Wishing You All a Merry Christmas
Photo Credit Idnes.cz: Installing the Prague Christmas Tree on the Old Town Square
By the time you read this the Prague Christmas Tree will be in position, decorated and lit. It's 61 years old, 22 metres tall and comes from the Liberec region in the north of the country. In keeping with tradition, it comes from private land and would had to have been cut down in any case. The Christmas Markets are all open. As usual I'll be entering into the spirits of the season, namely Grog and hot wine. As usual, check the Eight Things To Know About The Christmas Markets post.
What a 2018. Livingprague broke it's visitor records throughout the year and went over 50,000 unique visitors per month for much of 2018. Livingpraguetours also broke records for the most number of bookings (August), most tours given and most number of clients in a single month (October). It was the first year that it turned a profit and was re-hosted late in the year to align the ticket systems on both domains.
What's Been Happening on the Site
I've been focusing on events and things to do in the city so I thought I'd publish my Favourite Prague Food Tours. I receive weekly questions about UBER and how it works here so I published the UBER in Prague post. For those brave souls that want to try something different I published the Becherovka post with a couple of ideas for how to try it. The Litacka Prague Travel Card page was completely re-written as it now comes under "PID Litacka" which means 1) it has an English language option, 2) it has a downloadable App associated with it and 3) you no longer have to manually validate the card. I also added the Raiffeisen Bank ATM map link to any page/post dealing with getting money or using ATM's, just enable your location services and it will show you your closest ATM.
Check the BLOG to see the latest 150 posts on the site.
 I introduced a new Activities/Events partner onto the site called ActiveCzech. I've used them in the past and have recommended them for families and Stag parties. It's a varied collection of fun activities including simulators, surfing, paintball, bungee, shooting, balloon flights and loads of other stuff. For grown-ups there are also special meals and Spa options. Take a look at the Fun Activities in Prague.
Livingpraguetours.com
The new version of the site is now at https://www.livingpraguetours.com so I can now run the same Turitop ticket system on both sites.
I'm holding at number 14 out of a total 608 walking tour options in the Trip Advisor rankings. Of the top 10 private tours in Prague ranked by Trip Advisor, I'm currently 5th. More and more people are finding me just with a simple search for Prague Walking Tours.
If you've done a walking tour then you are welcome to leave a quick review on the LivingPragueTours Facebook page.
Anybody that has booked tour places for December 2018 using EzTix will continue to receive their email reminder.
Quick Links:
In Prague
Christmas Markets
As all the Christmas Markets are now open it's really up to me to tell you when they'll be closing. As Peace Square (Namesti Miru) is the advent Market it closes on December 24th. Republic Square closes on December 30th. The Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square both close on Three Kings (January 6th). All the markets are listed on the Prague Christmas Celebrations and Markets page. Also read the Pay-by-Weight post so you know what to expect.
No Show
November 17th was a state holiday (Fight for Freedom and Against Tyranny) and our President Zeman decided he had protested enough in the 70s so he did not bother turning up to the annual ceremony at the 17-11-1989 memorial.
Bad Show
Two people that did turn up to the memorial on 17th November were the Premier (Andrej Babis) and the leader of a right-wing political party (Tomio Okamura). They arrived at ONE MINUTE PAST MIDNIGHT to lay their flowers. Now you have to understand that one is mired in corruption allegations and the other ran on the far-right nationalist ticket. Protesters waited for them to leave and then threw their flowers in a waste bin.
Mikulas Night
It's pronounced like "mik-koo-lash" and it celebrates the original Czech Christmas Day of December 5th. Look out for Bishops, Devils, Angels and pieces of coal. More on the Mikulas Page.
Money Back Guarantee
A law will shortly be amended to allow people to cancel a money exchange transaction within three hours. Nobody is expecting people to go back after 3 hours but it should give those people who ignore my advice and are seen standing in front of an exchange window arguing with the person on the other side of the window as chance to put things right. I just have to find out exactly how this works and I'll write it up in a post.
Browned Off
A guy called Vir Das (Indian Actor/Comedian) felt that waiters in a centrally located cafe were ignoring his attempts to get service and accused them of being racist, so he tweeted to his 7.5 million followers. Let me tell you that waiters ignoring people in cafes is considered a national sport here. It's not racist, they get paid whether they serve you or not.
Too Little?
More than 20 people received recognition from the Ministry of Defence for their resistance to authorities during the communist era. This entitles them, in most cases, to an increased pension. On the other hand, it has to be noted that five of the honoured people were already dead.
Trivia
Mind the Gap
The gender pay gap in the Czech Republic is currently 22%, that is women get paid 22% less in the same job. That's 2nd Highest gap in the European Union.
High on Life
A political party called Pirati (Pirates!!) got enough votes to table an amendment to current drug laws. At present it's a legal misdemeanor if you have 5 hemp plants or less. The amendment seeks to make it legal to grow up to 5 plants for personal use.
Going Up!
Grape harvest for 2018 was up 30% on the ten-year average.
A CVVM survey showed that although the number of women that occasionally drink beer has gone down, the amount that women drink has gone up by approximately 250ml per person.
In the central Prague area, mortgage rates and mortgage applications increased with the National Bank setting a limit of 9 times the monthly NET income or spending a maximum 45% of NET income to service that debt.
The percentage of Czechs that have access to the internet increased from 67% to 80% over the last 5 years.
Going Down!
The CVVM survey above also noted that Czech men are drinking less beer, down by approximately 1 litre on average per person.
Unemployment levels dropped to a 20-year low of 2.8%
Stefanikuv Most (bridge) will be demolished as it failed recent safety checks, it's one of the main arteries to Prague 7 and contains part of the "C" Metro line.
Death by drug overdose went down from 94 to 92 in the last recorded year (2017).
Due to the really dry summer, estimated losses for tourism, forestry and agriculture have been estimated at CZK24 Billion.
Splashing Out
One of the country's richest people, Richard Kellner, paid CZK250,000,000 (yes that's a quarter of a BILLION CZK) for a horse. He out-bid Bill Gates.
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