He’s attractive, intelligent and amiable – meet the second most desirable man in the world. Find out why attending a football match can be harmful to your health. And send your plush toy instead. That and more in this week’s edition of Magazine with Daniela Lazarová.
Masaryk's spring, photo: dendrofil, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported
Back in the days when presidents traveled at a slower pace and were not so restricted by security it was possible for them to stop by a forest spring for a drink. On a visit to Brno in 1928 Czechoslovakia’s first president T.G. Masaryk stopped at a spring not far from the city, giving it a claim to fame that other springs in the vicinity could not hope to rival. The locals immediately built a little stone monument above it bearing a plaque featuring the names of T.G. Masaryk and that of the American President Woodrow Wilson. It became known as the Masaryk spring and President Wilson’s name was there as a show of gratitude and respect for having helped pave the way for Czechoslovakia’s independence. The monument was destroyed and reconstructed three times in the past 80 years – too significant to be left to disintegrate. Two other Masaryk springs can lay a claim to fame – the Masaryk spring in Dvůr Králové and another somewhere in Slovakia, where “Papa Masaryk” as he was known – presumably stopped for a drink on a hot day. Pity that presidents today move so much faster and stick to Evian water. Now if President Obama wanted to stop at a woodland spring for a quick drink, he could be sure it would still be there bearing his name in a hundred years’ time.
Bohemians fans, photo: Kristýna Maková
Would you believe me if I said that attending a football match can be harmful to your health? And I don’t mean you could be hit by a flying bottle thrown by unruly football hooligans. Nurses from the Vítkovice hospital undertook a small medical study on the football stadium as a game between Baník and Slavia was in progress. They measured the blood pressure and heart rate of 32 fans. All of them were in high stress mode and some bordered on a state of near collapse. Interestingly the blood pressure of those sitting further away from the field was lower than that of fans really close up. The average blood pressure on the tribune was 150/90 while down below one fan had 183/ 110. The heartbeat record was 100 beats per minute, compared to the regular heartbeat of 60 per minute. So if you are not in the best of health and simply must go to that football game – at least sit as far back as you can.
Photo: www.sendyourdarling.com
The most bizarre business enterprise of the year – a travel agency catering to people’s plush toys has taken off like a house on fire. American, Japanese, British and Russian clients are paying vast sums to give their plush toys exciting holidays in Prague. Travel agency expert Tomio Okamura who co-financed the scheme said he had never got an investment back so quickly and revealed that the agency had plans to expand in order to meet clients’ demands. Some want their plush toy to attend a football match between selected teams at the Allianz arena in Munich, others have booked a visit to a gay club for their toy. Mr. Okamura says anything is possible – with the exception of sex. Photos of plush toys having sex among themselves or with someone else would simply be too vulgar. Czechs, who first laughed at the idea of sending their toys on a trip, have jumped on the bandwagon. Mr. Okamura says there are over 100 Czech clients waiting for the agency to expand to foreign travel destinations.
Photo: www.stream.cz
It would be nice if everyone had as much respect for their live pets as these people have for their plush toys. A woman in Černošice near Prague made headlines when someone filmed her walking her dog. Only she wasn’t walking the dog. She was driving a car at snail’s pace holding the dog on a leash from an open window. She caused a minor traffic jam since she stopped every time the dog stopped near a tree or street light. One of the drivers hooting his horn behind her used his mobile phone to record the incident.
Photo: www.historicke-kocary.cz
Tourists to Prague like seeing the city from a horse-drawn carriage – but how would you like to take a ride in a gilded carriage such as that used by the Austrian princess Sissi? That is now possible thanks to the efforts of history buff Václav Obr who devoted the last 15 years of his life to collecting and restoring historical carriages and acquiring funds to open a museum of historical carriages his home town of Čechy pod Kosířem. The collection showcases the work of Czech carriage makers from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries who had commissions from the court in Vienna but also from royal houses around Europe. On display are 40 carriages made between 1750 and 1920 – among them a gilded carriage that in its heyday served the Archbishop of Olomouc and was later restored and used in the making of the movie about Princess Sissi. There are open and closed carriages belonging to the European nobility and funeral carriages specifically made for this occasion. Most were acquired in a dilapidated state and took years to restore to their former glory. In the summer months Vaclav Obr offers the public the rare opportunity to take a ride in one of these carriages. His dream is to make a sturdy replica of an original carriage in which one could ride around the world.
Czechs are less likely to get of the couch and exercise than any other European nation – if surveys are to be believed. True or not, Czechs are increasingly putting on weight as a result of stress, fast food and the mentioned lack of exercise. But it’s not staying that way if Czech Railways has anything to say about it. Every spring to autumn it expands its service with bike rentals at railway stations around the country in order to encourage people to take a train to an attractive destination and bike around the country. The upside to this is that with fourteen rentals in various parts of the country bikers need not cover the same route twice in order to return the bike to where they rent it out. They just leave it where it best suits them and hop on the train home. Last year over 1 500 people used this service for biking holidays, a number twice higher than the previous year. Czech Railways says the biking scheme has proved a bigger success than expected and plans to expand on it further.
Josef Karas, photo: CTK
The Czech athlete and male model Josef Karas hit the headlines this week after placing second in Mr. World– a contest designed to find “the world’s most desirable man” – a man possessing intelligence, stamina and amiability. This Czech hunk charmed the jury with his sports abilities, singing performance and communication skills - he’d even managed to pick up some Korean as a courtesy to his hosts. He arrived home on Monday to be met at the airport by a Czech beauty queen and a mob of girls all eager for second-best. Karas’s triumph is the Czech Republic’s second biggest success in international beauty pageants. In 2006 the 18-year-old Tatána Kuchařová won the Miss World Beauty Contest in Poland.
