A Day at the Zoo

I got to spend some godfather time with Tünde at the zoo today.  I can't remember the last time I was there.  Apparently there was some renovations done in the last couple of years.

Claudia and I took Tünde and we meet up with a few friends and their kids.

The meerkats, giraffes and chimpanzees seemed to be the biggest hits with the kids.

1956 Hungarian Uprising

While in Budapest this past weekend we stopped by the memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Uprising at the parliament building.

Crash history course...In 1956, Hungarians revolted against the communist government and Soviet control from 23 October to 10 November.

It began as a student demonstration and escalated across the country.  The communist government collapsed, a new government pledged to withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and hold free elections.

Most of the fighting ended by the end of October but on 4 November the Soviet Union sent in tanks to crush the resistance.  Western countries never came to aid Hungary.  More than 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet soldiers  were killed.  More than 200,000 Hungarians fled the country as refugees.  Afterwards there were mass arrests, deportation and execution for "counter-revolutionary activity."

Here's a video I found on YouTube that shows newsreel footage of the uprising.  It definitely has a 1950s propaganda feel to it. 

It's interesting to see how Hungarian refugees fleeing Soviet oppression were welcomed across the world.  Much later there were also refugees from East Germany and in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia.  Although it's not quite the same thing today with all of today's refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.  I'm not trying to start a big political debate.  It's just an observation.

Update 2025:  Here's a short video I found on YouTube about the uprising.

©History Matters

Weekend in Budapest

We spent the weekend in Budapest.  It's such a beautiful city and we covered most of main sites such as the parliament, the lánchíd, Liberation monument, Hero's Square, etc. 



I didn't realize that this weekend was the Red Bull Air Race along the Danube.  Which made the city even more crowded with tourists.  Of course, in a city of 2 million people, fours hours away from Brno, and on the weekend of the air race, I ran in to some of my employees in our first 20 minutes of sightseeing.  It's a small world.   
 
We had a great time but it was rather warm.  At 34°C (93°F) we made sure to have a few radlers (beer with Sprite) to beat the heat.

Karla Andělová-Weisová

Karla Andělová-Weisová

Last year after visiting Yad Vashem in Israel I wrote a blog post about Karla Andělová-Weisová who was a member of the Czech resistance during WWII.  I recently received an e-mail from her family to say how happy the family was to know that she is still remembered.

One mystery the family has had is that they had read before that she brought home a Jewish boy but they have never been able to figure out any more information about him.  When Karla married Ferdinand Weiss there was no mention of a boy.  And Karla's daughter did not have an adopted brother.  The family has been trying to find him for several years. 

Here's a bit more of the story...

Karla was a Catholic when she met Ferdinand.  His wife had died prior to the war.  His two sisters and three children were all in Auschwitz.  Ferdinand was a staunch anti-Nazi, for obvious reasons, and he and Karla started an anti-Nazi group and, during their time, managed to hide over 200 fleeing Jews in Karla's basement.  In later years, she would joke that "there was no more room for Ferdinand in the basement, so I hid him in my bed!"

They got caught when a male friend of Karla's got jealous of Ferdinand and turned them in.  Karla did indeed convince Ferdinand to let her take all the blame for the group and the working the safe house.  When she was taken, she was tortured for information about the group, and the involvement of others.  Her hip was dislocated and never healed correctly, leaving her with a limp the rest of her life.  She never talked, however.  When she finally was released by the Soviets from Ravensbruck, she returned home to Prague.

Ferdinand ended up seeing her name on a list of survivors in the newspaper some time later, and they reconnected, and later married.  There was a HUGE turnout for their wedding.  They emigrated to Israel, where Libushe was born and served in the Israeli army.  Later, they emigrated again to the United States and eventually to California, where I met [her grandson]; Libushe's son; and there you have it.  Sadly, Karla died long before [her great granddaughter] could have known her, but by all accounts, she was a pistol.  She got into wheelchair races in the nursing home, loved to laugh, and that lifelong limp?  She proudly called it her "trophy".   Ferdinand's two sisters came out of Auschwitz and moved to the United States as well, but his children didn't.  Tiana (my daughter) met her great-aunt Frida last year, and Frida died shortly thereafter, having never spoken of the Holocaust to anyone.

This is an amazing story and I'm so touched that the family shared it.  If anyone has any information about the young Jewish boy that Karla saved then please let me know so that I can pass it on to her family.

6th Anniversary

Six years ago I came to Czechland for a two year gig.  And I'm still here. 

Thanks to everyone who has helped make this such an incredible adventure!

1st Paintball

Today was some paintball with a few of the lads from work.  Obviously, with a few of the more competitive lads from the office. 

One of the guys found a Czech "groupon" where it only cost us something like 200 Kč (~$10 each) for a few hours.  We had a couple of matches between us and then we had a few matches against another team. 

We've done laser tag several times but I've been wanting to try paintball for quite some time.  It was a blast! 

Same-Sex Marriage in the USA

© CNN

I knew that one day same-sex marriage would be legal in the United States.  I just wasn't sure that I would ever live to see the day.

The original plan was to get a civil partnership in Ireland.  Then Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote.  So until today the new plan was to get legally married in Ireland. 

But now we actually have the option to get married in the USA. 

There will be some paperwork regardless of where a ceremony takes place.  There's for sure all kinds of paperwork to submit for a non-Irish EU citizen to marry a non-EU citizen in Dublin.  And I'm sure that there's more than enough paperwork for a U.S. citizen to marry a non-U.S. citizen in the USA.  But the awesome thing now is that we actually have a choice.

Jan Kašpar

Jan Kašpar is considered to be the Czech pioneer of aviation.  He was born in Pardubice in 1883 when Bohemia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On 16 April 1910, he became the first Czech pilot to successfully fly an airplane.  He managed to fly 2 km at a height of 20-25 meters.

His most famous flight was on 13 May 1911.  He flew 121 km, in 92 minutes, from Pardubice to Velká Chuchle.  At the time it was the longest recorded flight in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The airplane he flew was donated to, and is still on display at, the National Technical Museum in Prague.

At Prague airport

After WWI he fell on hard times.  Impoverished and suffering from mental illness he committed suicide in his hometown of Pardubice in 1927.

There is a memorial for him on display at Prague's Václav Havel Airport. 

Central Asia Trip Summary

My first visit to "the Stans" went pretty well.  I was only there for nine days so some things felt a bit rushed but overall I had enough time.  I learned a few things for the next visit.

In Kyrgyzstan, I stayed in Bishkek.  It was very easy to get around on foot or by bus.  The taxis are very cheap but you will need some Russian to get by.  The cars are imported from the west and from Japan so half are right hand drive and half are left hand drive.  I'm used to both but it was a bit odd seeing both on the road at the same time.

The only problem I had in Bishkek was that it took me forever to find an ATM that would work for me.  I wasn't able to pull out any cash on my Czech or American debit cards.  I had €150 with me that I could change but not having any local currency handy started to worry me.  I finally found that I could withdrawal cash from DemirBank.  No other bank ATMs would work for me.  Lesson learned: always have a few U.S. Dollars or Euros handy to exchange when visiting the far off lands.

70th anniversary of the end of WWII

Throughout the city there were still many Soviet-era monuments and statues.  There were many billboards commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

The people were very friendly.  I even received a high-five from an ethnic Korean because I was an American who could speak basic Russian.

With no visa required I can see returning to Bishkek but next time it will be to head off to the nearby mountains for some hiking.

Kazakh registration card

After a couple of days I flew to Kazakhstan.  Thanks to the government's pilot program for visa-free travel I was able to visit without the ordeal of applying for the $160 visa.  There was a separate line at the airport where I had my registration card stamped.  I just had to keep the card with me until I left the country.


Almaty was a bit of a disappointment.  For a place that used to be a capital city I figured that there would be much more to see.  Not so much.  However I was almost interviewed for the evening news.  I was in an Almaty park and got approached by a TV crew.  But once they realized I couldn't speak Kazakh and that my Russian sucked they lost interest.  Not quite the high five I received in Bishkek. 

Astana was much more interesting.  When it comes to architecture it's like the Dubai of Central Asia.  There is so much to see.  On the 19th, me and my FitBit walked all over the city - a new personal best 34,17 km (21.23 miles).

All of that walking around the capital and I still never ran into Borat.

Kazakh WWII 70th anniversary poster

Kazakhstan is much more developed than Kyrgyzstan.  Much more expensive too.  Overall it was a great trip.  The only real drawback is the travel time.

Turkey now has a $20 e-visa so I made sure to apply in advance.  It gave me the opportunity to escape the Istanbul airport for a while in order to break up the long travel day home.

Time for Some Turkish Coffee

Today is a long travel day.  My flight from Astana to Istanbul was 5½ hours.  Then there's the almost 6 hour layover before my 3 hour flight to Prague and my bus back to Brno.  Plus all of this started with having to be at the airport by 2 AM.

I needed to clear my head and get out of the airport for a while.  So I caught a bus to the city in pursuit of breakfast.  Grabbing some Turkish coffee and burek at Taksim Square was just what I needed.  It felt so good to get some fresh air and to get out of the airport for a while.

Now I just have to get back to Czechland and start some laundry because I've got to be at work tomorrow.