Magazine

Brunching on the border - at a five km long breakfast table, burning totalitarian symbols in place of witches and rolling a beer barrel to Germany. Find out about the whacky EU celebrations that failed to make the news. More in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.

Magazine

Barrel rolling, photo: CTK

Czechs had a lot of fun celebrating the country's entry to the EU last weekend. Here are some stories that failed to make the news: If you ask people what first comes to mind when they think of the Czech Republic, many will say: great beer. So, when it came to finding an appropriate gift for their twining town in neighbouring Germany the inhabitants of Chodova Plan agreed on a 100 litre barrel of Czech beer. And they rolled it all the way to the German town of Windischeschenbach -which is 65 kilometres away. Nine couples took turns rolling the barrel down the road -each doing a three kilometre stretch. Right behind them was a lorry carrying more beer barrels - and distributing free beer along the way. They got a very enthusiastic welcome at their destination and the beer was gone in no time at all. By the way did you know that rolling barrels is a respected sport in this country? The 8th international beer barrel rolling championship is due to take place at the Chodovar Brewery on June 26th and teams from across Europe will match their skills in this unusual discipline.

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Breakfast table, photo: CTK

Elsewhere on the Czech-German border, the locals decided to have breakfast together on their first day in the enlarged EU. A five km breakfast table leading right across the border was enough to accommodate all and the locals from both sides outdid themselves in setting out the best local dishes. There was so much food -it turned into Sunday brunch, and one that should certainly make the Guinness book of records!

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A long line of canoes -over 40 of them -brightly decorated with Czech and Austrian flags made its way down the Dyje river on May 1st to "open the waterway" between the two EU member states. The event was organized by Czech and Austrian canoeists who actually needed a special permit to cross the "water" border. Strangely enough, they still do - although people travelling by road have no problem at all. The two neighbour states still lack a bilateral agreement which would give that stretch of the river the status of a border check point. But hopefully, that will soon be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, and boats will be able to sail up and down the river freely.

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First Euro baby, photo: CTK

The first Euro baby born in the Czech Republic is called Nikolas and he came into the world 8 minutes past midnight on Sunday in Ceske Budejovice. He was presented with a gold medallion by the governor of South Bohemia who said he hoped that the first Czech Eurobaby would not forget he was a Czech 'southerner'.

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On the eve of the Czech Republic's entry to the EU, Czechs celebrated Walpurgis night - a night when Czech kids light bonfires and burn witches. The event is incredibly popular, with kids competing to see who will have the best witch costume. This year some of them turned up with banners reading "Entering the EU on a broomstick". In the south Bohemian town of Breznice they decided they had better things to burn than witches - and so the witches burnt symbols of the totalitarian regime instead. Everyone brought what they found in the attic -old communist books, flags and slogans and there was also a straw dummy of Lenin. Our entry to the EU is a definitive end to that era - and it is time to get rid of all these things, the organizers explained. Next year we'll go back to burning witches.

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Building of Maypole in Hrcava, photo: CTK

The town of Hrcava lies on the border where three states meet - the CR, Poland and Slovakia. According to tradition, every year on May 1st the inhabitants of this village build a May pole - and this year they invited Poles and Slovaks from across the border to help. Some seventy villagers from the Polish Istebne and the Slovak Cierna turned out to help. The result was a much higher and more colourful Maypole decorated with the flags of the three countries as well as that of the EU. We live just an hours journey away on foot - said Josef Polok of Istebne - and we were always good neighbours - this will just make things much easier. This was confirmed a few minutes later when an interpreter started to translate one of the speeches. "NO NEED!!! " the crowd yelled. Czechs, Poles and Slovaks have always been able to make themselves understood - especially those living in the border areas.

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So who has the prettiest girls in the EU? Czechs like to think that their girls are the best. And this years EU beauty queen contest in Budapest, Hungary, gave them reason to go on believing just that. 18 year old Zuzana Putnarova from Ostrava won the Miss European Union 2004 title, with the second and third place going to contestants from Hungary and Germany. Zuzana Putnarova has never competed for the Miss Czech Republic title, but she is already well known as Miss Bikini International from a contest in Malta and Miss Cosmopolitan. Zuzana has yet to graduate from high school but she has already made up her mind about her future career -she wants to study international relations and go into diplomatic service.

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Photo: Alena Klvaňová, Czech Ornithology Society

And finally, I don't know how the birds feel about EU expansion but we owe them an apology. Last weekend was traditionally bird-watching weekend across Europe though ornithologists' plans were disrupted by the EU celebrations. Fireworks, brass bands and non-stop noise caused problems both for nesting birds and bird-watchers. So in many parts of the country bird watching weekend has been re-scheduled for this weekend. The Czech Ornithology Society has some 2,000 members and on one weekend a year they invite the public on bird watching expeditions led by a professional guide. You set off early in the morning with a pair of binoculars and a snack. And as we hear from ornithologist Petr Vorisek there's still plenty to see and hear in this part of Europe.

"There are many problems in Nature conservation and protection of bird species in the Czech Republic but generally our Nature is in a much better state than in West European countries."

How do you explain that? What did they do wrong that we didn't. I would have expected it to be the other way round, frankly...

"The main reason for the decline of many formerly common bird species in western Europe is intensive agriculture. Some 50% of European landscape is farmland and there are some 200 species which are -to a certain degree - now threatened in this part of Europe. For the most part they live in the farmland areas and the intensification of agriculture, the use of pesticides and fertilizers and many other things, those are the main causes of the decline of common bird species in western Europe. And we have to say that this is supported by the EU common agricultural policy. "

So there you have it - one thing we can do for the EU is help to bring the birds back. Let's hope they survive EU expansion!