Dukla Praha

FK Dukla Praha vs. FK Teplice

On Thursday 20th February, my son Phillip and his girlfriend Lisa, flew into Prague for a four day visit. Yours truly paid for the flights as a birthday and Christmas present 🙂

Their visit fortunately coincided with the resumption of the Czech football season following its mid-season break. Like many leagues in Central Europe, the Gambrinus liga, (the top tier of Czech football), cease playing during the period when harsh winter weather is most likely to occur. There had therefore been no matches since the very beginning of December. It is ironic that this winter has been so unusually mild in the Czech Republic, that matches could have continued to be played right through the mid-season break.

Immediately behind where the Chaplaincy Flat is located, is the stadium of FK Dukla Praha, one of the four Prague football clubs currently playing in the Gambrinus liga. Phillip and I have often talked of going to see a Dukla home game together and the evening of Friday 21st February, finally gave us the opportunity to do so.

FK Dukla Praha were playing FK Teplice, a clash between two teams respectively fourth and third in the league. Not surprisingly, it was one of the weekend round of matches chosen for live television coverage, meaning the kick-off was at 20.15, rather than Dukla’s normal starting time of 18.00 on a Friday evening.

A most entertaining game resulted in a 3-1 win for Dukla with all their goals being scored in the first half. The Teplice consolation goal came near the end of the second half. It was an ‘own goal’, the ball coming off the head of Dukla defender Marek Hlinka. He had previously scored the third of Dukla’s goals and so had the dubious distinction of scoring at both ends 🙂 The result meant that the two teams swapped places, with Dukla moving up to third and Teplice dropping to fourth.

As I’ve previously highlighted in a blog post from October 2011, there are numerous contrasts between attending a top flight football game in the Czech Republic, and attending a similar game in the UK. My ticket cost 130k? (just over £4.00) which is about 10% of what an adult might pay to attend a Premier League game. And for 30kc (just under £1.00), you could buy 0.5l of Gambrinus beer and take it with you to drink whilst watching the match! One nice touch was the beer being served in strong plastic ‘glasses’ on which a deposit of a further 30kc had to be paid. But this was reimbursed when the ‘glass’ was returned at the end of the match.

There was a small police presence outside the ground but none within it, so far as I could see. Inside the ground, there were a number of stewards who had very little to do except watch the game, bearing in mind that the total attendance was only 1958. And whilst there was a band of more enthusiastic fans singing and chanting in a group well below us in the main stand, nearer the pitch, there was no foul and abusive language to be heard.

Instead, during the match, I could not but help listen into a fascinating conversation going on behind me as a Czech man explained various aspects of the game, to the young lady sitting alongside him, doing so in second-language English. I eventually discovered, (once I let on I could understand every word they were saying 🙂 ), that the young lady was the Czech man’s Armenian girlfriend. He not speaking Armenian and she not speaking Czech, second-language English was their means of communication.

Altogether, it was a most enjoyable evening with the added bonus that it only took ten minutes to walk home with the whole route being either downhill or on the level!

Phillip & Lisa enjoying the game © Ricky Yates

Prague Zoo

Zoo 3 — A ring-tailed lemur in Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

Prague Zoo has always been one of our favourite places to visit on my ‘day-off’, ever since we moved to the Czech Republic nearly four years ago. It isn’t really feasible to see everything in one visit and, depending on the time of year, different animals and birds are more willing to show themselves each time we visit. And all the time, there are new developments at the zoo, some being the result of ongoing repairs to the damage caused by severe flooding in August 2002. Realising that we hadn’t visited Prague Zoo at all in 2012, we put it on our ‘staycation to visit list’ and we duly visited once more on Wednesday 18th July.

Prague Zoo is located directly across the Vltava River from where we live. Part of the fun of visiting it is the journey to get there. Why? Because there is no bridge across the river for many kilometres. Instead, we have to take the ferry.

On the western side of the river where we live, the little jetty from where the ferry leaves is two stops away on the bus. Then on the other side, it is a similar distance to the zoo entrance but with a much less frequent bus connection. So sometimes it is quicker just to walk. The ferry itself is quite tiny but as you can see, it still proudly displays a sticker to say that it is part of Prague’s integrated transport system!

Zoo 2 — The little ferry returning across the Vltava River © Ricky Yates

Zoo 1 — On board the ferry – part of Prague’s Integrated Public Transport System © Ricky Yates

Upon our arrival at the zoo entrance, we discovered two significant changes since our last visit in 2011. Firstly, the cost of a standard adult entrance ticket had gone up by 33.33% from CZK 150 to CZK 200. Secondly, the definition of being ‘senior’, allowing admission for CZK 1, had been altered from being 60 or above, to being 70 or above. Those of us aged between 60 and 69 were instead allowed in for the slightly reduced price of CZK 150.

Zoo 4 — An elephant enjoying his late lunch in his new enclosure at Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

One new feature since our last visit was a freshly completed new home for the elephants. As you can see, it does look rather bare though no doubt it will be landscaped more in due course. Fresh fruit had just been scattered in the enclosure as we arrived and shortly afterwards, this character was allowed out of his house and was busy picking up the fruit off the ground with his trunk and putting it into his mouth.

Zoo 5 — An Emu resting comfortably in Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

In the Australian section of the zoo, the kangaroos and wallabies were grazing in the farthest corners of their enclosures and were therefore somewhat difficult to see. But as usual, this emu seemed very happy to be observed sitting down quietly and enjoying the sun.

The zoo occupies a somewhat unusual site. Parts of it are relatively flat alongside the Vltava River whilst other sections are up on top of a hill overlooking both the river and the city of Prague.

Zoo 7 — The view from Prague Zoo towards Rezidence Podbaba © Ricky Yates

This view from the top of the hill looks directly across the Vltava River to Rezidence Podbaba, the development where the Chaplaincy Flat is located. On the left is the newly opened Kaufland supermarket, easily identified by the ‘K’ logo, whilst behind the apartment blocks is the Juliska Stadium, the home of FK Dukla Praha. In preparation for the new football season which begins next weekend, the club are obviously renewing the seating in the main stand which is why it says ‘ukl’ rather than ‘Dukla’ 🙂

Zoo 6 — An Owl in Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

No visit to Prague Zoo is complete for me without visiting my favourite residents – the owls. I find them such attractive and fascinating creatures. I particularly admire the way they turn their heads so they can see in virtually every direction without moving their bodies. Because of the netting that surrounds each of their enclosures, it isn’t very easy to get a clear photograph of any of the various owls in the Prague Zoo collection. So I was particularly pleased with this one of an Owl, looking half asleep but almost certainly, very wide awake!

A local derby football match

Football 1 — My ticket for Bohemians 1905 versus FK Dukla Praha © Ricky Yates

On Sunday 16th October, after celebrating the Eucharist at St. Clement’s Church and chairing a meeting of the Church Council, I went with eight of the guys I play cricket with, to watch a local derby football match – Bohemians 1905 versus FK Dukla Praha. The game was part of the tenth round of matches in the 2011-2012 season of the Gambrinus liga, the top division of Czech football. For the benefit of my American and Australian readers, the sport I am talking about is what you call ‘soccer’ but everybody else in the world calls ‘football’ or fotbal in Czech.

Bohemians’ emblem & mascot is a kangaroo. This apparently dates from a tour the club did to Australia in 1927 when they were given two live kangaroos which they donated to Prague Zoo. One of the nicknames for the club is Klokani which is ‘kangaroos’ in Czech. Not surprisingly, Australians living in Prague tend to support Bohemians 1905 & Terry, who organised our group, is an Aussie from Brisbane and a very keen supporter.

On the other hand, Dukla are really my local club as their home ground lies directly behind the Residence Podbaba estate where I live. This is their first season for many years back in the top flight of Czech football after they gained promotion as champions of Division Two at the end of last season.

Football 2 — Inside the Synot Tip Arena © Ricky Yates

The match was played at the Synot Tip Arena which is the home ground of the more well-known SK Slavia Praha. Bohemians’ proper home ground is the Dolícek Stadium which is only one kilometre away. However, it needs to be upgraded to Gambrinus liga standards which includes having under soil heating & there is currently a dispute both about ownership of the ground & who will pay for the work. Apparently, the really loyal Bohemians 1905 fans gather at Dolícek before every home match & then march the 1 km to the Synot Tip Arena.

Football 3 — The Dukla Praha supporters © Ricky Yates

The Synot Tip Arena will hold 21,000 spectators so, with only 3100 in the crowd, we did rather rattle. As you can see in the photograph above, the whole seating area on the north side of the ground was unused, with just a couple of stewards in bright yellow high-visibility jackets, guarding the stairways.

Over in the north-eastern corner of the ground were the visiting Dukla fans – surprisingly few in view of the relatively short distance they needed to travel. We all sat in the south stand with the somewhat vocal Bohemians’ supporters, all decked out in their club colours of green and white.

I couldn’t help but contrast numerous differences between attending this match and attending a game in the English Premiership. My ticket cost 150 kc, a little more than £5.00 which is about 10 -15% of what it would cost in the UK. And for 35 Kc (about £1.25), you could buy a 0.5 litre of beer and take it with you and drink it whilst watching the match! Admittedly, the league is sponsored by Gambrinus, an extremely drinkable Czech beer! Whilst there was a police presence outside the ground, they were mainly concerned with manually controlling nearby traffic lights to try and ensure the smooth flow of traffic on the streets surrounding the ground. I didn’t see any police presence inside the stadium.

Sadly we saw no goals as the match ended in a 0 – 0 draw. Even some of my Bohemians supporting friends agreed with me that Dukla were overall the better team. On at least three occasions, Dukla should have scored, but unfortunately, they wanted one touch too many in the penalty area. So it was one point each meaning that Bohemians 1905 drop from second to fifth in the league, whilst Dukla remain seventh.