Czechmatediary

No matter what’s happening in the world, the Czechs will love their cottages (their vacation homes). Even though the communists took most of the stuff away from them during totalitarian era, most people still had the luxury of having 2 homes, usually the appartment in the city and then a country house somewhere in the country side. I was one of those people and although we don’t have our cottage anymore I have fond memories of spending the summers there as well as most weekends.

In 1970 there was 25,000 cottages and today there are about 166,000 (!!) which puts the Czechs on the second place in the world (as far as vacation homes go) – right behind the Swedish.

You may think ‘Gosh, what a bunch of snobs!’ but it is not so. These cottages are the most frugal way how to spend weekends or vacation. [continue reading…]

American Robotnik sent me an article about a new marketing logo for the Czech Republic in order to promote tourism. What do  you think? You like? You hate?

CZ: American Robotnik mi poslal clanek o novem marketingovem logu pro Ceskou Republiku. Co si o tom myslite? Libi se vam to? Nebo ne?

My Slovak blogging buddy Peter wanted me to write a guest post on American Robotnik about what does Slovakia mean to me these days. I thought that was a great idea, although it took me forever to actually write something about it. But I finally did and here it is (click here).

CZ: Peter je jeden velmi chytry blogger, ktery je originalne ze Slovenska, ale jako mnoho z nas zije nyni v Americe. Ma americkou manzelku a volny cas travi psanim do American Robotnik  (jeho blog).

Jiz davno mne pozadal, abych napsala guest blog na tema Slovensko a co pro me tato zeme vubec dneska znamena. Prislo mi to jako vyborny napad, ale trvalo mi par stoleti se  k tomu dokopat a neco napsat. No, konecne jsem hotova a tady to je (kliknete zde).

I found an article on older Czech top models and how well (or not well) they do with aging. So far they are all around 40 years old, so they still look pretty good and natural. But when will the plastic-surgery-alien-faces start to poke their ugly heads??

Check out the updated pictures of Tereza Maxova, Eva Herzigova, Daniela Pestova, Simona Krainova and Paulina Porizkova (click here).

CZ: Kouknete se jak vypadaji nase starnouci top modelky Tereza Maxova, Eva Herzigova, Daniela Pestova, Kimona Krajnova a Pavlina Porizkova. Zatim je jim vsem kolem 40ti let a vypadaji velmi dobre; ale kdy se zacne objevovat ta ufonovska plasticka tvar, ktere se po par predelavkach lekne i male decko?

Cely clanek s fotkami najdete zde (kliknete zde).

Summer without peaches in no summer to me. So why not include them in the main course? The following recipe was influenced by my friend’s mom who used to make a similar dish for us. It is one of my favorites that I came up with some years ago  but never gotten sick of it. I hope you like it as much my family does! [continue reading…]

Czech winter

Hello everyone! I have had a couple of productive weeks and played with acrylics for the first time. I think I found my favorite media :).

CZ: Ahoj vsichni! Obcas se stane, ze se take dostanu k malovani a tentokrat jsem to zkusila poprve s temperami. Myslim, ze to ted bude me oblibene medium :).

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You hear about these love stories during the war and it makes you think, ‘Gosh what a devotion those two had for each other!’. No matter how many movies one had seen on this topic we are ready for more as soon as Hollywood spits out another one.
Well, this particular World War II love story comes from Radio Prague, which deserves the points for the discovery – it is wonderful! Lillian is a 92-year-old English woman (or was a 92 year old woman – she past away last month) who fell in love with a handsome Czech pilot who was fighting with the Allies. Now get this, he was determined to go out with her (and probably even marry her) even before he spoke a WORD of English! Through his English-speaking Czech friend he made her promise him that she would go out on a date with him if he learned to speak English in 6 months. [continue reading…]

One day the cockerel and the hen went to pick some berries. Then hen found a strawberry, ate one half and gave the other half to the cockerel. In a little while the cockerel found a strawberry too but because he was stingy, he did not want to share it with the hen and ate the whole berry. Well, it got stuck in his throat and he began to choke. “Go and bring me some water from the well,” he whispered to the hen. The hen runs to the well and begs, “Dear well, give me some water for the poor cockerel. A strawberry got stuck in his throat and now he is choking in the courtyard. ” I can’t give you water until you bring me a scarf.” The hen runs to the seamstress named Anicka. “Anicka, Anicka, give me a scarf for the well. The well will give me water for the cockerel, who is choking in the courtyard. “I can’t give you a scarf until you bring me  some shoes.” The hen runs to the shoemaker named Matous. “Matous, Matous! Give me some shoes for Anicka the seamstress. I will  take them to her and she will give me a scarf. I will take the scarf to the well who will give me water for the cockerel, who is choking in the courtyard.” [continue reading…]

Brno,the second largest city in the Czech Republic, has a completely new attraction and it is CREEPY! The town recently opened up a new ossuary – an underground of a local church filled with thousands of ‘decorative’ bones. To be a little more precise, the church of Saint Jacob is a burial ground to over 50,000 people, which makes it the second biggest ossuary in Europe (the largest one is in Paris).

Most dead bodies come from the times of black death and cholera; those bodies diseased by cholera have yellowish skulls and those struck with black death have skulls with blackish tint. [continue reading…]