Czechmatediary

Mirek Topolanek, the Prime minister of the Czech Republic, has quite the reputation these days. Apparently, thanks to his numerous unsuited comments and behavior over the past few years gave him the reputation of a redneck. Recently he was caught on camera to attack one of the photographers while he was strolling his 15-month old son up to the castle. The poor reporter was asking Topolanek something about the upcoming election while the camera man took a picture of his son in the stroller. And Topolanek did not like that AT ALL. In America he would get impeached for this AND the Child Protection Services would be knocking on his door. I mean, am I right, or am I right?? (more…)

Knedliky (dumplings) are a tough competitor to potatoes in the Czech world. If someone asks me “Would you like potatoes or knedliky as a side dish?” I may just sit there for half an hour to compare the pros and the cons of those 2 food items. The potatoes would probably win in my case, but other Czechs would pick knedliky in no time. To sum it up, knedliky are a VERY important part of the Czech heritage. I myself gave up on making them because for some reason I thought they were really hard to make. Recently however, I was digging through my Czech cookbooks and I found a recipe that is not only very EXTRA easy but also very delicious. For those who are not that familiar with the art of knedliky, let me educate you. There are 2 types of knedliky, the ones made out of bread and the ones made out of potatoes. This recipe shows you how to make easy bread dumplings, which go the best with meat entrees such as Goulash, or Koprovka which you can find in my recipe category. So here we go: (more…)

The Queen visited Slovakia couple of days ago. Although it was raining quite heavily the whole atmosphere was brightened up by the Queen’s bright red outfit, screaming  “happy” in every direction. Queen Elizabeth is now 82 years old,however, she still travels all over the world and takes interest other countries. The reason why she was visiting Slovakia was to meet not only the Slovakian president Ivan Gasparovic but also the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sir Nicholas Winton, known as “Britain’s Schindler”. (more…)

So I went to see the magnificent Plastic People of the Universe the other day. And it was GREAT! Not only I was privileged enough to hear their music but I also got to do an INTERVIEW with them!!! I kind of expected for them to be a little stuck up (they deserve to be- after all they went through…) but they were the nicest,down to earth bunch of musicians. My husband, a musician himself, was really impressed by them as well.I am going to review their history here a little so you can really appreciate the interview. (more…)

Wow! The Czechs are going through some stressful times as far as politics goes! The Senate elections have been going on and in order for everyone to understand, let me do a tiny little review of the Czech political system. The Czech Republic is a pluralist multi-party  parliamentary representative democracy (big word, I know), which means that the Parliament is bicameral, devided into the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecka snemovna; 200 members) and the Senate (Senat; 81 members). The Senate is elected for 6 years - every 2 years people vote 1/3 of the Senate members. And this year was the year.
The first and the second round won  the CSSD, winning 29 senators, while the senior ruling party, the ODS gained only 3 mandates. However, the ODS will still remain the strongest group in the whole senate (remember, the elections were held only for the 1/3 of the Senate, the 2/3 of the Senators remain unchanged). This crushing defeat of the coalition parties (including ODS) and the upcoming Czech presidency of the European Union (the EU presidency rotates every 2 years) caused an emergency no-confidence voting toward the current Czech government. (more…)

Katie is my yet another blogging buddy whom I recently met on-line. She is married to a wonderful Czech guy and together currently live in Berlin. Her passion is to inspire people to make creative homes  and I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified for this job. Why? Her new appartment in Berlin is 480 sqare feet and the kitchen is only 36. It takes a creative soul to fill all that space (or no space for that matter)! Anyhow, Katie recently made a post on her “Making this home” blog, which introduces Czech appartment living to the outside world. It’s a great reading accompanied by  great pictures. So, take it away (click here)!

CZ: Katie je jednou z mych novych blogarskych kamosek, kterou jsem potkala serfovanim na internetu. Je vdana za super ceskeho kluka a v soucasne dobe spolu ziji v Berline. Jejim konickem je inspirovat lidi, jak si vytvorit zajimavy a napadity domov. Jelikoz jejich novy byt v Berline meri 480 ctverecnich stop (sorry, jsem lina  to prepocitavat) a samotna kuchyne ma pouhych 36 ctverecnich stop, je na Katie, aby si tento prostor (nebo neprostor) tvurne zaplnila a jeji blog zvany “Making this home” je plny velmi zajimavych napadu, jak na to. Nedavno take napsala clanek o prazskych bytech a nejen ze je to velmi zajimave cteni, ale je take doprovazeno moc hezkymi fotkami. Clanek si prectete zde (kliknete zde).

Czechs are definitely going green! You want proof? Not only is Prague going to be competing for the best “European Green city” in the near future but it has been promoting green games and competitions such as the “Best tree of the Year”. This year’s winner was a beautiful and shapely lime-tree from a little town of Rimov. It won over 34,000 votes from the total of 80,000 of them. And you know what the grand price was? Well, it wasn’t going to be any traditional beauty gift such as a new car, a diamond necklace or a full day in the spa, but something quite different. (more…)

Czech students are such brats now. Don’t believe me? Ask the teachers. Close to 90% of them complain that their kids are increasingly difficult to manage. My mom is a high school teacher in Czech and she keeps saying the same thing: her students are not as polite and well-behaved as they used to be. She told me once that the teachers at her school are sometimes afraid to actually turn away from the classroom and write on the blackboard in fear of what might happen if they are not looking. Who should we blame? The parents. Why? Read the answer right here (click here):

CZ: Z ceskych zacku jsou ted pekni haranti. Neverite mi? Zeptejte se ucitelu. 90% z nich si stezuje, ze sve zaky mohou jen ztezi zvladat. Moje mama je ucitelka na stredni skole (v Cechach) a stezuje si na to same: zaci uz nejsou takova zlaticka, jako to byvalo. Jednou mi rekla, ze se ucitele pry boji odvratit od tridy a psat na tabuli, aby se v jejich “nepritomnosti” neco spatneho nestalo - jim nebo ostatnim detem. Kdo by se mel vynit? Rodice. Proc? Odpoved najdete tady (klikntete zde).

What does it feel like to have Czech parents but being brought up in a foreign country? The good thing is that you will learn Czech from your parents: they will read you Czech fairy tales, tell Czech stories and teach you  Czech grammar so that you would not forget your Czech heritage. But how would the outside environment accept you? Is it a smooth transition or a hard rocky road to overcome? Karin Gandalicova was one of those kids. Her parents emigrated to Switzerland during communism and that is where Karin was also born. Later her whole family moved to Germany. What Karin remembers the most from the 1st grade was the feeling of shame. Not only she would get ridiculed because of her unusual last name but also  because her mom - used to the Czech ways - would order her to wear slippers at school so that her feet feel more comfortable. Well, that wasn’t the custom in German schools and she also paid for it by being mocked from the other kids like there was no tomorrow. They would gossip about her when her parents put her to ballet classes or when the whole family left for vacation. “Where do these immigrants get money to pay for these things?” they would say behind her back. It was hard to wake up every morning knowing that people think of her as someone who is inferior to them. (more…)

The celebrity Czech writer Milan Kundera was recently accused of collaborating with the communist police and snitching on a Western agent. Why do they accuse him 58 years later? The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes accidentally discovered a seemingly irrefutable document (see the picture bellow) which claims that Kundera went to a police station and turned Mr. Miroslav Dvoracek (a secret agent) in, knowing that Dvoracek would probably face death sentence for a treason. (more…)