I can has cheezburger?

I've found it. The only thing that is actually more expensive in the Czech Republic than it is in the United States. But first, some storytime.

Yesterday I took a daytrip to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour from Prague with a beautiful cathedral and a grotesque church decorated with human bones. The train schedule worked out that I would have to wait around a long time before I could take the bus home, so I decided to do so in Prague rather than this small town, where everything was already closed because it was Sunday. As I was walking around, it hit me that I hadn't eaten anything in a while so I grabbed a cheap baguette sandwich, which was not nearly enough. It was at that moment that I started jonesing for a cheeseburger. I did some mental math and calculated that it had been almost a month since I'd had two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, onions on a sesame seed bun or some variant thereof. The same sandwich stand had a "cheeseburger" for only 20 Kc, a little over $1 so I immediately bought it, only to be utterly disappointed. It turns out that the Czechs call anything on a hamburger bun a burger, so it was a "cheeseburger" in the most literal sense - cheese on a hamburger bun, nothing else. Come on!
I ate it, but the cravings only worsened, my appetite for All-American goodness only grew exponentially with time. I decided that I would not leave a matter as important as this to the amateurs, I was going to go to the pros, which led me to this stunning realization: McDonald's in the Czech Republic is ridiculously expensive.

Let me repeat that: McDonald's is really expensive here.

Like twice as expensive as it is in the states. Of all the things, I never expected Mickey D's to cost an arm and a leg (especially since that's about the quality of meat you're getting). I expected that Bourbon might be more (it's not, actually cheaper depending on where you go). It's not just cheeseburgers; you can get a burger at a pub for $5-6, like you can in the states, but specifically McDonald's, a BigMac is like $6 for the burger alone. Double cheeseburgers, my late-night go to at home, are the worst, running about $3 each. And they charge extra for ketchup!!!

I can only imagine that McDonald's is cashing in on the American brand. For the same reason that Olive Garden has the gall to charge people $10 for their spaghetti, McDonald's can charge these foreigners three times the market value of a Double Cheeseburger. The beef patty I had was even thinner and tougher than I'm used to in the states. In a sense, I should be grateful, these foreigners are most likely subsidizing my Dollar-menu binges back home, allowing the Double Cheeseburger to remain on the menu when it clearly should be selling for more than $1 (that, and Americans' insatiable desire to drink soda at fast-food joints, where the profit margins are ridiculous).

But yes, the cheeseburger did the trick, I'm probably good for another month, but I'll have to go to something stronger, maybe a quarter-pounder.