Do these pictures bring memories or what? I found them all on Facebook at ‘Spomienky na Ceskoslovensko’.
If you have not had enough please go visit their page. They have so many pictures out there that you don’t even need a time machine to bring yourself back to the old times. [click to continue…]
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Kolovazy u Prahy (a small town near Prague) recently opened up a new attraction: A Museum of Socialist Vehicles. It exhibits car models made in-between years 1965 and 1988, which makes about 30 different models, mostly Skoda cars but also Romanian Dacias and Ziguliks. The Museum is showing off some Germany models such as Trabant and Wartburg but those are in minority.
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Both handsome brothers as well as their father were known for their resistance tendencies. Josef Masin (the father) was executed in Prague after being tortured several days by the Gestapo, which he was feverishly fighting against. His sons, Ctirad (who passed away yesterday in his Cleveland home) and Josef, inherited his courageous spirit and fought against the communist regime. What they are most known for, however, is their incredible escape to Western Germany. Why was their escape so controversial and why do some people call them heroes and others label them as murders?
Read a short version here (New York times)
Read a longer version here (Wikipedia.org)
CZ: Jablko se neodkutalelo daleko od stromu, protoze jak Ctirad (ktery zemrel vcera ve svem Clevelandovem dome), tak Josef se proslavili svymi svymi bojovymi postoji. Otec Josef byl za svou protinacistickou propagandu poslan do koncentracniho tabora, kde take zemrel. Jeho synove pak prebrali zezlo, a stali se odbojari proti komunismu. Nejvice se ale proslavili svym neuveritelne dobrodruznym utekem na Zapad. Proc je kvuli nemu nekteri lide tak obdivuji a jini je nazyvaji vrahy? Prectete si vyse uvedene clanky:
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• All-you-can-eat buffets (I still can’t believe it!!)
• cheap clothing (love Target)
• People’s positive attitude
• Bridal/baby showers
• Option of going to school until you are 100 years old
• Free water and bread and butter in restaurants
• Food to go (dogie bags)
• Free soda refills
• Widespread use of deodorants
• Teachers at school actually build you up rather than tear you down
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Wasn’t Alenka’s story just so thrilling? Not only did we get a great read out of her but she also pointed to a couple of articles which pinpoint a similar situation: an adventurous escape of a Czech family but this time IN A BALLOON!!!!
CZ: Nebyl Alencin pribeh neuveritelne napinavy? Nejen ze nam popsala svuj dobrodruzny utek z CSSR, ale take mi poslala link na dva dalsi clanky, ktere popisuji utek jedne ceske rodiny jineho razu: tentokrat….V BALONU!!! (kliknete zde)
Zde je podobna story, tentokrat ale o vychodo-nemecke rodine (kliknete zde).
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I happened to meet yet another sweet person through this blog. Her name is Alenka and she and her parents immigrated to the US in 1985 – only 5 years before the Velvet Revolution. Her story is truly amazing. I woudn’t be surprised if they made a movie out of it one day! Here it is:
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Hello to all,
To spice it up, I have a bit different post for you today. Posh Parker is a British reporter who lived in Czechland for some time and managed to write a very good book about it (it’s called Bus to Bohemia). Anyhow, this was one of the reader’s response to it…VERY INTERESTING! Looking forward to those comments, guys!
CZ: Zdravim! Abych vam to poctenicko trosku okorenila, tak pro vas vam dneska neco trosku jineho. Posh Parker je britsky reporter, ktery zil nejaky ten patek v Cechach a napsal o jeho zazitcich vybornou knihu zvanou “Bus to Bohemia”. Jeden z ctenaru teto knihy mu poslal velmi zajimavy email a ja jsem si ho s jeho dovolenim dovolila publikovat. Je to opravdu VELMI zajimavy dopis a uz se tesim na diskuzi!!!
‘Hi Mr Parker,
I recently finished reading your book, and I have to say it was very enjoyable, and it did bring out some different emotions. Let me give you some of my background – so this will help put into perspective my reaction to your book.
I was born in the Czech Republic in 1945, in 1948 my father being a staunch anti communist, was given about 12 hours warning that after the takeover he as going directly to Siberia, so we left in the middle of the night and spent 18 months in various prisons and DP camps in Germany, we arrived in the US in August of 1949, when I was 4 years old. [click to continue…]
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I don’t want to sound like I am bragging but I came to the conclusion that the Czechs (and of course the Slovaks too) tend to have many talents. I don’t mean just in the field of music (hence the saying “Co Cech, to muzikant”, meaning “Every Czech is a musician”) or handy-work (hence the saying “Cesi maji zlate rucicky”, meaning “Czechs have golden hands”), I mean overall, like we are some kind of a resurrected Renaissance nation ;0)
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It’s been over 20 years ever since the Berlin Wall went down and one could really see a difference in almost every aspect of a Czech life. One of them is how the Czechs furnish their apartments today. Gone are those incredibly dull communist sofas, tables and chairs – IKEA is the future of the Czech Republic! Their homes have definitely more style and are more colorful but the question is, did they move away from that totalitarian cookie-cutter style of furnishing or is it just a different type of cookie-cutting? The sad truth is that every other Czech family ends up with a same bedroom set ;0)
Of course, IKEA is not just the future of the Czech Republic – it seems that it overtook the whole world, including the US and our home. Now the Chinese family in Beijing, for example, may have the same table set as what we have. Crazy. [click to continue…]
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I put my daughter Hahna into swimming lessons this year and boy, does the smell of the pool bring memories! It may be embarrassing to admit but I learned how to swim when I was 9 (!!) years old. We did have mandatory swimming classes ever since I was in kindergarten but they did not seem to help. Years and years of training and no results. You can imagine the communist government was not pleased with me. In fact, I am surprised they have not sent me to gulags or somewhere even worse where they deal with the ‘slower’ individuals!
I do have a good excuse, however. Those years of swimming were pure hell. You want a proof? How about if I told you that every Thursday morning my mom would wake me up – it was still dark out – to inform me to get up because it was time for my swimming class. The next thing I would do is threw up. I threw up EVERY Thursday because I was so scared of those darn classes! [click to continue…]
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