Local experience

Greenfingers and gardening community sprout in center of urban Prague

Jan Brabec — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:38:32 +0000

Baptized “Prazeleni,” combining the Czech word for Prague and vegetables or “greens,” the first attempt at “mobile urban gardening” has been created in the capital’s Holešovíce district.

‘Invisible’ plaques come into view on Prague buildings

Raymond Johnston — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:43:19 +0000

It is easy to walk past them without noticing. Marble and metal plaques to mark the victims of World War II can be found on residential buildings, fences and walls all across Prague. Some have quite specific details of a person’s life and death. Others refer cryptically to unknown heroes.

Mazanec and beránek: timeless Czech Easter traditions

Guest Writer — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:20:08 +0000

Baked goods in some form or other are staples of Easter traditions across Europe. The Hungarians have fonott kalacs; Italians have colomba pasquale, and the English have their hot-cross buns.

Christmas prognostication: apples, lead and shoes

Guest Writer — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:37:38 +0000

With the year almost at a close, it's normal to wonder what the new one has in store. While some of us make resolutions, Czech folklore leaves the future to chance, seeing destiny in how a thrown shoe lands, the arrangement of seeds in a sliced apple or in the shapes formed by lead poured into water.

Merry Christmas or Veselé Vánoce?

Guest Writer — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:49 +0000

Along with carp and potato salad, followed by sweets prepared weeks in advance and a much-anticipated visit from Ježíšek (baby Jesus), who brings gifts to the children, a typical Czech holiday celebration now not so untypically includes a family member (or partner of one) who is from another country.

Noël novelties: a survey of fantastic Czech nativities

Guest Writer — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:12:55 +0000

It’s two hours and 20 minutes by bus to Jindřichův Hradec from Prague but the pretty South Bohemian town’s main attraction doesn’t disappoint.

Well-designed Prague holiday shopping

Guest Writer — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:02:23 +0000

There’s a well-designed alternative to Christmas shopping on Prague’s busy city streets and inside its jam-packed malls for overpriced, low-quality goods lacking in imagination. Now in its fifth year, DesignSUPERMARKET is a sales exhibition event offering, not rows and rows, but rather a wide selection of contemporary design products from a select group of young Czech designers in a pleasing atmosphere.

Geocaching: 21st Century treasure hunt a hit with Czech masses

Guest Writer — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:41:28 +0000

It’s drizzling and Roman Kadlec, 29, a service account manager for an IT company by trade and an avid geocacher in his free time, is at Vltava’s riverbank, revisiting what he considers one of Prague’s most interesting caches — containers that geocachers hunt down using GPS-enabled devices. It’s hidden inside a hollow sign, tailor-made by its author.

Meet the Nováks. The average Czech, exposed

Petr Matějček — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:41:05 +0000

My best friend Milan recently informed me that he is to be a father. After several years of hesitation, he and his wife finally decided to replace their Weimaraner with something born with the natural ability to learn to speak. “We’re in the fourth month,” he said with that euphoric tone only a father-to-be can deliver, forgetting to add that we must have a proper drink at the weekend to celebrate.

Czech ‘sneakerheads’ flaunt their best trainers

Guest Writer — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:18:20 +0000

For the average non-fashionista, choosing shoes for the day is a one-minute deliberation on the way out the door. The still young but tight-knit Czech community of sneaker aficionados — sneakerheads, as they call themselves — is looking to show the public otherwise by spotlighting rare sports footwear at the country’s first-ever sneakers exhibit, which runs through July 6.

Two Czech cobblers: a business fairy tale

Petr Matějček — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:58:15 +0000

Far, far away, behind seven mountains, across seven rivers, between Beroun and Hořovice there lies the village of Felbabka. It has 227 inhabitants, one football team at the top of the ninth league and two cobblers: Radek Zachariáš and Erik Lawart.

Saving public art from an era many want to forget

Guest Writer — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:02:25 +0000

Communist-era relics like the former Czechoslovak Federal Assembly, National Theater’s glass-encased New Stage, the Nusle Bridge and the Žižkov TV tower still dominate parts of Prague’s urban landscape. These leviathans are just a fraction of public artifacts left behind from the normalization era — the time between the 1968 Soviet-led invasion and the 1989 Velvet Revolution.

Macháček: The way of the Czech samurai

Jan Schneider — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:00:58 +0000

Martial arts proponent Petr “Khru” Macháček has reared many successful athletes. He trains boys from the streets as well as important managers and businessmen. In interviews he has given his opinion on probably every aspect of martial arts. Czech Position was taken by Macháček’s concept of a trainer as a teacher and the social facet of his activities.

Schwarzenberg’s tailor returns to Prague

Petr Matějček — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:08:02 +0000

After nearly 70 years, the renowned tailors Knize & Comp will be returning to Prague. “Last Sunday, I visited Prague and decided to open a branch in the Gentlemen’s Arcade, which is presently being established in Na příkopech street,” the firm’s owner, Rudolf Niedersüß, told Czech Position, adding many details have yet to be ironed out.

Popular farmers markets return to Prague

Guest Writer — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:06:30 +0000

Vendors were overwhelmed when Prague’s first authentic farmers market was held at Kulaťák — as locals call the “round square” by the Dejvická metro station — on March 20 last year. There were very long lines as locally produced vegetables, free-range eggs, and home-baked goods flew off the stands, with many items completely sold out within a couple of hours. Prague 6 officials said around 15,000 people had turned out.