“Mother of Cities.” “City of a Thousand Spires.” “Golden City.” Whatever you call it, Prague is famous the world over for its history, culture and beauty. Not so its American cousins; have you ever heard of New Prague, Minnesota or Praha, Texas?

Progressive rock band Uz Jsme Doma (UJD) has trodden the streets of both, unearthing a pastry controversy, among other surprises, in the process.

The adventure actually begins in 1997, when the band took its first trip to New Prague, Minnesota. Lured by bakery signs promising kolacky (round, open-faced pastries filled with fruit), UJD’s Mirek Wanek was surprised to find “cookies shaped as cubes, filled with poppy seeds, or jam – these are very traditional, but they are called buchty.” Mirek alerted the staff and UJD continued with its tour, secure in the knowledge this wrong had been righted.

But had it? Fast forward to 2007. “Now ten years later, we went through the town again, but no change,” laments Mirek. “The man in the store told us, in typical Czech character, ‘I don’t mind what it’s called; it’s enough for me that I like it.”

Leaving New Prague and its misnamed pastries, the band headed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a student, learning they were from the Czech Republic, asked if that was downtown. The question’s not as crazy as it sounds – a part of downtown Cedar Rapids is known as “Czech Village,” another testament to the American midwest’s Czech connections, not all of which are culinary.

In Texas, Mirek discovered a uniquely American brand of old-style Czech music, “all these songs that are commonly known here, but played in such a different way. I felt 70% [was] the original sound from the late nineteenth century with 30% American influence, especially Dixie music and jazz. For me it was an amazing experience, like traveling in time.”

That sensation of time travel is one often reported by Americans in Prague. How fitting then, that America’s Pragues can do likewise for a Czech abroad.

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