Nature

Now, during nice and sunny days, the great thing to do is to take a walk in a lovely park. There are few of them in Prague and it is really worth it to go for a walk in one of them, to enjoy the fresh spring green of trees and grass and to admire different kinds of amazing blossoming flowers of various kinds and colors. Plus, you obviously do not need to walk all the time, you can take your bike, in-line skates, skate board or you can play some game in the park – whatever if it is a Frisbee or petangue. If you have kids, there are various playgrounds, which they should like. And if you are thirsty, in the best Czech parks there it is always close to a refreshment place where you can get your cold beer.

So which of Prague parks are the best? There is Stromovka – huge park, recently renovated. It was quite destroyed because of the flood, which was in Prague in the summer 2002. “Strom” means a tree in Czech language and there really are lots of trees, but there are also beds with flowers, water fountain, a lake with ducks… Stromovka was originally founded as a king´s hunting park, already in 1268, during the reign of Premysl Otaker II. In the turn of 15th and 16th century there was built a small castle, its today´s look comes from 19th century, where it was used as the summer residence of Czech vice-regents. But there are other interesting buildings in Stromovka, for example in 1961 was built here an astronomical observatory. But the park is mainly the favorite place, where Prague inhabitants spend their free time in the fresh air, surrounded by trees.

Not far from Stromovka is a park called Letenske sady (which in English means Letna Gardens). Here used to be a famous huge statue of the infamous dictator Stalin. Later was on this place put a huge statue of Metronome. And from the Metronome you can enjoy amazing view over Prague with Vltava River and all that amazing Prague towers, churches, palaces and other builidings. There are a lot of flowers planted in Letenske Sady, at this time exceed especially beautiful tulips of different shapes and colors. Plus, here is a popular beer garden with a beautiful view over Prague, or you can ask for beer in a plastic cap and enjoy it while walking through park or on some of plenty benches.

But probably the most famous of Prague parks are Petrinske Sady (Petrin Gardens) – according to the tradition, the ideal place for lovers. There is even a statue of their “patron” – a Czech poet Karel Hynek Macha, an author of very well-known poem Maj (May), which is an obligatory reading in almost all Czech high schools´ literature lessons. In Petrin is also a beautiful Rose Garden and popular mirror maze, lookout tower, Stafanik´s observatory, Memorial to the victims of Communism. And if you do not want to climb up on the Petrin hill, you can use Petrin funicular, a special mean of Prague public transport.

Those mentioned above are obviously not the only Prague parks, but are definitely the most famous. But maybe you will also like to discover other ones, for example Riegrovy sady with beer garden popular among Prague ex-pats.

Have you visited the Prague Zoo already? If yes, you have probably noticed one of its prides – the gorillas. And if you have not been there yet, you should know, that the place is definitely worth of a visit.

There are six gorillas. One male called Richard, three females named Shinda (which is Svahili name and could be translated as Victorious), Kijivu (again Svahili name, means Grey) and Kamba. And two young ones – a girl called Moja (means One) and Tatu (means Third). Moja was for almost one year thought to be a boy, because she was protected with her mother so no one could have checked, if she was a girl or a boy, and now it is the same with the youngest Tatu, who was born at the end of May 2007.

In November 2005 a very interesting multimedia project started, the Prague Zoo prepared it together with the Czech Television and the Czech Radio, it is called “The Revealed”, and it had three main aims: to show to the wide public successes which the Zoo has made with breeding gorillas, to help to raise some money for protecting highly endangered gorillas who live in the free nature and to offer more meaningful alternative to reality shows as Big Brother, which emerged in the commercial TV that time.

The project was very successful and popular among the wide public, it even won a Panda Award at Wild Screen Festival in Bristol, which is the most prestigious award for films about nature. It also helped to attract more visitors to the Zoo itself. So the project goes on until now.

So if you want to see what gorillas in the Zoo are doing right now, you can check the website of the Czech Radio, where you can also find more information about the project, some of them are in English: http://www.rozhlas.cz/odhaleni/portal/

Or you can go directly to the website of the Zoo: http://www.zoopraha.cz/cam_04.php It can easily happen, that after watching those gorillas online, you will feel like seeing them life.

Do you like stars? Do you like looking up to the sky and watching constellations? But you are disappointed because you see only cluster of stars and do not recognize single constellation. I think it is time to set out on a trip to planetarium.

Planetarium Prague in Stromovka was opened on 20 November 1960. Since 1979 it has belonged to the “Observatory and Planetarium of Prague”. It is the biggest planetarium in the Czech Republic and one of the biggest planetariums in the world. You can see there a large circular hall for 210 people. An artificial sky is 15 metres high and the projection screen is the biggest in the Czech Republic – 843 sq.m. This hall is equiped with modern technology including the most modern laser systems.

Most of their shows are in Czech version, but they offer in English version: “Astrology and Alchemy in the Court of Rudolph II.” and “The Night Sky”. Under the reign of Rudolph II. Prague was the centre of science and art. People believed in power of stars, magic and philosophers‘ stone. You will see how alchemists worked and how composed horoscope for the Emperor. In “The Night Sky” you will see the most interesting constellations which you can watch by naked eye. You can look forward to laser effects. If you want some more informations and reservations contact the planetarium at www.planetarium.cz.

Prague is unique, among others, also by the fact that directly in the city a couple of natural locations are preserved. To one of these belongs Divoka Sarka (Wild Sarka). If you want to get to this western reminding county, go to the terminal mentro station on route A – Dejvicka. From this stations take a tram along the Evropska street up to the station Divoka Sarka. Then go straight from the station by the red tourist mark and you will get directly into the bottom of the Sarka valley.

Sarka has probably got this romantic name from the czech word sery – which means dark, deep…and the valley around the Sarka´s stream is really such a dark, somewhere frightening place. The valley is very narrow which originates in the long lasting water stream activity. If you continue by the stream flow, you will see two rocks on the left side. This location was settled already in the stone period.

Now we get to the small swimming pool and you can leave now the red tourist mark, walk across the stream and set out around the high rock ridge called Girl´s Jump. This place is famous for its well known Czech legend about Sarka and Ctirad. Treacherous girl Sarka, which was leading the girl war, followed Ctirad to this place but then betrayed him. She was later pursued by the reproaches, so she decided to jump from this rock and come her young life to an end.

We will continue further to the romantic building of a red mill. After several metres we get to a tent camp and follow the red tourist mark again, which will lead us to the valley pool, where is very nice and clear bathing. But be careful, the water is here very cold even during the hottest days. Refreshed with pleasant swimming we can walk to the tram, which goes back to the centre.

If you try this journey, which is not very difficult, you will walk about 6 kilometres. But in Sarka you can walk a lot more kilometres, or ride a bike. Maybe you will meet a western cowboy on a horse. This place really reminds the wild west and is popular for various western actions and entertainment.

Spring is here!! And that is great because spring is my favorite time of year in Prague. It is easy to see why – the beauty of Prague is in its peak when everything blooms! There is no doubt about that. Prague is just magical with all the flowers so wonderfully colored.

Although this winter was neither long, nor cold – I would rather call it long autumn – I couldn’t wait for spring. And it is finally here! In Prague it is the best season. Why?

First of all, Prague is unbelievably beautiful when in bloom. And secondly, spring time is usually not so tourist-busy. Spring is also great because it means that daylight hours are greater and every day increasing. Moreover, the temperature is growing rapidly. This all means that it is more pleasurable to walk around Prague.

And where it is the best to go for a walk? Any garden is a great choice. I would recommend you to visit above all the Petrin Hill and Vojanovy sady.

Petrin Hill is great because there is an orchard of I don’t know what trees, maybe apples or pears, that is not important. Important is that this park is just amazing when you see it bloom with the Prague Castle on the background. It is marvelous scenery! The best way to approach this part of Petrin Hill is either from the funicular railway, not far from Ujezd tram stop (trams 6, 9, 12, 20, 22 or 23), or from the tram station Helichova (trams 12, 20, 22, 23).

Vojanovy sady is a beautiful little garden in the very heart of Prague. What is special about this garden is a wonderful tulip tree. When it blooms, there is nothing more beautiful!! It is very romantic!! Vojanovy sady is situated between the Charles Bridge and Malostranska subway station (green line A).

So don’t hesitate. Flowers and trees are blooming right about now. It would be really pity if you missed it!

So I woke up this morning and gasped! I am still amazed now, you should see my face. There is snow out in the streets of Prague, and a decent amount of it!! Now, on January 24!! I have lost my hopes that it would snow in Prague this winter long time ago.

This winter so far has been unbelievably warm in the whole Czech Republic. Blame it on the global worming or warm winds, this is the second time it snowed in Prague, and that is rather rare! First time it snowed in Prague was early in November, long before St. Martin’s Day. As quickly as it appeared it also disappeared, all within one day.

St. Martin, who has his name day on November 11, is believed to cover the whole country with snow. Well, this winter it didn’t happen and it hasn’t snowed since!! Skiers and service providers in Czech mountains were desperate, since pretty much all December and January the temperatures were extremely high for winter. It was actually so warm that one temperature record fell after another.

That is why everyone is so surprised now with the snow fall. There were, of course, weather forecasts predicting snowfalls from last night on, but nobody probably expected that there would be so much snow in Prague.

It is a beautiful sight! Out of my window I see one beautifully white scene, and it is still heavily snowing. Children are stunned, tourists amazed. The beauty of Prague under snow when all historical buildings have snow caps on the roofs is something new to them. It looks like a fairy tail.

Not everyone is happy, though. Especially drivers and pedestrians are all mad. In the streets of Prague, snow quickly changes into slush. And that is not nice at all. Prague’s otherwise romantic cobblestones turn into the most dangerous thing ever. Streets are slippery. Your pants are all wet the moment some car goes by very fast. And so on.

So maybe the best thing to do right now is to find yourself a neat coffee place with a nice view of Prague, and watch the whole scenery from inside where it is warm and dry, with a hot grog in your hand. Just like that you can fully enjoy the beauty of white Prague.

My first blog on Prague.net. Wow! I can hardly believe it! After half an year of hard work, lots of cups of coffee, head aches after the hours spent in front of this or some other computer, I can finally see some results. Ok, the project (Prague.net) it’s not ready yet, there’s still lots of things to write about. After all, Prague is indeed a fantastic city.
No wonder there was some 18 billion finds in Google at the simple sentence “Prague Guide”. Ok, ok, many of then relate to the same webs, duplicates, and so on, so you could take out a billion or two, but anyway… Take out 17 billion and still the number outruns by far my imagination.

Me, I’m just another foreigner who happened to visit Prague and decided to move here (at least for my studies) and start a new life. By the way, I happen to remember my first visit in Prague. It was spring like now, maybe a bit warmer. It was Easter in Prague. Everything seemed so alive, so clean and peaceful, that I immediately fell in love with the place. A fairy tale city, I told to myself. Sunset on Charles Bridge, the blue mini Eiffel Tower (a.k.a. Observatory Tower) on Petrin hill at night, Prague chic cafés on the Old Town Square and all those taken away tourists just like myself…

Later on I became to know also the people here. They seemed cold and impersonal, everybody minding their own business, smiling far too seldom. And their language totally puzzled me, so rather don’t even mention it! But how are things now, after some three years or so?

Well, the Czech language is a perfectly nice language, really complex and interesting, it just keeps getting on my nerves when I don’t get the case right (they have 7 –seven!!!! cases in Czech, you know…). And the people, they are perfectly fine, some of them are my friends and we go out for a beer or meet at a “wine session” now and then. It just takes a while until one gets used to they life stile and mentality. As a foreigner, it seems I am always a bit exotic, so maybe that’s why is easier to get in contact and communicate with them.

Getting back to my first blog here, and what I’d wanted to tell you before losing myself in all those nice memories. Today I bought my first spring flower in Prague! It’s lying on the frame of my window, in front of my desk, inviting me out. It’s a fabulous spring day, parks are getting greener and greener each day, and I sit here, writing blog for Prague.net…
Not that this isn’t interesting, but if you’re reading this, better do what I’ll do in the next few minutes: get out in the sun and enjoy the perfect spring afternoon!

Take my advice or not, for now I leave you explore Prague.net for a second and I’m “outta here” :-)
Looking forward to meeting you again next time. Same place (Prague.net’s bolg), different time.