Prague was amazing but depression set in as soon as I landed back in the Uk especially on catching up on the Govt's final solution for smokers announced while I was away.
Yes, they have us by the proverbials visualised above in a poster advertising an art exhibition that caught the attention of many passers by in Prague.
The sense of freedom I felt in that city was immense. My step was lighter as I walked even in several feet of snow, my fear disappeared. I felt equal and included for the first time in four years.
The first cafe I went into reminded me of the one I used to visit in my local indoor market. It was the sort of place that anti-smokers didn't go because it was more underclass than middle class. I felt at home.
I was also hugely pleased that choice was on the menu in the Czech Republic with signs to indicate both. I walked past those that didn't allow smoking. It was the sort of thing we used to have here before we became a Communist State of the EUSSR.
Oddly I smoked less. Culturally in the UK smoking was never encouraged on the street until July 2007. In my youth there was a name for women who smoked out in the open. It just wasn't done. Now people binge smoke before going into buildings. They are forced out into the open to be ridiculed, humiliated, outcast. This is not about their health but hatred of them by others.
Govt has called them out to be targets.
One thing I was reminded of in Prague was the effectiveness of air ventilation systems. You couldn't tell if you were in a smoking or non-smoking restaurant, pub or cafe just by smell. I always had to ask when I entered or look for ashtrays on the tables. Smoking is not an issue there at all because these people know the true value of freedom and what defines it.
I was actually moved to tears in the Mucha Restaurant to be allowed inside such a wonderful place and to be welcomed. It was very cultural, and like stepping back to 1920. The jackboot lifted from my neck and I could breathe fresh unbiased air. Smoking was part and parcel of it's ambience. We had a four course traditional meal as a jazz pianist played.
It was named after the Czech art nouveau artist Alfons Mucha who was one of the first to be arrested when the Gestapo entered the city in 1939. He did not survive the experience as many more classed as "undesirables" did not.
Yes, the Czechs know the true value of freedom, the danger of denormalisation, and the exclusion of "unwelcome" human beings. Their Jewish cemetery is testament to that.
I've worn my red F2C badge, which has a striked-through cigarette with the words "What Next" underneath, since attending the first TICAP anti-prohibition conference in 2009. We now know it is Obesity, particularly but not exclusively.
The badge attracted a lot of interest from English speaking Czechs who wanted to know what it meant.
"Ah yes, I've heard about the marginalisation of smokers in the UK," said one young man when I explained how awful life was here and how oppressed it's citizens were.
He was shocked and disappointed because of that mythical ideal Eastern Europeans have about the model of freedom - Britain. I told him he should never visit the UK because it was a terrible place of unspoken oppression. I said smokers were jailed, evicted, promoted as child abusers, villified, humiliated, and abused. I said other "undesirables" were being targeted for similar treatment.
Another non-smoking Czech told me he smoked for 20 years but quit. He said choice was important and he was saddened to hear how people are treated here because they like the "wrong" foods, they drink alcohol and they smoke. I joked we'd all have to have blonde hair and blue eyes next to become accepted by "normal" society.
We used to be the laughing stock of Europe because of this lifetyle pettiness but we are now feared by those in Eastern Europe who do not want to revisit their oppressive history now they are free citizens. I found those in Hungary the same when I visited Budapest about three years ago. The UK is Definitely off the list as a holiday venue for some.
It is why Klaus Vaclas, the Czech president, is fighting further integration of the EU where this lifestyle control comes from.
I also explained that my reason for visiting Prague was the only way I could show any resistance to our treatment. I explained about the Resistance Movement we have that refuses to fund the UK denormalisation plan by buying our tobacco abroad. Tobacco at CzK 170 a 50g pack was more expensive than a pack of fags at CzK 61. Both were far cheaper in the city than the airport so buy in Prague for best value and boost the local economy which deserves our custom.
The heaviness and unhappiness that I feel because of having to live in the UK under the dictatorial LibLabCon govt immediately returned on landing and going through customs. Signs threatening this that or the other, were littered along the walls as we made our way through passport control.
I flew from East Midlands airport which has a smoking section. They cage smokers up outside. In Prague airport the pub is smoking. Non-smokers have to sit outside or choose an non-smoking alternative. At least they have one.
I would love to go again but as part of the Resistance Movement I plan to see as many European cities as possible so somewhere in Spain is next on my list. After tasting -16 degree temperatures in Prague, a little bit of sunshine next time would be nice.