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Strážnice
In one of my previous posts you could see the open-air museum in Strážnice, reminding us of the past of the area. Today I’d like to add a few photos from the town itself, photos capturing the traditional face of the town. Strážnice is known as a place where a popular International Folklore Festival takes place every year. It started in 1946 and last year it was visited by more than 20 000 visitors. There are several buildings in the town which preserve the typical decoration as you can see in the following two photos. The patterns are not same but have the same style. Some of the houses don’t…
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Charm of mnemonics
There are so many pieces of information we need to know, there are so many pieces of information we need to remember. None of us is able to remember everything and sometimes we may get into trouble when forgetting something important. But there are techniques coming to our aid and probably all of you met and used the art of mnemonics which makes it easier for our brain to remember and recall the important pieces of information. There are many mnemonic devices and you can find plenty of them on the Internet but I would like to mention just a few practical uses which have stuck in my (Czech) mind.…
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Open-air museum in Strážnice
There is an open-air museum in the Moravian town Strážnice, which has been open since 1981. It shows traditional architecture and history of living styles of South-East Moravian villages of the area called Slovácko. The terrain of the museum was modelled and planted so that the area resembled the original locations. Look at the inventively woven fence and roof and a detail of the roof taken from its downside. When I was watching photographs of the museum displayed on the Internet, I didn’t find them very interesting. The place looked still and abandoned, as if life escaped from it. But as one day was supposed to be cold and rainy…
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Luhačovice spa
Back to Moravia where we spent one day in Luhačovice. Luhačovice is the biggest Moravian spa with a long tradition of spa treatment of diseases related to air passages, digestive tract, diabetes and locomotive organs. History of its healing springs reaches back to the 17th century, 17 springs has been found since that time. Every hour, about 15 thousand litres of mineral water rise to the surface from them. Water from the springs is not bottled except for a spring named Vincentka, one can buy the Vincentka water in pharmacies throughout the Czech Republic. The spring Vincentka has been known since 1680 and it is used for drinking therapy and…
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Faces of denial
A few months ago, Dan Brown’s Inferno was released, which is his latest novel. I have read all of his novels and felt curious what he would come up with now so I bought the book as soon as I saw it in a book store. Frankly, I have been disappointed in many respects. Nevertheless, there is mentioned a theory of denial in the story and I had to think about it a lot. It has stuck in my mind… The theory says that our human mind protects itself against feeling unbearable stress which could be faced when thinking too much about possible threats. We could be permanently afraid of…
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Buchlov castle
My family spent the last week of July in south-east Moravia, which represents the south-eastern part of the Czech Republic. We were staying in a camp and went on a trip every day so we visited a few castles and several interesting places I’d like to show you. On the first day we went to visit the Buchlov castle. The funniest part of that trip was that when we entered the first yard of the castle, I immediately realised we’d been there before. My husband didn’t believe me until we returned home when I proved my assertion by showing him photos we took at that time. So first I felt a…
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Beads of memories
When I was in my twentieth, I had a pair of friends who used to organise evenings of reading in their flat for a bunch of young people. I do not remember if there was served any food (probably just what participants brought with them) but there was always prepared a big pot of strong black tea with a pinch of cinnamon, the flavour was very unusual to me at that time. The reading was voluntary and everybody was welcome to participate in it. One could choose any book and any section of it to read it aloud to the others. To make them think, discuss the matter or laugh,…
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A travelling funfair in the village
At the weekend when the celebration I was writing about in the previous post took place, there was also a travelling funfair prepared for children to have fun. It might be interesting for you to see what such a funfair looks like in a village like the one I live in. Tractors come into the village, pulling all the funfair equipment. Behind the blue tractor, a circus caravan was attached and when we were passing it, we could see a big dog lying between its wheels, guarding the property. You can see a speaker placed at the front of the caravan which was playing music. Loud music, what else could…
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Celebration of 90th anniversary
The Volunteer Fire Company operating in our village has celebrated 90 years of existence since its founding. An official celebration was held and I and my husband were asked to come and take photos. We hesitated but were pleased by the invitation and finally made a decision to accept and give it a try. The first part of the celebration was devoted to speeches and reminding the history of the fire company. While listening I was walking around and focusing on a little exhibition of new… as well as old equipment and vehicles. In the photo above the older vehicle on the left belongs to the local firemen, the more…
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Though seen, hidden to our eyes
A few days ago, I was watching a celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of the local Volunteer Fire Company. It was a wonderful opportunity to try and take another type of photos than I am used to. The firemen were dressed in official light or dark blue uniforms, fire engines and equipment – both new and old – were displayed in the local pitch and procession was walking through the village including a small band playing to set a marching step. I was absorbed in the celebration and focused on taking the photographs as the light was changing all the time, people were moving, regrouping, talking, so much to figure…
