Friday, November 20, 2009

Organization and Contents of the Blog


The blog has been reorganized so that the daily posts written during the trip are at the beginning in chronological order, followed by:
detailed information on South Bohemia,
          including the visits to ancestral villages;
additional photos of Prague;
additional photos from the outings in August
          while at Dobruška;
and finally the background information on family history.
The links below will take you directly to those pages, which are also accessible through the links on the left side of each blog page. Within the daily posts are links to any sections with additional photos or information about that location.

The Daily Posts Written While I Was Traveling, with a few pictures:


Prague and South Bohemia:
July 27, 2009 - Spelled right!
July 27, 2009 - Swimming in Languages
July 27, 2009 - Bagpipes and a family recipe?
July 28, 2009 - OLD pipe organ!!!
July 29, 2009 - Distant cousin confirmed
          and "Strakonice Dudak"
July 31, 2009 - Under the South Bohemian Sun
Dobruška:
Week One:
August 1, 2009 - Festival Times
August 2, 2009 - To Be or Not To Be; Concert on the Square
August 3, 2009 - Rhythmic Counting in Czech
August 4, 2009 - Fruits, Vegetables, Colors and Folksongs
August 5, 2009 - Grandmother's Valley
August 6, 2009 - Bridge of the Generations?
August 7, 2009 - Czech TV stars and a weekend!
Week Two:
August 8, 2009 - Contrasts: Foam Party & Renaissance Castle
August 9, 2009 - Olympics and Castle performance
August 10, 2009 - Link to Czech TV appearance
August 10, 2009 - Tongue Twisters, Street Dancing
          & an old movie
August 11, 2009 - Grammar Marathon
August 12, 2009 - Prague: Senate and shopping
August 13, 2009 - Polka, Mazurka, Song and Dance
August 14, 2009 - Night Language Games and Outdoor Disco
Week Three:
August 15, 2009 - Bunkers in the mountains
August 16, 2009 - Podbřezi: Brass Band and
          Old Jewish Cemetery
August 17, 2009 - Czech Political System and
          Dance Competition
August 18, 2009 - Military maps and fresh strawberries
August 19, 2009 - International Folklore Festival
August 20, 2009 - Firefighter Fantasy
August 21, 2009 - E-learning and Firefighters' Party
Week Four:
August 22, 2009 - Bethlehem Museum and Hradec Králové
August 23, 2009 - Upcoming performances and Opočno Castle
August 24, 2009 - Primator Brewery
August 25, 2009 - "Language Independence" Day
          as well as North & South American "Evening of Nations"
August 26, 2009 - Final Classes, Final Party
August 27, 2009 - Last day events
August 28, 2009 - Final afternoon in Prague
August 29, 2009 - Back in Minneapolis

South Bohemia in more detail:


The Trnka and Malecha Villages
          (Great-Grandfather's Family)

Malecha Family Photos
          from Jitka (Nestávalová) Ševčíková

The Hanzl and Toman Villages
          (Great-Grandmother's Family)

České Budějovice
Strakonice - the town of bagpipes
Bagpipe Exhibit in Museum at Strakonice Castle
Blata Kroje (Folk costumes from Blata region)
Czech cabinetmaking

Prague in more detail (mostly photos):


Praha - Hradčany (The Castle District)
Pražský hrad (Prague Castle)
Katedrála Svatého Víta (Saint Vitus Cathedral)
Praha – Malá Strana (Lesser Town)
Valdštejnský palác (Wallenstein Palace),
          now the Czech Senate building
Praha – Karlův most (Charles Bridge)
Praha – Staré Město (Old Town)
Praha – Nové Město (New Town)
Praha – Vyšehrad
Praha (Prague) – Miscellaneous Photos

Dobruška outings in more detail (mostly photos):


Aug. 1 - Deštné - glass blowing
Aug. 1 - Opočno Festival
Aug. 5 - Babiččině údolí (Grandmother's Valley)
Aug. 8 - Vamberk Bobbin Lace Museum
Aug. 8 - Litomyšl
Aug. 9 - Nové Město nad Metují
Aug. 14 - Night Language Games in Opočno
Aug. 15 - Eagle Mountains - Military Bunkers and Poland
Aug. 16 - Podbřezi: Brass Band and Old Jewish Cemetery
Aug. 18 - Military Cartography Center in Dobruška
Aug. 19 - Červeny Kostelec - International Folklore Festival
Aug. 20 - Dobruška Firefighters
Aug. 21 - Běstviny Firefighters' Party
Aug. 22 - Bethlehem Museum, Třebechovice
Aug, 22 - Hradec Králové
Aug. 23 - Opočno Castle
Aug. 24 - Nachod - Primator Brewery Tour
Aug. 25 - Language Independence Day
Aug. 26 - Final Party
Aug. 27 - Final Program
Misc. Dobruška:
Dobruška Class and Group Photos
From "Evenings of Nations" Presentations
Dobruška - the town
Czech Advertising

Background Information:


Old Family Photos
Family gravesites in St. Wenceslaus Cemetery,
          New Prague, MN, 09.19.09
Family gravesites in Calvary Cemetery,
          St. Paul, MN, Sept./Oct.09
Gathering the Background Materials

July 27, 2009 - Spelled right!

How to express the deep feeling of homecoming when the person checking passports at the airport in Prague, who had just had a fluent conversation in English with a couple from Australia ahead of me, looked at my passport, gave me a big smile, said my name correctly out loud, and greeted me in Czech. This after a youth and young adulthood spent with people routinely questionning whether I, in fact, knew how to spell my name.

July 27, 2009 - Swimming in Languages

The woman sitting next to me on the flight from Chicago to London was from Bangladesh. She had been visiting her daughter in Altanta. Her English made it clear that she only understood the most basic things I might say to her, but with smiles and nods we got along pretty well. She was writing a journal in an alphabet I had never seen before.

At dinner last night in Prague, two table groups who could communicate with each other were speaking a Germanic sounding language I couldn't identify - it wasn't German, Norwegian or Swedish - might have been Dutch or Danish? English was the language they used to communicate with the Czech waiter. I choose not to ask them what they were speaking.

I "passed" at breakfast this morning. A couple sitting at my table at breakfast included me in their German conversation as if I could understand everything. When they left, another family group sat down and again addressed me in German.

In the lobby after breakfast, a woman got off the elevator and addressed her friends waiting there with "Kali mera." It threw me for a bit, but I knew I "knew" was that phrase was. Finally it dawned on me that her group was Greek and she has said simply "Good morning."

The "common wisdom" that English was not known much outside of Prague became clear today on the train from Pague to Ceske Budejovice. I shared a compartment (like in Harry Potter) with an elderly man and a middle-aged woman and her teenaged son. After telling them in Czech that "I only speak a little Czech," I was hoping that the teenager would volunteer to translate for me. No luck - no response from any of them, though the woman did make an effort to make sure I knew which stop was mine.

Entering the pension reserved for me by the guide company I'd hired, there was a bit of panic until we figured out we could communicate with writing and some basic German. The place seems newly renovated, so I'm guessing there hasn't been time to learn the basic English phrases needed to check someone in!

At the internet cafe where I'm writing this, a customer and attendant are using a mixture of English, German and French to communicate! No wonder the Tower of Babel story got created!

It will be a relief to have a translator with me for the next two days. I'm building up a stock of helpful phrases that I wish I knew already in Czech!

July 27, 2009 - Bagpipes and a family recipe?

Had the first of the seven "must try" Budvar beer varieties not available in the U.S. at dinner tonight - an incredibly smooth "yeast beer" - yummm! Had a traditional "pickled sausage" as an appetizer, followed by a really tender quarter duck with red cabbage and BOTH potato and bread dumplings! I had never seen potato dumplings outside of the recipe my father brought with him into his marriage to my mother, which we called simply "Trnka dumplings." This was another cultural bridge that brought back lots of memories. It appears I will be eating a lot of cabbage in the next weeks!

One big bummer tonight was that earlier I walked by the tourist office in České Budějovice at 6:45 and there was a sign out front saying that the Strakonice bagpipe band was performing in town at 6:00 at a location I couldn't identify. The tourist office was also closed! Strakonice is the "bagpipe town" where I will be staying in two nights. I was hoping to find a concert there, but was not expecting one might just fall in my lap in this town! But, not having had lunch today and with the language barrier, I decided to go have dinner (assuming the concert would be over before I found it) and wait until I have a guide to look more into bagpipe possibilities.

More on České Budějovice

July 28, 2009 - OLD pipe organ!!!

Okay, so I should have brought some organ music along - one of the things I decided to skip to save luggage space! Today I had the opportunity to play the ancient pipe organ in the church where my great-great-grandparents were married in 1835 - flat pedal board and all. No one knows for sure exactly how old it is and I couldn't find a date anywhere on it.

Frank playing the organ in Veseli nad Luznici

Also met an 80+ year old woman who seems to be a distant relative on the Malecha side. I'm comparing documents with her son tomorrow morning to see if the lines interlink, but she and I a pretty sure that they do.

Marie (Malecha) Nestával, a Malecha relative

This is my second day in a row without lunch - though the elderly Malecha relative broke out a bottle of Becherovka liqueur - which I had only heard about but never tasted. I liked it, even on an empty stomach! Today was non-stop with the guide and the village chronicler from Sviny (the Trnka and Malecha village). The chronicler had been maintaining the village records for 45 years including having to submit everything he wanted to include to the communist censors before he could enter an item in the chronicle - basically a news and events record of the village.

It's now 8 p.m. and I decided to get my 400 photos transferred to CD before dinner tonight, so I don't have time for the whole day's story. Had a chance to go into the courtyard and outer buildings of the Trnka homestead which is being renovated by a young couple, but which right now is about like it was in 1850!

This was really an unbelievable day and tomorrow we'll be meeting with the son of the woman I met today, then on to the Hanzel villages (great-grandmother's side of the family) and to Strakonice for the night and the bagpipe museum!

July 29, 2009 - Distant cousin confirmed and "Strakonice Dudak"

Today met with the son of the woman I met yesterday. We compared our genealogy information from the Trebon archives and confirmed that we are in fact related.

František Nestával, a Malecha relative

He added two earlier generations to the Malecha information I had (going back now to a generation before 1720) and I added many branches to the direct line he had been tracing. In their free time, he and his four sons are gradually restoring the ruins of the family homestead in Sviny retrieved from the Communists in an 11 year struggle after the Velvet Revolution. The Communists had given the barn on the property to the village to use as a fire hall, and the community was reluctant to give it back, but they finally sold it back to him for one crown (5 cents). I have a standing invitation to come back in 3 or 4 years after the renovation is completed to stay with his family on the family homestead, with anyone I choose to bring along. He and his parents were evicted from the property when he was 5 years old, and he has promised his 80+ year old mother that she can sleep there "one more time."
(P.S. Both he and his mother were thrilled to get albums of old family photos from Minnesota!)

More on the Trnka and Malecha Villages

Link to Malecha Family Photos from Jitka (Nestávalová) Ševčíková

My guide and I visited four more villages today after this meeting. Much more information and photos of locations in family history, but no new living relatives in the other lines.

More on the Hanzl and Toman Villages

Got to Strakonice at 5:30. Took a walk to orient myself to the town and find the bus station for tomorrow's trip back to Prague. This is the most immersed I've been yet in the Czech language. There are no accomodations for English or German speakers anywhere I've seen (except one restaurant menu at the musuem). Was glad to have checked out the lay of the land before doing this trip with all my luggage tomorrow. Called the woman with the newborn, who is a bagpipe player, and arranged to meet tomorrow morning at the castle museum on her way to a doctor's appointment.

Strakonice has its own brewery and my beer guidebook had some recommendations. The signature brew is called "Strakonice Dudak", named after the Czech word for bagpiper, so I for sure had to try that one. A page from another travel guide listed the best place to experience this local brew, a "rough and ready pub". I was wondering how difficult it would be to find and realized that it was actually the place I'm staying in!!! (All the Czech names start to look the same after a long day.) So, I figured this would be a handy place to have dinner. Sat down, ordered a "Dudak" and realized that not only had I forgotten to review my list of "bar food" I might order, but that no one else in the place had any food! It seemed I was destined to have a liquid, vegan diet (with no dumplings) for the first time since I've arrived. After the second of the three recommended varieties, it became clear that I had better not try the third one and that it was a good thing I only had to find my way back upstairs! Used my notepad to write "Kolik?" (Costs?) and the waiter wrote the amount of my tab, so we both completed the transaction happily.



The internet station in the pension was open after "dinner", and now that I know that I need to switch from a Czech to an English keyboard set up for my passwords to be recognized, was able to sign on and try my typing skills while happily buzzed.

More on Strakonice

The Bagpipe Exhibit in Strakonice

Blata Kroje (Folk costumes from Blata region)

Czech cabinetmaking

July 31, 2009 - Under the South Bohemian Sun

In Zimutice, the village of my great-grandmother, which she left with her family when she was 4, the mayor's assistant who showed us around the village made it quite clear that I could be given some land and buildings by the village if I was willing to restore them. Many of the villages are having difficulty finding young people who are willing to live in the villages. So the possibility of experiencing "Under the Tuscan Sun" in the Czech Republic is quite possible right now. There is restoration going on everywhere. Even with free land, this, of course, would still be a very expensive endeavor, as the buildings are in need of much repair.

Building Available for Renovation

The Trnka homestead in Sviny does have a young couple restoring it, and the Malecha homestead in Sviny is being restored by the relatives I met.

Installed at Dobruska as of last night, we did our introductions to the group and questions and response in front of all the teachers and attendees to get placed in our classes - a bit like the "sorting hat" in Harry Potter. I did "Good evening, my name is Frank Trnka" in Czech and the rest in English, so I assume I will in fact be in the beginner class. There are 79 of us from 36 countries.

Will not be posting any more photos to this blog unless I can find something other than the computers available to us here, which are dial-up.

August 1, 2009 - Festival Times

Since we don't start our official language classes (5 hours per day, except during special events) until tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m., this morning we went to a festival in Destne featuring wood-fired, hand-blown glass being made, and this afternoon to a festival in Opocno started by the Franciscan monks there in the late 1600s. It has evolved into a carnival, traditional craft fair, and community market - somewhat different than the original version, but perhaps not? Saw elaborate perniky (gingerbread cookies) being decorated and had a traditional pastry of the region I'd never heard of before (Trdelnek), which was a tube of dough rolled around a metal tube and roasted on a rotissery-like machine over an open fire - very tasty, and not something you could do at home!


More on Deštné - wood-fired, hand-blown glass

Festival in Opocno

Perniky

Trdelnik

Trdelnik

More on Opočno Festival

August 2, 2009 - To Be or Not To Be; Concert on the Square

This morning was the first day of our 4 hour daily language lessons which covered the vowel and consonant sounds and the forms of the verb "to be" - positive and negative. This is already a huge help in my language skills, as I had been trying to function without verbs!

The Yellow Class (explanations in English)

This afternoon we had a tour of the town of Dobruska and an official welcome by the town mayor before the beginning of the weekly Sunday summer concerts on the village square.

An official welcome at the concert in the square

The music group was very good. Half the pieces were in Czech and the other half in English, including many that I knew from another context! Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way;" Abba's "Dancing Queen;" and "Hallelujah! It's Raining Men!" Very fun!

For dinner we got to use our meal voucher tickets at a local restaurant. I had a whole "spicy" trout, which was very tasty and I didn't choke on any bones.

More on Dobruška - the town

August 3, 2009 - Rhythmic Counting in Czech


The most unusual thing that happened today was taking an optional aerobics class this afternoon taught by my Czech teacher, Vladka. She's very intense and energetic, so I wasn't surprised that the class was quite demanding, especially since regular workouts haven't been part of my regime for some time now. The most characteristic comment near the end of class was her saying, "Lots of teachers like to play quiet music for relaxing to cool down at the end. I don't do that!" Checking the time after class, we had been at it for 90 minutes! Will probably do it again if she offers the opportunity, but may be a bit stiff tomorrow morning. A side benefit was hearing the numbers in Czech over and over, so they may stick with me finally!

August 4, 2009 - Fruits, Vegetables, Colors and Folksongs

Morning AND afternoon Czech classes today. We were introduced to all the fruits and vegetables, as well as the colors, then combined with another class to learn some Czech folksongs. Of course one of them was the song we dance to as the "Barbarov Polka" in our Czech dance group in St. Paul - the first time I had seen the words or knew what the song was about (distant lovers in South Bohemia.)

This afternoon found an internet shop with 3 higher speed computers, but it closes at 5 p.m., so may not be that helpful. Also took a camera memory card in to a photo shop to have made into a CD so those photos will be backed up. The photo shop also closes at 5 p.m. Imagine going back to the days when people did not work around the clock and you planned ahead and did not expect to be able to shop whenever you felt moved to! This is what the small town I grew up in was like 45 years ago.

August 5, 2009 - Grandmother's Valley


This afternoon was one of the field trips I was most looking forward to - Ratiborice castle, Ryzmbursky and Babička Udoli (Grandmother’s Valley) - the childhood home of Božena Němcová, who in 1855 published her autobiographical novel, The Grandmother (Babička), about life in the small village where she and her siblings were raised by their grandmother. It's required reading for all Czech students and is a bit like a Czech Tom Sawyer. Since it was written around the time my ancestors were leaving the country for America, it's one of the best glimpses into village life at that time, as well as being an interesting story about an elderly woman's life which has been full of many challenges, giving her great wisdom and well-earned respect. Most of the places mentioned in the novel are still viewable in the valley today. [If you are tempted to read the novel in English, interlibrary loan is probably your best source, as the book is out of print and highly sought after by collectors.]

More on Grandmother's Valley

August 6, 2009 - Bridge of the Generations?

There has been a marked division between the older generation of attenders here who tend to be very earnest, serious about their Czech and go to bed early. By default, I have been part of this group. There is also a younger group of attenders who may still be serious about their Czech, but tend to stay up very late with rather rowdy parties, somewhat to the "tolerant" annoyance of the older attenders, who are sometimes awakened in the night by the noise. Yesterday during our outing I was approached and befriended by one of the rowdy set and later that evening invited to stop by his room (after I had finished my homework of course!) This turned out to be a group of about 15, and my rite of passage was downing a glass of homemade Serbian Slivovice with many cautionary warnings about how strong it was. [Apparently I look a bit of an innocent to these youngins.] Having only had the variety available in stores in the US before, this was a rare treat that I wasn't expecting to be able to have on this trip. I had heard about the superiority of most home-brewed Slivovice. The Serbian student's family only makes this for their personal consumption, not to sell, and it was very pleasant indeed! The welcome I received was warm and surprising to me, as though the young people were waiting for someone older who would be interested in them.


I left after about an hour and a half, but was not the first to leave. Apparently the party continued until about 4 or 5 a.m., but I was not expected to stay that long, and in class this morning, I was included in the group who had reason to be tired during class! Not sure where this will all lead, but I do know I can't stay up late every night.

August 7, 2009 - Czech TV stars and a weekend!

There was a flurry of activity this morning, as we found out after we got to class that the Czech TV news would be coming to film our class in 10 minutes. This is an annual occurance, but apparently much sooner in the month than usual. They are most interested in the beginning and advanced classes, so after 5 days of Czech lessons we had to perform in front of a close-up camera! Later today we will have a chance to see what clips they used on the national news.

Lunch time today meant the start of a break from official language classes until Monday, the first long break from them we've had. I'm torn between taking a nap and trying to catch up on vocabulary! Tonight we will be watching a 1940s television version of "Babička" without subtitles. I'm hoping that having read the novel, I will still be able to follow the story. Then at 10 p.m. our Czech (and aerobics) teacher will be taking us to a disco in town. Tomorrow we have an all day trip to Litomyšl (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) Sunday morning will be Olympic Games with another field trip in the afternoon. Before we know it, Monday's Czech class will be upon us again. Surprisingly, I am finding I know more what to do in situations in town, in spite of feeling like I haven't been learning all the vocabulary each day.

August 8, 2009 - Contrasts: Foam Party & Renaissance Castle

The last 24 hours spanned a range of Czech cultural experiences. Last night almost my whole Czech class (7 of 10) and about 25 others went to the local disco with our teacher at 11:00 p.m. for dancing. We basically filled the place, though there were a few locals. It turned out to be "foam party" night which left me wondering about what would be involved. It was more innocent than I expected - basically a small snow making machine that blew "snowflakes" all over the dancers - kind of refreshing with the feverish dancing. Maybe this would be a solution for the CSPS Hall until we get air conditioning? Our first stop this morning on our all day trip was to a bobbin lace museum in Vamberk, a small town where handmade lace was an important product, then after lace making machines were invented, the skill almost died out. In the late 1800s, a school was established in Vamberk to teach the skill of making the handmade bobbin lace. The school still continues. Some pretty amazing things were on display in the museum.
More on the Vamberk Lace Museum

Litomyšl Castle

Litomyšl has a renaissance castle covered in Scraffiti - individually made figured tiles (about 11,000 with no duplicates), a collection of old keyboard instruments, and a Smetana museum in the former home of the Czech composer, Bedřich Smetana. The castle tour included the private theater and a chain of decorated period rooms. The third floor of the castle had the keyboard museum and another Dobruska student from Mexico and I had the opportunity to play on an 1846 pianoforte! This wasn't the most interesting instrument there, but the one they were willing to have people play. 1846 Pianoforte

Playing the 1846 Pianoforte

Link to Paula Eliska’s video of part of this improvisation

Frank Trnka en el Museo de Pianos del Castillo de Litomyšl

There were claviers, clavichords, etc. as well as a quarter-tone piano that had three keyboards like an organ with three manuals, but with the middle keyboard pitched half-way between each half-step on the other two keyboards, something that never really caught on, as the pitch difference is not noticable to most listeners. Quarter-tone Piano

More on Litomyšl

August 9, 2009 - Olympics and Castle performance

Our Olympic Team

This morning we had our olympic games, which turned out to be lots of fun and a chance to meet some people from the other classes. We had 10 teams of 5 or 6 people selected by drawing colors out of a hat. Chance did not do well with age distribution and I was one of the youngest on my team. By contrast, some of the teams lacked elders. My group was 3 Americans, a Hungarian, a Venezuelan, and a Ukrainian who was our team captain. The Ukrainian only spoke Russian and Czech. The rest of us had English as a common language. Fortunately one of the Americans was good enough in Czech she could translate from English to Czech for him. The ten events were a variety of sport skills and Czech language knowledge trials. There were some standard things like a 3 legged race, a spoon/egg race, and a soccer slalom course, but there were some unusual ones, like having 2 people run to retrieve 20 halves of Czech proverbs while the other 4 attempted to match the halves into complete Czech proverbs. Having some advanced Czech students on our team for that one was very helpful. The results haven't been posted yet, but I'm guessing our team did reasonable well.
The Soccer Slalom Course

Nové Město nad Metují
This afternoon was a visit to the castle at Nové Město nad Metují, a town fairly close to Dobruška. It was a Renaissance building again with various owners and renovations over the centuries. What was different about this one is that it was privately owned until the communist era and given back to the family after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. So the family is currently living there with the interior still open for tours. Various rooms are furnished in Renaissance, Baroque, Empire, Louis XIV, and Art Deco. Picture taking was not allowed, so I planned to buy a book about the place, as the rooms were amazing, but the souvenir shop was closed by the time our tour was done! One large room with great accoustics had a Steinway piano in it and is used for concerts. My Czech teacher surprised me by having the guide ask me to play for the group. At the Steinway

Paula Eliska’s video of part of this improvisation

Frank Trnka en el Castillo de Nové Město nad Metují (very large video file)


Most people had not been at the museum yesterday when I played, and my teacher wanted the rest to hear. So I did some improvisation which was very well received. If I keep doing this every day, maybe my skills will come back, as I have been only marginally pleased with what has come out. It seems to work for the people listening, but I can tell I'm out of practice. We had dinner at a restaurant in Nové Město nad Metují, which had the best chicken I've had here, plus I ordered dessert - Palačinka s jahodovým - a strawberry crepe with ice cream and whipped cream! - a nice reward for having to stretch myself at the olympic games this morning! Palačinka s jahodovým

More on Nové Město nad Metují

August 10, 2009 - Link to Czech TV appearance


Here is a video clip of my class' appearance on Czech TV (small screen):



Below is the link for the online archive of my class' Czech TV appearance. Not sure how long the link will be active:

Part way down the page, this on-line article has a video clip of only the news segment about our classes.

This link is for the whole 30 minute Czech TV news show. http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/209411000100809-udalosti/

Today a photographer was there from the national newspaper and our beginning class was the only one visited.

Dnes Lead-in 11 Aug 09

Dnes Article 11 Aug 09

Fortunately, I'm mostly obscured by the orange ball!

August 10, 2009 - Tongue Twisters, Street Dancing & an old movie

Today in Czech class, as if this was really necessary, our teacher gave us some favorite Czech tongue twisters. Here's an example: "Strč prst skrz krk" which means "Put your finger through your neck." You'll notice there are no vowels in that sentence, so no more complaints about saying "Trnka" please. I'll spare you the Czech for "333 silver syringes"!

Our athletic activity this afternoon was a lesson in "Street Dancing" which turned out to be a bit like Hip Hop aerobics, not something I was expecting to be part of the program. Tomorrow there is a belly dance lesson which I think I really will skip, in spite of my blossoming reputation for being willing to try almost anything.

F. L. Věk Restaurant on the Square in Dobruška

This evening was the first 2 hours of a biographical TV movie from 1970 about F. L. Věk, a local Dobruška hero who led the struggle to preserve and make available books in Czech during a period in the 1700s when an intense effort was being made to replace Czech with German in the schools and in all official business, so only the peasants were keeping the language alive.

August 11, 2009 - Grammar Marathon

Since we will be spending the whole day in Prague tomorrow, today we had Czech all morning and again in the afternoon for another hour and a half (and we'll have the same schedule again on Thursday). In addition, it was necessary to get all of the homework for Thursday done today, as we will have no time to study tomorrow. I was fortunate to get it finished with a little time to spare before the second "Evening of Nations" tonight - presentations by mainly the non-Slavic European nations.

If possible, the music teacher's English is worse than my Czech and we need to communicate with each other! I have been asked to play piano at the graduation ceremony at the end of the course - in the local theater with government officials present - something I would prefer to prepare for a little, rather than just sitting down at an unfamiliar electric keyboard to begin a public improvisation. From what I could understand of our talk today, he has a full keyboard at home that he will bring to the ceremony, since the school only has a small one in a classroom. Whether he understood that I'd like to practice on it beforehand or not is not clear to me! I may have to ask my Czech teacher to translate for us to get this worked out.

August 12, 2009 - Prague: Senate and shopping

Left at 8:00 a.m. this morning for Prague and just got back at 8:30 p.m. Very glad I got my homework done yesterday.

In the Senate

Our whole group was invited to tour the Senate building and meet with the chair and vice-chair of the Senate committee on compatriot relations, which is responsible for the program at Dobruška. This involved bringing our passports and going through a metal detector security clearance. The building is 400 years old and for once we were welcome to take pictures, so I made up for the castles I wasn't able to photograph before.

Part of 400-year-old Senate Building

More on the Czech Senate building

Then we had several hours of free time which I used to work on needed shopping, trying to avoid having to fit all my Prague shopping into the last afternoon before my return trip to the US. Was somewhat successful, but finding very specific older things in an unfamiliar city was expectedly a little frustrating. My quest for older CDs of folk music and films that may or may not have been transferred to DVD by now was not productive. I may need to try on-line shopping or seeing if some of the stores in Dobruška can order things and get them to me in the next couple of weeks. I did find the really good Czech English dictionary for half the price it would be in the US, but of course this adds about 10 pounds to my return luggage!

Wenceslaus Square





P.S. Judy, I did find the first Harry Potter book and DVD in Czech for you.

More on Pražský hrad (Prague Castle)

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More on Karlův most (Charles Bridge)

More on Staré Město (Old Town)

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August 13, 2009 - Polka, Mazurka, Song and Dance

This evening we used two of the folk songs we've learned as the basis for doing/learning the polka and mazurka. "Kdyby Byl Bavorov" was the polka and "Červený šátečku, kolem se toč" was the mazurka. Most everyone was there, making for a large group, and there was a wide variety of dance experience, so learning the two pieces was fairly chaotic, but we managed and had a lot of fun. Now off to finish the last of my homework for tomorrow!

August 14, 2009 - Night Language Games and Outdoor Disco

Besides Czech classes today, this afternoon we also had a film and tour at the Dobruška town museum about the history of the longstanding Jewish community in Dobruška. Of the four Jewish residents who survived the Holocaust, only one returned to the town. There is a Holocaust memorial and statue on the outskirts of town, which we have driven by in the bus.

Dobruška Holocaust Memorial

This evening we went to nearby Opočno for dinner and a language test by candlelight with various stages along a walk through the village where at each stop we had to solve language tests to get a clue to the final puzzle.

Night Language Games



At the end, as we solved the final puzzle, we were allowed to cross over into the park where a live band played music for dancing and there was food and beer available.

Party After

Some people were raving about the klobása sausage, so I had one too. It was very good. I took the "early" bus home, as it was not clear what time the "late" bus was returning. This gives me a chance to go to bed at 11 p.m. to be ready for our all day trip tomorrow.

More on the Night Language Games in Opočno

August 15, 2009 - Bunkers in the mountains

Our day hiking in the mountains turned out differently than I had expected. We did hike a total of about 10 km, but what we explored were two of the 9,000 military bunkers built between 1933 and 1938 to protect the northeastern border between Germany and what was then Czechoslovakia.

Military Bunker

The land across the border is now part of Poland, but was German territory at the time of Hilter's ascent to power. There was felt to be no need to protect the southern border, as it was assumed that Austria would remain neutral and be a buffer there, which didn't turn out to be the case. The bunkers were built at great expense in materials and labor, but in 1938, without Czech consent, the Munich Agreement gave the Czech land with the bunkers to Germany as an attempt to appease Hitler and avoid conflict, so the German army was able to use them for target practice to test out their new weapons to see if any of them could penetrate the 3.5 meter steel and concrete roofs and walls. The first bunker we visited is now private property being renovated as a museum by weekend volunteers.

The other much larger one in Hanička u Rokytnice v Orličky hořach is a government owned museum where our tour took us down a stairway 36 meters underground and we followed a series of tunnels to explore the 1.5 kilometer underground area, which was much like a submarine with only slightly more headspace. This tour did give us a very visual representation of an important part of Czech history, but was not my idea of a day hiking in the mountains.

In addition, the mountain roads were a challenge for our buses. The road was about one and a half lanes wide with no shoulders, so if we met a car, the car had to pull halfway off the road to let us by. This is a popular biking, hiking and skiing area, so we also met several tour buses towing extra trailers for bike transport. At one point the other bus was stopped and we slowly passed them, getting closer and closer. When we were about 2 inches apart, I thought we were already set to make it past, but at the last moment our bus made contact with the end of the bike trailer. A little unnerving, but our driver didn't feel a need to stop.

Another challenge for the Americans in the group is that this is the second day we have had bag lunches on whole day trips that included unrefrigerated chicken - on the Prague day a breaded chicken patty sandwich and today a quarter fried chicken. The chicken started out at room temperature and there was no way any of us were going to eat it four or five hours later. On both occasions it does not appear that any of the rest of the group became ill with food poisoning, so it's a bit puzzling, but our ingrained training about food poisoning is strong enough that we were willing to survive the day on a banana and water, rather than take the risk. I am having way too much fun to risk losing a day to food poisoning.

Border into Poland

On the way back from the trip, we stopped at a border crossing into Poland and were able to walk across the bridge into Poland for a bit. There is no staff at the border and no attempt to monitor foot or motor traffic across the border - quite a contrast to what is now in place between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico!

More on the Eagle Mountains - Military Bunkers and Poland

August 16, 2009 - Podbřezi: Brass Band and Old Jewish Cemetery


Opočenka Band

This afternoon we went to the nearby town of Podbřezi for a concert by an Opočenka band. This is a traditional Czech brass band with roots in the late 1800s. This one included 3 clarinets and 3 vocalists with the brass. Probably about 400 mostly elderly people were in the audience.

The Audience

Most of them would have lived through both WWII and the communist years, and their faces were full of character. For once there were no songs in English. The concert was in a park by the river with a castle on the cliffs above. The atmosphere became rather magical towards the end when the band played some favorites that everyone knew and suddenly we were surrounded by people quietly singing these old songs.

Jewish Cemetery

After the concert we followed a forest trail along the river through the woods to the old Jewish cemetery for the town - again a magical place - the sound of the running river, shade from the high evergreens, and the late afternoon sun filtering through onto these very old, moss-covered gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions. Even the ones that had so much moss that none of the writing was visible still had stones of remembrance balanced on the top. The local Catholic priest and some village residents came along on our cemetery walk. The remembrance continues.

More on Podbřezi: Brass Band and Old Jewish Cemetery

August 17, 2009 - Czech Political System and Dance Competition

Our afternoon class today was a presentation on the structure of the Czech government. I felt very provincial in knowing almost nothing about a parlimentary model with a prime minister and president. After the presentation and asking some basic questions, I do feel that I have some understanding of the differences. There are some similarities with the U.S. in the checks and balances of power, but the possibility of congress taking a vote of "no confidence" in the president and the cabinet officials is something that surely would have come in handy numerous times during the past decade.

This evening the dance class included some interesting competitions, one of which was holding an apple between your and your partner's foreheads and seeing who could dance the longest without the apple falling on the floor. This was a contest where having a sweaty forehead was a distinct disadvantage!

August 18, 2009 - Military maps and fresh strawberries

This morning we had what was originally going to be an optional outing to the military cartography and meteorology center in Dobruška. Not very many people wanted to go, so it became a manditory outing lasting two hours. While much of the presentation was not very interesting, they have an archive of 750,000 ariel photos, mostly of the Czech Republic from 1935 to the present. Several were set out for us, which were particularly interesting. One was of a village and surrounding farmland before communism, showing all the many small farm plots and then the same village thirty years later, when there were only several huge collective farms with giant fields. The other set of three was of the village of Lidice, remembered as one of the two villages that were liquidated (all men, women and children) and razed by Hitler in relatiation for the Czech resistance fighters fatally wounding the man he had installed as his leader of occupied Czechoslovakia. There was an ariel photo of the village before the occupation; the barren spot after it had been erradicated; and then thirty years later when rebuilding had begun again. Almost living history!

Lidice 1938

Lidice 1946

Lidice 1989

This afternoon I stumbled on the Tuesday farmers' market in the village square where for $1.50 I got a quart of very ripe strawberries grown for flavor, not for their ability to travel cross country. This brought back memories of my grandmother's strawberries fresh from her garden. I shared some, but before I knew it they had all been devoured. Can't wait until next Tuesday!

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August 19, 2009 - International Folklore Festival

This evening was one of the outings I was most looking forward to, the 55th Mezinárodni folklorní festival in Červeny Kostelec - performances by international dance and singing groups, folk crafts, etc. Between 6 and 10 p.m. ten groups performed - from Italy, Poland, Turkey, Moravia, the Basque region of Spain, Cape Verde, Greece, Sicily, Croatia and Slovakia. Some were more dramatic than others, some had better costumes, but the main difference between the performers here and in the U.S. was that each group had their own live band and did their own singing. There was no taped music the entire evening! The highlights were the groups from Croatia and Slovakia - very energetic with elaborate, well-rehearsed choreography.

Croatian Dancers

Slovak Dancers

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