Czechs, by their own account, are some of the least religious people in the world. Nevertheless, the long-standing tradition of All Souls’ Day is alive and well here, so to speak. Over the weekend, the country’s already-beautiful cemeteries began to blaze with the light of thousands of candles, lit in remembrance of those no longer
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In Europe, the 20th century began with the apocalyptic finale of the age of the continent’s last authoritarian empires. By the time the smoke of the First World War had cleared, the Russian czars, the German kaisers, and the Austrian emperors had been swept into the proverbial dust bin of history. In Central Europe, the
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The Elbe Sandstone Mountains, formed from the sedimentary remains of the Jurassic sea bed, straddle the Czech-German border in the northwest corner of Bohemia, just a couple of hours distant from Prague by train or car. This region has long been known as Bohemian Switzerland and Saxon Switzerland, depending on which side of the border
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One of the things I love about this city is that there are so many theaters here, you can’t walk down the street without tripping over the light fantastic. Prague is a huge center of cultural activity of all types. Unfortunately, a lot of the theatrical performances are relatively inaccessible to those of us with
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Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia, was a medieval ruler who is now widely known as the patron saint of the Czech lands. Many aspects of his life and rule had the feel of a Shakespearean tragedy, from the rivalry between his pagan mother and sainted grandmother, to his premature and untimely demise. In the end,
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It’s old news by now in the international beer press and in European beer tourism circles that the variety and diversity of beer brewed in the Czech Republic has been steadily changing over the past five years or so. The standard golden pilsners and lagers that have dominated Czech brewing for the past century are
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I’d been in the country for all of three days. I wasn’t sure where I was exactly. I was having a hard time putting my shoes on because I couldn’t stand up straight. It was 11:00 in the morning and two elderly ladies had just made me staggeringly drunk by feeding me strong shots of
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Some people travel on a budget. Some people live on a budget. I’m an actor and a freelance writer, so invariably I do both. But no worries, there’s always free or nearly free stuff to do if you know where to look. So for the sake of your wallet, we’ve put together this list of
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It’s time to get your Dionysus on because September in Prague is wine time, and that’s a fine time indeed. When most people think of the Czech Republic, they think of beer, but one of the other classic beverages which this country excels at producing is wine. So at the beginning of every autumn, in
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Living in Prague can be a wild life, and nothing says ‘wild’ like hanging out with lions and tigers and bears. Or jaguars and lizards and beers. The place for that is obviously Zoo Praha, one of the coolest and most widely acclaimed zoos not only in Europe, but also in the entire world. It’s
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