Here’s a reason to celebrate. At least for me, a Google junkie. The Big G finally owns the wonderfully simple and logical Google.cz domain, the one and only URL that’s ever going to really work. After years of being stuck with the embarassing and impossible to remember google.com/intl/cs/ (which gives an error page if you skip the last slash – why is that, anyway?), Google Czech Republic now has a proper home on the web. Congratulations, guys!
The UNESCO World Heritage listed Kutná Hora makes a great day trip from Prague. It’s an easy 45 minute train ride from the main train station and then a short bus or train ride into town. We have some information on Kutná Hora on our site.
The Cathedral of St. Barbara (Chrám sv. Barbory) is considered by UNESCO to be “a jewel of the late Gothic period”. Unfortunately, one section of the cathedral is cracked and it is currently undergoing emergency repairs. There is scaffolding on one side of the cathedral and also in the interior. Work is expected to be completed in 2008.
The statues along Barborská, the street that leads to the Cathedral of St. Barbara, are also having some work done.
Photos © jeffshanberg.com
Telefónica, the Spanish company that owns Telefónica O2 Czech Republic (the renamed Český Telecom), launched an IPTV pilot program in the Czech Republic last month. The “digital television over the internet” offering will initially include 30 channels and around 250 movies for download. Telefónica is planning to expand its offering beyond its employees in the next couple of months.
Cable television is not available in our apartment in Prague. We have a satellite dish, but have not signed up for any packages to increase our selection of English language channels. So the selection remains limited to two news stations – BBC World and EuroNews, which we have named our “disaster channels”. Through our antenna, we get the four Czech stations – ČT1, ČT2, Nova, and Prima. But between the reality TV programming, low budget 1998 German made-for-TV movies and Czech variety-type shows, there is not much to get excited about.
I hope Czech IPTV is available to us soon. It’s about time we had a better selection of entertainment and an added bonus will be playing with the new technology.
Telefonica 02 Czech Republic Launches Pilot Operation of IPTV – 7/19/06
Telecom preps IPTV – 2/20/06
Don’t touch that browser! ČT to launch Internet TV – 8/29/05
I finally have to point this out. There has been a really cool thing going on at iDnes.cz. For at least a year, readers have been sending in photos of the products that all of us who grew up in pre-1989 Czechoslovakia know and remember with that inexplicable fondness and nostalgia. The whole project started as a virtual “socialist grocery store” showing a few dozen photos, and has grown into a full-blown department store containing hundreds of pictures.
If you’re Czech and are old enough to remember the times before the 1989 revolution, I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of seeing the milk in plastic bags, the Pedro chewing gum and Vitacit, the Skivo ski wax, the dry shampoo or the Haló sobota newspaper. Everyone else who’s curious to see what it was like to shop in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s and what could be found in our pantries, households and garages back then, take a look, too, for this is probably the best overview you can get.
http://ekonomika.idnes.cz/ekonomika.asp?y=ekonomika/od.htm
Just so you know what you’re clicking on:
Potraviny – groceries
Drogerie – drugstore
Trafika – tobacco products, newspapers, magazines, stamps
Mototechna – auto parts, cars and car accessories
Konfekce – clothing and fashion
Elektro - Fotokino – electronics and photo supplies
Papír – Hračky – paper supplies and toys
Hudebniny – music store
Sportovní potřeby – sporting goods
Nábytek – Domácí potřeby – Furniture and home supplies
