Compact archive May 2006

For United Islands of Prague 2008 click here

Musical festival United Islands comes to Prague! 100 bands, 20 countries, 3 islands at Vltava river. This awaits you. United Islands starts 16th June and ends 25th June.

Music bands from Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, Poland, USA… will play there. World known as well as unknown bands.

Three islands, three colours, thee music styles.
Green Island – Strelecky island – world, ethno & folk music, 16th-19th June. Music bands like Cechomor, Iarla O’Lionáird, Renato Borghetti, Ethnica or James Harries. Ticket – 750 CZK, one day ticket 650,- CZK

Blue Island – Zofin – jazz, blues & groove, 19th-21st June. Master guitarists Medeski, Martin & Wood; Kyle Eastwood, Dan Barta, 123 min band. Ticket – 750 CZK, one day ticket 650, CZK

Red Island – Branicka louka – rock & all, 22nd-25th June. You cannot miss Placebo (!), J.A.R., Sto zvirat, The Prostitutes, ska Fishbone, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, Tito & Tarantula. Ticket – 850 CZK, one day ticket 750,-.

Ticket combination:
Green & Red combo 950 CZK
Blue & Red combo 950 CZK
Gree+Blue+Red 1 450 CZK
Ticket reservation islands here. One day tickets are sold only at the place.

Official pages with every possible info.

Plasma pencil is an invention of Czech scientist of Brno Masaryk university.

This invention is very variable and has many usage, where effects of pencil are changing depending on the temperature of the plasma.
Relatively low temperature can be used for changes of an object surface, allowing effectively absorb water. It can be also used for removing a rust from surface.
High temperatures are great for engraving and carving of a wood or a glaze.
The pencil can also sterilize objects or cut tiles.
Plasma pencil is also tested as an surgical instrument – for example for removing of cancer tumour.

A development of this project cost 10 million crowns and it began in 1996.

Plasma is an ionized gas with unique properties. Plasma appears for example in lightnings or fire and it is 99 per cents of space matter.

President day for children planned on 1st June has to be moved to later date. It is because bad weather in Prague.

The entertaining day when kids can met, see and talk with the president of Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus and his wife Livia will be 29th July 2006 from 14.00 (2 PM), hence the President day will not be a part of Children day but a celebration of the end of school year.

Music band Katapult will perform at this day at is was planned. Kids and parents can met with the president in Lumbe’s garden at Prague Castle.

There will be also many competitions and games for children, a presentation of Castle Guard motorcycles, dog training and martial arts exhibition.

A three member gang of Israel drug dealers and importers were arrested yesterday after six month long monitoring. Police operation with codename Merec has a success: 4200 Ecstasy pills, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and 500 000 crowns was found.

The gang provided drugs into Prague clubs and discos. They was main dealers of Ecstasy in Prague after their price-out of a competition. Members of the gang can be arrested at ten years.

Mayor capital city of Prague Pavel Bem make complaint to an unknown delinquent for illegal posting posters of the Parties. Posters are a part of election campaign and Pavel Bem wants to reach removing of all posters placed on walls, lamp posts, and many other places. City hall expects that police will solve the problem and police will make consequences for posting people and Parties.

It is next step in fight against illegal posting of Parties. Bem ordered to remove illegal posters of Parties CSSD, SNK-ED, US-DEU and KDU-CSL last week. Only KDU made it. As City hall says most posters has CSSD, biggest rival of ODS, which Pavel Bem is a member.

Legal posting places in Prague are hard to reach – they are too few, expensive and only one company in whole Prague has rights to own and rent them. In fact it is something like advertisement monopole in Prague. That is one reason why so many posters are at forbidden places in Prague. Other interesting note is that illegal posting is for Pavel Bem such a big problem only few days before the elections. Months and months ago thousands illegal posters in whole Prague was no matter to solve until now.

City hall of Prague has tomorrow opening day at Marian square, Prague 2 from 10 AM to 4 PM.

You can overlook interiors of a house like a conference room, find out history of the house. You can watch a movie about Prague monuments, see photos of famous people and historical photos.

There will be some fun for kids, rescue service will present first aid help and you can also see a presentation of city organisations like Prague zoo, Museum or the Planetarium.

Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik will have a memorial. These two Czech and Slovak soldiers made the assassination of top Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich, the “Protector of Bohemia and Moravia” and the chief planner of the holocaust.

They assassinate him 27th May 1942 in Prague – Liben, when he was returning to Prague from his mansion by car. After his death, They both died during hiding in a church cellar, when Gestapo had found them. Another consequences were killing of hundreds innocent Czech people. This act has strong reaction abroad.

Memorial of Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik will be placed in a park very close to location of Heydrich’s assassination.

It is few days after the shooting on Prague trams and next case is here.

A woman was shot in Prague 5 Smichov into a thigh and man in Prague 9 into a tummy by an air gun. Attacker or attackers aren’t known, maybe it is man about 30 years old.

Police investigate connection between this incident and damaged trains from Thursday.

Water in Bohemia is still slowly rising. There in no good forecast for next days. Rain will be today in Bohemia, tomorrow will move above Moravia.

Capital city of Prague is still at floods level one – the vigilance, but some Prague districts are at level three – the threat. It is one of southern districts – Lipence, which is between junction of Vltava and Beronuka river. Especially Berounka is at higher level – it is five-level.

A road connecting Lipence and the rest of Prague and the republic is one meter under water. Boats and ships has forbidden access on Vltava except Barrandov bridge-Smichov sector. Restaurants at river bank has closed gardens for customers.

Out of Prague water made some damage in Pilsen. A town close to Prague – Cernosice has about five houses with basement full of water, about 25 cottages is under water. Luzice river at Tabor area made a damage in Mirovice: 25 houses was flooded.

Water is decreasing in some regions like Karlovy Vary. Present loss is expected as tens of millions CZK.

Children festival is in town Zlin from 28th May to 3rd June. This festival is for professional, journalists, but mostly for kids.

You can see a many movies and fairy-tales from Czech Republic as well as from abroad. There will be also many bonus programs and entertainment for kids.

There will be many world-known guests like Marléne Jobert, Pierre Brice, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Oleg Tabakov, Alfonso Cuarón (director of Harry Potter :Prisoner of Azkaban), Krzysztof Zanussi, Michael York and more.

You can see many program lines, like movies for kids under 13 and above 13, animated movies, student movies, documents, a competition and more and more.

Official pages of Zlin film festival is here.

Unfortunately it is not shooting a film, but real shooting.
Four trams were shot by unknown projectile On Thursday in Prague. It was in the area of Zizkov district. I hoped that there will be some more info, but until now it is not clear what was shot.

Prague trams were shot between 6 PM and 7 PM. Once was hit driver’s cabin, three times passengers section. No one was harmed. It was two lines number 9, one 5 line and 14 line.

Police found twice broken ventilation windows, one cracked window with a three millimeters wide hole and one with a 3mm wide hole.

It is not certain origin of holes. As police said it could be caused by fire arm, stone or as visitors of forum said by heavy sling. One theory is that it was shot out of car.

Trams were repaired and back on tracks next day.

It is not a month and water is raising again.
Worst situation is in Western Bohemia region at rivers Vydra in Morava area, Otava in Susice area, Klabava in Rokycany area and Mze in Tachov area. Emergency status is at Rokycany area.

Prague is in first level – vigilance. Doors at Vltava protecting blind stream branch Certovka has been preventively closed.

It is awful that floods become only after two days of raining. It was almost never happening. It could rain whole week and there was no floods.

It is only five days to polling day. This day is last for publishing of election preferences. Next day where preferences can be shown is Saturday, when election will end.

Inquiries was made by four agencies and companies. It is CVVM, STEM, Factum Invenio and SC&C. Their last surveys was between 1st May (Stem) to 25th May (SC&C).

Only one thing is common: Which Parties out of 26 will get to Parliament. It is (from left to right) The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), Green Party, Christian Democratic Union –
Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-CSL) and Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Other Parties will not reach 5 per cents required for membership in Parliament.

But as survey says is not clear a success in elections. Each surveyor company has different results in number of per cents and sequence.
It is expected that KDU-CSL will have between 5,5% and 9% votes, Green Party from 7,1 to 10,5%, KSCM 12,1% – 17,3%, CSSD 24,2% – 28,5% and ODS from 26,7% – 32%.

It is not certain which Party will win elections: ODS or CSSD. That also means that there is more variants for coalition. Most expected are ODS+KDU-CSL, ODS+KDU+Green Party, CSSD+KSCM (or only passive KSCM support of CSSD), CSSD+Green Party+KDU-CSL. Other variants are not so probable like ODS+CSSD.

ODS and CSSD are biggest rivals in this election. Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek (CSSD) reduced large gap between chances of winning ODS and defeat of CSSD to a minimum in couple of months. Political duels of Jiri Paroubek (CSSD) and Mirek Topolanek (ODS) in discussions is very equal.

If nothing happens, certain winner in these elections will be known after the end of voting – most probably from Saturday to Monday.

Here I bring you a blog article about experiences with Czech food, by an American. He describes Czech beer, marinated Camembert, mushroom pie with beets, Slovak gnocchi, beef hunk, a goulash and some speciality – kaplicka basta.

The first thing we ate, nakládaný hermelín (45 crowns), turned out to be a regional specialty. This was at Café Indigo (Platnéřska 11, Praha 1). It’s a small round of Camembert marinated in oil with a spice we believe was paprika. Michael said it’s a common bar food served all over Prague. Camembert is one of my least favorite cheeses, but this was good, and I’d like to figure out how to prepare it before our next party.

The rest is here

For me it is interesting to have some view about Czech food by a foreigner and for you it can give you an opinion too.

I invite any experience with Czech food/drink, good or bad by you.

Two non-parliament Parties has ended a fight for voters.

Ceska Pravice (The Czech rights) has abdicated this Wednesday. A leader of the Party Jan Simkanic said that their voters should vote Civic Democrats (ODS). Ceska Pravice had voting number seven and run in seven regions. Simkanic explained that the abdication was made as way how to avoid to Communistic party (KSCM) and Social Democrats (CSSD) to win the votes.

Second party has abdicated yesterday. It is Helax – Ostrava se bavi (Helax – Ostrava amuse oneself). This truly rag political party says that their purpose is done – to arouse public notice. The party had as well as Ceska Pravice almost no chance to get to the Parliament. Election manager of the Party says that their voters should support Parties, what can smash KSCM and CSSD.

Motol Hospital, specialized to children patients was many years without any repairs or reconstruction. It was because of lack of money. Now repairs can start in full speed.

Dangerous balconies, malfunction heating, falling plaster, leaking ascending pipes. This and many more things need to be repair in the children hospital. It is six years from first proposal of a reconstruction.

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and Minister of Health inaugurated brand new repaired most important part of the hospital yesterday. It is Energocentre, a heart of Motol complex. This underground building is a technical core of hospital and it was the first step to reconstruction of another parts. The cost was 250 millions crowns.

Next repaired part of Motol is a bed section at C wing.
The cost is expected one milliard CZK, repairing time one year.

This is another reconstruction step to repair of the whole hospital.
Complete reconstruction will take five to six milliards and the end of reconstruction would be in 2010.

Czech Stock market has problem: almost every Czech stocks loses the value. It was third biggest fall in a history. Stocks value is now for 150 milliards less than last week. Unipertol stocks forfeited by 13 per cents.

Expert says that fall is not caused from inside of Czech Republic and Czech market. The forfeit is world-wide, caused by raising the price of oil and by American investors. They are worried because slowing the economy, raising interest rate and the inflation, so they are pulling back money from stocks.

Prague and Czech market has biggest fall in Central Europe. The Fall from Tuesday to Wednesday was in Czech Republic 4,2 per cents, Poland had 4,1 per cents, Austria has lesser fall – 1,6 per cents.

Reason of biggest fall at Czech market is simple: during recent months Czech economy was strongly rising. Now it has a space to fall. Economists say, that there is no reason to worry: Czech economy is still at a good way, it is expected high raising after this and this is good time to buying “good stocks”, because their lower cost will return in some time back to higher value.

I’m not an economist expert, so I apologize for any nonsenses. But information are taken from relevant sources.

Great news for every Pearl Jam fan. Tickets are now available!
As you maybe know, Pearl Jam will perform in Prague 22nd September 2006. The concert starts in traditional 8 PM.

Seated tickets at 1 590 CZK, 1 290 CZK and 1 090 CZK, standing in front of the stage at 1 390 CZK and standing tickets at 990 CZK.

Official info with a plan, a booking and sales points is at Sazka Ticket pages.

So let’s buy some Jam!

As inquiry says a beer is second most popular attraction in Czech Republic. But a beer tourism to Czech Republic is lower in comparison with last year. The beer tourism – travelling to any destination to drink cheap beer and have cheap entertainment – is still very popular, but some travellers change a destination.

Most beer tourists is from United Kingdom. But as statistics say, in Czech Republic was for 15 per cents British travellers less than last year. With cheap flights to another destinations, they slowly leaving Bohemia. On the other side, the amount of sold beer is same as it was last year. It is because tourists bring Czech beer back home.

Czech Republic is at world first place with sold beer in count to a citizen. It is 16 millions hectolitres, 156,5 litres to one person. But as brewing industry says, 15-20 per cents of sold beer in Czech Republic is drunk by foreigners visiting Prague and Czech Republic. The quantity of a beer sold abroad in is also raising.

As I see it thus maybe beer travellers will have cheaper beer in Slovakia, Ukraine or Latvia, but best beer is in only Czech Republic.

As you can read in older articles, a majority in low-cost flights in Czech Republic have two companies: Czech Smart Wings and SkyEurope from Slovakia.

Their fight for attracting travellers continues. SkyEurope now offers something new. It is transport for free for children.
The number of reservation for kids cannot be bigger than the number of adult reservation in a group. Other conditions are booking in this week and flight in a date between a half of june and the end of August.

Petrin hill is great place to visit, when you want to see something more than streets of Prague. Lookout tower as a small copy of Paris Eiffel tower, Mirror maze, observatory and a quiet park at hill is a peaceful place for travellers.

Most known way how to get to top of the hill is using a funicular from Lesser Town. It is only two stops and tourists can use public traffic tickets.

Unfortunately the funicular will be out of order during main tourist season this year. It will be repaired from 5th June to 2nd September. Walls which holds a funicular have to be repaired. They slowly move and they are damaged by roots of trees.

The repair has to be during the season, because Europe Union grant is limited by purpose and also by time. Money will come in Summer and they has to be spend for repair as fast as possible. Total cost is expected 53 millions CZK.

Although using the funicular was most comfortable, you can still use two different ways. First is walk up to hill by foot from Lesser Town, for example from point of funicular stop.

Second way is not so physical exhausting, because you can get to Petrin from behind by a bus. You can ride from metro Andel at Smichov (bus line 217) or from metro Dejvice (where ends airport bus) with bus 217, 149 or 143. You get off at Koleje Strahov station, where you can also see a biggest stadium in Central Europe. And than you go straight forward between two sides of student dormitories. At the end of a street there is narrower street leading to Petrin park.

Jazz on the Prague Castle continues 28th May. Joe Zawinul from Wien will perform this Sunday with his five-members band.

Zawinul with Wayne Short and Miroslav Vitous created Weather Report band. At the end of eighties Zawinul Syndicate invited musicians from Africa, India and Latin America. Another of his talents was presented at symphonical project Stories of the Danube, inspired by Bedrich Smetana classic Vltava.

112 millions dollars were found at Czech-German border during routine control of a cargo. Cheb police discover over 1,1 millions false one hundred dollar banknotes.

Packets of banknotes has tapes with a text “banknotes for a cult”. This was transported by Vietnam traders in boxes with food and with kitchen tools. False banknotes has very bad quality, but these copies were printed at both sides. So it can happen that someone who haven’t seen true dollars will not recognize false from true.

It is probably that the false should be used for religion purposes. Vietnam religion uses a false money to burn in sacrifice rituals. This can help to summon spirits of ancestors.

Now Czech National Bank has to decide, if the banknotes will be returned to Vietnam community or destroyed.

TV tower in Zizkov has new colours during night. It is lighten by colour lights as a part of celebration, because it is 125 years from raising Zizkov to a town. Colour lights will cover surface of the tower every night for five years.

There was many discussions about the TV tower in part, it’s broadcastings began in nineties, and high futuristic structure has slowly become popular. Now the towers broadcasts many TV and radio stations and there is for a fee choice to take a look from the tower and even you can visit a restaurant located in there. Worth to say, that prizes are as expensive as the restaurant is high.

Now Zizkov TV tower has a colours of white, red and blue (from top to bottom). That are official colour of Radio Prague and of course colour of Czech Republic. After some time, the colours will be changing.

Washington is planning to build a missile silo in Czech Republic or Poland. Pentagon will have resolution in summer. It is expected that the silo will be used as a defence against enemy missiles, for example from Iran.

The silo should have ten anti-air missiles able to destroy another missiles. Pentagon asked Congress for 56 millions dollars and the facility should be finished in 2011.

Speaker of Czech Ministry of Defence said, that Czech Republic has not any precise proposal from USA. Czech Republic and Poland are both members of NATO.

Improving of Czech traffic network is at a best way. Although ecologist or residents protest or discuss about some parts of lines highway traces in Czech, many places are in hands of builders and workers.

Prague outer circuit will have a new building site inaugurated this Thursday. It will be a part of circuit between highways to Pilsen and to Brno. Road and Highway Directorate has all required licences and the building will start immediately.

Six kilometers long section will be between Slivenec and Lahovice and it will have 1,6 kilometers long tunnel, 460 meters long bridge and two kilometers long scaffold bridge. Total cost of this section is 8,9 milliards CZK.

Other part of the section between Pilsen and Brno highways is 8.5 km long and expected cost is 5,9 milliards CZK. Work on this part could begin during this year. Whole section should be ready in year 2009.

Now it is build 18 kilometers of total length 85 kilometers of Prague Outer Circuit.

Charles Bridge needs to be repaired. Even a surface of the bridge may look well, there is damage inside of it. The water runs into the bridge and slowly destroys it.

The repair starts in autumn and will take two years, after the end of tourist season. A cost is expected about 250 millions CZK. The repair will be favour for tourists: only a part of one bridge side will be repaired at same time, so there will be four meters wide way for tourists.

Charles Bridge endured hundreds of years and even cannon balls of Sweden during Thirty Years War. General repair in sixties of the 20th century has some wrong procedures and therefore hydro isolation is now appearing as a problem. Road salting was a great helper in destroying of the bridge.

Building site will be at Vltava river and building material will be transported by ships. There is problem with the new material, because it has to be found same stone, that was used in time of Charles IV., when the bridge was built. Original mines for sandstones are closed or empty and the stone has to have same characteristics.

Some protection work has to be made on eighth and ninth bridge pillar and stone side rail needs to be moved to proper position at one place. Rusted paving stones will be the last part of the repairs. Gas lamps will return back to Charles Bridge during this repair.