Czech Signage

Cultural differences at their finest, folks!
The manner in which the Czech label their streets is such. Uniform boards like this can be found on every corner, nailed into the nearest wall. It gets a bit confusing along winding roads and arched alleyways that run aplenty through this charming city of a thousand steeples.



Happy New End!
This is an ad that greets you, no matter, where you go in Prague. It turns out it's an advertisement for a store called Kenvelo--apparel plus. We deduced that they were pitching a sale of up to 69% celebrating the end of the year 2005.



2006 is the Year of the Jew, according to the Czech at least. Apparently the Chinese ideology of attributing each year to a different animal in a twelve year cycle wasn't good enough for the Czech. They have decided to assign the Year 2006 to the Jewish. Perhaps in some small way, this is atonement for the atrocities against these people at the hands of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. Perhaps, this is the Czech version of cultural sensitivity--calling attention and giving credence to the minority in their midst.



The national beer of the Czech Republic and appearing more often than Budweiser signs in our fine land is Pilsner Urquell. The Czech being of strong spirit serve their beer at a whopping 10-12% alcohol potency--compare that to our puny 3-4% and you get a sense of the lining of their livers.


On the topic of livers and alcohol tolerance--Absinth is legal and freely sold in Prague. I assume it's a contraction for Absolutely Sinful Thing! Of course, I had to try it after all the hype in Eurotrip. I am disappointed to report that though it smells like minty ethanol and tastes like fermented mouthwash, it had NO effect on me other than providing a slight buzz. I may very well not have had enough--but three shots should have done the trick. I can't say I'm eager to try it again sans hallucination potential.


The items banned on the premises of a Czech Posta (post office) include guns, knives, burglars--the items we deem necessary to prohibit in the US but also Ice Cream! Apparently they have a real sticky situation dripping in their post offices; I assume this is a summer fiasco, since the intolerable cold in the winter should prevent this situation.