a list

100 things about the Czech Republic

1. Slovakia is just next door
2. 60Kč Ice Hockey tickets
3. Cycle trails
4. Pubs beside cycle trails
5. The monastery gardens at Litomyšl
6. Vienna style coffee houses with waiters in tuxedos
7. The first time you find yourself on an empty Charles bridge and decide to really look at it properly
8. Stillettos broken off between cobblestones
9. The answer to Where the Czech...? #128
10. Coming out somewhere different every time you take the same shortcut through Prague’s Jewish quarter
11. The orange tiles from Tesco in Liberec (where are they now?)
12. Overgrown Jewish cemeteries
13. Ještěd
14. The First Republic
15. Švankmajer
16. Váchal
17. Zoubek
18. Petr Zelenka and his friends
19. The smell at the front door of the teahouse
20. ‘The drinker from Rajasthan? Very good.’
21. Karel Plihal staring into space while he waits for photographers to finish
22. Krtek
23. Kofola
24. Bazars
25. Wallachian frgal
26. Wading pools full of anxious December carp
27. Villa Tugendhat and Café Zeman
28. Anything that Dušan Jurkovič ever worked on
29. The rooftop terrace at the old Wooden Doll
30. Ema Destinnová on the 2000Kč banknote
31. The Slav Epic
32. Chocolate pie
33. Cinnamon ice cream
34. Floodlit fountains
35. Whatever David Černý is currently working on
36. Iva Bittová; late, late at night
37. Chapels filled with bones
38. 68, 77 and 89
39. Tribute bands
40. Bolek Polívka
41. Burčák season
42. Roadside cherry trees
43. Blueberries from the Jeseníky
44. Peklo near Nové město nad metuji
45. The Adršpach-Teplice rocks
46. The view down into Poland from Sněžka
47. When the foreign police say you have everything you need and they’re giving you what you’ve applied for
48. Sáro, sáro, v noci se mi zdálo…
49. The Ride of the Kings
50. Masopust in Vortova
51. Easter Monday
52. Colours of Ostrava
53. Hand made ceramics
54. Cottage vegetable gardens
55. Sunny Septembers
56. Early evening mist
57. Václav Havel in interview
58. Václav Havel in general
59. Masaryk
60. Žižka
61. Charles IV
62. Forefather Čech raising a hand to shade his eyes
63. The Pilsner Urquell brewery
64. The saxophonist from the Plastic People of the Universe
65. Tom Stoppard’s Rock’n’Roll
66. Uherské Hradiště Summer Film School
67. Glen Hansard and Jaz Coleman
68. Jaromír Jágr
69. Masonry arches
70. Masonry arches the whole way around a town square
71. Radim’s grandfather’s slivovice
72. PRIOR
73. Fruit dumplings
74. Bookbinders
75. 60-somethings who resent Havel’s ‘rabbit hutches’ speech and miss the days when ‘even gypsies had to work’.
76. Kids who think Communism had something to do with North American Indians
77. Klobasa on a sharp stick
78. Tramps
79. Už Jsme Doma at the U-Klub
80. Rejoice*
81. The Iron Curtain at Čížov
82. The Boskovice arts festival
83. Underground boat trips
84. Wondering what assertive real estate agents and sullen taxi drivers did for a living in the old days
85. Name days
86. Žatec hops
87. Bata shoes
88. Inventive attempts (successful & failed) to cross the Iron Curtain
89. Old Škodas and Jawas
90. The first time you see Loket nad Ohří from a bus
91. Windowsill geraniums
92. Early morning cakes from the village cukrárna
93. A compartment to yourself on the evening train home
94. Duelling jackhammers at 7am
95. Gočár and Kotěra
96. Luggage racks of cross country skis on the Saturday Os 3521
97. Dlouhé stráně hydro power station
98. 2Kč for the pisoar, 5Kč for the cabin
99. Shoe repair shops
100. The Buttoners