Malý Mehrin Museum

Today's Brno adventure was brunch and then we went to check out the new Malý Mehrin Museum which opened back in February.  Malý Mehrin means "Little Mehrin" and it is the temporary Moravian Jewish Museum which is located in a house until a permanent museum is built.

"Mehrin" is the Yiddish slang word for Moravia.     

There's currently an exhibition of 13 stops focused on stories of Moravian Jews.  

Due to the Nazi occupation and anti-Semetic policies of the post-war Communist government, the vast majority of the information in the exhibits came from outside of the country.

The museum will offer talks, lectures and children's programmes.  It will operate until the new "big Mehrin" gets built.

Back in 2021, it was announced that Brno was going to get a new Moravian Holocaust Documentation Centre.  In 2022, the name was changed to the Mehrin Moravian Jewish Museum.  

The Japanese architect Kengo Kuma won the competition for the design of the new museum.  There were three other firms in the running but the winning design was unanimously selected by a nine-member international jury.  

The building will be in the shape of an endless white ribbon with a tree in the centre.  It should be built in the city centre, between the bus and train stations, where there's currently a parking lot.

There's an endowment fund in place but the total cost of the new museum is expected to run hundreds of millions of Czech Crowns so it's not known when construction will actually begin.

ESTA Visa Application

Kája and I are planning to go to the USA in July for a three-week holiday.  We'll visit Steven and Michael in Atlanta for a week, then fly to Arizona to visit my folks for a week.  Then all of us are driving to California to visit my sister for a week.  Since Kája is Czech he needed to apply for an ESTA in order to visit the USA.  ESTA is the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation under the Visa Waiver Program and it's quicker than applying for a regular tourist visa.

A U.S. Tourist Visa costs $185 and requires an in-person interview at the American Embassy in Prague,  The visa is valid for up to 10 years, is good for multiple entires, and a person can stay up to Six months at a time.

The Visa Waiver Program is for citizens of specific countries, including Czechland, who want to visit the USA for up to 90 days at a time.  The ESTA only costs $21, can be applied for online, so no in-person interview is required, and while good for multiple visits, it is only valid for two years.  

An ESTA is only valid for citizens of the following countries:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.  

The applicant must have an e-passport and must have either a return or onward ticket to leave the USA.  

If you've visited North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen after 1 March 2011, or if you've visited Cuba after 12 January 2021, then you can't apply for an ESTA.  You must apply for a normal travel visa.

This must be a bummer for all of the Europeans who visit Cuba on holiday because once they have, they can't get an ESTA.  

An ESTA can be applied for no later than 72 hours before entering the USA.  Kája applied for his ESTA on the weekend and has already received his confirmation.  He won't have a visa in his passport but he will need to show this document at the airport during check-in to confirm he's authorised to enter the USA.

Here's a short YouTube video I found about applying for an ESTA.

©ESTA Online Service

English Language Day

Today is English Language Day at the United Nations.  It falls on 23 April which is traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare.  English Language Day at the UN started in 2010 and there is a day for each of the UN's six official languages.

French Language Day is 20 March, Chinese Language Day is on 20 April, Russian Language Day is on 6 June, and Arabic Language Day is on 18 December.  Spanish Language Day also falls on 23 April.  Seems kind of odd to me that English and Spanish both share the same day.

English isn't the world's most spoken language but it is the official language of 67 countries and is spoken as a first language of about 372,9 million people and the world's most popular foreign language.  There are about 1,4 billion people in the world who speak English.

Here's a short video I found on YouTube from the UN about English Language Day.

©UNIFIL

Petrov Birthday Wine Cellar Party

Yesterday we went to Petrov, about 4 km (2,5 miles) southeast of Strážnice, to celebrate his friend Verča's birthday. 

The area has about 80 wine cellars that date back to the 15th century.  

The wine cellars form a street with two squares and is frequently visited by wine tourists.  In the past, local farmers weren't able to build wine cellars under their houses due to the high groundwater level.  So instead, they set up cellars on a slope a short distance behind the village where it wasn't suitable for cultivation.

During WWII the cellars served as shelters for people who were illegally escaping from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the Slovak puppet state.  

The wine cellar area was declared a monument reserve by a decree of the Ministry of Culture of the Czechoslovak Republic on 15 September 1983.  I understand that it took more than 10 years of effort before the government listed it as a monument.

The party was a lot of fun and obviously there was plenty of wine for the celebration.

Museum Island, Berlin, Germany

While in Berlin last week, for the Johannes Oerding concert, we wanted to visit Museuminsel, the Museum Island.  It's a complex of five museums, sitting on 8,6 hectors (21 acres) in the historic part of the city, on Spree Island, located near the Berlin Cathedral and Humboldt Forum.     

The five original museums, originally built from 1830 to 1930, are the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. 

In 1999, Museuminsel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 2019, the James Simon Gallery opened which is an art gallery and visitor centre.

The Altes Museum, the oldest on the island, was built in 1830 is known for Greek and Roman art.

The Neues Museum was completed in 1859.  It was renovated in 2009.  

Famous for Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures including the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

The Alte Nationalgalerie was comped in 1876 and hosts 19th-century art.

The Bode-Museum opened in 1904 and is home to late Antique and Byzantine art.

The Pergamon Museum was completed in 1930.  It contains the Greek Pergamon Altar and Ishtar Gate of Babylon.

Here's a short DW video I found out on YouTube about Museum Island.

©Deutsche Welle

We wanted to check out the some of the museums because the area is about to go under significant renovation but everything was sold out.  I believe that everything is supposed to be completed by 2025 to 2026.  

Johannes Oerding Concert

Back in 2020, for Christmas, I gave concert tickets to Tünde, for the three of us to see Johannes Oerding at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in February 2021.  

However, due to Covid restrictions, the concert kept getting pushed back.

Much like the Pet Shop Boys concert, that I bought tickets for in 2019, but we didn't get to see until 2022. 

The concert last night was great!  We really enjoyed ourselves.  

©Jens Hettwer

The opening act was ELIF, who's real name is Elif Demirezer, a local Turkish-German singer.  She also later performed a duet with him.  

Here's a YouTube video I found of her singing Alles Brennt with him.

©Uli Mü

He also had another Turkish performer join him on stage.  Zeynep Avci, also a Berlin local, competed on season 11 of The Voice of Germany, where Johannes Oerding was a judge. 

Here's them singing Stärker.  

©Uli Mü

A fun weekend but to Berlin and back for a concert was a bit much.  Still worth it and Tünde finally got her 2020 Christmas present.  I guess I lucked out that after 2,5 years, he's still one of her favourite singers.  

Universal Healthcare

One of our friends visiting Brno this week came down with Conjunctivitis, Zánět spojivek, normally called "pink eye" in English.  So we made the decision to go visit Bohunice Hospital.  

Going to the hospital on day 2 of a 4-day weekend?  Not something that sounded like a fun time but we headed to the emergency room.

When we got to the hospital the receptionist told us to go directly to the eye clinic on the 16th floor.  Within five minutes the nurse had taken some personal information and our friend was seen by a resident.  

A senior doctor joined, multiple x-rays just to rule things out, and a prescription for medicine and we were headed home.  Everything done in just one hour.  Our friend doesn't have a Czech health card but does have a European health card.  In a situation like this, you have to pay for the visit and medicine, you submit a claim with your country's health insurance system and get reimbursed.  

The visit, with the x-rays, cost 500 Kč (~$21) and the medicine was another 500 Kč.  In the USA, even with good insurance, it would have cost way more.  

I never understand why universal healthcare is seen as a bad thing by so many Americans (Republicans).  It's not something radical.  There are 73 countries in the world that offer universal healthcare coverage and all but 43 countries in the world have free healthcare or access to universal healthcare for at least 90% of their citizens.  

In the USA there is national defence but the moment national healthcare is brought up, you would think that people were advocating for the downfall of the country.  

Sure, no system is perfect and there's always room for improvement, but I've never seen a country with universal healthcare trying to repeal it.  It's as if universal healthcare is a good thing.

The USA is the largest country without universal healthcare and to put this in perspective, some other countries without free healthcare are Nigeria, Yemen, South Africa, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. 

I'm very happy that I live here in Czechland where we have a very good healthcare system.  And I've never heard of anyone in a country with universal healthcare going bankrupt due to medical bills.  That's just an American thing.  Most Americans are one major disease from losing everything due to medical bankruptcy. 

Update:  Our friend was fully reimbursed for the 1000 Kč within a week.

The Slav Epic

The Slav Epic, Slovanská epopej), was painted by the famous Art Nouveau Alphonse Mucha between 1910 and 1928, and is a cycle of 20 large canvases.  The cycle shows the mythology and history of the Slavic people.

The paintings are on display in Moravský Krumlov, about 51 km (31 miles) from Brno.

Mucha worked on these paintings for 18 years and the cycle is considered his biggest success.  After finishing the cycle in 1928, it first went on display in Prague and Mucha bestowed it to Prague, on the condition that the city build a special pavilion to display it.

Mucha died in July 1939.  He was interrogated by the Gestapo because he was culturally important in Czechoslovakia.  During WWII, the paintings were hidden away to prevent the Nazis from seizing them.

After the 1948 Communist Coup, the communist government wasn't keen on Mucha who they considered a bourgeois artist and whose art wasn't in line with socialist realism.  So building a special pavilion to display Mucha's work wasn't a priority for the communist government so they were put on display in Moravský Krumlov in 1963.

The Slav Epic was on display in Moravský Krumlov for almost 50 years.  Prague waged a decade-long legal battle to move the paintings to the city which intensified in early 2010.  The city of Prague felt the paintings would be seen by more people...tourists...if they were located in Prague but none of the city's galleries had space for the pieces.  They are huge; up to 6 metres tall and 8 metres wide (19.8 feet tall by 26.25 wide).

In 2012 the paintings were moved to the National Gallery and stayed there until the end of 2016.  In 2017 they were taken on a two-year tour of Asia before returning to Prague in 2019.  The Asian tour was controversial and Mucha's grandson unsuccessfully sued Prague to stop the tour.

The paintings returned to Moravský Krumlov in July 2021 where they are to remain for up to five years.  In 2022, Prague signed an agreement to renovate Savarin Palace, in Prague, which is to be the painting's new home.  In my humble opinion, Prague being the capital and all, the city has more than enough things to see and do.  There weren't any problems with having the paintings in Moravský Krumlov and having the paintings outside of Prague brought tourists to South Moravia.  

Seeing The Slav Epic has been on my list of things to do for a long time.  Claudia and Nat went and saw it about 12 or so years ago but on a weekend when I was out of town somewhere.  It was worth the wait. 

Here's a Rick Steves video I found out on YouTube about Alphonse Mucha and The Slav Epic.

©Rick Steves

25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

Yesterday was the 675th anniversary of Charles University and it was also the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Good Friday Agreement, known also as the Belfast Agreement, signed on 10 April 1998, brought peace to Ireland.

The agreement was signed by the UK and Irish governments and was confirmed by referendums in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.  It allowed for devolved government in Belfast but more importantly, it brought an end to The Troubles which was the 30 years of violence between nationalists and unionists.

The Troubles began in the late 1960s as violent conflicts between Catholic Unionists and Protestant Loyalists.  During this time more than 3,500 people were killed and more than 50,000 injured.

The agreement acknowledged that the majority of people in Northern Ireland wanted to remain a part of the UK.  It also acknowledged that many people in Northern Ireland, and the majority in the Republic of Ireland want a united Ireland.  If and when a day comes that the majority of people in Northern Ireland want to be united with Ireland, then both the Irish and British governments must comply.

Everyone in Northern Ireland has the right to UK or Irish citizenship, or may have both passports.

Paramilitary gourds had to decommission weapons and the British and Irish governments committed to the early release of about 400 prisoners.  The British had to normalise security arrangements at the border.

One of the biggest problems of Brexit is that there's now a land border in Ireland between the UK and the EU.  Many people have been concerned that putting a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland could bring back the Troubles.

Here are a few videos I found on YouTube.

BBC News

RTÉ News

RTÉ News

Easter 2023

What a long Easter weekend.   First Claudia and Tünde came for a visit, then Natalie came, then Katka came.  Lots of fun visiting and some adventures along the way.

Although it was a bit rainy we visited the Brno Easter market.  

Even the Brno dragon got in the spirit and is currently sporting wings.

On Saturday, we went to Moravský Krumlov to see The Slav Epic.  This has been on the Czechland to-do list for years and it didn't disappoint.

It was great to spend time with the girls.  The only glitch was that poor Nat got pink eye which required a visit to Bohunice but that's another story.