"I go to Prague every year if I can, value my relationships there like gold, and feel myself in a sense Czech, with all their hopes and needs. They are a people I not only love, but admire"

A traveler speaks not of sightseeing but of allegiance. The annual journey to Prague is a ritual of fidelity, less a vacation than a return to a moral and emotional homeland. The conditional “if I can” hints at obstacles, time, money, politics, yet also at a persistent pull that endures despite constraints. This is commitment measured in years, not days, in bonds, not landmarks.

To value relationships “like gold” is to treat human ties as treasure, rare and hard-won. It suggests gratitude for friendships that have survived distance and difference, and an understanding that genuine connection requires investment, patience, and humility. Such relationships change the traveler; they invite accountability. They insist on showing up, listening, and remembering.

To feel “in a sense Czech” acknowledges a chosen kinship without presuming ownership. It recognizes that identity can be porous, that empathy can graft new loyalties onto one’s sense of self. The phrase balances intimacy with respect: adopting the rhythm of a people’s hopes and needs without appropriating their voice. It is solidarity that resists the temptation to romanticize, choosing instead to learn the texture of everyday life, its vulnerabilities, its small victories, its unspoken obligations.

Love on its own can be indulgent or sentimental; admiration speaks to virtues observed over time, resilience, wit, integrity, hospitality, courage. The pairing of love and admiration tells of a city and a people encountered in depth: their literature and music, their stubborn memory, their humor in adversity. It also hints at a history that has tested them, transforming affection into esteem.

What emerges is an ethic of travel grounded in reciprocity. Place becomes personal because people make it so. The city is not a backdrop but a community to which one owes care. To go back, year after year, is to honor the stories one has been entrusted with and to accept the responsibilities that come with belonging, even if only “in a sense.”