CZECH Republic – Busybodies

I can afford to even be a little sarcastic, I am one of them. It is actually not easy to view one’s birth country as for an “impression”, as a memory – from afar but not far enough. Particularly when there has been a continuing contact with the country and its people, as relatives, friends from many different social circles and colleagues. And I was asked exactly for that – as a challenge and out of curiosity about how I see the place and its folks – from a distance of 7,000 km and almost half-a-century in time.

After a While

Almost half-a-century ago, I left Praha for Canada, after years of deliberation in the old communist “paradise” cage. I left without a big drama to continue my postgraduate doctoral studies in London, Ontario. I was already in Canada and watched on TV all the “Russian tourists” pouring in with tanks and rockets in 1968.

1968: Russian tanks in Praha

That show of belligerent brute force was followed by another 21 years of harsh communist rule – it was another “lost generation”  which I did not want to be a part of – and so I stayed in Canada for good.  
That situation delayed my first visit to the old homeland by some 14 years. Then it was interesting since, at that time, I was nominated by the Canadian National Research Council for an exchange visit with the Czech Academy of Sciences.  That institution apparently did not want to mess up the valuable exchange agreement with the West and, eventually, consented with receiving me in Praha. They did not quite know how to handle this Czecho-Canadian. Following some initial trepidation, they lost track of my work comings and goings – and I had an unprecedented access to colleagues and laboratories of their Institute of Microbiology, smoothed by my fluent Czech language.  It was interesting to see how, due to the different socio-economic system there, they were addressing different issues in different ways.  That was my general brief summary from the first return visit at that time –

1989: "Velvet revolution" - totality gone

Following the implosion of communism in 1989, I have been visiting the Czech Republic almost every year, witnessing the progress which was much faster on the physical side of things (appearance) compared to a much slower, much more difficult and less visible change in people’s minds. For the better, it could not be for the worse, the new generations coming up are different and very international. 
That is very gratifying to see and the little scenic Czecholand is nowadays a real pleasure to experience. What a difference compared to the old dark, dour and harsh commie times.

Czecho-Canadian

Am I a Czech or a Canadian ? I think I will circumvent this question by saying what I decided a long-long time ago:  “I am a free Engineer in the world”.  It helps me to conveniently bridge both of those gaps – that one of distance and the other one of time. I also spent periods of time returning to my old Czecho–land even on my ‘academic business’ – many visits, also parts of sabbatical years. Of course, that country is supposed to be ‘easy’ for me – I know it intimately and master the language perfectly.

That’s what I first thought.  However, the first deflation came when lecturing in the Czech language. I quickly realized that I am missing the bio-terminology in Czech since that I picked up only in English during my grad-studies and thereafter. Czech colleagues and students in my audience quickly reassured me, “Don’t worry, we use English terms anyway” – and indeed they did, what a relief.  Only the Czech purist soul in me suffered a little bit – just briefly, as I realized that, historically, there used to be Latin and German dominating science communication.  The fate of a small nation - -
500-Year Flood

During one of my many visits to the Czech Republic from Canada, I encountered an extraordinary – disaster. Once in 500-years flooding. In a “perfect storm”, an extraordinarily wet summer got combined with several simultaneous downpours over the South-Bohemia region and - my city of Praha got submerged, badly. Everything in and close to the Vltava valley throughout Praha was under water that was quite deep at some places. Fortunately, at that time I was staying at one of the highest-located points in Praha so I was not directly affected.

Needless to say, I went for walks to witness the flood disaster in the vicinity of the raging river that rose by some 7 meters and swelled to about 100 times of its normal flow.  It was so much water flowing that the river was flooded flat – meaning practically no white water – no fun to even paddle.  I could just hear my old partner muttering: “Yeah bro, we could paddle THAT !”  No fun -

Water pouring in from sewers below

Water is an element decidedly worse than fire that could usually be localized. Much less the flooding water that widely penetrates everywhere – streets, buildings and their basements, infrastructure (cables, pipes, sewers), metro tunnels – I remember watching a TV broadcast showing sewer lids in a street popping up by flood water that was pouring into the district through the underground sewers below. No escaping such a sneaky invasion.

Metro tunnels flooded

Everything was flooded in the flood zone, particularly in the historical part of Praha that is in the river valley. When the flood receded, it left behind deposits of mud, trash and rubble. In the messy, dangerous, costly and labor-intensive clean-up process, some buildings had to be torn down and damaged infrastructure installations totally replaced. The remedial repair work was ongoing for many years to follow. As if once were not enough, the raging water element came out of control again in 2013. To a little lesser extent though but despite all the flood-control improvements put into effect after the disaster of 2002.

Prager - a City Boy
My heart was bleeding having witnessed such a destruction of my city.  I have to confess that I am a city boy, a true-blue Prager, baptized by the Vltava river as they say, born in Praha and I lived there. If it were not for our clandestine group of boy-scouts, and later for our white-water canoe racing trips, I would have had relatively little chance of ever leaving the city to get to know the Czech countryside – apart from teen-age vacations.
And so nowadays, I am still catching up with exploring my old homeland which is both beautifully scenic and historical as well as conveniently compact. Particularly with a car, everything becomes close and easily accessible in such a small country – with a plethora of alluring little hotels and restaurants along winding country roads. And old castles or ruins of those of antiquity are scattered around every few kilometers. There would be no end to enclosing cute pictures here – I rather use a video. You have to go and see by yourselves. I will only be glad to meet you there and show you around as I keep exploring myself.

It is so much better to explore with an aim and purpose. Recently, I discovered a web-site of old Czech flour mills ( http://vodnimlyny.cz/ ). A few thousand of them are listed, photographed and described. To do so, I thought, what an idea to travel with a purpose !  Invariably, these mills are located in scenic surroundings on a creek or a river for hydro-power. Many of them have been converted into small hotels or family dwellings. Just an interesting observation and travel aim to mention, I figured.

As an accompaniment on our way, we could also explore the happy polka sound of the traditional Czech brass band. By the way, did you know that another polka, the World-War-2 famous "Roll out the barrel", was composed by a Czech ? Yes, his name was Jaromír Vejvoda. A historical saying ascertains that:  "When a Czech then a musician" - I don't know if it still applies.

Cottages and Chalets
Probably due to its recent socio-historical development, they say that the nation developed into the one of cottagers, chalet owners and gentleman farmers. Early romantic trends, proliferation of larger cities and war times are at the roots of the “fresh-air” trend for people seeking a retreat in the country-side. 

This was probably only amplified during the communist times when people yearned for a place of their own – to escape to. And so, under extremely difficult conditions of shortages of everything and over a period of decades, many city people painstakingly built their retreat cottages. Often, they got hold of old or abandoned little family farm-houses and lovingly restored them in the original style – but devoted to a recreational, vacationing and weekender life-style.
 
People devoted all their free time to this pursuit as it became a national craze and almost the country trademark with amazing efforts expended – and with often amazing results. That is why Praha, in particular, was (and still is) emptied of its habitants on weekends and for most of the summer vacation time. No use for me to go to Praha during that time, all my old friends are hidden somewhere in their countryside retreat cottages and chalets.

Slowly. however, this peculiar pastime is ebbing away now as younger generations become more engaged in their much more meaningful, exciting and rewarding jobs, travels abroad and private enterprise.
The priorities in new lives are achanging and there is less time available for those cottages and chalets hidden in the scenic countryside that people so lovingly built up or renovated.

A Lesson From the History

The Czechs are a funny bunch. They tend to dispute a great deal and I called them “bickering busybodies”. They could not even agree on a proper name for themselves. Pragmatically speaking, it is not actually necessary nowadays to label a nation as a “republic” or such, just as Danemark or Sweden, for example, do not include “kingdom” in the formal state name.  Very recently, as soon as the name “Czecho” was floated, Moravians and Silesians (the eastern territories0 voiced their disapproval for not being mentioned. 

And that’s how Czechs somehow do not tend to build up and hold onto their own brand like the Swiss, for example, who have Swiss watch, Swiss cheese, Swiss guard, and even brand Swiss air (NOT an airline, that used to be).  The Czechs somehow don’t care for building a national brand – and like the busybodies that they are they waste energy bickering about politics and such – over their favorite beer. That activity propels them to their highest per capita consumption of beer in the world – 168 liters per year for every man, woman and child there.

A more than 1100 years old Czech legend tells about duke Svatopluk, the ruler of the Czecho tribes,  We recall how he summoned his 3 sons to his death bed and gave them a bundle of 3 wooden rods bound together.  “Break them”,  he ordered. One after another the sons tried but could not.  The old man separated the rods and distributed 1 rod to each of his sons with the same challenge – brake it.  They easily broke the separate single rods.  “When you are separated, like the rods, it would be easy to brake you and our kingdom”, the ancient duke concluded his lesson.  Not too often did the nation follow this wisdom, Czechos somehow don’t tend to stick together well, it seems.  It used to be Czechoslovakia when I left -  as of recent, we have Czech and Slovak Republics, fortunately, with a peaceful and amicable separation of the two.  That’s somewhat unique.
And gone is the “socialistic” totalitarian system too -  I can come and go now. That was not possible 25 years ago -

Czechs Eat Well - CZECH cuisine :
Historically, Czechs meals are hearty and laborious. Pork and beef are the main meats, lamb or mutton and fish are not so common. Differenr types of dumplings or potatoes are favorite side dishes.  Czech main meals (lunch AND supper) typically consist of two or more courses: soup, the main dish, and then perhaps a dessert or compote (kompot = preserved fruits).  Czech soups and many kinds of sauces, are both often based on stewed or cooked vegetables and meats.  Cream, is often used and this certainly contributes to them being a rather “nourishing” supplement.  I claim with a tongue in cheek that no nation eating routinely such heavy lunches could produce anything of value in the afternoon. The traditional lunch routine, however, seems to be changing too.

Czechs seem to be hiding their secret culinary weapon – open face sandwiches ! They are refreshing, prepared cold and, opposite to sweet snacks, in their many-many forms they deliciously and quickly quench the hungries. I wonder why the Czechs don’t supply the rest of the world with them. But then, the Czechos have that marketing and branding problem, see the duke Svatopluk story above. Regardless, get those sandwiches when in the Czecholand – in delicatessen shops because they are usually not on restaurant menus. One can also simply prepare them at home - and remember, looks are as important as tastes :

 

 

Born and raised in the Czecholand, I naturally feel that the above "borrowed" videos just don't do justice to the Czech culinary delights. So finally, I yielded to the temptation to make a very brief video cross-section of some typical Czech dishes. No talking - just FOOD - with a happy traditional Czech brass band polka. Note that you can PAUSE the video any time to look closer. I was really drooling making this video >>>