My Prague: From Vinohrady to Barrandov. The hair guru Michal Zapoměl is already looking forward to the change.
Famous hairdresser Michal Zapoměl created a small paradise in Karlín, Prague. In the salon, they will improve your hair, in the adjacent café Za zrcadlem you can then have a "heaven in mouth" or purchase his own brand of hair cosmetics. He also created a place with style in his spacious Vinohrady apartment, where he currently lives. Nevertheless, he looks forward to a new home in Barrandov.
You say about yourself that you are a boy from a village. Before you settled in Prague, you lived in Plzeň, where you built your first hairdressing salon. How did you then choose the district where you would live in Prague? Did it play a role - random chance, feelings, proximity to work, or some recommendations from acquaintances?
I say about myself that I am a boy from a village, and even though I have a part of Prague behind me now, I still feel like that. I got to Prague via Plzeň, where I was building my first salon, and when I was then looking for housing here, it was never like I would sit down to a map and make a strategy. It always worked strangely naturally for me — a combination of feeling, chance, and the right moment. I started with shared accommodation, just like in Plzeň, and that always helped me really get to know the new city and slowly sail into it
Have you tried living in other parts of Prague than Vinohrady, where you live now? If yes, where did you enjoy it the most and the least?
And I’ve really gone through a lot of Prague addresses. Žižkov, Vinohrady, my own "Žižkohrady", then I lived in Vysočany, later in Pankrác… Each place had a different energy, different pace, different experience. But I guess Karlín stayed with me the most. When I lived there for the first time, it completely engulfed me. The city during the week, a village at the weekend — people greeted each other, neighbors talked to each other, it had a huge charm and humanity.
And what about Vinohrady, have they also grown on you? I read that you are planning to build a house in Barrandov. What attracted you to this part of Prague?
Today I live in the lower part of Vinohrady near the radio, but I must say that it is not my favorite stage. For two years I've had a complicated neighbor, which took away my feeling of safety and joy from home. And one really understands how much a neighbor can affect your life. That's why I am incredibly excited for Barrandov. I will live there next to friends, whom I have known for over thirty years - people I can rely on, who know me in good and bad. And the idea of barefoot mornings in the grass, my own garden, greenery, plants, kitchen where I will again cook for friends... That is exactly the peace that one matures to over time.
Aren't you afraid you'll miss the city center?
I won't miss it. I'll get there in 25 minutes, which is paradoxically less than today - because the traffic in Prague is truly excruciating right now and I spend 45 minutes on my commute to work, which is absurd.
Won't it be a shock to move from an old apartment to a new one?
Even though I'm a person who loves apartments with old souls and high ceilings, I believe that I can create a home even in a new building. Life leads you where you need to be, and I've learned not to be persistent. When you stop resisting, you usually find out that what didn't go as planned is ultimately the best.
Source: original text, own querying
