Czechmatediary

A notoriously famous action-movie actor Jean-Claude Van Damme became part of the committee who picked this year’s Miss Czech Republic (there are actually 2 beauty queen shows running simultaneously, which means that every year we get 2 winners but no one really knows why).

CZ: Cesko zvolilo (za velke pomoci akcniho hrdiny Van Damma) 2 nove kralovny krasy za rok 2010: Miss Ceske Republiky se stala studentka katolickeho gymnazia Jitka Valkova, zatimco ceska Miss Universe se stala Veronika Machova:
(more…)

Today left Prague an important travel expedition called the Bargans Bajkal 2010. It consists of 2 extra brave men - Vaclav Sura and Petr Blazek, who are to cross the Siberian Baikal lake on foot, by so-called unsupported style. All of their belongings (food included) will be pulled by those two man on sledges. The trail leads from the south peak of the lake to the north peak and it si ‘mere’ 650 km long, which should take them 4 to 5 weeks to conquer. The slight problem is that the temperatures during this time go as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. Only one such expedition has been done in the past, so if the Czech one is succesfull it will be a great victory.
(more…)

Not long after the Olympic games began the Czechs have already won their first gold medal.  The 22-year-old speed skater, Martina Sablikova, conquered a  3,000-meter long race like it was a piece of cake. But the real piece of cake was waiting for her at the Czech House in Vancouver, fashionably shaped as an ice-skating ring with an image of a speed-skater in the middle.  The cake of just the sweet ’snack’ ,however. Sablikova also received a price of 1,5 million Czech crowns and a one-year-long free supply of Pilsener Urquell!

Congrats, Martina! (more…)

A house-arrest sentence is a very new thing in the Czech Republic. It used to be that you go to jail or you don’t go to jail and house arrest was left for the disobedient kids. Petr Boruvka informs us about the very first felon who was given such an ‘awful’ punishment. Read about him right here.

CZ: Domaci vezeni byvalo v Cechach aplikovano jen na zlobive deti. Nedavno se z neho ale stal oficialni pojem, kterym se trestaji lehci kriminalnici. Petr Boruvka nas informuje o prvnim takovem cloveku, ktery musi ‘trpet’ 6 mesicu doma….ale zas tak hrozne to pro nej nebude. Proc? Duvod si prectete zde.

The Czech Republic is famous again! The world’s biggest panoramic photo happens to  portray the beauty of Prague. This is what the 360cities.net says about it:

‘This image a super high resolution photo. Use your mouse to zoom in and see a startling level of detail. This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That’s 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it’s printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at regular photographic quality (300dpi). It was shot in early October 2009 from the top of the Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Prague 3 town hall. A digital SLR camera and a 200mm lens were used. Hundreds of shots were shot over a few hours; these shots were then stitched together on a computer over the following few weeks. (more…)

You can get this miniature pot-bellied pig  (also called a “Tea-cup pig“) for 500 to 5,000 Czech Crowns, depending on their size. The smaller they are, the more expensive they get. Yet the price did not stop them to be one of the new favorite pets in the Czech households. They are supposed to be smart, affectionate and very clean! Watch the video below:

CZ: V Cechach se tyto miniaturni prasatka prodavaji za 500 az 5,000 Kc s tim, ze mensi prasatka jsou drazsi. Chrochtajici milacci tam jdou jako na dracku, stali se totiz novym oblibenym zvirecim mazlickem v ceskych domacnostech. Divite se? Maji pry byt velmi chytri, pritulni a take cistotni! Podivejte se na nize uvedene video: (more…)

Kids in America start going to school way too early. A five-year-old kiddos were still in diapers just 3 years earlier! Children of that age should be playing with their toys, enjoying their childhood and not learning how to read and do math problems.

I went to  first grade when I was almost 7 years old and I turned out just fine, so what’s all this rush about? The thing is that this early school fever is contagious. The Czech Republic started to accept 5-year-olds into their first grades this year, however, the interest was not high. Both parents and teachers think these children are just too young for school. “They have problems with speech, mostly with pronunciation”, says one of the first grade teachers. Even the Czech child spychologist, Vaclav Mertin, claims that children at 5-years-of-age should be educated in some way but they should not be going to school just yet. (more…)

When were were back in the Czech Republic the last time my cousin asked my husband: “Why did you guys get married if you weren’t pregnant?” We gave him kind of a blank stare back, not knowing how to respond. For love? Isn’t that usually the reason why do people get married? But according to  the Ceske Noviny newspaper 59% of Czechs  did get married because of their offspring. What is interesting is that 70% of those who participated in the poll think of an ideal family as having 2 children - no more, no less. This has been a wide spread thought for quite some time, say  the statistical analysts. (more…)

Breaking news! The most popular Czech car fragrance is the vanilla-scented Wunder-baum tree! Second place belongs to the “Black Classic” scent which copies the man’s cologne and third place is taken by the “New car” scent (which is also my personal favorite). Out of the liquid car scents the “Anti-Tobacco” is the winner since it covers up the smell of cigarette smoke, something that many Czechs have to deal with on every day basis. (more…)

The Czech ZOOs in Usti had an interesting visitor for a few days. An exhausted albino doe was caught by the local cemetery where she was chased and finally bit by some dogs. She was moved to Decin and became part of the animal crew that represents the unique geographical region of so called Czech Switzerland.

Albino does are very unusual in nature. Unfortunately, their unique coloring brings them much trouble. Not only  they are not liked and trusted by other animals but their lack of eye pigment causes problems with their sight and they are also very sensitive to light.
(more…)