Czechmatediary

You can get this miniature pot-bellied pig  (also called a “Tea-cup pig“) for 500 to 5,000 Czech Crowns, depending on their size. The smaller they are, the more expensive they get. Yet the price did not stop them to be one of the new favorite pets in the Czech households. They are supposed to be smart, affectionate and very clean! Watch the video below:

CZ: V Cechach se tyto miniaturni prasatka prodavaji za 500 az 5,000 Kc s tim, ze mensi prasatka jsou drazsi. Chrochtajici milacci tam jdou jako na dracku, stali se totiz novym oblibenym zvirecim mazlickem v ceskych domacnostech. Divite se? Maji pry byt velmi chytri, pritulni a take cistotni! Podivejte se na nize uvedene video: (more…)

Breaking news! The most popular Czech car fragrance is the vanilla-scented Wunder-baum tree! Second place belongs to the “Black Classic” scent which copies the man’s cologne and third place is taken by the “New car” scent (which is also my personal favorite). Out of the liquid car scents the “Anti-Tobacco” is the winner since it covers up the smell of cigarette smoke, something that many Czechs have to deal with on every day basis. (more…)

The Czech ZOOs in Usti had an interesting visitor for a few days. An exhausted albino doe was caught by the local cemetery where she was chased and finally bit by some dogs. She was moved to Decin and became part of the animal crew that represents the unique geographical region of so called Czech Switzerland.

Albino does are very unusual in nature. Unfortunately, their unique coloring brings them much trouble. Not only  they are not liked and trusted by other animals but their lack of eye pigment causes problems with their sight and they are also very sensitive to light.
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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. (more…)

This doesn’t have anything to do with anything Czech or Slovak whatsoever but you just have to see these ‘fashion’ pictures. I hope you get a good belly laugh out of it like I did; who knows, maybe you will get some good Halloween ideas out of it!

Click here to see more fashion accessory pictures.

PS: This is for real, the designer is not joking.

CZ: Nasledujici obrazky opravdu  nemaji nic co k docineni s ceskou nebo slovenskou kulturou, ale thole proste musite videt: posledni vykriky mody!!! Kdo vi, mozna ze z toho dostanete nejake napady na Helloweenovsky kostym!

Vice modni inspirace muzete najit zde (klinete zde).

PS: Jo a jen tak pro jistotu, tento navrhar to mysli naprosto vazne.

Imagine getting up at 4 am somewhere in a quaint Czech village in order to get in couple of peaceful hours of fishing. And who knows, maybe you are going to be lucky enough to catch a carp or something! That’s what one of the Czech fishermen was thinking when he went fishing in a local river called  Drevnica. Boy, was he surprised when his first catch was a feisty South American piranha!! This kind of exotic fish did not get into the river by natural means; its owner must have let it lose because it probably became a nuisance in his aquarium. “Once in a while one of us (fishermen) catches a turtle that someone let lose but up to this point no one has had the pleasure catch piranha”, says the spokesman for the Otrokovice town hall.

The poor fish did not end up well, however. (more…)

“Why should I spend money for a funeral if my dead relative can’t give me anything in return?” That is the current Czech attitude toward their deceased relatives, says David Stejskal, a local grave digger. He also says that the moral in the Czech Republic is decreasing every year which goes hand in hand with a loss of respect for the dead. Many relatives just pay the necessary fees for the person to be buried but no ceremony is being held. Some people even refuse to bury them at all and in that case the state has to take care of the body and pay for the funeral itself. Last year the government had to pay over 2 million crowns just for these unclaimed burial fees.

“About 4 years ago I dealt with a mother who was not interested in burying her 12-year-old disabled daughter’, says Stejskal. (more…)

My Czech friend Pavla recently prompted me to write about the times when we had a yearly gas mask training at school. It was mandatory, so that we would know what to do in case some capitalist ‘pig’ decides to use the mushroom cloud on us. I don’t remember about it much since I was still kind of young (and my memory is terrible). I do have a vision in my head of putting those weird things on and then walking in the school hallways, feeling like a fool (especially if some cute boy walked right by). Since my story is not that interesting I called on to my Czech friends to help me write these memoirs . This is what they remember about those weird days:

CZ: Moje kamaradka Pavla mi nedavno poradila, abych napsala memoar o tom, jak jsme ve skole cvicili s plynovymi maskami (nebo-li tzv. branne cviceni). Nebyly to proste blaznive casy, kdyz si na to ted vzpomenete? Ja si toho z te doby moc nepamatuju (jenom to, ze jsme ten den tise chodily s dlouhymi choboty po chodbach nasi skoly), ale par mych kamaradek si toho vybavuje vic. Posudte sami - je to fakt zabava:

1. ‘Well, I don’t remember too much just that we had a gas-mask exercise once a year. The teachers handed us our masks which we had to wash with alcohol as a type of disinfection before we put them on. Of course, everyone had to have his own personal mask, which was fitted specifically for his skull. Before the correct mask was chosen for us, our face was measured with a specific measuring tool which kind of looked like pliers. (more…)

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Does your health care system suffer with the deficiency of a nursing staff? Learn from the Czechs! One private clinic in Prague decided to offer nurses a complimentary silicone-enhanced breasts if they sign up for a 3-year contract with them. About 10 nurses have agreed to this offer already and 7 other women are still considering it. This new technique seems to be working as the hospital recorded a 10% increase in job applicants ever since it started offering their bonus package.  Meanwhile, the women’s right activists are going bananas, complaining that the hospital activities are an insult the the nursing profession. Bottom line, the nurses are happy, the hospital is happy and I am sure the patients are happy too :0)

What do you think about this? (more…)

Although I have been living in the United States for over 10 years now, the longer I live here, the more I realize how so very Czech I still am. What do I mean? I mean that I still keep doing (or not doing) some - to many people -  quite strange things. For instance, I still don’t eat peanut butter and I hate Mint chocolate chip cookies. To me you either chew a mint gum or you have a cookie or a piece of chocolate, but please, let’s not mix ALL of them together! And my issues with peanut butter? Don’t get me started…

CZ: Sice za tou velkou louzi ziji jiz pres 10 let, ale ceska natura se mnou clouma, jako bych se do USA zrovna pristehovala. Proc? Protoze i po tolika letech mi napriklad nechutna burizonove maslo a z Chocolate chip mint cookies se mi zveda zaludek. Taky si spagety topim v louzi kecupu a kocce davam pit pouze mlecko. A co vy? Jakym “blaznovstvim” trpite vy??

So my question is this: who else beside me does these following “weird” things?

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