Letter from Prague | All stories

During the first weeks of May I often slip into Wellington boots, tough plastic gloves and a seemingly out of place heavy raincoat to wander about a slice of the Czech countryside with a spade and large plastic bag. I hasten to add that is not some kinky fetish wear, some stealing mission or that I am burying a corpse or two. No, May days are bolševník days.

People in Prague sometimes sneer at the country’s second largest city, Brno, for notoriously lagging behind the Czech capital. The good people of Brno are accused of suffering from an inferiority complex towards Prague, and looked down on as a simple country folk. I recently revisited my home town after several years and saw that even though all this may true, Brno’s charm is impossible to resist.

As commutes go, mine could hardly be better. The quickest way I can get to work from where I live is to walk through the Riegerovy sady park. It is about 15 minutes door to door, and mostly downhill to boot. My route is especially gorgeous at the moment, when so many trees are in bloom.

After several years in this country I finally, finally had my first proper Czech chata (country cottage) experience a couple of weeks ago. The whole thing was a bit like a log-cabin version of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, with me going into this weekend in the hills with a head full of horror movies, and primed by literature, well, like Northanger Abbey.

Another Easter has come and gone, and like every year I have to remember the day I learned about the odd tradition that is the favourite of many Czechs – male and female alike. I’ll always remember it as “the day they beat Jana”.

Perhaps the most common swear word in the Czech language sounds a bit strange to say the least to the uninitiated. The Czech word for ox or bullock is vůl, and spend any time in the company of young Czech men and probably very soon, and very frequently, you’ll hear the word in the vocative: ty vole, you ox.

Forgive me if I do not get too excited about President Barack Obama’s visit to Prague. It’s not that I dislike the man, his policies or anything like that – far from it. But his visit does disturb my domestic bliss, or would if I let it. It’s like this, I live in a sort of small island under the Prague congress centre where the EU-US summit – and usually any other big international events in Prague take place.

In the past few weeks many Czech dailies have offered their readers supplements containing practical advice on two matters of immediate concern -how to survive the economic crisis and how to file your income tax return. In the Czech Republic the end of March is the deadline for people to declare their annual income and pay their taxes. In other words, a time dreaded by one and all.

The economic crisis is hitting hard. Every day, fresh numbers show what branch of the industry is in trouble, what exports have dropped, and how much the unemployment rate has risen, again. But looking to buy real estate gives you a very different perspective on those figures. Although I’m far from enjoying the crisis, there is one particular number I really want to see as low as possible. It’s the price of apartments in Prague.

What first comes to mind when someone mentions Czech cuisine? The most common answer would be – knedlíky (dumplings), goulash and knedlo-zelo-vepřo (dumplings with sauerkraut and pork). None of it too healthy, nor particularly attractive looking when served up on a plate. I’d say it’s not the food but the country’s famous beer that attracts foreign visitors to our pubs and restaurants.