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Topics for today’s episode:
- What are the rules for membership in the All Fifty States Club?
- Is it possible to understand the American mentality after visiting all 50 states?
- What is America’s biggest problem today?
- What are interesting government capitols?
- Which states are best to visit?
Nekola visited the United States for the first time in 1995 as a 12-year-old boy. “I’ve been going there regularly ever since. I am a historian specializing in Czechs abroad, particularly in the United States of America. I give lectures on this topic, publish articles, books…,” explains Nekola.
“The reason for my frequent trips to the USA is to research in archives and libraries and to meet Czech communities. “So I can say with certainty that the Czechs have achieved absolutely everything,” says the political scientist and historian. He adds that he originally had no intention of specifically visiting all fifty American states, but as the number of capitals he visited increased and the white spaces on the map filled up, he began to toy with the idea of doing so try to become a member of the All Fifty States Club.
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“But the biggest turning point came during the Corona crisis when we all closed. At that time, there was a documentary on television about the most beautiful cities in America, and I cried silently while watching it and longed to be able to travel to the USA again,” remembers Nekola. And he adds: “When the borders opened, I shifted into higher gear. “I estimate I have visited 35 of the 50 capitals in the last two and a half years.”
However, the historian was not only interested in achieving his goal; he also wanted to get to know the American mentality throughout the country during his mission.
“I have most experience with New York, but that’s not the real America.” After that, you have to go deeper inland. Since I am a trained political scientist, I was also interested in the electoral system there and at the same time I could not understand why the two major major parties, which have been in crisis for a long time, continue to vote there.”
Photo: David Ryneš, Novinky
The last state Nekola visited was Alaska last October.
The desire for a deeper insight into the American mentality led Nekola, among other things, to begin giving large lectures at universities, and in his free time he went among the locals to understand what each community lived by. “It opened my eyes because I discovered that Europe or the rest of the world is an uninteresting and unimportant topic for most Americans,” says the political scientist, adding that it will answer a number of questions. “At the same time, I no longer allow myself to judge the Americans because I understand them better in some respects.”
Nekola would recommend anyone to visit the USA, if only to experience a completely different environment than the European one. “It’s a country that doesn’t mess with you. “If you want to be successful there, you have to work hard, have sharp elbows and at the same time never lose hope because there will be a lot of failures,” says Nekola.
Breathe in the air there
The All Fifty States Club’s rules for travel to all 50 states are not rigid, rather the opposite. In principle, travelers can only enter the soil of individual countries or breathe air there. “I enjoy it so much,” Nekola says, adding that he doesn’t see membership as prestigious, but rather as an interest.
Many members plan to visit not only all 50 states, but other milestones as well. In the overview you can see all kinds of stories – someone managed to complete the mission in record time, another bragged that he smoked marijuana in all fifty states. Nekola concentrated on the capitols, i.e. the government buildings of the individual states, to which he was already traveling to research the archives. He was also interested in their architecture.
“So most of them look like the Washington Capitol with its dome and ancient columns, just a smaller version.” Some are unsightly apartment buildings, but also smaller houses. And the Capitol in Virginia, for example, is reminiscent of an ancient Roman palace.”
The last Capitol Nekola visited was last October, when he visited Juneau, Alaska. But he already has the idea in mind of traveling to American-associated areas such as Puerto Rico or the islands of Guam and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in the middle of the Pacific. “That would be a big deal,” smiles Cech.
He ran out of countries to visit, so he started his own
Why does New York look down on the rest of America? How many countries can be visited in one day? Is everything far away in the USA? And what were the most interesting stories from Nekola’s compatriots during his research? You will not only find out about this in the complete, almost hour-long interview; This article serves only as a summary of selected topics. You can watch the interview on video or play it in the audio player at the beginning of the article.
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