Some Major California Sightseeing

We did quite a bit of sightseeing yesterday.  With mom, my sister Angela, and brother-in-law manual we showed Kája more of the LA/Hollywood touristy experience.  

The first stop was Union Station which is in the northeastern corner of downtown Los Angeles.  Union Station opened in 1939 was known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations."  

The station is beautiful, combining Art Deco, Mission Revival, and modern styles.  In 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Union Station is the largest and busiest passenger rail terminal in the Western United States.  It is the 13th busiest train station in North America.  This also shows that train travel isn't really a thing in the USA.  Just the city of Los Angeles has about 4 million people but the station only serves about 110,000 passengers a day.  Brno has about 400,000 people and more than 65,000 passengers use hlavní nádraží every day.

Me & my sister

Across the street is Olvera Street.  It's a historic pedestrian street in the historic centre of the city.  There are plenty of street vendors and restaurants to check out.

Olvera Street is home to Ávila Adobe, built in 1818, which is the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles.

Olvera Street gets about two million visitors per year.  Some people don't care for it because it can seem touristy.  I like it because of the history; it was the historical city centre in both the Spanish and Mexican times prior to California being taken by the U.S.

Then it was on to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.  Warner Brothers (WB) was founded in 1923.  It is one of the major American film, animation and television studios.

It's fun but expensive.  An adult ticket is $76 and the tour lasts about three hours.  You get to visit a soundstage and the backlot, which is where we got to sit on the Friends couch.

Some of the most popular sets we got to visit were from Friends and The Big Bang Theory, plus big exhibits for Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and The Justice League.  

Barbie gets released this week so there was lots of promotion for the film.  I had to get a photo of the Kája Barbie doll, plus some video of him dancing around like Dobby the house elf.  

2023 Academy Awards

At this year's 95th Academy Awards, All Quiet on the Western Front had nine nominations for an Oscar.  The 2022 German film, Im Westen nights Neues, cost $20 million dollars to make but it wasn't made in Germany.

It was filmed in 2021 in Czechland.  All of the movie's extras, stunt people and technical crew were all Czech.  Their hard work paid off because it won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

Four Czechs received nominations but unfortunately none of them won.  However, what an honour to be nominated for an Oscar.

Linda Eisenhamerová - Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Viktor Prášil - Best Sound

Kamil Jafar and Viktor Müller - Best Visual Effects

From the top left corner to the right: Viktor Müller, Viktor Prášil, Linda Eisenhamerová, Kamil Jafar

Here's the film's trailer.

©Netflix

The first Czech (/Slovak) film ever to win an Oscar was Obchod na korze, (The Shop on Main Street).  The 1965 film won Best Foreign Film for Czechoslovakia.  I haven't seen the film yet but I think I need to be on the look out for it.  

Here's the film's trailer that I found out on YouTube.

©POVCineclub

80th Anniversary of the End of the Battle of Stalingrad

Today is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.  It lasted from 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle ever known with approximately 2 million people killed on both sides. 

The Battle of Stalingrad was the first major defeat for Hitler's army and is regarded as the turning point in the war in Europe.

In 1925, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad, after the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.  In 1961, the city was renamed Volgograd.

Here's a five-minute YouTube video about the Battle of Stalingrad.

©Simple History

There have been a few movies about the Battle of Stalingrad.  Stalingrad was a German language film released in 1993.  It follows a platoon of German soldiers transferred to the Eastern Front in WWII and they find themselves fighting in Stalingrad.  Here's the movie trailer with English subtitles.

©Strand Releasing

Another well-known film is the 2001 release of Enemy at the Gates.  

It tells the story of Vasily Zaitsev, a young sniper who killed over 225 enemy soldiers.  Here's the movie trailer.  

©Paramount Pictures

Vasily Zaitsev was a celebrated Hero of the Soviet Union for his service in WWII, which in Russia is known as "the Great Patriotic War".  Following the war, he settled in Kyiv and lived there until he died in 1991, just 11 days before the Soviet Union broke apart.  He was buried in Kyiv but he had wished to be be buried in Stalingrad so in January 2006 he was reburied in Volgograd.

Volgograd has been on my list of places to visit.  At the Stalingrad Museum his sniper rifle is on display which I'd like to see one day.  However, I don't think that it's going to be anytime soon.

Apparently Russia is glamorising Stalin again and have put up a new bust of him in Volgograd.  Although he was responsible for the deaths of 6-9 million people.

©EuroNews

Who knows how Putin will try to spin the 80th anniversary into a propaganda event trying to further justify his war in Ukraine.

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Update:  Here's two minutes of CCTV coverage of the anniversary.

©CCTV