In Magazine: Young Czechs take the Spanish retain chain Desigual by storm stripping down to their underwear for freebies; animal rights’ activists get themselves branded with a hot iron to raise awareness of how animals suffer in the food production industry; and a good-looking blond stuns Olomouc with her near-naked ride through town on a Yamaha motorbike.
The Little Mole and Karolína Milerová, photo: Tatry Mountain Resorts
The popular Czech cartoon character the Little Mole, known to generations of Czech children, is to be the central figure of a Disneyland type park in neighbouring Slovakia. The Little Mole cartoons have been translated into half a dozen languages and shown abroad and the star character went even further when it was taken to outer space by American astronaut Andreu Feustel travelling aboard the Endevour Shuttle on its last mission. The Little Mole Park is to be located in Slovakia’s High Tatra Mountains and should be completed in roughly two years time. It is expected to attract visitors mainly from the Czech Republic and Slovakia who grew up on Little Mole bed-time stories. The project has already won approval from Karolína Milerová, the late Zdeněk Miler’s granddaughter, who owns the copyright to the legendary figure.
Photo: YouTube
Some 500 young people, both men and women, stripped down to their underwear this week to get two clothes items for free from the Spanish retail chain Desigual. Famous for its colourful patchwork designs, Desigual has staged similar publicity events in Barcelona, Paris, New York and other fashion capitals ahead of major sales campaigns. Interest here is Prague was so great that around one hundred people turned up on the eve of the event cuing up all night in what came to resemble a street party.
Photo: Kevin V. Ton / 269.cz
A far more drastic affair took place at Prague’s Naměstí Republiky last Wednesday where a group of animal rights activists got themselves branded with a hot iron in a publicity stunt to raise awareness of how animals suffer in the food production industry. Bystanders watched in horror as the group of young men and women, sitting in a circle were branded with a hot iron searing the number 269 into their skin – and were then led off in chains. The number is the number of a calf seen on a farm in Israel and chosen at random to symbolize animal exploitation world-wide. The protests started this year in Israel and since then approximately 30 people world-wide have got themselves branded in a show of solidarity with all animals suffering for food production.
A Czech tourist who tried to travel from Taiwan to Japan in a rickety raft he built from logs and styro-foam was rescued by local coastguards earlier this month. The man who had overstayed his tourist visa and did not have the money for a return ticked said he had been inspired by the Life of Pi. He had not got far when the raft started coming apart and the man hung on for dear life. Fortunately a fishing boat alerted the Taiwanese coast guards to his plight and the adventurous Czech was taken to the National Immigration Agency before being deported.
Photo: YouTube
People in the town of Olomouc got an eyeful this week when a stunning blond zoomed by named on a Yamaha motorbike. Sylvia, who had lost a bet to her friends, wore nothing but a helmet, shoes and tango panties that were almost invisible. She laughed and posed to her friends who were following her in a car and recording the stunt on video. Her ride through town got her plenty of attention and she managed to escape getting fined.
Photo: H. Raab, CC BY-SA 3.0
Moldavite, dubbed “the gemstone from the stars” is a bottle green semi-precious stone thought to have formed from condensed rock vapors after a meteorite impact more than twenty million years ago. Rich deposits of it are scattered over south Bohemia and with four moldavite mines the Czech Republic is one of its main exporters. Now the town of Český Krumlov boasts the first Moldavite Museum in the world. Visitors can admire over 200 unique gems lent to the museum by individual collectors. And of course pick a souvenir to take home from one of the many moldavite shops scattered around the country.
