Czechmatediary

According to the latest prognosis, Czechs should be able to travel to the US visa-free starting November 17th (which is also the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution), which is less than 2 months away! The Czech prime minister is planning on visiting Washington in late October to not only discuss the U.S. missile defense radar base but also to sign the 2 remaining agreements necessary for the visa-free travel status. The first agreement deals with the cooperation with the US center in terrorism threats and the second one concerns the exchange of information about the people who were convicted of serious crimes in the past. (more…)

My blogging buddy Gary is an Englishman living not in New York but in Brno. He just recently created a blog (brnoexpats.com) for any foreign soul that is visiting or living in Brno. He also writes some great (witty + smart) articles so the blog is for anyone,really. One of Gary’s articles that recently caught my eye is about him struggling with the Czech language. See for yourself (click here):

CZ: Gary je jeden z mych blogarskych kamaradu, a nedavno vytvoril novy blog zvany brnoexpats.com, ktery je urceny pro cizince navstevujici  nebo i  zijici v Brne. Jelikoz ma ale talent na psani, blog je vlastne pro kazdeho. Jednu z jeho nedavnych historek si muzete precist zde (kliknete zde) - popisuje Greryho zapas s ceskym jazykem.

http://www.brnoexpats.com/drupal/node/9#comment-4

These are my (Michael’s) impressions of Ceska Republika, truly the heart (and possibly the soul) of Europe.

Fields of Yellow (Pole Zlutych) … and not just pale yellow but as my wife exclaimed “botanical sunshine”. We first see these as we land at Ruzyne airport and even the Czech woman sitting next to us does not know what flowers or crop this is. No one knows though we ask and ask. It takes my wife googling some odd set of words later to find out that these are likely fields of rapeseed to be grown as a sort of biofuel source. The site also suggested that this was not without its detractors within the country (perhaps a separate Czechmatediary expose). These fields stayed with us through rain or shine, brightening each day no matter the weather until near the end, the flowers were almost gone from the plants. (more…)

How is visiting Czech through eyes of an American? Well, Mike (a great supporter of this blog as well as the occasional guest writer for CMD) and his lovely wife (who has Czech roots by the way) just came back from a trip from the Czech Republic. I don’t know how about you, but after I read his post, I felt like they went just about everywhere! Some of these places I haven’t even visited yet!! (more…)

The 43th Annual Film Festival in Karlovy Vary just started (where did that year go??). The Festival will show over 220 films and 60 premiers - all in 8 days (!!). And what celebrity is granting its presence to this year’s celebration? Last year we had Dany de Vito and Renee Zellweger and this year it is Robert De Niro himself! This will be his second visit to Karlovy Vary as he visited this town 18 years ago. (more…)

Where are you planning to travel this summer? Are you going to lay out on the beach somewhere in the Pacific or would you rather do some sightseeing and wonder around the streets of some ancient city like Rome? Why not do both? Prague not only has the medieval architecture but now it also has the beaches. The river that cuts through the center of Prague,Vltava, is opening up a new beach right by the Charles Bridge! (more…)

Are you curious to what foreigners think of our Czech drivers? Are they willing to rent a car or would they rather just stay “safe” and take a bus? Gary is one of those foreigners living in Brno and here are his observations…

CZ: Premyslite nekdy nad tim, co si cizinci mysli o ceskych ridicich? Boji se pronajmout si auto, nebo by radeji zustali “v bezpeci” a pockali si na autobus? Gary je jeden z techto cizincu, ktery zije jiz nejaky cas v Brne. Jeho postrehy na toto tema si muzete precist zde..

Maybe Prague is your home or you may just have visited this city once. No matter how familiar with Prague one is, you cannot miss the remains of this “progressive” communist creation which is also the biggest thorn of the downtown - the city freeway. The 4-lane road is located “conveniently” right bellow the National Museum, on the top of the Wenceslas square. What does that mean for the pedestrians? It means that every time you want to walk from Prague 2 to Prague 1 (which is quite often) you have two choices: (more…)

Kostnice (Bone church) is a small chapel located in the town of Kutna Hora. The name already uncovers the big secret: the church is a home to a lot of human bones. And when I say “a lot”, I mean A LOT: the sanctuary contains close to 70,000 human skeletons, artistically arranged to create decorations and furnishings for the church. There are only 2 questions I had when I saw all these bones in person:

1/ Why so many of them?

In 1278 the Czech king Otakar II sent one of his monks to the Holy Land in Jerusalem to bring back some of the “real” soil. The monk returned safe and sound and with a bag of Jerusalem soil over his back. Once he sprinkled it over the Bone church cemetery it became a hot burial site in the whole Europe and everyone wanted to be laid to rest pretty much there (result –>a lot of bones). (more…)

The Canadian minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Diane Finley, confirmed on March 1st that following countries no longer need temporary resident visa to visit Canada:

• Slovakia
• Poland
• Lithuania
• Hungary (more…)
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