By Elle Liu
October 15, 2022
Mark Baker has lived in Prague for more than three decades, experiencing and writing about the city’s tremendous social and cultural change. He moved just after the Velvet Revolution when Prague was finding its feet after the fall of communism. Through writing travel guides to opening an English-language bookstore to publishing a memoir, Baker offers a unique lens on Prague as a travel destination and a historic and dynamic city.
What made you decide to move to Prague?
It’s hard to believe now, but Prague was the most popular foreign city in the world. People from all over the world were moving here. It felt very infectious. Living here was like somehow being part of some big thing. That lasted about six or seven years through ‘96, ‘97. The people lost interest in Prague, in the Czech Republic, to a certain extent. But the reason I stayed was because, well why not? It’s such a cool place to be.
What part of Prague intrigues you? What do you gravitate towards learning and reporting about?
I wrote a book a couple of years ago, called “Time of Change.” It’s not in English, it’s in Czech, and I wrote about my translator, being spied upon by the StB (secret police). For me, that period of the late 80s and early 90s is always the most interesting for me. The city changed so much in such a few short years.
How did Prague change?
That period is kind of remembered now as very happy–-the fall of communism, 89–-but the Czech Republic was going through some difficult times. They were making huge changes in their government, in their economy. They also had the separation problem with Slovakia. There was always the threat of inflation, unemployment, as the state companies started to close. That’s one side of it. On the international side, people really grasped onto Prague. The whole idea about how beautiful Prague is, about the beer, about the culture, about the literature. In a certain sense, the fact that Prague was so popular in the world kind of helped it out of what could have been a darker period for the country.
In the 90s, you co-founded The Globe Bookstore and Cafe in Holešovice. What was the neighborhood like at that time?
The only reason we ever chose that location is because it had two relatively large rooms. The neighborhood itself was very depressed. If we were going to try to sell our books to visiting backpackers or something like that, they were going to have to really work to find us. So we were a bit nervous. Holešovice also had a little bit of bad karma going on because of the history of the neighborhood in the Second World War. Now, it’s working through it. It’s nice to see some economic activity in the neighborhood. It’s gentrification, I think on the good side of gentrification.
If someone only had 24 hours to explore Prague, what would you recommend they do?
The correct answer depends very much on the person’s interest. But I would say spend every hour in the center. Old Town, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and Mala Strana. These are things that the city is known for. Within a conceptual framework [of a guidebook author], I am an agent of the reader. I can’t be too opinionated because I’m going to leave some readers on the side of the road.