Prague Expat Life

Ricky has returned to Rícky

Ricky at Rícky v Orlických horách © Ricky Yates

I am writing this, sitting in the bar/dining room/lounge of Hotel Konšel, located in the small settlement that bears my name, Rícky v Orlických horách. Yes, after our short, very snowbound visit in early April this year, Ricky has returned to Rícky 🙂

This time, Sybille and I are here, hoping to spend the first eight days of two weeks of my annual leave, enjoying a walking holiday in the Orlické hory. And, if the hotel’s slightly dodgy wifi internet connection had allowed me, I would have posted this on the evening of Wednesday 26th June, as my first ever blogpost not posted from my office in the Chaplaincy Flat in Prague.

We arrived here on the afternoon of Monday 24th June, following a good week in which several positive things occurred.

On Thursday 20th June, TelefonicaO2 finally reconnected our landline phone and internet access at the Chaplaincy Flat, a few hours short of seventeen days from when it ceased to function. To once more have reliable internet access with a reasonable download speed, was a welcome relief for which we are both very thankful. Of course, now we are away from the Chaplaincy Flat, internet connections have once more become a little more intermittent 🙁

The same day, I drove out to Horažd’ovice, to meet up with my good friend Adrian Blank, in order to help me get the ‘Carly’ through its STK, the equivalent of a British MOT Test. It did eventually get through but, at the expense of two new front tyres and some work to re-align the front wheels. Adrian reckons, probably quite rightly, that hitting a few Czech potholes was probably the cause of the problem. But at least the ‘Carly’ is now deemed fit to be driven on Czech roads for another two years.

The third thing of note was our worship and post-services activities last Sunday. Not only was our Sung Eucharist extremely well attended, we also had the privilege of having a guest preacher, Rev’d Dr Peter Walker. Peter and I trained for ordained ministry together at Wycliffe Hall, between 1987-1989. After serving his title in a parish in Kent, Peter has had an academic career, including a spell back at Wycliffe on the teaching staff. He is now Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. His challenging sermon, which has now been uploaded to our Church website, was widely appreciated by the congregation.

Churchwarden Richard York with Rev'd Dr Peter Walker © Ricky Yates — Churchwarden Richard York with Rev’d Dr Peter Walker © Ricky Yates

Following worship, many of us migrated to the nearby park on Lannova, a street that lies between the Church and the Vltava River, for our annual summer Picnic-in-the-Park. The picnic is always a good opportunity for fun & fellowship before many in the congregation are often away from Prague for several weeks, visiting family and friends in their home countries. Peter and his wife Georgie were able to join us for the picnic and very much enjoyed meeting and talking to members of the St. Clement’s congregation.

Last week was also notable for some very hot and sticky weather, in stark contrast to all of the rain earlier in the month, which was responsible for the very serious flooding in Prague and elsewhere in the western half of the Czech Republic. Fortunately the weather turned a little cooler at the weekend, but still dry except for a few spots of rain – ideal conditions for our picnic. Ideal weather, so I thought, for our walking holiday commencing the next day.

Unfortunately, Monday 24th June dawned cold, grey and with light rain. And when we set out late that morning on the Prague-Hradec Králové motorway, we drove through a positive downpour! However, just before reaching Rícky some three hours later, the rain stopped, allowing us an enjoyable short circular walk around the somewhat scattered settlement, after we had checked into the hotel.

But that dry couple of hours proved illusory. It was followed by forty-eight hours of continuous rain, meaning a couple of expeditions in the car but no walking in the hills. The rain finally stopped on Wednesday evening, so our walking holiday in the Orlické hory finally began today. Watch this space!

I do not have a criminal record in the Czech Republic

My certified 'Extract from the Criminal Records of individuals' which declares that 'there is no information about convictions regarding this person'. — My certified ‘Extract from the Criminal Records of individuals’ which declares that ‘there is no information about convictions regarding this person’.

This is what this two page official document, which I successfully obtained today, declares. In the nearly five years I have now lived in the Czech Republic, I have thankfully, done nothing to officially trouble the Czech Police or judicial authorities.

Whilst I can, and have 🙂 , made jokes about having evidence of my lack of criminality, the reason behind my obtaining this certified ‘Extract from the Criminal Records of individuals’ today, is quite serious. It is part of fulfilling the requirements of the ‘Safeguarding of Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults Policy’ of the Diocese in Europe and the wider Church of England.

When I was offered the post of being the Anglican Chaplain in the Czech Republic, back in May 2008, it was subject to a ‘UK Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Enhanced Disclosure’ being obtained. This was despite already holding such a document, applied for by the Diocese of Oxford, some four years previously. Only when the new ‘Enhanced Disclosure Certificate’ came through, showing I had no criminal record of any description, could my appointment be officially confirmed and publicly announced.

The policy of the Diocese in Europe, in line with the rest of the Church of England, is that every person exercising a licensed ministry in the diocese, should be re-checked not less than once every five years. It was because my current UK CRB clearance dates from July 2008, that the Diocesan Safeguarding Administrator wrote to me some weeks ago, asking me to complete a fresh ‘Self Declaration Form’, but also to obtain the equivalent of a UK CRB clearance from the Czech authorities.

I was greatly helped in obtaining my Czech certified ‘Extract from the Criminal Records of individuals’, declaring that, ‘there is no information about convictions regarding this person’, by my good friend and colleague, Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz. She was previously required to obtain a similar document, before being licensed to help in the ministry of the Anglican Chaplaincy in the Czech Republic, under the Ecumenical Canons of the Church of England. However, whilst her certificate came out of the system within a couple of hours, mine ended up taking the full twenty working days that are officially allowed.

The reason for this discrepancy became clear today. For along with the official Czech documentation, there was a further two pages in English, declaring what the Diocese in Europe and I already know – that there is no record of any convictions against my name, recorded in the UK.

As a result of the EU Council of Ministers Decision 2009/315/JHA, each EU member state, shares with each other, evidence of criminality recorded within their jurisdiction. Therefore, although I had not requested it, I also effectively received, an updated CRB clearance from the UK. Actually, it is from the ‘Disclosing and Barring Service (DBS), which is what the CRB was renamed in September 2012, for reasons that are beyond my comprehension!

Whilst fulfilling all the requirements of the ‘Safeguarding of Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults Policy’ of my diocese, can at times, feel excessive and burdensome, I completely understand the reasons for them. For it has been the failure of the Roman Catholic Church to have a similar policy in place until recently, or even when belatedly put in place, the policy being bypassed or ignored, that has caused it so much adverse publicity in recent years, not forgetting the lives of the many innocent victims who have suffered at the hands of those who should have been caring for them.

Finally, on a lighter note, I could not help but notice the contrast in costs between the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. To obtain my Czech certified ‘Extract from the Criminal Records of individuals’ today, cost me CZK 100 / £3.33 at current exchange rates. A new CRB (now DBS 😉 ) enhanced disclosure, currently costs £44.00 to obtain!

Living without being connected to the internet for a week

The Lahovice interchange south of Prague where the ring road crosses the main road south from Prague city centre. The top photo is how it should be; the bottom photo is how it was on Monday 3rd March 2013

Last Monday evening (3rd June), just as I was uploading photographs to illustrate a draft blog post about the serious flooding we were experiencing in Prague, our connection to the internet died. I soon discovered that the cause of the problem was that our landline phone was also dead – our broadband internet connection is via the landline.

Awaking on Tuesday morning, to find that we still did not have a functioning internet connection, I contacted Gordon the Church Treasurer using my mobile phone, to explain the problem. Although the contract with our service provider O2, is in my name, the monthly bill is sent electronically to Gordon, for him to settle directly from the Church account. Gordon assured me that O2 had an English-speaking helpline and he would contact them and let me know the outcome.

When Gordon contacted O2, the English-speaking helpline offered a recorded message saying that ‘no English-speaking operators were available’, whilst the Czech helpline, upon entering our phone number, produced another recorded message saying that there were ‘technical issues in our area’ but with no indication as to when these ‘technical issues’ might be resolved. The only contact Gordon or I have had from O2 was a Czech text message to my mobile phone last Friday afternoon, promising that compensation for loss of service will be included in next month’s bill.

Having no internet access in my office in the Chaplaincy Flat for six days, has been utterly frustrating. It has also made me very conscious of how reliant I am upon being able to send and receive emails, at little more than the click of a mouse.

But it isn’t just the restrictions that this situation has placed upon me, but also the expectations of those I serve. The assumption that if someone sends me an email, they will receive a prompt reply. Within a couple of days, I had a phone call on my mobile from one of the congregation, most surprised that I hadn’t replied to his email – a simple request for a contact name and phone number to which I would have normally have replied within a few hours.

Fortunately, the purchase of a new laptop computer just over a year ago, has meant that I have managed to make a connection with the internet from time to time, by going to various local bar-restaurants more frequently than normal 🙂 in order to avail myself of their wifi. So I’ve learned to write emails and save them in my drafts folder, and then send them once I get to the pub! But it isn’t the most ideal way to work. Honestly!

Sybille has a fairly common response whenever I ask her something. If she doesn’t immediately know the answer to my question, then she firmly tells me to ‘google it!’ But of course, I cannot ‘google it’, if we have no internet connection. Likewise, when compiling the ‘Weekly Bulletin’ for Sunday worship this past week, I couldn’t click onto the Church of England website and copy and paste the Collect of the Day – I ended up typing it word by word from a book instead. And trying to update the Chaplaincy website 🙁

All along, we have assumed that the ‘technical issues’ to which O2 referred in their recorded message, related to the serious flooding of recent days – that flood-water had got into their system somewhere. So when on Saturday morning, I met Jana who lives on the ground floor of our apartment block, I asked her if she had the same problems with phone and internet as we do. I was surprised when she said she had experienced no interruption to service at all.

Then yesterday evening, about an hour before I got back from Brno from officiating at our regular monthly evening service there, Sybille decided to ask Kamila who lives across the second floor landing from us, if her phone and internet were working. She too, had not had any problems. Even better, Kamila kindly gave Sybille the log-in details to her wifi network, to allow us to piggyback onto her system until O2 get around to resolving their ‘technical difficulties in our area’. So after six long days, both Sybille and I are finally back online.

Kamila’s network only works in our sitting room so I’ve had to temporarily migrate from my office, to the dining table. But her service provider, who also seem to be used by many others in our immediate neighbourhood, say they only need an existing phone landline, in order to provide broadband internet. Therefore, when we do finally get a functioning landline once again, O2 will promptly lose a customer. But when that will be is anyone’s guess. By the time I post this, our landline will have been dead for a whole seven days, and still counting 🙁

Prague Floods – June 2013

This was written and should have been posted late in the evening of Monday 3rd June. However, as I was uploading the photographs, the internet connection to the Chaplaincy Flat died, along with the landline phone. Nearly four days later, we are still without internet or phone. Our provider O2, tells us in a recorded message that they have ‘technical issues in our area’, with no information as to when these ‘technical issues’ will be resolved. We assume that floodwater has got into their system somewhere. I have finally managed to complete this post using the wifi connection in Bar-Restaurace U Topolu whilst eating my lunch 🙂

Don't try walking or parking your car here © Ricky Yates — Don’t try walking or parking your car here © Ricky Yates

I have previously written on this blog, about flooding in Prague. I wrote that post from a historical perspective and illustrated it with some photographs of flood level markers that can be found on several buildings near to the Vltava River, as flows through the centre of Prague. At the end of my post, I remarked that, as serious flooding seems to have occurred with one hundred year intervals, and the last very serious floods were in 2002, I didn’t expect there to be another occurrence during my lifetime. That was until the events of the past few days.

As well as being cold and miserable, as the weather has been throughout most of May, during the last week it has also been raining pretty consistently too. The inevitable consequence has been a rise in river levels which reached dangerous heights over the past forty-eight hours. This was the scene that greeted us after we walked down to the side of the Vltava after Church on Sunday morning. Normally you can walk along here and there is reserved parking for customers of the Botel Albatross in the distance – hence the ‘P’ sign sticking out of the water.

Flooded road underpass at Podbaba © Ricky Yates

Just beyond the Podbaba tram terminus, on our way home to the Chaplaincy Flat, we were greeted with this view, with the main road completely blocked because of flooding in the underpass beneath the Prague-Dresden railway line. I should add that this flooding has got considerably deeper in the past twenty-four hours.

Flood defences erected on Kampa Island as seen from Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

We returned to the city centre later on Sunday afternoon, to get an idea of how severe the flooding was likely to be. At that point in time, it was still possible to walk across Charles Bridge from where I took this photograph which shows the first flood defences having already been erected on Kampa Island. In the foreground, one of the wooden barriers which are meant to protect the buttresses of the bridge, is almost completely submerged.

The photographs that follow were taken by me this morning, Monday 3rd June. I hope they help to illustrate the flood situation as it currently is. Obviously, the situation is fluid if you will excuse my bad pun.

Malostranská Metro Station surrounded by flood barriers © Ricky Yates

Whilst we were travelling back into the centre of Prague on Sunday afternoon, we heard (and understood !!!) an announcement in Czech, that a a sizeable section of the Metro was being closed until further notice. Basically, any station near the Vltava River has been closed, with flood barriers erected around the entrance, to try to prevent any part of the system being inundated, as here at Malostranská.

Some indication of the strength of flow in the Vltava.

The Kafka Museum at risk of being inundated © Ricky Yates

Flood defences and Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

Flood defences were in place all alongside the most vulnerable parts of the historic city centre.

Protecting the antique shop with sandbags © Ricky Yates

And around the corner, they were busy filling more sandbags!

Charles Bridge without tourists! © Ricky Yates

Whilst we had been able to walk across Charles Bridge on Sunday afternoon, later that evening, it was closed to the public. Here the fire service, aided by a mobile crane, are trying to remove large trees and other debris building up against the bridge parapets.

Flood defences cannot save these buildings adjacent to Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

Some buildings that are so close to the Vltava cannot be protected from flooding such as these in the photograph above or this riverside bar in the photograph below.

Nor will boats be mooring here for sometime to come!

Don't try mooring here for a few days © Ricky Yates — Don’t try mooring here for a few days © Ricky Yates

Royal Gardens, Stalin and the Metronome

Towers at the eastern end of the Prague Castle complex © Ricky Yates

Many of us here in Prague, are beginning to think that someone has kidnapped Spring and early Summer, the weather having been cold and wet for most of May. So Sybille and I decided to take full advantage of a rare, fine, dry and partly sunny evening earlier this week, and take a walk through some of Prague’s wonderful green spaces.

We took the tram to Pražský hrad / Prague Castle. But instead of crossing Prašný most, the bridge over Jelení príkop, and entering the Castle complex, we turned left into Královská zahrada, the Royal Gardens. As well as a wonderful collection of mature trees, there were several rhododendron bushes still in flower – shades of our visit to Pruhonice Park the previous week.

From the Royal Gardens, there are splendid views of Prague Castle. This photo shows the towers at the eastern end of the Castle complex. However, surrounded by trees and other greenery, you could be forgiven for thinking it to be scene from a small historic village in the Bohemian countryside, rather than a location in the centre of the Czech capital.

The view from Chotkovy sady © Ricky Yates

At the eastern end of the Royal Gardens is Chotkovy sady, from where this view down to the Malostranská tram stop with Charles Bridge beyond, was taken. From this point, a pedestrian bridge allowed us to cross the road and tram tracks below, and enter a far bigger green space, Letenské sady or Letná Park, as it is commonly called in English.

The Metronome in Letná Park © Ricky Yates

Letná Park occupies a plateau from which a steep slope goes down to the Vltava river. Walking along the path at the top of the slope, there are extensive views across the whole of that part of Prague that lies on the eastern side of the river. But sitting on top of a massive plinth and occupying the best viewpoint of all, is this slightly incongruous metronome. At least when we saw the metronome on our walk earlier this week, it was actually working. More often than not, it is stationary!

The metronome was erected in 1991, but the massive plinth on which it sits, has a far longer history going back to late 1949, only eighteen months after the coup that brought the Communist Party to power in February 1948. For on it once stood the largest group statue in Europe, measuring 15.5 metres in height and 22 metres in length.

Seeking to kowtow to the Soviet Union, the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia decided to build a massive statue of Joseph Stalin. It took them five and a half years to construct it and, by the time it was unveiled on 1st May 1955, Stalin had already been dead for over two years.

The Prague Stalin Statue - Image via Wikimedia & in public domain — The Prague Stalin Statue – Image via Wikimedia & in the public domain

As you can see, the group statue was a classic example Communist era art on a gigantic scale. Stalin stands proudly overlooking the Vltava River, with archetypal workers and soldiers lining up behind him. The statue was informally known as ‘Fronta na maso‘, the ‘meat queue’, which was a daily part of life at that time. I am given to understand that there were also some far more descriptive titles – those that referred to what comrades standing behind Stalin, might be doing to his rear 🙂 As long as they are not too offensive, I’d love to know what these were, via comments on this post.

Less than a year after the statue was unveiled, Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin, both for his dictatorial rule and his cult of personality. Thus, this grand monument became an increasing embarrassment to the Czechoslovak Communist hierarchy. Therefore, in October 1962, the whole colossus was blown up with the help of 800 kg of explosives.

From the platform, immediately below the metronome, there is a view straight across Cechuv most, towards Staromestké námestí / Old Town Square. The street from the bridge to the square is called Parižská / Paris Street. Either side of Parižská, are some of the most exclusive and expensive shops in Prague. It is a view I suspect, that Stalin would not enjoy. So it is probably good that he no longer has to observe it 🙂

The view from Letná over Cechuv most © Ricky Yates — The view from Letná Park over Cechuv most © Ricky Yates