February 26, 2006

Even when we go shopping we see beautiful buildings doorways street lights and decorations on buildings. Today we went downtown to do some shopping ... our list was short but when you need things you need things. The day was nice and bright lots of sunshine and lots of cold air. The forecast is for snow...  

The Czech hockey players have done it. They reached for an Olympic medal and got one. Not gold and not silver. They got a bronze and should be happy for it. To be honest, I didn’t think they’d make it to the quarterfinals after losing to Switzerland, Finland and Canada in the preliminaries. But...  

The Troja Chateau -- a 17th century chateau in Prague with formal gardens. Yes, all of this exists about 10 minutes from my flat. Crazy, huh? Photos from my afternoon in Tabor, CZ. This is the view from the clock tower in the center of town and the river overlook.  

Residents of the Czech Republic have more than one special day a year. In addition to their birthdays each person also has a "Name Day". A name day is the day that celebrates your given name! As you can imagine, the names are very "Czech" so finding "Emily", (English and French) and "Eloise" (French) is a bit difficult. I have been told that when those native to the Czech Republic have a baby they are given a list of names from ...  

On arrival in Prague we jumped in a taxi, the taxi driver was really friendly and gave us a lovely guided tour of Prague's Embassys on the way to the hotel - upon dropping us off at our destination the "bar steward" shafted us for over double what we should have paid for the taxi ride - ?45! So this was a great start to our stay in Prague.  

Helena Houdova, Czech supermodel and honorary Cubanita, has opened at a Prague gallery an exhibition of the photos she captured on the film she smuggled out of Cuba in her bra. Houdova resorted to such desperate measures after she and a friend were detained by Cuban police officers for 11 hours, after they were busted for taking photos in a Havana slum.