Magazine
How do foreigners view the Czech Republic? What's so special about the Lostice nativity scene and why would no one have a golden carp for their Christmas dinner? Find out more in this week's Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
More and more Czechs are opting to spend Christmas in a warm climate, happy to swap the traditional Christmas tree for a palm tree on the beach. The country's s biggest travel agencies say the number of clients who are leaving for some sea and sun over the Christmas holidays has risen by a full third. The most popular destinations this year are the Canary Islands, Hawaii, Egypt and Thailand.
Fisheries across the country are busy getting the nation's traditional Christmas dinner on the market - tons of carp. Now, home bred carp are a silvery grey- brownish colour so you can imagine fishermen's surprise when they recently pulled out a net in which a big fat golden carp was writhing in a sea of greys and browns. There was allegedly a good humoured skirmish over who would get to throw the fish back into the lake. The story of the golden fish which will fulfil three wishes if you spare its life is a classic in the Czech Republic.
However the story of this particular fish is somewhat different. This was a Japanese decorative gold carp which someone dumped into the lake from a home aquarium. By all accounts its chances of survival in a freezing Czech lake in wintertime were almost nil but this Japanese carp proved the experts wrong. It is thriving, fat and much bigger than it should be. And -its taste of freedom is not likely to be cut short - because who would eat a carp that might just make their dreams come true....
Eating and drinking contests are immensely popular in this country -in spite of repeated doctors' warnings regarding the possible health hazards. One of the most dangerous is the popular contest in consuming the most vodka in a given time limit. This year's contest held traditionally in Moravia had only four contestants - ten others backed out of it at the last moment after hearing about the fate of the winner of a Vodka drinking contest in Russia -just a few day s ago- the winner dropped dead of alcohol poisoning after drinking a litre and a half of vodka. In Moravia two of the contestants came close to suffering a similar fate and were rushed to hospital after drinking close to a litre of vodka each. The price which made them risk their lives was a ten litre barrel of plum brandy and ten thousand crowns.
Few people are aware of this but the beer mat is 100 years old this year. The brightly coloured little piece of cardboard that you put under your beer glass originated in Germany and mass production begun in 1903 at the Otto Katz factory. Today Otto Katz produces 40 percent of the world's beer mats and they have become an important part of the beer culture. They come in a vast variety of shapes and sizes - and an extremely popular collector's item.
The beer mat originally served a completely different purpose though -rather than going under your beer glass it was a practical cover for beer jugs and mugs that were left standing unattended to prevent flies dropping in.
It took the police two months top find the thief - a foreigner who had stolen jewellery in the Czech Republic before and had been expelled from the country and banned entry for a period of ten years. The man reportedly entered the Czech Republic under a false British passport.
The bad news is that by the time the police captured the thief he had managed to sell all of the princess' belongings on the black market. As for the princess - it is not clear what spa treatment she underwent at the renowned west Bohemian spa resort - but whatever it was the miraculous waters of Karlovy Vary must indeed work wonders. She refused to cut short her stay after this unfortunate experience and left highly satisfied saying she would be delighted to return.
