Martin Toms: Exploring the Czech Republic

The town contains a château, multiple temples, an ossuary (a room built out of human bones under one of the churches), lots of statues and beautiful architecture. Funnily enough the town square, which is called “Náměstí Republiky” (“Square of the Republic”), is very similar looking to the square in Prague, which is also called “Náměstí Republiky”.

There’s also an amazing view of the mountain Říp (and the České Středohoří central mountainous region) right behind the Château. Right next to the viewing place, in front of the river, there’s a statue of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Oh, and guess what? Right under there, on the side of the hill - there’s a wineyard.

You can buy some awesome rolled ice cream which isn’t expensive, but tastes great. The guy makes it in front of you, out of real ingredients. You name what you want and he’ll use it. Let’s say… a banana, a mango and a strawberry. He’ll literally unpeel a banana, grab a bit of mango and a strawberry, mush them on the table, create a thin layer of ice cream out of it and roll it… just awesome.

I noticed a very nice view of the Holy Trinity Church from its walls’ windows as I was climbing the hill leading to the gate. While I was at Rabí, or Rábí, the ticket for entry covered only the courtyard. For entering other parts you’d need a guide and I’m not really into guided tours, too little freedom. The gate was pretty massive, the area looked very defensible… then again, it is a castle.

On the left hand side past the gate there was a stone with a sort of relief of what I’m guessing is a king. Maybe the patron saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia.The middle of the courtyard lead into the stables. There also was a small catapult, an archery range, a small shop, and a display of birds of prey within the castle walls.

This 13th century ruin sits on top of a hill in the Pilsen region of Czech Republic. Originally it was a Romanesque style castle, but it was expanded as the years went by, even adding the gothic architecture up till the 16th century.¹

The nobles who lived there sided with Emperor Sigismund against the then active Husite movement. The castle was besieged and conquered twice by the Husite warlord Jan Žižka of Trocnov a few years after Sigismund had master Jan Hus burned at the stake. During this time Jan Žižka lost his eye and gained his iconic visage of a one eyed general.²

So, Michal Müller happened to be in town when I was visiting my relatives. He was performing solo for the town and whomever got a ticket (not an expensive one). It’s interesting, I had no idea this instrument was still a thing. Apparently he’s the only educated zither (citera) player, as well as being a teacher of the zither.¹

You see, back in 1900s, right after the whole World Wars thing, during the organized efforts trying to reverse Germanization in Czech Republic (also called Czech National Revival or Národní Obrození)… for some unholy reason, the Czech people (I guess I should say we) got rid of most zithers - and I mean got rid as in mass burnings kind of thing.

Yeah, there were hundreds of thousands of them manufactured and exported to other regions of Europe (it became very popular in Germany), every family had one, and we destroyed them as something German (now, bear in mind that Czech culture was seizing to exist, so that’s why everything that even resembled the empire had to go). Nowadays it’s used in Germany and other countries.

Back to the zither. It’s a relatively new instrument, originating sometime in early 19th century… let’s say 160 years. It sounds absolutely beautiful. It’s a sort of a cross between a violin and a piano I guess? You can play anything on it, from folk songs to blues or Led Zeppelin.

The unfortunate thing is that it’s difficult to learn it. Partly thanks to the fact that in our country only a single person teaches it (mr. Müller himself).

The town had a single zither available on display - a local one, preserved in the Šumava region. The player said it could be used if it was strung and prepared properly. Very interesting.

Roman Catholic Chapel of the Holy Guardian Angels, also called ‘Anděl Strážný’ (Guardian Angel) or more commonly known as ‘Andělíček’ (a term of endearment for an angel) is a christian structure standing over the town of Sušice. It is a consecrated chapel dedicated to the angels.

The chapel itself is pretty beautiful, and the view is simply amazing. You can see the entire Sušice from there as well as the landscape all around. You can spot a similarly placed lookout tower called Svatobor from there, which should tell you something.

Svatobor was a sacred place of the Slav people, something like mt. Olympus. It was the place where Pagan Gods lived. The word itself isn’t a single structure, rather a type of structure with a stream or a lake, providing sanctuary, healing, and judicial powers as well.¹

It dates back to the 17th century and its motto is: “As long as the royal Sušice lasts, so long will the Guardian Angel perch above it. Let God allow that we, the ones working on the chapel’s improvement today, for centuries from angelic realms watch our descendants, as they follow us in reverence to the Guardian Angel!”²

Kvilda is a tiny village down south. Its main landmark is a wooden church. Well… not exactly wooden.

The Church of St. Štěpán is actually made of stone, however, there are wooden tablets (called “Šindel”) all around the stone

This is a peat bog near Kvilda in the Šumava region. There used to be extensive peat mining, and I believe they still mine it there.

The main area is a small lake with a tiny island in the middle. A tree (looks like a birch) is growing in the middle of it. The path to it as a narrow wooden walkway

There’s not much to say about this… it’s a visitors centre and there is a wolf enclosure (also called “Vlčinec”) there. The nature is foresty.

The road up to the wolf enclosure is very steep, however it’s worth it. If you prefer wild wolves, there are some up the hill in Modrava, I am sure of that…

A wooden bridge across the river Vydra. Truth be told, this isn’t the original bridge, rather it’s a replica of the now destroyed bridge. There aren’t any bridges like it.

It has a channel into which it directed wooden flotsam… fallen branches, logs, trees fallen by storms (it’s high in the mountains and a pretty stormy region) and all that. The trees around the place are seriously huge.

An awesome little village and a recreation tourist center, Modrava, is one of Šumava’s best regions. There’s a few houses and lots of nature there. You can find everything from simple chickens and sheep to kangaroos and wild wolves there. The chickens are up the hill away from the information center (Locally called “Íčko”, which translates to the letter í), the kangaroos are in the middle next to the bridge up and if you go the opposite way and up the hill, you’ll walk straight into an unenclosed forest wolf territory with an entirely lethal pack of wolves.

If you’re not into dying horribly at the paws of wild wolves, you may also go visit the Visitor Centre Srní, which has a wolf enclosure that’s much safer.

The river Vydra flows through here. It’s no surprise that you can find otters around the river, as “Vydra” is “An otter” in Czech. Other animals include cows, sheep, goats, horses, owls, bats, turkeys, insects, rabbits, and lots of deer and does.

Modrava is surrounded by many areas called “Slať” (Tříjezerní Slať, Chalupská Slať, …), which are peat bogs of the Šumava region. There are / were peat mines around a lot of these peat areas. They’re a tourist destination as well, because the nature in peat bogs is a thing of its own.

You can get up on one of the hills (ideally not the one with wolves) and take a look at the entirety of Modrava from up top, as it sits in a sort of minuscule valley, or a hillside surrounded by hills.

It’s a really old and beautiful structure. It was built for trade protection in 13th century. As it was used frquently, it was later refit into a Gothic castle and became a royal castle till the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV.¹

The first thing that will strike you is that it’s a beautifully preserved white castle surrounded by the Orlík lake. The landscape around is incredible and looks like something out of a fairy tale. You can walk around the courtyard, which has small white battlements around it. You can also walk next to the castle and all around it. On the way to Orlík there’s a lot of beautiful valleys, lone trees and forests. If you want to look inside, you’ll need a ticket.

Orlík has a bunch of resident peacocks, which roam around freely. They’re not afraid of humans, so they’re willing to pose for a photo, even a selfie. If you don’t bug them, they’ll chill with you in the garden or the surrounding areas. They might even approach you of their own volition.

There’s a lot of trees around, and a lot of them are Lindens. If you come around in Spring or Summer, you’ll hear them buzz… there will be a bee on every blooming branch. As if that’s not enough, there a lot of beautiful flowers, mushrooms and everything else flora has to offer.

Lobkovice is a village and an administrative district of Neratovice. The village itself isn’t very large, only having a little over 700 inhabitants The interesting parts are its graveyard, church and a château.

The château is in a pretty dismal state, but it’s an interesting piece of history anyways. It has got a small courtyard, a protected memorial lindon tree and a river nearby. It can be seen from miles away thanks to its heightened location and its large tower.

There is a memorial statue for the fallen soldiers of the First World War in front of the local church. Next to the church there’s a graveyard of one František Palacký, Czech diplomat who was an important figure during the Czech National Revival. He was a historian known as “Otec Národa”, which translates to Father of the Nation.

There’s also a grave of a Czech diplomat from way back in the first republic (Czechoslovak Republic between 1918 - 1938, then the Second Republic, after this came the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, followed by Third Czechoslovak Republic and many other reformed republics, which finally stabilized and separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

Established back in 1900, mainly producing oil, degrass, soap and candles, later reorienting to amonia and similar substances, Spolana has a rich history.¹ Not much of it is interesting, aside from the fact that it leaks chemicals into the air pretty often. I remember lots and lots of chemical alerts and even hearing their sirens now and then.

Back in 1950s, Spolana cooperated with the town of Neratovice to turn it into a proper panel town.² Creating the Neratovice that stands here today. People from all over flocked here with their families to work in the Spolana Chem Plant. This lead to Neratovice oficially becoming a town² (the village, town, etc., titles are subject to how many inhabitants the area in question has).

In 1985 Spolana employed a total of 5562 workers.²

In 1965 Spolana used to manufacture Arboricid E (which also contained TCDD) and exported it to America. It’s a chemical used for destruction of leafed trees and bushes. Now, Spolana apparently didn’t know that the American Army was misusing it in a 1:1 ratio mix with another chemical to create the infamous Agent Orange for use in the War in Vietnam.³ I’m not saying this to “tarnish its reputation”, but merely because it is a historical fact tied to this place. Another fact is the subsequent leak and contamination of three objects in Spolana.³

Labe is the river flowing through Neratovice and many other Czech towns. There main thing I like about labe is the surplus of animals everywhere. If you come in during Spring or Summer, you’ll be able to find a lot of ducks - and I mean a lot of them, you can sit down in the grass, and you’ll be surrounded by a few dozen ducks.

If you’re lucky, you’ll see swans here. The swans aren’t mean and surprisingly they approach humans (or at least they approach me). They will swim over, and you better have some food ready for them, or they will hiss at you and watch you till you manifest some food. They’ll eat even regular salad.

If you’re super lucky, you’ll see lizards crawling around in the bushes alongside the path that leads next to the river. You can see fishermen fishing for the plentiful fish here. The river also houses crawfish, although due to the crawfish plague spread by the invasive east coast crayfish they’re endangered, and you can’t touch them.

Finally, there’s a ton of nutrias in the river. That’s not exactly a good thing, because swamp rats tend to damage the ecosystem, so you aren’t allowed to feed them. If you feed nutrias, they’ll swarm the area. Even better, the remains of the food you throw them will lure rats to the area, and they’ll swarm together.

The nature around Labe is great too, but I go there mainly for the animals.

Neratovice is a Central Bohemian town in the Mělník district, of the Czech Republic. Bohemia (Čechy) is a region of the Czech Republic, taking up the entire western half of the country around the Prague capital. Back in around 1900 it was expanded into a panel town around the Spolana Chemical Plant, but its history goes way back into the 13th century.

It was originally a recreation spot for Prague inhabitants when Neratovice became a panel town. Most inhabitants of Neratovice commute to Prague for work, taking anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes by public transport or 20 - 60 minutes by car. Neratovice itself doesn’t have many spots for culture, so either you’re going into the nature or Prague. If you want to go sightseeing, clubbing, shopping in a large shopping center, buy specialized goods like electronics, plumbing or good clothes, you’re taking the 348 bus line to Prague. It’s also a much less depressing looking city, and it’s something all Czech people have in common.

Think about this, the entire Czech population is around 11 million at the moment. That’s a smaller American town. Don’t think of Prague as if it’s a city. Think of Czech Republic as if it’s one large city. Think of Prague as if it’s the largest culture hotspot in the City. Smaller towns are built around larger ones exactly for this purpose. The other large town for Neratovice is Mělník, the regional capital of the Mělník district.

Let’s talk about housing in a Bohemian town. It’s an interesting topic, especially now that the housing crisis has been going on for a few years.

The structure of a the Republic goes as follows:

1. Village: Mlékojedy, Lobkovice, Korycany, Horňátky (In this case they’re also part of Neratovice, but it’s not always the case)
2. Town: Neratovice
3. City: Prague, Mělník
4. District: Mělník
5. Region: Central Bohemia
6. Historical Region: Bohemia
7. Country: Czech Republic

There are three main types of residential buildings in this, and most other panel towns:

• Panel House (Panelák “prefab”), a tall rectangular building - a quarter of the Czech people live in them
  • Regular, expensive, usually rented
  • Social, cheap, rented
  • Hostel, cheap or expensive, always rented
• Tower House (Věžák “high-rise”), a tall square building, a type of panel house
  • Regular, expensive, usually bought
• Family House (Rodinný dům), also called a house (Dům)
  • Super expensive no matter the size, usually bought
  • Called family, because it’s inhabited by a single family
  • You can rent out spare rooms for $300+ depending on the quality

There can be anywhere from a dozen/two dozen flats in a tower house to straight up hundreds of them in a single panel house. A flat consists of a living room, a small hallway, bedroom, kitchenette (kitchen isn’t a separate room, rather it’s a stove, fridge and a counter somewhere by the wall of one of the other rooms), and a bathroom + toilet. However, there are many types of flats.

• Garsoniera (Garsonka) - the smallest type, these usually cost around $400 - $500 a month and have everything in a single room, usually with a stove or at least a fridge
• 1+0, which are rare. These have no kitchen nor a kitchenette.
• n+x, n is the number of rooms, x can either be a number “1” for a kitchen or “kk” for a kitchenette
• Most typical ones are 2+kk which start at $400/month

A typical house isn’t affordable by a single person, only families with multiple incomes. They’re called “Family houses” or “Rodinný dům”. The cost for a family house starts at around $150000 (although right now it’s usually double that) which is the equivalent of over 200 full months of wages at minimum wage or around a 100 at average wage. Considering it takes around 8 full years worth of income to get a family house (which is impossible for a single person to save up once you deduct monthly expenses), most people opt for a garsoniera or other forms of rented flats, or bank mortgages for around 2.5% to 3% a year starting at 5 years and going up to 30.

Let’s talk about the mortgages. If you borrowed $150000, you’d end up paying $550 a month, being roughly the equivalent of a rent, however, you sell your soul to the bank and if you are unable to pay, you might just lose the house. Take into consideration that the minimum wage is around $670, and it can take well above the half of that to pay your monthly expenses.

There’s one last type of housing I haven’t talked about - hostels. Hostels can be cheap or expensive… you can most likely find a hostel that you will be able to afford. Social housing often has a dedicated floor or two just for the purposes of “temporary” renting. The reality is that many people rent out hostels for their entire lives, especially if they’re a family.

What’s so bad about hostels? Well, the lower the price, the lower the quality. If you pay the typical $500, you’re probably getting a solid flat. If you pay a $100, you’re most likely in a room with 3 - 11 other people, someone might walk around in your room at night, your neighbors might be ex-cons or the homeless (now, I am in no way against the homeless, I’m just saying - if they can afford it and still be called homeless… it’s probably not very good quality, might be moldy, might be infested with cockroaches, bugs or other insects).

Essentially the ‘you get what you pay for’ projects to your sense of safety and good nights rest. Some cheaper hostels are also available only at night, meaning you can sleep there, but you need to be somewhere else during the day. They often have a curfew, so that the residents don’t stumble in drunk at night. They’ll stumble in drunk in the evening and drunkenly snore the entire night away…

Then again, you might have an awesome view (6th floor and upwards on the outskirts of the town is amazing), great location with a bus stop in front of the house, supermarket right next to the building, and other perks like that, which simply aren’t always available next to a family house, as there’s just not enough space for them there.