Reports from foreigners living in Prague list a number of woes in regard to Czechs’ unwelcoming behavior: the service in restaurants is terrible, nobody speaks English, if the locals even speak to you, they never smile, it’s not easy to befriend Czechs, they don’t invite you to their homes. The list seems to go on forever. The prevailing opinion holds that the exaggerated fear and dislike of strangers is an ugly mark left by the socialist era – the period of the mass paranoia, distrust and reclusiveness. It is noteworthy, however, that compared to the neighboring East and Central European states there is not a single far-right party in Czech politics – a rare occurrence on the pan-European scale. This