My Czech Republic Blog

Blog written by two Prague residents about life in the Czech Republic.

Three Prague Restaurants in 2007 Michelin Guide

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The MICHELIN Guide Main Cities of Europe 2007 has just been published. Last year I wrote about the Prague restaurants that received the Bib Gourmand, which highlights “good food at moderate prices”. The same three restaurants that received the designation last year, received it again in 2007. They are: Aromi, Brasserie M, and Le Terroir.

Dana and I have enjoyed both Aromi and Brasserie M. We have not yet been to Le Terroir.

The Michelin Guide is famous for its 1 – 2 – 3 star restaurant rating system, with three stars being the highest.  Prague still does not have any restaurants that have received a star designation. Neither does Budapest, Hungary or Warsaw, Poland. Budapest and Warsaw each have one restaurant awarded a Bib Gourmand.

Josef Day

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Today was the name day of Josef, historically one of the most common Czech first male names. It is an old name and it used to be extremely popular in the past. For example, the village of Josefovice used to have at least one Josef living in every one of its houses (I wonder how the village got its name…). Today, only four Josefs and one Josefa (the female version of the name) are registered in Josefovice.

The name is not on the top of name popularity charts anymore, having given way to names like Filip, Tomáš, Adam, Jan or Lukáš. Out of the 4,700 boys born in January 2007, only 66 were named Josef compared to 320 boys named Jan. According to TV Nova however, there are currently 266,000 Czech men named Josef, which still makes it the fourth most used Czech male name in general. It is no wonder that the Josef name day is still celebrated across the nation and mentioned on the news every year.

And what’s the deal with Pepa, one of the most common diminutive versions of the name Josef? Well, according to linguists, “Pepa” came to us from Italy where the diminutive version of “Giuseppe” (= in Czech “Josef”) is “Beppe”. Who would have thought?

Source: TV Nova

Back from the U.S.: My Observations (IV)

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OMG, Those Commercials!

All of a sudden, I found American network TV almost impossible to watch due to the irritatingly frequent commercial breaks. I somehow got used to the commercials when I lived in the U.S. a few years ago, but it seems to me that they came on even more often this time.

For example, I watched an episode of Desperate Housewives and I swear the program was interrupted every 10 minutes. That’s five commercial breaks in a one-hour show. Needless to say, I didn’t try watching another episode. If I’m not mistaken, Prima TV that airs the Desperate Housewives in the Czech Republic interrupts each episode only once, approximately in the middle, for about seven minutes. TV Nova shows commercials every 20 – 25 minutes for about three minutes per break, so a one-hour show is interrupted twice. I can pretty much live with that. Now if only they would stop bothering me with laundry detergent, yogurt and free calling minutes over and over again! A bit more variety wouldn’t hurt, guys!

Prague is Blooming

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Today was a beautiful, sunny day in Prague.  The trees in Petřín Park are starting to bloom. Lots of people were out enjoying the spring weather.

Petrin Blooming
Petřín Park (Petřínské sady), March 11, 2007

What a difference a year makes…

March Snow Prague
Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí), March 12, 2006