Czech Republic – Rocking around Czech paradise

October 4

Hello everyone!

Prague is beautiful but, just like living in any large city, it’s often pleasant to escape the crowds and kafuffle. As the weather will soon turn wintry, we took the opportunity to escape to the countryside to see the green leaves turning to the fiery colours of autumn.

The main reason we visited the area which translates as Czech Paradise, however, doesn’t change colour. In fact, they haven’t changed colour for many thousands of years.

Česky Raj is just short of 100km northeast of Prague: easily accessible by car. As we don’t possess a car, however, we had to cross the city to the Černy Most bus terminal to hop on a bus which would take us to a village called Jičín. Missing the aforementioned bus by seconds wasn’t great planning, but another arrived soon after to give us plenty of time in the fresher air of the east.

Jičín itself is a nice place, with colourful Baroque buildings fortifying a pretty town square. We wandered around their Saturday market before leaving on a seven kilometre uphill trek to the entrance of a natural reserve of sandstone rocks called Prachovské Skály.

Once inside the boundaries of the park (the kind lady allowed us to enter for student prices as I fumbled around trying to find my expired student card), the real walking begins. There are a variety of trails snaking through, around and under the sandstone stalagmites which rise surreally from the colourful hillside.

The exact reason for these freaks of nature is unclear, but I assume it is due to the ice age and the erosion attached to it. The rocks, which are the biggest collection of their type in Česky Raj, are a popular climbing challenge for those who enjoy such a thing. In the picture below, a professional has scaled one of the rocky obelisks and is helping an amateur towards the peak. This is normally a challenge I would hurl myself at; unfortunately, time constraints were against us. Though watching those climbing the vertical peaks would have certainly resulted in thinking twice about scaling the rocks. Terrifying.

The stones, cool to the touch, are a pleasure to walk around. Squeezing through narrow crevices can lead to dark, mossy areas which can seem otherworldly. It struck me as being the perfect location for The Lost World.

Our trip to paradise was for one day only, so we had to eventually trek back to Jičín in order to catch one of the last buses to Prague. My guess is that we covered in excess of 20 kilometres of hilly and awkward terrain on foot during the day. In spite of the effort required, it was exactly what I wanted. The air seemed fresher, the leaves brighter, the terrain more spectacular.

Whether I’d describe Česky Raj as ‘Czech Paradise’ is up for debate. I would, however, highly recommend it as a location in which you can get away from city life. Just don’t look down if you climb those rocks…

                                                                                                                                                   

Love you all

Matt

Czech Republic – Two very different gaming paradises

August 30-September 3

Hello everyone!

The sun has just about set on another work-free summer. Another year of English, maths, science and more awaits. As does another year of exploring the wonders of the Czech Republic and its idyllic capital city. The first couple of weeks have led to two experiences linked to games. One adventure is in Prague itself: the other, seemingly a world away.

Working chronologically, I’ll start with the latter. A thirty minute bus ride led us to the outpost of Cerveny Ujezd. There is very little in the village itself; I would argue that it’s a stretch calling it a village. Silence reigned supreme on a balmy Saturday afternoon. Turning down one particular side road, however, led our group to a modern, wooden house: something from an IKEA catalogue.

Inside this shiny hut was arguably one of the stranger personal collections one may happen to come across. The eerie hush of the hamlet was blasted away by pinging, boinking and clattering. The natural sunlight warming Cerveny Ujezd was blazed away by artificial lights of innumerable colour. We had entered a gaming arcade called ARCADEHRY.

Not just any arcade. For what lay before us was a personal collection of enormous machines, assumingly shipped from around the world, hosting arcade games famous from a time before I was able to play them. A personal collection of retro arcade games.

Pong…

Space invaders…

Our undoubted favourite, Sonic the Hedgehog…

Even some strange games which I can’t imagine taking off today, such as the 1983 ‘classic’ Paperboy (exactly what you think)…

I’m not sure of the reasoning – whether it’s to pay the electric bill, debts or to raise money for purchasing ‘new’ machines – but you pay 150Kc and have unlimited access to hundreds of arcade machines. What’s more, you don’t need to insert a new coin to continue a game if you perish: I’ve never progressed so far on Time Crisis!

It’s not the easiest place to find, but ARACADEHRY is definitely worth the journey. I believe that it’s actually better to be in its current location; if this place were in the centre of Prague, you would never get more than one try on Sonic at a time, let alone ten.

Much closer to the centre of Prague, near the castle in an area called Sparta, was our other gaming adventure. Very much a watching brief, this time, for if I had been playing I would be either Czech or American. Oh, and a professional football player of a very high standard.

The Czech Republic football team used to be feared across Europe. Almost 20 years ago, they got to the final of the European Championships. Ten years ago, they arguably should have won the same competition but choked against a limited Greek team. However, they have recently slipped from that elite level of the game, failing to qualify for a World Cup since 2006, and lack the star quality of previous teams aside from their goalkeeper, Petr Cech. Better than Wales’ recent record, admittedly, but there is certainly room for improvement.

The next tournament they can qualify for is the European Championships in France in 2016. The team played a warm-up match against the United States of America – who are better at football than may people give them credit for – to prepare them for their first qualifying encounter, against the Netherlands the following week.

This was an opportunity that we couldn’t miss, especially when tickets were the equivalent of £6. It turns out much of the American diaspora here in Prague felt the same way. A significant amount of the 12,000+ in attendance in the reasonably old stadium seemed to be chanting ‘USA USA’ fairly frequently.

There is every chance that this was also coming from Czech fans mocking their own team. You see, they weren’t very good, particularly in the first half. A shocking piece of defending led to the United States scoring what transpired to be the game’s only goal.

The Czechs did improve in the second half, with their star outfield player Tomas Rosicky pulling the strings, but the team were guilty of missing two glorious chances towards the end of the game. Maybe they should go to ARCADEHRY and play on the football machines to hone their striking skills…

Love you all

Matt

England – The historical heart of Yorkshire

July 31

Hello everyone!

It’s stating the obvious to say that London is the British city most visited by tourists. What do you think the second most popular city could be?

Old friends in new places

Could be the home of the Beatles…

The home of prestigious universities…

The home of comedy…

Maybe the home of Roman history…

Turns out none of the above are visited as much as Manchester (the home of the Premier League’s best team) or…York. The home of…what exactly?

They may not have been last season, but they are statistically the Premier League's best team!

I decided to find out whilst visiting friends made in Kazakhstan. York is a fair distance from Cardiff on a train: approximately five hours. This meant an early start so that I could arrive in York at lunchtime. Exiting the train station immediately introduces you to one of York’s main features; the centre of the city is protected by a low, faded stone wall. The foundations of these walls date back to Roman times but were erected in their current guise in the medieval period. You can walk along the walls and get some nice views into the city centre.

One such view is of York’s ‘castle’. These days it’s less a castle, more a simple keep known as Clifford’s Tower. It was built by William the Conqueror shortly after…well, conquering England for the Normans. Having run up the stairs to the stone base, I can tell you that it’s higher than it seems.

No matter how high or low you are in York, it is difficult not to spot the city’s premier building: York Minster. This is a large, largely rectangular cathedral – apparently the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe – which dates back to the 8^th century. Amongst the relatively pale spires and straight edges are some elegant windows which seem to droop down from the roof. I was surprised at how angular the building was but it is impressive nonetheless.

York is also the location of the National Railway Museum. This may interest some more than others but, as someone who enjoyed building train tracks with Brio as a young lad, I was very keen to explore this homage to trains.

For people older than myself, it may be a welcome trip down memory lane. Retro adverts promoting various regional railway operators hang from the walls of one of the main atria. Old ticket stubs with much more personality than current, bland versions are dotted around. Yet all of this is merely decoration, for the trains dominate each room you enter.

There are trains of all shapes, sizes and ages. From early variations on Stephenson’s original model in the early 1800s to one of Japan’s ultra-modern bullet trains, there is an incredible range of trains on display. We witnessed a train being manoeuvred on a turntable, which moves much faster than I would have imagined (about 90 seconds for a complete rotation).

Trains from the early 1820s and late 1990s - spot the difference?

One aspect of the trains which surprised me was the height of the wheels. It’s something you don’t really appreciate as the train tracks are so much lower than the station platforms, as well as modern trains covering much of the wheel. However, some of the wheels on the older trains were almost as tall as I am!

So what is York the ‘home’ of? It is full of history, both old and modern. It was home to the Romans. It was the second city for both the Vikings and the Normans. It is the home of the largest train museum in the world. York is thus an important historical centre in the United Kingdom; I can fully appreciate now why so many people come to visit this pretty city.

Love you all

Matt