Prague Expat Life

Extending and upgrading our tramline

Tram 1 — The tramline from Podbaba to Vítezné námestí is closed for over three months © Ricky Yates

I have written previously about the wonderful integrated public transport system that we enjoy here in Prague. And it is also extremely pleasing to see money being put in to both upgrade and extend it. However, when this happens, the network inevitably gets disrupted whilst these engineering works take place.

In order to get into the centre of Prague, we normally make the ten minute walk from the Chaplaincy Flat, to our nearest tram stop at Podbaba. From there we catch Tram 8, which in less than twenty minutes takes us to Dlouhá trída, two minutes walk from St. Clement’s Church. We can also get off at the third stop from Podbaba at Vítezné námestí and either catch another tram or transfer to the Metro at the neighbouring Dejvicka station.

But as you can see from this photograph, since the early hours of Monday 16^th May until 31^st August, no trams are running between Podbaba and Vítezné námestí – instead we have to make that first part of our journey by bus.

Tram 2 — The new tram turning circle under construction with archaeological work in progress © Ricky Yates

Earlier this year, work started on extending our tramline from its current terminus at Podbaba, to a new terminus adjacent to the Prague-Dresden railway line with plans for a new adjacent railway station to further integrate public transport. I took this photograph back in February when work on the new tram terminal turning circle was well underway.

However, if you look closely, you can see a series of pits where archaeological work was being undertaken. I have never fully discovered exactly what they were digging for except for one sentence on a local resident’s website which said that some early mediaeval items had been found. Apparently this archaeological work delayed the tramline extension project by three months.

Tram 5 — The new tracks of the tramline extension © Ricky Yates

Work on the new tram tracks leading to this new terminus did proceed quite rapidly as can be seen in this photograph looking from Podbaba towards the railway line in the distance. You should be able to just make out the bridge where the railway crosses the road and the new tram turning circle will be off to the left of the bridge.

Tram 6 — The existing tram route with old track lifted and new ballast laid © Ricky Yates

I did wonder how this new extension would be successfully joined to the existing tramline at Podbaba without disrupting the normal tram service. Back in early May, I found out the answer to my question – by closing down the whole line from Podbaba to Vítezné námestí for three & a half months!

To be fair to the Dopravní podnik hravního mesta Prahy or dpp for short, they have decided to use this opportunity to totally renew all the track from Vítezné námestí to Podbaba. Within a few days of the closure, most of the old track had been ripped up, the earth underneath excavated and fresh ballast had begun to be put in place.

Tram 3 — Podbaba tram terminus on last working day © Ricky Yates

Tram 4 — And a few days later! © Ricky Yates

These two photographs show the extent of the work at the old Podbaba terminus. The first photograph was taken on Sunday 15^th May, the last days that trams were turning around here. The second was taken only a few days later!

It is frustrating to be without our normal tram service for over three months. And I do feel sorry for all those who live nearer to all this construction work than we do as the dust and noise must be irritating to say the least. But the end result will be improved transport infrastructure providing an even better and more accessible service. And according to the plans I’ve seen, the new tram stop at Podbaba will be a little closer to where we live making it only an eight rather than a ten minute walk to get there!

Slapy Lake – Vodni Nadrž Slapy

Last Monday, being my day-off, Sybille and I decided to take advantage of the warm sunny weather and pay our first visit this year to Vodni Nadrž Slapy – Slapy Lake, and the little lakeside village of Ždán. The village and lake are about 50km south of our home with the journey taking about an hour in the car, because of needing to either get through or around Prague, before being able to head out into the Bohemian countryside.

Slapy 2 — The lakeside beach at Ždán © Ricky Yates

Slapy Lake has been formed by the building of the Slapy Dam across the Vltava River. Both take their name from the village of Slapy which lies a couple of kilometers west of the site of the dam. As I explained in my earlier post entitled ‘A Trip up the Vltava River’, the dam was constructed during the Communist era between 1949 – 1955 in order to generate hydro-electricity, as well as to control river flow and hopefully help prevent flooding further downstream in times of high rainfall. Slapy Lake, behind the dam, stretches south for over forty kilometres and is widely used by small pleasure boats and yachts. Along the shore and in the surrounding wooded hills, there are a large number of Chata or Chalupa – little (usually wooden) holiday cottages. Outside of Scandinavia, the Czech Republic is probably the European country that has the highest percentage of population who own a country cottage/second home.

The village of Ždán consists mainly of holiday cottages of various shapes and sizes, together with a bar-restaurant, a couple of simple hotels and a slightly more upmarket yacht club. And between the lake shore and the narrow access road running through the village, there is a wide grassy area, partially shaded by a variety of trees, where you can freely walk, picnic, sunbathe and gain access the lake to go swimming.

I hope these accompanying photographs convey something of the beauty, simplicity and tranquility of this location and why we both like it so much. The water is clean and clear and was already pleasantly warm for swimming. And because we were there on a week day, it wasn’t at all busy, despite being a fine and sunny day with the temperature in the mid-twenties.

Slapy 3 — Sam the dog swimming in Slapy Lake © Ricky Yates

Another reason why I find this spot so relaxing is the almost total lack of signs or regulations, instead leaving people to use their commonsense. Since we were last here in 2010, some strategically placed boulders or a stretch of low fence mean you can now only pull onto the grass and park at one end of the area. But there is none of the ‘Health & Safety gone mad’ culture that you get in the UK these days with signs warning of the danger of drowning in water, or telling you not to do this or that.

Our day-out at Slapy Lake also cost very little beyond the petrol for the 100 km round trip in the car and 50 Kc for two pre-lunch beers. We packed a picnic lunch which we sat and ate in the partial shade of the surrounding trees.

This was also Sam the dog’s first real day out with us beyond his regular daily walks. Labradors are meant to be good swimmers so we did wonder how he would take to the water. After some initial uncertainty, he soon discovered that he could swim, particularly if we threw a stick into the lake for him to retrieve! I think both he and we look forward to several more return trips to Slapy Lake over the coming summer months.

Slapy 4 — Sam drying off under the trees © Ricky Yates

We have a new address

New Number — Pat’anka 2614/11A © Ricky Yates

Last Wednesday 25^th May 2011, Sybille & I changed our address. No – we haven’t moved out of the Chaplaincy flat. Instead, solely due to the intricacies of Czech bureaucracy, the building in which the Chaplaincy Flat is located, has been re-numbered.

All buildings in Prague have two numbers. One number, on a red plate with white lettering, is the registration of that building with the local authority – in our case, with Praha 6. Prague, like Paris, is divided into numbered districts, each of which has its own mayor and council. The registration number of our building – 2614, is unchanged. The other number, on a dark blue plate with white lettering, is the number of the building in that particular street. Our building was and still is, Pat’anka 11. But because there are two separate doors & staircases to the two halves of the building, one was labelled 11A and the other, (our entrance door & staircase) was labelled 11B.

However, for reasons that are explained in Czech in this document, last Wednesday, what was previously Pat’anka 2614/11A changed to being just Pat’anka 2614/11. And what was previously Pat’anka 2614/11B changed to being Pat’anka 2614/11A.

As can be seen in this photograph, we now have two brand new shiny signs on the outside wall adjacent to the entrance door & staircase that leads to our flat, just to ensure that nobody is confused. But, in the meantime, I have the wonderful task of informing a whole variety of businesses, organisations and individuals, that I no longer live at 11B but at 11A. What did I say previously about Czech bureaucracy?????

Welcome to another Karen

RY-&-Karen-1b — With Rev’d Dr. Karen Moritz outside St. Clement’s Church on Sunday 1st May 2011 © Gerhard Frey-Reininghaus

In recent months it has been a great privilege to have another lady called Karen join the St. Clement’s congregation. She is not to be confused with Karen the TEFL teacher, who has been the subject of several of my previous blogposts and who now lives in Istanbul, but remains a very regular and faithful commenter here. Nor is she to be confused with Czech/Australian Karen, who helped us with adopting Sam the dog. Nor is she Karin, (note the slightly different spelling), who has also previously worshipped at St. Clement’s, currently lives on the Greek island of Paros and, from time to time, also leaves comments here.

This latest Karen is the Rev’d Dr. Karen Moritz, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She came to Prague at the end of September last year as a Mission Co-worker with the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB), the joint Lutheran-Presbyterian Church who are the largest Protestant grouping in the Czech Republic and who own Kostel Sv. Klimenta where we worship.

Between Monday and Friday each week, Karen works in the Ecumenical Department at the Headquarters of the ECCB. She is also having Czech lessons three times a week and has become far more conversant with the Czech language in seven months, than we have managed in two and a half years. Since late October 2010, she has made her Czech worshipping home with the ECCB Kliment congregation. She attends their 9.30am service each Sunday, joins them for coffee after their service in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18, but then she returns to worship with us at 11am because she likes our liturgy and hearing a sermon in a language that she fully understands!

I was delighted to discover when I enquired earlier this year, that under the Ecumenical Canons of the Church of England, it is possible for Karen to be licensed to do within our worship, what a licensed Anglican Reader can do, namely preach, administer the chalice and lead a non-Eucharistic services. We are currently getting her through the various hoops of child protection procedures and references being taken up, to enable this to happen.

We are still waiting for the official formal permission but, in anticipation of it being granted, it was a great pleasure to have Karen preach for us on Sunday 1^st May, the Second Sunday of the Easter Season. This was Karen’s first time ‘back in the pulpit’ since leaving the USA last year. Her boss in the ECCB Ecumenical Department, Rev’d Gerhard Frey-Reininghaus, very kindly attended the service to support her and also took the photograph above. The photograph below was taken by Sybille using Gerhard’s camera.

RY & Karen 3 — From l. to r. ; John, a Canadian member of the congregation, myself, Rev’d Dr. Karen Moritz, Rev’d Gerhard Frey-Reininghaus © Gerhard Frey-Reininghaus

Having Karen join our congregation has been a great joy and the possibility of using her gifts and talents within our worship in the coming months and years will undoubtedly be a great asset to both me and the wider congregation. Her sermon on Sunday 1^st May was very much appreciated by all those who heard it and can be also be listened to here on our website. Karen is also providing a wonderful strong link between the English-speaking St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church and our host ECCB congregation.

We have a dog!

Sam 1 — Sam our adopted dog © Ricky Yates

I am pleased to announce that, much to Sybille’s great pleasure, on Wednesday 20^th April 2011 we became the proud owners of a dog. Strictly speaking, until a date in early October 2011, we are only the surrogate foster parents of a dog. I’ll explain that situation in greater detail in a moment. But first of all, let me introduce the dog.

Our dog, pictured here on the left, was found by the police in early April, wandering around a Prague suburb. He did not have either an ID microchip or a tattoo to identify him. But he did have a collar with a metal tag attached, which gave his date of birth & said that his name was ‘Sam’. However, rather oddly, the tag had no address or phone number.

Officially, Sam is deemed to be a Labrador mix. However, other than a few spots on his ears, there is nothing to distinguish him from a pure bred Labrador. As I have very little knowledge of dog breeds, I shall leave any detailed discussion of exactly what his breeding is, to those are more knowledgeable in these matters than I am.

We obtained Sam from the stray dog and re-homing centre, run by the police and located just across the Vltava River from where we live. We did so, by finally finding a way to circumvent the absurdities of Czech bureaucracy that I described in my earlier post in February this year entitled ‘Czech bureaucracy again’.

After our experience described in that post, we had various ideas as to how we might challenge our being treated as second-class citizens simply because we were deemed only to have ‘Temporary Residence’ in the Czech Republic. These ranged from getting the British Ambassador involved or taking our friend, an English-speaking Czech lawyer, along with us. Eventually, we decided to try the slightly less heavy-handed approach of asking a Czech-speaking member of the St. Clement’s congregation to telephone the stray dog and re-homing centre, to see if the impasse could be explained & overcome.

The person we got to help us was Karen, one of numerous ladies of that name either in my congregation or commenting on this blog! This Karen has both Czech and Australian nationality and speaks several languages fluently, including Czech and English. Having managed to speak on the phone to the man in charge of the dog centre, Karen was assured that, if she came in person with us to the centre and explained the situation, we would be allowed to adopt a dog. So on the morning of Wednesday 20^th April, we met Karen outside the dog centre to see if the promise made on the phone would be fulfilled.

Unfortunately, the same very difficult and officious lady that we had met on our previous visit, was on the front desk. She gave Karen exactly the same story as we got the first time we were there – we were foreigners with ‘Temporary Residence’ and therefore not eligible to adopt a dog. Karen demanded to speak to the man in charge of centre saying that he had assured her that we could adopt. The gentleman duly came and a long discussion in Czech ensued. Eventually, a solution was arrived at which is once more best described as Kafka-esque.

Officially, Karen has adopted the dog because she is a Czech citizen and therefore has ‘Permanent Residency’ here. However, the authorities have noted on their records that the dog will actually be living with us and not with Karen! Hence my description earlier of us being only ‘surrogate parents’ to Sam. This is all because they think that we, as foreigners, will run away out of the country with the dog. The reality is that Karen, together with her Australian husband and family, are planning to return to live in Australia in two to three years time, whereas we hope to be living here for at least the next six years.

The reason that we, together with Karen, are only ‘foster parents’ until early October is much more straightforward and something we were fully aware of before embarking on this exercise. If a stray dog is found by the police, wandering in the streets anywhere in the Czech Republic, the original owner has six months in which to reclaim his or her dog, measured from the date the dog was found. After the expiration of that period of time, the foster parents can register the dog as their own.

Therefore, in early October, providing the original owner doesn’t come forward, we can return with Karen to the dog centre and transfer Sam’s registration into our names. Apparently at that point, the fact that we are foreigners with ‘Temporary Residence’ doesn’t matter!

You may be wondering how Sam the dog is getting on with the existing third member of our family – Oscar the cat. As most people know, cats consider themselves to be superior to humans and certainly far superior to dogs. I believe the picture on the left illustrates this reality very clearly!