I was walking through a park in the Vršovice district of Prague the other day and I happened to notice a makeshift sign taped to a tree trunk. Signs like that are quite a common sight in Prague as heartbroken dog and cat owners plead for help in finding their lost pets. This sign looked a little more official though and lacked that cute kitty picture, so I stepped off the paved path to take a closer look. The sign read: “On June 22, poison was laid down here against rats and mice.” And in smaller print: ”Watch your little children and household pets!”

I looked down and searched the ground around me. Poison was laid down here… POISON?!? Where here? Around the tree? In what radius around the tree? In the whole park? There was no area specified on the sign or blocked off with tape. We’re supposed to keep an eye on little children and household pets. You mean, so they don’t eat any rat poison granules and die? This particular park is so popular with dog owners that it can almost be called a dog park. There is no leash law in place, so dogs have a free run. What about their paws and the tennis balls they fetch? What about little children’s little shoes and the balls they kick around? Will they all get contaminated with rat poison? Will my dog bring rat poison home on his little feet and spread it around my living room floor? How long is this rat poison that’s somewhere around here going to be a problem? For a few weeks? A few months? A year?

I was both amused at the Czechness of this casual approach to public safety and astonished that it is still allowed and tolerated in this country. I can picture the same situation in the USA: The whole park blocked off, red tape everywhere, large Keep Away! and Caution! Health Hazard! signs placed in several prominent locations around the area. Of course that’s only on the assumption that any U.S. city authorities would even contemplate the use of rat poison in a public park, which I doubt very much. Well, we Czechs are just a little more laid back I guess.

It’s that time of the year again. The time of flying spiders, spiders suspended in mid-air, spiders sitting in the center of their webs that are spread out from lamp post to lamp post along busy sidewalks. You need to look where you’re going if you don’t want to walk into a thick web and end up dragging a shread of it with you, screaming, cursing and flailing about.

Prague spiders have been discussed briefly in the spiders thread on our message boards.

It’s a wedding mania day in the Czech Republic. Today’s lucky date of 07/07/07 is making many couples believe that this is the perfect day to enter into a marriage that’s going to be blessed, happy and will last a lifetime. Town halls, churches, castles and chateaus around the country are seeing twice as many weddings as usual and some popular wedding locations have been booked for up to a year in advance.

Just passing by Náměstí Míru, Jeff and I saw a wedding in progress at the St. Ludmila Church. I’m sure other Prague churches and town halls were busy as well. May all you newlyweds live long and happy lives together!

I was out at 7:45 this morning (which is very early for me) and was rewarded by being able to experience the festive atmosphere of the day. Today was the last day of school in the Czech Republic. Little kids, older children and teenagers, alone or in groups, headed to school all dressed up. Instead of schoolbags, many of them carried flowers to give to their teachers. I remember how much I used to love the last day of school, which marked the beginning of a carefree, two-month summer break. I still get excited just imagining how it used to feel.

I was at a bank yesterday and overheard a conversation between a very bored looking teenager and his upbeat mother. The mother was making all kinds of plans for the summer and talked about all the fun stuff that her son and his brothers can look forward to - summer camp, visits with relatives, camping, traveling around the Czech Republic (”you can even bring your friend along”)… All the boy had to say was: “Stupid summer break”. I couldn’t believe my ears. What’s not to love about summer break??

Seems like Prague is not alone in battling a graffiti problem.  That’s good news in a way. At least we know that unsightly graffiti scrawled on beautiful new facades of historical buildings are not a Prague specialty and that vandals can - unfortunately - be found everywhere. There’s also another benefit to the international character of graffiti vandalism. Cities can share strategies and experiences in their efforts to keep walls clean.

An article that came out yesterday talks about a new set of high-tech tools that many U.S. cities have purchased and are using successfully in reducing the incidence of graffiti vandalism and increasing the rate of arrests and fines. I wish the City of Prague took a similar approach. Judging from the ever present scrawls around the city center (take Ječná Street for example), it seems that nothing much is being done about the graffiti problem in Prague.