Ever since I announced that I was going to retire as the Anglican Chaplain in Prague and move to live near the Czech-German border, I’ve been asked both, whether this blog would continue, and if so, would there be a new header and tag line. This post is a definitive answer to both questions.
Whilst we currently are still living in Prague – we don’t move to the new house in Stará Oleška until Monday 15th May, I decided this evening, to ask Sybille to upload the new header that she had created at my request some days previously, in anticipation of the forthcoming change.
The new header is a combination of two photographs of mine. On the left is the gorge through which the Labe river flows north of Decín, on its way to cross the border with neighbouring Germany, where it becomes the Elbe river. On the right is the skyline of Dresden, featuring the prominent dome of the Frauenkirche.
The aim is to reflect my life over the next few years. I shall be living in Ústecký kraj, North Bohemia, but continuing in my role a coordinator of English-Language Anglican worship in Dresden, Saxony, or Freistaat Sachsen auf Deutsch.
Getting the new header uploaded and writing this new blog post, is a nice distraction to the current major task in hand. On Monday 1st May, sixty cardboard boxes were delivered to the Chaplaincy Flat, along with a massive roll of bubble-wrap and several rolls of wide sticky tape. Yesterday & today have been two solid days of packing boxes, together with separating what belongs to the Chaplaincy from what belongs to us.
We’ve made good progress, but my sixty-five year old body is aching! This evening, I also discovered a rather large bruise on my right arm, presumably where I banged myself carrying a heavy box. This is an inevitable consequence of permanently taking Warfarin following my pulmonary embolism in August 2015.
I do hope that everyone who has enjoyed this blog for the past eight years, as I have reflected on my life in Prague and my travels further afield, will continue to visit and also hopefully comment, as I move into a new phase in life. No longer am I ‘An Anglican in Prague’ but instead, ‘An Anglican in Bohemia and Saxony’.
Nearly eight years ago, Sybille and I moved from the North Oxfordshire countryside to Prague, and from a four-bedroomed detached Rectory with several downstairs rooms, to a three-bedroomed flat with a sitting room and a minute kitchen. Not only did this mean us undertaking a massive and therapeutic downsizing exercise, it also means we now have close neighbours – several of them!
Our flat is on the second floor at the end of the block. It is identifiable by the orange coloured bedspread which was drying on a clothes rack on our main balcony, when this photograph was taken. Because we are on the end of the block, we only physically abut one other flat, (to the right of our main balcony in the photo), with one shared wall and a frosted glass panel that divides our respective balconies.
When we first moved into our new home, this small neighbouring flat was owned and occupied by a Czech young lady called Lucie. We soon discovered that Lucie was a singer as we frequently heard her practising her scales 🙁 The other notable thing about Lucie was that in warm, sunny, summer weather, she enjoyed being out on her balcony wearing a pink bikini 🙂
About two years ago, Lucie sold the flat to a young couple, Zuzana and Filip. They made some alterations to the flat – we heard the banging and hammering 🙁 But what we didn’t initially realise was that a year ago, Zuzana and Filip moved out and started renting out their flat through Airbnb. We only discovered this in early September 2015, when Sybille overheard three young men speaking in German on the neighbouring balcony. She asked, in German, through the glass, who they were and what they were doing there. They were from Konstanz and Airbnb guests.
You can learn all about this ‘fully equipped studio’ here. The webpage contains some delightful Czenglish including offering ‘one double bad’. This is obviously either a sizeable German bath or a large amount of trouble! There are a series of seven photographs and the second one is of the balcony, looking towards our main balcony. Sybille’s green watering can is clearly visible through the glass 🙂
So far, our various Airbnb neighbours haven’t caused us too many problems. A few months back, three Australian young ladies were making quite a racket at 22.30 on Saturday night. I buzzed the door bell and pointedly remarked that, ‘Some of us have to work tomorrow!’ More recently, a group of young Spanish males got quite a surprise when being told to be quieter by Sybille, in her fluent Spanish!
Long-standing readers of my blog will know that we discovered who lived in the flat immediately above us, when in December 2010, we experienced Christmas Carp induced flooding. Follow the link if you do not know the story. Ever since that event, we have always referred to the owner of the flat directly above us, as ‘Mr Water Engineer’ 😉
Two or three years ago, a lady appeared on the scene and moved in. Initially we referred to her as ‘Mr Water Engineer’s girlfriend’. We would often see her out running, obviously keen to be fit and keep slim. But then in her quest for fitness, she bought herself an exercise bike. And unlike most other purchasers of exercise bikes, she actually uses it – regularly!
In both the sitting room, where Sybille has her desk, and in the bedroom which I use as my office, we regularly hear ‘de-da-de-da-de-da-de-da’, as she peddles away. So the lady is now known as ‘Mrs Hamster Wheel’, because that is what it exactly sounds like 🙁 As her bike riding sessions usually last for between one-and-a-half and two hours, we regularly use their commencement as an excuse to head to one of our nearby bar-restaurants 🙂
For legal and other reasons, I shall refrain from any comments regarding the couple and their daughter, who live in the flat immediately below us. But recently, there have been some interesting changes in flat below that – the one situated on the ground floor.
The ground floor flat, two storeys below ours, has a garden. Because it is on the end of the block, the garden extends on three sides, though the section at the rear is very narrow. Back in 2008, when we moved in above, this ground floor flat was owned and occupied by a couple and their child. A couple of years later, a second child was born.
They also had a lively Jack Russell terrier who enjoyed running around the garden and barking at anyone who passed by. The dog’s name was Gazpacho – quite why he should be named after a cold Spanish soup, we never discovered. He was colloquially known as ‘Gazpi’ and we always referred to his owners as ‘Mr & Mrs Gazpi’.
Late last year, Mr & Mrs Gazpi moved out and put the flat up for sale. As we discovered, by checking the sale particulars online, the flat is only about two-thirds the size of ours, because it loses space to the entrance lobby of the block.
Earlier this year, the new owner moved in. She is a lady who I think is in her late forties, though I do recognise that judging a lady’s age is entering into seriously dangerous territory 😉 As she has two different surnames on her mail box, I presume that she is a recent divorcee who is reverting to her maiden surname, but realises that mail may still come addressed to her in her married name. Also on the mail box, is the name of her teenage son who has the male form of one of her surnames.
This lady clearly saw the potential of this flat and particularly, the garden. Although, as you can see in the photograph, the hedge around the garden is already quite mature, she has placed basket-woven fencing inside the hedge for greater privacy. She has also blocked up the bottom of the garden gate, to ensure that the third member of her family, a large, grey floppy-eared rabbit, doesn’t escape!
About two months ago, a workman arrived and started digging a large hole in the garden, directly below our balcony. It being a fairly hot day, in typical Czech fashion, he stripped down to his boxer shorts to do so! He returned over the following days to line the large hole with a cement render and then lay a thick black plastic membrane, in order to create a pond.
Timber was delivered and, after the new owner had brushed timber preservative over it several times, another couple of workmen arrived to convert the timber into decking, all around the newly created pond. Here is the end result, as viewed from our balcony, two floors above.
I have to say that the end result is very attractive. However now, on some occasions when it is warm and sunny, our new neighbour stands in her pond, or sunbathes on the decking, wearing a lacy g-string and nothing else! Whilst she has created some privacy at a ground-floor level, I am left to wonder whether she ever thought about those of us who live directly above. We do like to look out from our balcony from time to time, and frequently as we do, we are greeted with yet another ‘only in the Czech Republic‘ moment 🙂
During the past three weeks, we’ve had numerous bright sunny days, enhanced by the hours of daylight getting longer each day. This has encouraged Sybille and I to get out walking and exploring again, especially on Mondays which are meant to be my regular weekly day-off.
As I wrote in an earlier post, three weeks ago on Monday 16th February, we made a round trip to Prague Zoo. A week later on Monday 23rd February, late in the morning, we left the flat, took the tram and travelled to Hlubocepy in the southern suburbs of Prague. From the tram stop, we made our way down to the side of the Vltava River and then walked all along the river bank to the village of Zbraslav.
Just as we were entering Zbraslav and were about to walk into the main square, Sybille spotted this beautifully decorated building in a street off to our left – the Barabizna Mexican Restaurant & Café. It was just as beautifully decorated inside as on the outside. Here we enjoyed a most delightful very, very late lunch 🙂 Sybille’s only disappointment was discovering that none of the staff hablaba español 🙁
Last Monday 2nd March, got somewhat taken over by preparation for my presentation the following evening for our Lent Course on the Bohemian Reformation, about the writing of the early English Church Reformer, John Wycliffe and its influence on Jan Hus. But with the sun still shining in the late afternoon, we set off and walked up to the top of the wooded ridge called Baba, that lies behind the complex of flats where we live. As I’ve previously explained, we live in Podbaba. ‘Pod’ in Czech, means ‘under’ or ‘beneath’ – hence we live under the ridge called ‘Baba’.
On a clear day like last Monday, the views from the Baba ridge are outstanding. In the foreground of this photograph is ‘Residence Podbaba’, where the Chaplaincy Flat is located. Beyond, is the wonderful example of Stalinist-Baroque architecture, now once more known as ‘Hotel International’ (formerly the Crowne Plaza Hotel). The tall white chimney belongs to the plant that supplies our hot water and heating.
This is the view to the right of the first photograph and shows Stadion Juliska, the home of FK Dukla Praha. With Spring on its way, the Czech football season resumed a couple of weeks ago, following the regular mid-season break.
Whilst this view, shows our nearby Kaufland supermarket with a large red ‘K’ on the side of the building, with Hotel International directly behind and Prague Castle in the distance.
This past weekend, the weather really has become Spring-like, with warm sunshine during the day. The nights are still cool because of clear skies, but the temperature hasn’t been below freezing for several nights. Yesterday, Saturday 7th March, under these blue skies, the regular Farmer’s Market at Vítezné námestí resumed, after a break of over two months since Christmas. No market in the Czech Republic would be complete without flowers….
This morning, the warm sunshine meant that it was warmer outside the Church than within it! Following worship and Coffee Hour, Sybille and I decided to walk home. We crossed Štefánikuv most and then climbed the steps and steep path to Letna Park. Drinking Czech beer in a beer garden, with warm sunshine and a perfect view. I think Winter is over – Spring seems to be arriving!
According to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Quotations’, this proverb dates from the late eighteenth century. Apparently, an early example of its usage is found in one of the sermons of John Wesley published in 1788. Whether I’m godly I’ll leave others to judge, but after one last, major effort over the past few days, the Chaplaincy Flat is now in a state of cleanliness that it hasn’t known in the more than six years Sybille and I have lived in it.
As I explained as part of my answer to question three in this post from mid-July, whilst Sybille is away on her long distance walking pilgrimage from Prague to Santiago de Compostela, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to completely clean every part of the Chaplaincy Flat. As I also explained, the task was both prompted and aided by Sybille completely sorting out all her papers and belongings which were previously scattered on and under her desk.
After a bit of a lull in cleaning activity during September, as I wrote in the opening lines of my previous post, in October I tackled the kitchen. Whilst our kitchen might be small – realistically it would be better described as a kitchenette 😉 – getting everything contained within it clean, was no small task!
With the kitchen complete, this meant that only my study remained to experience my cleaning blitz. But it was the room that I was least looking forward to tackling, which is why inevitably, I left it until last. My study does tend to be the room where things that don’t have a proper home, get dumped. For example, there is a box of papers which my predecessor was going to take to the Diocesan Record Office in London, but didn’t quite get around to doing so 🙁 There are also two more boxes of papers and photographs which are mine, waiting as they have been for over six years, for me to go through and sort them out!
Eventually I decided that the best way to proceed was to start on one side of the study entrance door, and work my way slowly round the four sides of the room. Therefore, the ‘business end’ came first, where my desk, computer, printer/scanner/photocopier, phone, wifi router, paper shredder and two lamps, are all located. My greatest fear, as I pulled furniture away from the wall to remove the large amount of cobwebs and dust lying behind, was that I would accidentally disconnect some of the various wires, plugs and adaptors that make everything work. Fortunately, I avoided any mishaps and things probably work far better now they are no longer covered in dust 🙂
Then it was the aforementioned boxes, piled on a trunk of my belongings, under the windowsill. The contents still are not sorted but at least they are no longer covered in dust.
The remaining walls of my study are all lined with bookshelves – all of the genuine IKEA variety 🙂 They were put together and erected for my predecessor as Chaplain, when he and his wife moved into the flat after it was purchased by the Chaplaincy in January 2006, almost nine years ago. We are most grateful to have all these bookshelves as, despite massively downsizing before moving to Prague, both Sybille and I have great difficulty in parting with books and are experts at buying or collecting additional ones 🙂
However, apart from giving the bookshelves a quick wipe before stacking our respective libraries on them, I have to confess that they haven’t received much attention with regard to cleaning since, save an occasional cursory wipe with the duster along the most exposed parts at the front. Therefore you can probably imagine the amount of dust that arose as I completely emptied each shelf of its contents.
As part of this exercise, I made two other ‘interesting’ discoveries. The first was that, whilst the bookshelves line the walls of my office, they are not actually attached to the walls. Therefore, having emptied each unit of all the books contained on them, I was able to move each unit away from the wall to reveal dust, cobwebs and dead insects which had been taking up residence over the past nearly nine years! The second, was that the back board of each unit had either detached itself or was coming detached from the unit. So as well as cleaning, I also spent time firmly nailing each back board, back into place.
This whole exercise of cleaning my study, has been tiring and quite time-consuming. But upon completion, I have been left with a real sense of satisfaction. And having had a run around today with the vacuum cleaner and the duster, through most of the other previously, thoroughly cleaned rooms, I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve in advance of Sybille’s return home this coming Tuesday. The only danger is that I’m becoming a little obsessional, promptly wiping any dirty mark I see and picking up every speck of dirt off the floor 🙂
Whilst cleaning the boxes, whose contents await me ‘sorting them out’, I did make a most pleasing discovery – this delightful photograph of Sybille taken on our honeymoon in France just over nine years ago.
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!
