidiately understood the reason for the barred, locked door. On the wall, directly under where I ended up sitting, was a dud RPG round. The fins had deployed and the RCL charge had been fired, but the grenade had apparently failed to detonate. It wasn't a blue practice round, before anyone says anything...it was basic Combloc green. I did see where it had been disassembled and disarmed, but the thing had at one point been live. There weren't any scorch marks below the rocket nozzles, so it looks like the RCL charge fired but the rocket motor never ignited.
I tore my unbelieving eyes away from the explosive goodness as the game started. Half of the bar were Czechs, the other half Slovaks, but everyone there knew each other ( obviously ) and no ill will was even remotely present. Of course, this could also have had something to do with the copious quantities of alchohol and certain other substances making the rounds. The attitude toward such things here continues to amaze me; something that could send me to prison in the US ( and is still -technically illegal here ) is a normal, social thing.
After the football match was over, I spent the rest of the night being grilled by the entire bar. I was the only American there, and Zdanek was one of only two patrons who spoke English, so he and a Jewish friend of his had to translate. Mostly, people were asking me about all the horror-stories they'd heard of the States! And I was, sadly, forced to confirm their fears. Zdanek asked, wide-eyed with disbelief, if you could really go to jail for a joint. I told him about Mandatory Minimum sentancing and Three Strike laws, and he drained a half-liter of beer all in one go. A big Grizzley Adams type behind the bar wanted to know if it was true that in some American towns, you couldn't buy certain kinds of beer; I told him about the town where I went to college, where you couldn't get liquor. He looked at me as if I was nuts. Someone else wanted to know why it was that the American Gov't insisted upon punishing objects ( he mentioned marijuana and guns specifically ) instead of people who misuse them; THAT explanation took about five minutes and the fellow then said outright "I don't believe you." He had no idea how bad it had gotten; when I told him about Asset Forfeiture in the US, he looked at me as if I had come from the moon.
I'm rapidly coming to realize that the situation in the US is much, MUCH worse than I thought; maybe worse than most of us thought. Most of these folks were pretty politically aware, at least as far as the Czech Republic went, and they were flat-out horrified at the state of the States. That is, when they didn't think I was lying to impress them.
