A team of Czech baristas make the biggest cappuccino ever, a jar of honey causes a security scare at Mošnov airport and the Technical Museum in Brno offers visitors a look at the lighter side of life with an exhibition of nonsensical inventions. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarová.
Photo: www.dobryden.cz
Last weekend baristas from around the Czech Republic met to compete in the art of making espresso-based coffee drinks. The highlight of the event, which attracted several thousand visitors, was a team effort – to make the biggest cappuccino ever. The existing world record was set in 2002 by a team of Italian baristas who made a 1250-litre-cappuccino. It took eighty of the best Czech baristas to break that record and they took it by storm - filling a giant cup with 2,117 liters of delicious-smelling cappuccino capped with a thick, creamy froth. The crowd was clearly expecting to get a taste, but the cappuccino was intended for far less discriminating consumers and was transported to the nearest pigsty. Apparently pigs have a metabolism that is very similar to that of humans and a cappuccino-flavoured meal is highly appreciated. Making an outsize cappuccino has its drawbacks though and although it was made of the best ingredients – 300 liters of espresso and 1,700 liters of milk – maintaining the required hygiene standards was a bit of a problem –meaning that it could not be served to the public.
Photo: CTK
A postcard featuring the ruins of the south Bohemian castle Dívčí Kámen was voted postcard of the year at the Holiday World Tourist Fair held in Prague last week. A postcard featuring Zvíkov castle in southern Bohemia, one of the most beautiful tourist sites in the country came second, and a picture postcard of Kašperk castle came third. The contest was to help raise postcard sales which have dropped severely in recent years. According to the organizer of the event Marcel Goetz most young people find postcards old fashioned and pensioners who would buy them find them too expensive. As a result postcards are surviving thanks to tourists – particularly the Dutch and the French – and also thanks to collectors who buy them in large numbers. Interestingly, the Polish town of Gdansk which was severely damaged in the Second World War was reconstructed with the help of an extensive postcard collection.
Photo: www.ariahotel.net
Tripadvisor a web company that provides recommendations for hotels, resorts, inns, vacations and travel packages around the world –with 25 million monthly visitors – has voted Aria Hotel in Prague the world’s number one luxury hotel. The exquisitely-designed five star hotel is a blend of the past and present and is a true haven for music lovers. Its 52 rooms are furnished with opulent antiques and each of its four floors is devoted to a specific musical genre – jazz, opera, classical composers or contemporary music. Each room is decorated with original artwork and a selection of handpicked CDs, DVDs and books. Each room has a computer and contains selected pieces by 52 composers which can be downloaded as an iPod. The hotel also has a music director who is available to provide advice on cultural and musical events currently underway in Prague. Guests also appreciate the fact that they have free access to the oldest baroque garden in Prague – the Winter Garden- which is on UNESCOs list of world cultural heritage sites. In other words –if you love music, history and architecture, Hotel Aria in Prague will give you a truly memorable experience.
Illustrative photo
Karel Gruber is a thirty-year-old homeless man who has spent the past two weeks trying to get himself thrown in jail in order to get a bed and three square meals a day. At first he decided that his best bet was to launch a direct attack on police property. On a freezing cold night at the end of January he approached a police car parked outside the local police headquarters and proceeded to smash its windows with a cobblestone. He got arrested but instead of being thrown in jail he was subjected to a series of psychological tests, found to be perfectly normal and was released. Several nights later he smashed the doors of a trolleybus and patiently waited for the police to arrive. They came in due time, filled in several forms and said there was no reason to take him into custody. Desperate, Karel Gruber tried again – this time smashing a money machine and causing damage to the tune of 100,000 crowns. To his gratification he was finally thrown into jail and this week a judge sent him to four months in prison. Needless to say, he did not appeal the verdict.
Ostrava airport, photo: www.airport-ostrava.cz
A jar of honey wrapped in aluminum foil caused a security scare at Ostrava’s Mošnov airport this week. A suspicious find was reported by a passenger at 5am on Tuesday and the entire premises were evacuated. A team of experts called in to deal with the emergency ascertained that the suspicious looking object was a jar of honey which a passenger had most likely left behind in the airport lounge after realizing that they could not take it on board. The jar of honey caused quite an upheaval and a number of flights were delayed as a result of the security operation.
Photo: www.technicalmuseum.cz
The Brno Technical Museum is offering a look at the lighter side of life with an exhibition of nonsensical inventions. The exhibition features a tandem bike for married couples - with the man and wife sitting back to back and pedaling in opposite directions, glasses for Peeping Toms with an opening designed to fit a keyhole, a candleholder for a light bulb, a screwdriver inside a sealed bottle, a hammer made of porcelain and a gun that shoots backwards for people who want to commit suicide. The exhibition of crazy inventions that “failed to change the course of history” is on display until May 18.
