July, School's Out
Photo: Koruna Palace (covered in the Prague Architecture tour)
Not only do the regular schools end for the summer, it's also the universities and conservatoires which means there are literally hundreds of young people on the streets playing their music for fun. They'll accept tips if you want and occasionally you might find they have a CD for sale (10 Euros or less). Check the Prague in July post
What's Been Happening on the Sites
Visitors to livingprague in June hit 45,145. I answered more than 40 emails from people looking for a bit of advice for their trip.
UPDATED livingpraguetours all tour booking confirmation forms now have additional info covering the basic requirements of getting to and from your hotel, getting around the city, things to do plus tips and tricks.
UPDATED Cash or Card to answer whether you should bring Euros or not.
UPDATED Prague Architecture tour to set regular tour pricing (Adult CZK595, Senior CZK550 and Child CZK295).
UPDATED Prague by Month July, August and September with events.
IN PROGRESS : Prague Towers, Castle Day Trips, Cheap Food - Jidelna, Ladronka Park.
Check the BLOG to see the latest 200 posts on the site.
I've offered this discount to my tour clients for the last year for those specifically looking for authentic Czech Garnet, Diamond Garnet and Crystal. The shop has now extended the range of the discount so now I'm offering it to any visitors to Livingprague. It covers gold, precious stones, semi-precious stones and cut/engraved crystal. Just click the picture and print the associated voucher. Redeem at the shop (Old Town location).
Livingpraguetours.com
Awarded Trip Advisor **Certificate of Excellence 2019**.
LIVINGPRAGUETOURS at https://www.livingpraguetours.com runs exactly the same tour booking system and carries exactly the same tours as the parent site at livingprague.com. It just gives me a better platform to describe the tours, about me and my tours ethos but regardless of which site you use it's still me and you can read about the whole secure booking process at https://www.livingpraguetours.com/tour-booking-process/.
 The latest tour to be added to the site is the Prague Architecture Tour. People that do any of my existing tours are always amazed by the eclectic nature of the buildings here and of course many of them have stories so on this tour I tell you those stories but in this case we take a closer look at the influences on the city, the architects that were asked to redesign 20% of the city, their styles and some of their signature works. It covers everything from 1344 up to 1974 but we'll concentrate on the Avant-Garde period 1898 to 1925 which includes all the Art Nouveau and Cubism etc. As it's a specialised tour it will run initially as a private option and may become a scheduled tour later in the year depending on the demand.
I'm holding at number 14 out of a total 698 walking tour options in the Trip Advisor rankings which puts me in the top 2% of listed tours. 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.
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In Prague
Tower of Power
In 1650 something called the Marian Column was erected on the Old Town Square. Protestants saw it as a symbol of oppression. Following the end of WW1, Czechoslovakia formed on October 28th 1918. Less than a week later the Marian Column was torn down. Sculptor Petr Váňa has spent the last month trying to rebuild the column. All the pieces are ready but the city has not yet given the permission to rebuild. TWICE the police have stepped in to stop the process after the sculptor had begun digging up the square.
Crowd Funding
Prague's Wenceslas Square saw the biggest demonstration since the fall of Communism with more than 120,000 people on the square protesting against the Premier. Local businesses reported selling out of fresh fruit. How times have changed since beer and cigarettes were popular.
Changing the Past
President Miloš Zeman rightly intervened with Russian President Putin to correct a statement made by a delegate in the Russian Duma who made an attempt to assert that Soviet forces had entered Czechoslovakia in 1968 to suppress an attempted coup.
Night at the Museum
More than 150,000 people attended "Museum Night" with the National Museum on it's own seeing more than 11,000 visitors in that one evening.
High Life
The parliament passed a proposal which will see 90% of the cost of medical marihuana paid for by public health up to a maximum of 30 grams per month (the Pirate party had wanted 180 grams per month and 100% paid by the state but this was voted down).
Trivia
Voting for Trolls
In the last European elections a party called "Yes we will troll the European Parliament" came tenth after spending about 11,000 CZK on their campaign but they won 1.56% of the vote. Why does this matter? Because in Czech law any party with more than 1% of the vote gets CZK30 for every vote cast. As that 1.56% worked out to 37,046 votes, these guys just got paid just over a million CZK by the state for campaign finance. Actually a profit of 1.1 Million. Nice!
High and Low
Although Marihuana remains the most commonly used recreational drug, the growing number of home-based Methamphetamine producers is considered the biggest ongoing threat in the fight against drug abuse.
Say a Little Prayer
The Czech Archbishop said that there are no plans to change the wording of the Lord's Prayer as was defined by the Pope. If you hadn't heard, they changed "lead us not into temptation" to "let us not fall into temptation".
Sewer Beer
The very first beer made from recycled waste water is now on sale in the Czech Republic. Although under the name ERKO it's already known as "Sewer Beer". Nice!
Mistaken Identity
June 10th marked the 30th anniversary of a Joan Baez concert in Bratislava. where Vaclav Havel attended the concert having disguised himself as a roadie and carried her guitar.
Animal Kingdom
As well as breeding and sending Black Rhinos to South Africa, the Czech Republic (Prague Zoo) just sent three Przewalski horses to Mongolia. This type of horse became extinct in Mongolia in the 60s and Czech has been slowly building up the herd in Mongolia to it's current total of 34 which is enough for effective breeding.
Going Up!
The amount spent on betting went up 11% to 249.5 Billion CZK.
Average wages increased by 7.4% making the "median" (between highest and lowest earners) a figure of CZK27,582 per month.
The Czech population increased by 16,700 in the first quarter of 2019 largely due to net migration (you'll see below that the birth rate actually fell).
Consumer prices rose 0.6% in the first quarter of 2019 due to increased prices for fruit and vegetables.
The Czech government collected more than ONE TRILLION Czech Korun in taxes last year. that was 62 Billion more than the year before.
Energy (Gas and Electric) cost increased by 8% in the last year.
The number of weddings in the country topped 54,000, the highest since 2007.
A recent protest against the Premier attracted more than 250,000 people to Letna Park making it the largest demonstration since 1989.
Going Down!
The Czech unemployment rate fell to 2.6% the lowest for 22 years.
The birth rate fell below the death rate in the first quarter of 2019, lowest for 4 years as deaths surpassed births by 3600.
The Czech Forestry company had a drop in profit of CZK70 Million due to the ongoing "bark-beetle" issues in the south of the country.
77% of Czechs use social networks on a daily basis down from 80% last year.
Czech police seized 948Kg of Marihuana in the last year, down 150Kg on the previous year.
No Change!
The life expectancy average stays the same at 73.8 for men and 79.7 for women.
The motorway sticker will stay at CZK1500 until at least 2021.
Bye Bye
Jiří Stránský - Czech writer who spent a decade in Communist labour camps after the "trials" of the 1950s. Later his writings were published and turned into screenplays. Also a lifelong supporter of the Scout movement, he was 87.
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