Not sure if you are dealing with the same thing but most people I talk to here STILL call the Czech Republic/Slovakia Czechoslovakia….and Prague is, of course, the capital of Czechoslovakia. Those two nations have split up 19 years ago!!!!!
Please vote here so we can compare our experiences.
CZ: Take se vam zda, ze vetsina cizincu uplne ignoruje to, ze se Ceskoslovensko rozpadlo jiz pred 19 lety? Nezapomente vyplnit anketu, at si muzeme porovnat nase zkusenosti.
Loading ...{ 15 comments }
This is a guest post by Peter Korchnak, who writes American Robotnik. I met him via one of the comments on Czechmate Diary and he immediately struck me as a great writer. Little did I know that he was born and raised in Slovakia and English is his second language!
***
“I’ve been to Prague,” is the most frequent response I hear when I tell Americans I’m from Slovakia (“Where is that?” and “Czechoslovakia?” are close behind). Prague looms large in many people’s imagination, and every time I hear the sentence, I think of ‘my Prague’ and the layers upon layers of memories the city conjures.
I visited Prague for the first time when I was 12 1/2, with my parents in the summer of 1989. Every day of that week-long stay, I experienced the peculiar feeling you get when you see places you previously only saw on TV. Trip photos show me standing up straight, alert like a good pioneer, under the statue of my new hero King Charles IV, at the opposite end of Charles Bridge, under the entrance of the St. Vitus Cathedral, in front of the polar bear exhibit at the Zoo…
In November and December that year, Prague repaid the visit when footage of the Velvet Revolution demonstrations glued me to the TV screen. As I struggled to comprehend what was going on, I learned the names of my new heroes: Václav Havel, Alexander Dubček, Karel Kryl… I tried to identify the places I’d visited the previous summer as they filled with throngs that jingled keys and chanted, “Our hands are bare!” [click to continue…]
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!{ 5 comments }
I have been living in this culture long enough to know that movie The Wizard of Oz to Americans is something like the Czech movie Popelka to Czechs. It is the ultimate classics.
Although I have not warmed up to that movie too much now I know I will be changing my ways. Why? One of the CMD readers sent me a link to the LA Times which had a long article about a 4’4″ dwarf-actor named Karl Slover who recently passed at the age of 93 and his most popular role was acting as one of the munchkins in The Wizzard of Oz.
So far it’s a pretty uneventful story until I tell you that Karl Slover was born in Slovakia (former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and yes, the LA Times has that information wrong) as Karel Kosicky. [click to continue…]
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!{ 2 comments }
Here are two the two most beautiful Czech and Slovak girls for 2011. Which one will you pick for Miss Universe (vote below)?
CZ: Dve nejkrasnejsi divky z Cech a Slovenska za rok 2011 jsou vybrane. Kterou byste vybrali vy jako Miss Universe (hlasujte v nize uvedene ankete)?
A 20-year-old Dagmar Kolesarova (for Slovakia):
An 18-year-0ld Jitka Novackova (for the Czech Republic):
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!
{ 11 comments }
What is this? 6-meter tall statue of 2 Christian missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, made out of SAND !!!
Who made it? Radovan Zivny, Czech artist who lives in Portugal
Where? Svatopluk’s Square in Nitra
Why? Because an important anniversary of these two Christian missionaries is coming up. The statue will be uncovered July 3rd
Sand? From where? 145 tons of beach/sea sand from a secret European location (let’s hope it’s not from Prague beach!)
Source: http://magazin.ceskenoviny.cz/zajimavosti/index_img.php?id=180758
{ 0 comments }
BREZNICE, CZECH REPUBLIC - JULY 19: Teammates watch a colleague down a glass of Herold lager July 19, 2003 during a beer drinking competition at the Herold Brewery in Breznice, Czech Republic. Pub life and beer are an intrinsic element of Czech culture, and contribute to the Czech Republic's first place world ranking in annual consumption of beer per capita, at 156 liters, well ahead of second-place Ireland (125 liters per head) and third-place Germany (120 liters per head). (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
What a surprise that the Czech Republic was given a second place as the drunkest country in the world! But don’t worry, we still hold the world record when it comes to beer (read the caption below the image). Here is a very nice image that may give you a feel of what a second place in this ‘competition’ might look like. Notice the beer bellies 
)
And who beat us? [click to continue…]
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!{ 19 comments }
Just a couple of days ago San Diego was having a Czech-Slovak festival which turned out to be so much fun that it actually appeared in the Slovak news!
CZ: V San Diegu se konal Cesko-Slovensky festival a bylo tam tak rusno, ze se to dostalo i do samotnych slovenskych zprav!
{ 2 comments }
A an inventive blog called ’52 weeks in Slovakia’ posted an article on Slovak cuisine, especially when it comes to the Christmas time. It is very educational and detailed but also fun to read.
Go ahead, test your knowledge about Slovak food. Do you know what are:
A/ Lokše ?
B/ Mastný Chlieb ?
C/ Langoš ?
D/Pagáč ?
If you know these terms through and through then you are off the hook. If not, your homework is to read the whole article (click here) and make notes. A review test is coming soon….and the teacher’s grading methods are pretty strict ;0)
CZ: Blog zvany ’52 weeks in Slovakia’ nedavno publikoval velmi pekny clanek o Slovenske kuchyni, zejmena behem Vanocnich svatku. Vite napriklad, co to je lokos nebo pagac? Nebo jak pripravit ‘mastny chlieb’? Jestlize ne, vrele doporucuji si tento clanek nastudovat. Test prijde pozdeji a pani ucitelka je pry velmi prisna :0).
{ 3 comments }
Slovaks were testing their bomb-detection protocols by planting plastic explosives into 9 passengers’ suitcases WITHOUT informing them about it and this is how the story ONLY begins…
CZ: Na Slovensku se tentokrat testovalo, zda-li by 90 gramu trhaviny proslo letistnim bezpecnostnim systemem a podivejte, co z toho bylo za prusvih:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/06/slovak-security-team-plants-plastic-explosive-on-flight-to-dublin/
{ 2 comments }
Daniela Lazarova from Radio Prague always digs out such interesting stuff. This time her article targeted the Museum of Records and Curiosities in Pelhrimov. We already know about fakir Petr who was planning on overcoming his past record at the museum by laying on hundreds of glass shards for 72 hours. This time the museum is exhibiting a 2 by 1,35 meters tapestry made by an amateur! This late-bloomer is a 46-year-old machine engineer from Slovakia who was unable to work for 4 years because of a work accident. Bored out of his mind, he kept watching ‘dumb’ TV channels until he came across a tapestry maker and decided to try it. He tried making Czech castles and various caricatures from the daily newspaper and then went on doing – now his life achievement – the Last Supper. This tapestry has over a million stitches and took him more than 9 years to finish. [click to continue…]
{ 1 comment }
Loading ...
