Letter from Prague | All stories

Anyone who remembers the Czech presidential election five years ago will know it took not three rounds but three attempts to elect Václav Klaus, the former head of the right-of-centre Civic Democratic Party, as the country’s president. But he did win in the end. Following dissident and playwright Václav Havel, Mr Klaus brought a pragmatic no-nonsense style, to the Castle, promising to remain above partisan politics but not pulling any punches when it came to issues such as global warming and European integration. Now Mr Klaus’s term is at an end.

New Year’s Day – a day just like any other. Yet, I am always under the impression that the turn of the year is something special and that I have to spend it in an exceptional and memorable way. As we say “Jak na nový rok, tak po celý rok” in other words “How you spend New Year’s Day, is an indication of what the whole year will be like.” Although I am not very superstitious, I still try to abide by that saying. After all, the next twelve months of my life are at stake.

I never understand how it is that Czech girls can look so good at this time of year. We are in the depths of the bleak midwinter, and most normal people are looking flaky, and blotchy, with chapped lips. This look is in many cases set off by a cold sore. My skin almost goes translucent, it gets so pale.

In the Czech Republic Christmas is a mixture of pagan and religious traditions. The gifts are brought by baby Jesus, but it is a mixture of pre-Christian pagan rituals that ensure health and happiness in the coming year – like cutting an apple in half, floating candles or putting a fish scale under your plate on Christmas Day. Now Christmas has also become a matter of fashion.

There was something in the paper during the week about how the Czech Republic has one of the worst records in Europe when it comes to combating smoking. Out of 30 European states surveyed, it came 25th. The fact this country came near the bottom was in no way surprising. After all, many bars and cafes here can be eye-wateringly smoky, and stinking sweaters and even hair are often the price you pay for going out. But the results did provoke the thought, can there really be five countries in Europe where things are even worse in this regard?

In the Czech Republic, compared to someplace like Canada or Australia, I always imagined it was pretty difficult to lose one’s way in the countryside, I mean, to really get lost. Sooner or later you’re bound to arrive at a village or stretch of road or roadside pub. But some friends and I did get lost quite recently, in southern Bohemia. What began as an innocent walk in the forest on a November evening, turned into a three or four hour stretch in the woods in almost pitch black.

Some time ago, several Czech newspapers and magazines started including film DVDs in their editions, following the example of various foreign publications.Earlier this year, the daily Lidove Noviny released ‘The Shop on the Main Street’, the first Czechoslovak Academy Award winning movie that I have since seen many times over. A brilliant psychological study, shot in 1965, the film is set in a small Slovak town during the Second World War and offers a thrilling yet chillingly calm view of the Holocaust. Another Czech newspaper, Mlada Fronta Dnes,

According to one of the old Czech weather proverbs, November 11 is the first day on which we can expect snowfall, as Saint Martin arrives in the country on his white horse. This year, he came on time and made the hearts of all passionate skiers, including mine, jump for joy. Especially after last year’s miserable season...

As I bustled about my flat last night, washing dishes and finally tackling that seriously grubby floor, I suddenly tuned into the song that was playing in the background on my stereo. Sunday Morning Coming Down - one of the Johnny Cash numbers that I didn’t buy the CD for. An orchestral, jangly offering, in which the singer laments (among other things) the loneliness and desertedness of his city on a Sunday.

Being turned to stone is the stuff of fairy tales and legends. But there is one place in the Czech Republic where you can witness this in reality - and that is the town of Karlovy Vary in West Bohemia. People have gone there for centuries to drink the town's curative mineral waters but few of them are aware that these mineral springs possess another magical power - in just a week's time they can turn a human being or object "to stone".