Driving Basics

I've been on a couple of road trips lately to Germany and Austria so I figured that I'd share a little bit about driving here. First of all, I don't drive because my U.S. driver's license is not valid here. Since I'm in the ČR on a long-term visa, and not an EU citizen, I'm required to obtain a Czech license. Maybe one day but not right now. I mean the public transportation system is great. Plus, I don't want to go through the required bureaucracy of completing driving school, taking both written and practical tests, paying fees, and so on. Besides...I'll have to learn the different European road signs and I don't have time for that right now.

So here are the things that stand out...

Czech drivers are extremely aggressive. The rules of the road tend to be rather fluid at times which probably explains why the insurance rates are so high.

Like the rest of Europe, you have to be at least 18 years old to get a driver's license. There are no 16 year old drivers like in the U.S.

Traffic lights are placed before the intersection and not after.

Passing is only permitted on the left side and it is illegal to make a right turn on a red light.

It is illegal to talk on a mobile phone while driving. You have to use a "hands-free" device. Czech law requires that headlights must always be on, even during the day.

For everyone back home, gas here is around $7 per gallon, so no complaining about how how high it is there.

Czechs are required to have two sets of tires - summer tires and winter tires. I was told if you have the wrong tires on and get into an accident, even if it wasn't your fault, you are still held at fault.

The speed limit in residental areas is 50 km/hour (~30 mph) and 130 km/hr (~80 mph) on the highway.

In most countries you have to purchase a vignette (windshield sticker) in order to drive on the highways. These can be purchased at gas stations, border crossings, post offices, etc., and can be purchased for 7-10 days, a month or a year. A one-year permit for the ČR is 1200 Kč (~$66). The one-year sticker for Austria was €76,40 (~$105). Germany is the best because they don't have this so you can drive on the highways there for free.

The police are allowed to collect traffic fines on the spot, up to 5000 Kč (~$275).

There is a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drinking and driving here. The maximum blood alchohol level is ZERO. And now the country is cracking down even more. As of January 1, 2010, the law requires that every driver stopped by the police will be breath-tested.

Aida

On Wednesday, there was a performance of Aida at Janáčkovo divadlo - Brno's largest theater. So Claudia, Tomáš and I joined Helena and Ferro for a night at the opera.

Aida is a four-act melodrama that was composed by Giuseppe Verdi.

Here's the plot...

Aida is an Ethiopian princess that was captured and is now a slave in Egypt. Radames is an Egyptian military commander and he is in love with Aida. Amneris is the Pharaoh's daughter and she is in love with Radames. The kicker is that no one knows Aida is royalty. The Ethopians invade Egypt and Radames is chosen to fight them back which tests everyone's loyalty.

The performance was good and the music was excellent. The only "problem" was that the opera was sung in Italian and the subtitles were all in Czech. It's a good thing that I read a summary of the four acts beforehand so I had an idea of what was happening on stage. But the cool thing was that I was able to pick out quite a few words from the subtitles, so I guess the new Czech lessons are starting to pay off.

Hromnice

February 2nd is Hromnice. Basically the same thing as Groundhog Day in the U.S. The weather on Hromnice indicates how long winter will last. Here are some of the many Czech Hromnice sayings.

Svítí-li slunce na Hromnice, bude zimy o šest neděl více.
If the sun is shining on Hromnice, there will be six more weeks of winter.

Hromnice-li jasné, čisté, potrvá déle zima jistě. Pakli sněží nebo hřímá, jaro jistě v blízku dlívá.
If Hromnice is bright and clear, winter is sure to linger. If there is snow or thunder, spring must be near.

Vyjde-li jezevec o Hromnicích z díry, za čtyři neděle zpátky zas pílí.
If the badger comes out of his hole on Hromnice, he'll be rushing back four weeks later.

Jest-li o Hromnicích teplo, staví medvěd boudu; pakli o Hromnicích zima, bourá medvěd boudu.
If Hromnice is warm, the bear builds himself a shed. If Hromnice is cold, the bear tears down his shed.

Na Hromnice husa po vodě - na velikonoce po ledě.
If the goose swims on water on Hromnice, it will walk on ice at Easter.

Pošmourné Hromnice sedláku milé jsou velice.
Cloudy Hromnice makes the farmer happy.

Kdyby o Hromnicích napadlo jen tolik sněhu, co je na černé krávě znát, bude úrodný rok.
If as little snow falls on Hromnice as can be noticed on a black cow, the year will be fertile.

Na Hromnice kalužky, budou jabka i hrušky.
If there are puddles of water on Hromnice, there will be apples and pears.

Jestli na Hromnice mrzne a sněží, úrodný rok na to běží.
If Hromnice is freezing and snowy, a fertile year will follow.

Na Hromnice má sedlák raději vlka ve chlévě i ženu na marách než slunce.
On Hromnice, a farmer would rather have a wolf in his barn or a wife dead than the sun in the sky.

Well it snowed again today in Brno. And then later it cleared up. So who knows when winter will end here?

Döner Kebab

While in Berlin this past weekend, I made sure to get a Döner Kebap for lunch. It is a Turkish sandwich served in a wax paper sleeve. It is similar to a Greek gyro but döner are way better. Especially as a quick lunch or after a late night of drinking.

It consists of roasted lamb cut from a spit, with lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, onion, cucumbers and sauce. They are normally served on pita bread. But not in Berlin. Here, is the only place where they are served in warmed fladenbrot (thick flatbread).

Döner is one of the most popular fast foods in Germany. Probably because of the country's large Turkish minority. In the 1960s, huge numbers of Turks came to Germany, as guest workers, to fill the acute labor shortages that existed at the time.

The story goes that Döner Kebab was actually invented in Berlin in 1971 as the fast food version of a traditional Turkish dish. I don't know if it is the fladenbrot or what, but döner just seem to taste better in Berlin.

The Euro - €

The euro (€) is the official currency of the European Union, and is used by 327 million Europeans in 16 of the 27 member countries. After the U.S. dollar, it is the 2nd largest reserve currency and the 2nd most traded currency.

Inspiration for the € symbol itself came from the Greek epsilon (Є), as a reference to the cradle of European civilisation, and the first letter of the word Europe. It is crossed by two parallel lines to ‘certify’ the stability of the euro.


€1 is divided in to 100 cents. The coins come in denominations of 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, €1 and €2. One side of the coin is common and the other side is a national side that shows an image specifically chosen by the country that issued the coin. Kind of like how each U.S. quarter features a different state.

Banknotes come in demoninations of €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500. Each banknote has its own color and is dedicated to an artistic period of European architecture. The front of the note features windows or gateways and the back has bridges.

Just like Czech money, the coins and banknotes get physically larger as the value increses.

Countires have to meet strict cirteria in order to join the Eurozone. For example, a country's budget deficit must be less than 3% of it's GDP, its debt ratio must be less than 60% of its GDP, inflation must be low and interest rates must be close to the EU average. All new EU countries must work towards eventually adopting the euro. The only 3 long-standing EU countries that have yet to adopt it are the UK, Denmark and Sweden. It will be several years before the Czechs start using it. Slovakia switched to the euro 1 year ago. I think Slovaks are kind of proud that they switched before the Czechs could.

It is nice to be able to use a single currency in most of Europe. The problem is that, for the most part, I now think in Czech Crowns. So when I see something priced in euros, I first have to mentally convert the euros into dollars, and then convert the dollars into crowns so that I realize just how much I'm spending. Kind of crazy, I know. But at least I don't have to figure out marks, schillings and lire.

Ř

The Czech language has a sound that doesn't exist in any other language and it is driving me crazy. The letter "Ř" is a rolled R sound with a „zh“ sound.

Czechs seem to take pride in the fact that even Slovaks, quite often, can't make this sound properly. It's normally the hardest sound for Czech children to learn and the ones that don't get it are sent to speech therapy.

I was told that during WWII, the Czech resistance used passwords that contained the letter "ř" in order to root out German spies. Pretty clever.

I hope that my ability to pronounce this properly will come in time. But then again, the former Czech president Václav Havel, due to a speech impediment, can't properly say the letter ř. So if he can't then I guess I should not worry about it too much.

Here's my second MS Movie Maker experiment. These two tongue twisters are suppossed to help me with my ř.

Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes tři sta třicet tři stříbrných střech.

Three hundred and thirty three silver quails flew over three hundred and thirty three silver roofs.

Přišel za mnou jeden Řek, a ten mi řek, abych mu řek, kolik je v Řecku řeckých řek. A já mu řek, že nejsem řek, abych mu řek, kolik je v Řecku řeckých řek.

A Greek came to me asking for how many Greek rivers are there in Greece. And I told him that I was no Greek to tell how many Greek rivers are there in Greece.

Tongue Twisters #1

I started Czech language lessons last week. I had classes last year but they just didn't work out. Claudia had a really good idea of putting up a flyer in the foreign language department at Masarykova Univerzita requesting a private instructor.

We found a tutor who is working on her Ph.D. in Czech to give us private lessons. Our classes are 90 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Lessons are even at my flat which is really convenient. I just hope now that with only two students in "the class", we can start making some real progress.

I'm really working to improve my pronunciation. But there are times when, I think I'll just break my tongue trying to pronounce certain words...especially the ones that don't have any vowels.

Here are a couple of Czech tongue twisters. They don't make much sense and it's not like these are sentences that I'll use every day. However, they are kind of fun. And look Mom...no vowels!

This is also the first "movie" I created using MicroSoft Movie Maker so let me know what you think.

Strč prst skrz krk. Put your finger in your neck/throat.

Vlk zmrzl, prst zvlhl. Frozen wolf, wet finger.