Prague

PRAGUE POSSE:

Boaz Kogon (AKA Uncle Bozo): Host, guide, translator, all round great guy!







Amnon Kogon (AKA Commrade Kogan/Auntie Amnon): Never far away from food and Golom devotee as you can see by t-shirt he wears!












Gal Hadar (aka Naf Naf) - Excellent Stevie Wonder impersonator and alcohol-thief.






JeTZ - Hopefully we need no introduction!








FEATURING:

Bizarre Prague
Iconic Prague


Yummy Prague


Czech food was by no means a culinary delight for us. It was hard enough finding anything on a menu that didn't include some form of pig let alone finding something that was tasty. So when we stumbled across Trdlo* - a delicious hot bread rolled in Cinnamon and sugar and coated in caramel - we were beside ourselves with ecstatic delirium.

Click on the video to see a Trdlo roasting to perfection. In the words of Auntie Amnon: "Ahhhhhh Trdlo, is there anything it cannot do?" A sentiment we all agreed on!

Cute Prague

200km south of Prague is the delightful town of Cesky Krumlov. It was an absolute mission to get there but when we did it was definitely worth the wait!

Uncle Bozo told us that there were Bears kept in the castle moat but I didn't believe it until I saw them with my own eyes. These 2 cuties were very civilised. Look how they sit at the 'table' eating their lunch!

Sadly, the other bears were made into rugs which can be seen in just about every room in the castle:(








*A note about Czech spelling. Vowels are used sparingly. Trdlo is pronounced 'Tredlo' but why bother with the 'e' when there's clearly no other way to pronounce the word?

Iconic Prague

Prague certainly has some magnificent architecture. The photo to your left is the Astronomical clock. It was completed in 1410 and quickly became the pride of the city. Legend has it that the clockmaker, Hanuš, had his eyes and tongue gauged out on the order of the king to prevent any neighbouring kingdom from acquiring his knowledge to construct a copy of the masterpiece.














This statue is one of 30, mostly Catholic saints, located along the historic Charles Bridge. Oddly, it contains huge gold Hebrew letters above the cross that say Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of the Hosts. The sign was erected in 1696 by a Prague Jew as punishment for not taking off his hat when he passed the statue of Jesus on the cross.

This begs the question what would have been the appropriate punishment in the middle-ages for the time Jez rolled a condom onto the flaccid penis of a statue of Atlas?





The fact that the building in the adjacent picture looks like a pair of medieval rockets has spawned many conspiracy theories.

The most interesting is the belief that these towers were commissioned by the Freemasons. On the dawn of the new Millennium Tom Cruise was to be revealed as the Great Ring Bearer of the Scientologists and he would walk hand-in-hand with the Grand Master of the Freemasons to the base of these towers.

At the stroke of midnight the medieval facade would fall away and a pair of space-age rockets would launch the pair into space where they would consummate their holy covenant and become the founding fathers of humanity in the outer reaches of the solar system. Unfortunately many devotees were to be greatly disappointed...

Later the towers became the centre of a new conspiracy that apparently proves that the architect of the plot to fly planes into the twin towers in New York was none other than OJ Simpson.







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Bizarre Prague

Czech out this strange guy we saw standing at the bus stop. It looked as if he was wearing every item of clothing he owned. This made little sense considering how hot it was. I took this photo so I could see what message he had for the world on those plastic packets at the end of kendo sticks, but on closer inspection it was just the name of the shop the packets came from!

We found this rather odd fountain near the Prague Castle. We are not sure what the story behind it was but it certainly reinforced our view that the Czechs are a bit strange...








We are no really sure was this piece of...ah...art is contributing to the meaning of the world but it definitely makes the grade for bizarre things seen in Prague!









Here Jez decides to get in on the action. Unfortunately, the other boys were too coy to take of their shirts...



Again, Jez will do just about anything to make it into the blog...the empty chairs are testament to the poor sportsmanship displayed by the other boys - again!








The winner of the most bizarre thing we saw in Prague goes to the All Saints ossuary or as the locals call it, the Bone Church. Located in the town of Sedlic, this church contains 40,000 dead humans forming morbidly fascinating sculptures and artwork.



The majority of the lucky bodies used to form the bone art were victims of the bubonic plague who died in the 14th century. As the bodies piled up, a half blind monk gathered up the bones and stored them in a big unsightly pile.

Then in 1870 a wood carver and artist, was commissioned to decorate the church with the bones.

To the left is one of the many bone art creations - a very attractive chandelier which contains every bone in the human body!






More pictures of bone art...


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The Lake District: England

It was a dark and stormy day. We had been driving for quite a while. There were sheep fields as far as the eye could see. Various emotions stirred: Jez had a craving for lamb kebab whilst I had declared myself a lamb vegetarian but both of us just wanted to find this pub already! We knew the pub was on a hill somewhere in the yonder. We knew it was situated at the highest elevation of all the pubs in Britain. It was called the Tan Hill Inn. But we didn't know what we were in for!

On arrival, we saw this fellow being fed a packet of chips through the pub window. In the picture you can see me inspecting its wool. I felt satisfied that sheep were indeed very well protected against the elements. Inside the pub a dog barked, a goat bleated, and a rooster crowed. It was surreal, and we thought we might have stumbled into Old MacDonalds farm rather than a pub. This turned out to be ironic, as another fast food chain (KFC not McDonalds) is suing the Tan Hill Pub for using the phrase “Family Feast” when advertising their xmas lunch!

Inside we hunted for an empty table. But what was that lamb doing under the table?
We went to investigate. It turns out the lamb was rejected by its mother and is now being raised by the bar staff. Every now and then it would wonder into the kitchen but to my relief it always came out alive. Jez on the other hand kept wishing it would come back in kebab format.

After our lunch and mid way through a game of scrabble, we were invited to gather around the fire with the locals and hear a rendition of Tan Hill Inn's anthem to the tune of a banjo.

Click on the photo to your left to see a panaramic view of the country side in Ulswater - one of the beautiful lakes in the district.