PragueBuzz!

Most people will know Antonin Dvorak, one of a few legendary classical composers. But probably few have heard of Smetana, another famous Czech composer during the Romantic period.

Smetana composed many musical pieces with Czech themes and elements. His patriotism was clearly demonstrated in “My country/Ma vlast” album, in which he named each song after a place or historical figure in the Czech Republic.

• Vyšehrad is a castle in Prague, the seat of early Czech kingdom.
• Sarka is an Amazon warrior from ancient Czech legend.
• From Bohemian Meadows and Forests (translation): portrayal of Czech countryside
• Tabor is a Hussite-found city during the Hussite War
• Blanik is a Czech mountain.

The last song is Vltava, a beautiful, musical poem, Smetana’s most famous tune, is the river (not so beautiful) running through Prague, below Charles Bridge. Take a romantic troll along Charles Bridge, behold the river and replay Smetana’s Vltava melodies in your heart. If you’re really lucky, you might be able to hear some violinist strumming this wonderful melody. (Never happened to me.)

A friend said that if you pay close attention and listen very carefully at the beginning of Vltava, you’ll hear the melody which resembles the sound of Vltava River flowing from a spring in the mountain. The music, later, changes in tempo and volume reflecting the river’s power and force when it reaches the lowlands.

Tags: Czech, Prague, PragueBuzz, Classical Music, Bedrich Smetana, Vlatava

Last night, a friend of mine suddenly felt the urge for a good glass of beer and insisted to take us to Rokytka, a bar near Palmovka station (metro B). According to this local Czech, he never tasted a good beer in his life until last week when he drank at Rokytka.

The most attracting thing about this restaurant was the price of the beer. It cost a mere 18 Kc for a 0.5l glass even on a Friday evening. Expect to pay at least 30 Kc for a glass of beer in a typical pub in downtown of Prague. My friend just informed me that 13th grade beer such as Svijany can cost up to 50 Kc.

Other than drinking Svijany, we order two snacks: Pickled Hermelin/Camambert, soft, creamy French cheese sprinkled with oiled bell peppers and Devil Toast, toasted breads soaked in tomato sauces, served with pickled cabbages on the side. The snacks were surprisingly cheap as well, 33 Kc and 35 Kc respectively. I don’t normally like Czech food, especially everything cheese related, but I found the Devil Toast pleasantly tasty.

With the “profound energy” supplied by cheap Svijany, cheese and toast, we spent an uneventful Friday evening gossiping about strangely unrelated topics such as:
” What’s up with Czech’s super deference to “Mr. Engineer?”
” How to study for free and very cheap in Prague.
” How to have your own room for 3000 Kc in Prague downtown.
” What does it mean by “going south?”
” What make Africans fights?
” And so on…

For more information on Svijany, visit is website: www.pivovarsvijany.cz

Rotkytka
Nam. Dr. Vaclava Holeho 1048/7
180 00 Praha-Liben
+420 284 828 818
Hours: every day from 10 am to 10 pm.
Reservation is recommended especially on the weekend.

Palmovka is 4 metro stops from Muztek.

Tags: Beer, Czech, Prague, PragueBuzz, Svijany

Absinthe Time
Kremencova 5, Prague 1
Phone: +420 222 516 300
Mobie: +420 731 166 054
Hours: 5 pm to 2 am
www.absinthe-time.cz

Live jazz every Thursday from 8 p.m.

I don’t know what’s up with this heavenly blue Absinthe which makes the heart of a man go crazy. I used to live for some months in Poland, where Absinthe was illegal. One day, my friends and I made a day trip to Cieczyn, a nearby city bordering the Czech Republic. Then hell broke loose as the guys decided to cross the border to Czech to snap a few bottles of Absinthe.

And this is the story of how I came to know this beautiful looking but horrible tasting alcohol, with alcohol level in the 90%. 

1. See how my friends smuggled the Absinthe into Poland.
2. A Poles looked wantingly at the bottles in an Absinthe shop.

Technorati Tags: PragueBuzz, Prague, Czech, Poland, Absinthe

Do you remember the man whose death triggered the Great War in Europe (1914-1918)?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Hapsburg throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, along with his pregnant wife Sophie was assassinated by a young Bosnian-Serb, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo in June, 1914. [More ]

By the time the war was over; millions had died and new Europe’s maps were drawn. Most importantly, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had ceased to exist as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, former Yugoslavia declared their independence. The Hapsburg family was forced to leave their home as Hapsburg’s properties were taken by the states. Franz Ferdinand’s children, who lived in Konopiste during the assignation left for Vienna to be cared for by an uncle in-law and their father’s hunting friend.

Now, the great-grand daughter of Ferdinand, Her Serene Highness Princess Sophie von Hohenberg, demands to backwhat rightfully hers, Konopiste castle in the Czech Republic, because it is not a Hapsburg’s property.

Franz Ferdinand’s children — Sophie, Maximilian and Ernst — were not Hapsburgs and so the castle and its dependencies — nearly 15,000 acres of woodland and a brewery — should never have been seized.

That is because Franz Ferdinand married a woman a rung below his royal status. His uncle, Emperor Franz Jozef, would only allow the union on the condition that Sophie and any children she bore never be considered heirs to the throne. He gave the young bride her own title and a new name instead: Princess von Hohenberg, which has been passed down to her great-granddaughter today.

The heiress won’t have an easy time in court as the states hesitate to even consider such claim as they

Konopiste–50 km southeast of Prague–is opened for public visits and occasional ceremonies.

[Link]