A robber outwits two police officers, a pensioner sets off on a 3,000 kilometer pilgrimage and yes, you can get robbed halfway up Mount Everest. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarová.
Two police officers from the town of Havířov in Moravia are trying to live down the shame of bungling a simple arrest. They were called out to deal with a case of suspected robbery in the town’s suburbs and on arriving at the site found a man had broken into someone’s house. The suspect insisted that he was on his own premises and showed them what he claimed was a purchasing contract. The police asked him to accompany them to the police station but failed to handcuff him. Half-way there the man disarmed them both, handcuffed them, stole their cash and weapons, left them in the middle of nowhere and drove off in their police car. The officers eventually managed to get back on the main road and still handcuffed –called for help. It later emerged that the man was a wanted criminal whom the officers failed to recognize.
Hana Ulrychová, photo: CTK
A sixty-three-year-old pensioner from the town of Kladruby set off this week on a pilgrimage to the grave of St Jacob in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. During her pilgrimage –to be made strictly on foot –she will cover over 3,000 kilometers passing through Germany, Austria and France. Hana Ulrychová said she made up her mind to undertake the journey because she wanted more from life. She lives in an old age home and said she’d got tired of just sitting around and listening to people complain about their ailments. “I decided I wouldn’t just sit there and wait to die – I would do something with the time I had left.” Since she has little money Hana is expecting to sleep wherever she can get a roof over her head – even out in the open when the weather allows. She is aiming to get to Santiago de Compostela before the winter sets in. She heard about St Jacob’s pilgrimage two years ago and because she couldn’t set off from France – where most pilgrims start the journey on foot she decided to just walk all the way – time, she says is the only thing she has in abundance.
Photo: CTK
Meanwhile, two young globetrotters from Olomouc who made headlines for undertaking a trip around the globe in a battered old Škoda car named Julia are selling the 40-year-old veteran at an auction. She may be old, but her owners say Julia has proved her reliability beyond doubt – covering over 36,000 kilometers in the course of 254 days and surviving four car accident along the way. Today Julia looks slightly the worse for wear – as she well might, having covered the Trans-Siberian railway, America’s legendary route 101 and survived a bumpy ride through Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. And there’s no doubt Julia’s been places – she’ covered with stickers and signatures from around the world. There are already more than 40 potential buyers with the highest bid currently at 42.000 crowns.
Photo: CTK
The Pelhřimov Museum of Records and Curiosities is getting a very special exhibit for the summer holiday season – it has been loaned a glass violin – a piece made 26 years ago by glass master Jaroslav Šlechta. Šlechta says it took him a whole year to make the violin, first taking a regular wooden instrument apart in order to see exactly how it was made and gradually reproducing the pieces in crystal glass. He says the thin glass panes kept breaking but he persisted until he had a perfect copy. There aren’t many of those around –the world over – and its maker has been offered large sums of money for the instrument but he insists it is staying in the family. The only other glass violin in the Czech Republic is reported to be in the south Bohemian town of Kašperské Hory – but that is an artistic piece made of blown glass. In any case, the Pelhřimov Museum of Records and Curiosities has shown some rare pieces as far as violins go – a violin made up of several thousand matchsticks and one made of stone which is now owned by the Czech violin virtuoso Jaroslav Svěcený.
Photo: Rdevany, Creative Commons 3.0
Two Czech mountaineers learned the hard way that, no matter how out-of-the-way a place is, you still have to keep a sharp eye on your personal belongings. Libor Uher and Petr Mašek got their mountain gear stolen half-way up Mount Everest and were forced to turn back. The incident happened at a height of 6,600 meters where one certainly wouldn’t expect to see thieves lurking about. Luckily they did not have to abandon the climb – when they returned to base camp in despair an expedition which had already reached the top took pity on them and sold them their own gear. Well, they do say that nowadays the way to the top is like a busy thoroughfare.
If you are in New York and hankering for some mouthwatering Czech food, try the UN Delegates Dining Room. It’s expensive and you have to go through security but the restaurant promises gourmet food and spectacular surroundings and in the week from June 8th to the 12th – for the first time ever the restaurant will offer mouth-watering Czech specialties prepared by the best chefs in Prague. Just remember to book in advance and leaver room for desert. The Czech Food Festival is being organized on the occasion of the Czech EU presidency and if that does not save our reputation then I fear nothing will!
