Prague

Prague marathon superior to NY marathon? / Je prazsky maraton lepsi nez ten v NY?

prague marathon image

PS: This article was written before the Boston  marathon bombing happened. My prayers go to all of the people involved in it :( .

Radio Praha did a very nice article on the history of the Prague marathon. I do NOT run marathons myself (I think such tortures belong to places like hell :) ) but my doctor keeps talking about it so I figured I may as well get educated in this arena.

The person behind this whole thing is an Italian businessman Carlo Capalbo who has been living in Prague for over 20 years. His friend, an Olympic gold medalist and a winner of the Boston and New York marathons, came to visit him in Prague and gave him the idea to start a marathon here. Carlo explains: “In order to do a marathon you need a background, and Prague is a fantastic background. You should have a sporting tradition, and this country has a great legacy from Emil Zatopek…I called Mr. Zatopek and together we went to see the mayor. Or course, the people ad the administration were completely shocked, because they did not know what a marathon was. For them, a marathon was 100 people sweating and running through the fields.” [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Prague, sports

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Old Town Square will never be the same / Staromestske Namesti se zmeni

Marian column in Old Town Square /radio.cz image Marian column in Old Town Square before 1918

The Old Town Square, the most visited place in the Czech Republic, is expecting big changes. If you have ever been there, you probably remember the monument of Jan Hus, a fearless protestant who got burned at the stake in 1415. Now they want to put another monument next to him – a controversial, 16-meter tall Marian column. It was actually part of the Old Town Square architectural set up until a mob toppled it in 1918 to rid the capital of the new Czechoslovak republic of a symbol of catholic Habsburg oppression. You see, originally the Marian column was built in 1650 to commemorate the Habsburg victory over the Swedes. Do you see the dilema? [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: history, Prague

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Prague voted 4th best city for young expat life… but not the friendliest / Praha zvolena 4. nejlepsim novym domovem pro mlade expatrioty, ale…

Everyone loves Prague. I mean, have you ever met anyone who didn’t? Even the prominent British newspaper Daily Telegraph chose it to be the 4th (!!) best city for young expat life. Listen to this: ‘Beautiful and only a short flight away from Britain, Prague offers all the stability of Europe with not requiring a new language, and it has the best beer in the world.”

Radio Prague also gives us some statistics to how many expats live there and what their nationality is:

  • 15,000 Germans
  • 6,0oo Americans
  • 5,000 Britons
  • 3,000 Frenchmen

Most of them are business people, teachers and students.

There is a little glitch in this Prague bliss however, and that are the Prague locals. Listen to Carol, one of the young expats:

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Tagged as: Czech nature, Prague

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New Czechmate Diary products / Nove zbozi na Czechmate Diary

To my surprise, my drawings of Prague/CR were quite the hit last time so I am coming back with more! I have also been working on a new hand-knitted bag (for about 3 days and nights straight), which is decorated with the cutest Czech lion buttons. If no one buys it pretty soon, sorry it’s mine :)

CZ: Jelikoz se me obrazky Prahy/CR staly docela hitem, jsem tu s novou, cerstvou nabidkou. Konecne jsem take dokoncila pletenou tasku, ktera se pomalu stala mym celozivotnim dilem – pletla jsem snad skoro 3 dny a 3 noci. Jestlize se v nejblizsich dnech nenajde zajemce, ujmu se ji ja sama, moc se mi totiz libi :) .

1. NEW DRAWINGS

Prague Castle (click here for more info)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Street/Zlata Ulicka (click here for more info)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tagged as: Czech flag, Czech lion, my art, Prague, Vaclav Havel

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Old pictures of Prague….Ubelievable!/ Fotky stare Prahy….Neuveritelne!

Enjoy some vintage pictures of Praha! The following link shows some incredible pictures of old Prague, starting with a shot of Charles Bridge in the year 1900. Most images are from 1937 and 1947 but one goes all the way to 1890!

After viewing all of these wonderful images I see that the center of Prague has really not changed much at all. And that is a very good thing!

CZ: Prohlednete si krasne fotky stare Prahy! Vetsina fotek pochazi z roku 1937 a 1947, ale jedna je jiz z roku 1890!! Neuveritelne…

Je uklidnujici, ze centrum Prahy se od te doby nastesti moc nezmenilo.


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Tagged as: history, Prague

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Prague clock tower Orloj celebrates 600 years /Prazsky Orloj slavi 600. narozeniny


Orloj’s 600th birthday was celebrated in style this year. All of the Old Town Square visitors were able to enjoy a 10 minute large-screen video, which was projected on the Orloj’s wall itself (see the YouTube video below). “At first we had to take very detailed measurements as well as detailed photos of the building. Then we had to download these measurements and images into the computer and created a 3-D computer model. Then we had to come up with various animations which were projected on this 3-D model and also captured some of the major historical moments in the building’s history”, explains Tomas Rychecky, the producer of the whole thing.

Let’s do a brief history review about this magnificent architectural piece. The Old Town Square clock tower was build by Mikulas from Kadan in the early years of 15th century (September 9th, 1410). The building was greatly improved by Hanus from Ruze, who was supposedly blinded on purpose by the Prague authorities so that he could not build an exact copy anywhere else. Hanus came up with a bitter payback, broke the Orloj’s mechanism and no one was able to fix it for a long, long time.

The Orloj’s history still has a few secrets up its sleeve, for example, no one knows when did the sculptures of the 12 apostles came to life and who made them.
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Tagged as: history, Prague, YouTube

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Umberto Eco’s next novel targets Prague / Posledni novela Umberta Eca je o Praze

Prague cementry google imageRemember that scary movie called The Name of the Rose? It was based on the equally-named book written by an Italian medievalist and a philosopher Umberto Eco. After more than 30 years the author’s writing creativity has turned to Prague, specifically to the Prague cemetery ( you can hear sound of the hauling wolfs in the background).

The central figure of the novel is this cynical spy who is being sought after by the whole Europe in order to carry out various clever espionage or an assassination tasks. “Il cimitero di Praga” has 450 pages  and uncovers in detail the politics of the 19th century which also shines an uncomfortable light on today’s historical and political face of Europe. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: history, literature, Prague

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Vote on 7 wonders of the Czech Republic/ Volte 7 divu ceska

karlstein google image

We all know what the Seven wonders of the world are. But what would you pick to be the seven wonders in the Czech Republic? The Czech citizens are able to vote until the end of this month and the results will be announced on the 12th of June. There are five categories to pick from:

I personally vote for:  Kutna Hora, Otto Wichterle (because he invented contacts and I am blind), Alphonse Mucha, Czech beer, Czech cubism, Tomas Bata and Emil Zatopek.

Cast your vote here (click here).

CZ: Pozor! Cesi maji moznost zaperlit a vybrat sedm divu Ceska. Vybira se z peti kategorii a vysledky budou vyhlaseny 12.cervna na programu CT1. Co byste vybrali vy? Ja osobne volim: Kutnou Horu, Ottika Wichterle (jsem pekne slepa), Muchu, ceske pivo, cesky kubismus, Batu a Zatopka.
Oficialne muzete volit ne webovkach Ceske televize.
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Tagged as: polls, Prague, travel

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Communists tore down the most beautiful station in Central Europe / Komuniste zbourali nejkrasnejsi nadrazi ve stredni Evrope

Tesnovske station /lidovky.cz imageIt has been 25 years since the most beautiful railway station in Central Europe was shamelessly destroyed by the Czech communist government. The Tesnovske station (formerly called Denisova station) was replaced by a horrendous highway which now runs right through Wenceslas Square – the heart of the historical center of Prague (see image below). How could the communists be so insensitive? Well, the railway station was not as productive as the very functional planned freeway – that is why. It fits perfectly with the communist ideology. “The communists considered historical buildings to be a backsliding architectural style. Such structures were symbols of bourgeoisie and the communists hated them,” explains Zdenek Lukes, the architectural historian. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: communism, history, Prague

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Prague teddy bear tourism on the rise / Medvidci si v Praze pekne uzivaji

toy tourism /www.dw-world.de imageYou are not going to believe this. A certain Prague traveling agency is launching world’s first holidays for stuffed animal toys! For only 90 euros (and up) you can send your favorite teddy bear for a week trip to Prague. You know how boring it is for him to sit in the same bed for years? The poor thing wants to live a little too!

So once you send your dear one off to Prague you get a daily e-mail updates from him with pictures attached: teddy at the Prague Castle, teddy sitting by the Jan Hus statue at the Old Town Square, teddy having a typical Czech dinner…..

The creator of this ‘teddy bear tourism’ is a half-Czech, Prague-based enterpreneur, Tomio Okamura. “There are 1.2 billion teddy bears around the world, which is of course a very big group of potential clients,” says Tomio. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Prague, tourism, weird stuff

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