It’s not often any of my so called mates back in the UK bother getting in touch to ask how things are going in Prague. (Note to those who do bother: Thanks, but all the others, you know who you are…)

People from my side of Europe generally think they know all they need to about Prague. Booze, girls and architecture… and not too much architecture as it happens. So I was stunned to get a call from a buddy of mine the other day.

Since I moved he’s managed to send me two texts. One asking me if I was available to play in a game of football, and the second to tell me the game he wanted me for had been cancelled, and it was my fault as there weren’t enough players.

Great friend…

Well maybe he is but just prefers to communicate in person. However, all that changed, all be it temporarily, when he actually called.

“Hey Obama and Medvedev are in Prague”, he enthused. “I know” I replied. “You do realize there’s bound to be some nut job out there planning to drop a bomb on them? You should get out of town mate…”

Well I didn’t take his advice and thankfully nobody dropped anything on anyone.

Mind you it did manage to bugger up a usually smooth running tram system. Security measures no doubt but the result was whenever O or M were on the move, seemingly no one else in Prague was allowed to be… The Trams ground to a halt and us normal folk were left stranded.

There were countless police units buzzing about like flies. But really big, annoyingly loud flies that hurt your ears as they crept slowly passed your tram stop, struggling through the solid downtown traffic. For goodness sake, turn off the damn siren! It won’t make drivers move out of your way when they have no place to go!

Then there were the helicopters. A friend who lives in Prague 1 had a couple of them hovering right overhead for two solid hours.

The local news was inevitably heavy with every detail of the visit and honestly, if I see one more picture of an Obama/Medvedev handshake its going out the window.

So, what has all this disruption achieved? A safer tomorrow? I hope so and maybe I’ve done my bit for World peace by being late for a meeting. A small price to pay.

But know what was more interesting? Having the eyes of the World turn towards Prague actually pricked me with a sense of glowing pride.

It would appear I may finally be turning a bit Czech. Oh boy, will my friends ever talk to me again?