Stumbling across Czech Funk

by Neil Woodburn on

There is something truly comforting about coming across music that is dear to you in a location where you would never have imagined hearing it.

Sure, one can travel the world and hear some crap like Justin Timberlake pretty much anywhere you go these days, but I’m talking more about less popular genres of music that stop you in your tracks because of a harmonic disconnect; why are they playing that music here???

Listening to a bunch of Mongolians singing BeeGees songs on the trans-Siberian railroad in 1995 was one such experience which comes to mind from my personal travels. It was an unpleasant experience, but a memorable one nonetheless.

Journalist David Farley, writing for World Hum, experienced his own musical double-take when recently visiting Nove Hrady in the Czech Republic. The music that unexpectedly caught his ear? Funk. Czech funk. I love it.

More importantly, a shared love for funk opened up a dialogue and brief friendship with what otherwise would have been a total stranger in Nove Hrady. Now that is the power of music.

360 Degree World Gallery

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s only a matter of time before the whole world is mapped like this.

But for the time being, if you want more than just a couple of fuzzy photos of a possible vacation destination to help you decide if you really want to go, hop on over to 360TravelGuide.com.

The site has some pretty cool 360 degree shots of locations across the globe. In case you haven’t seen this type of photography before, the shots are taken as though you are slowly turning around in a circle. You can look up and down, and (slightly) zoom in on objects. Check out this example of the Charles Bridge in Prague. Very cool!

Psychic is Threat to Security

by Iva Skoch on

Last week, police at Prague’s airport stepped up security…because of a psychic’s call: she had a premonition about attacks on airliners.

Apparently, the woman called the cops, and identified herself, saying she was a professional psychic, then described specific flights that were threatened in her “psychotronic” vision. I guess the world we live in is so crazy, the police can’t afford to ignore any warning, so they sent machine-gun-toting extra security to the airport, in their armored vehicles.

As if it weren’t bad enough at airports these days, now “professional psychics” are calling up and bothering the police about these things.

Cross-Cultural Smoking Etiquette

by Iva Skoch on

I witnessed an interesting cafe scene in Prague the other day.

Two local girls are sitting in a packed local cafe, drinking coffee and chain smoking. Two Americans at a table next to theirs start eating and politely ask the girls if they could stop smoking while they eat. The girls are visibly annoyed, but they do stop smoking. For the rest of the lunch hour, they talk about being fed up with foreigners who bring their healthy-living, assertive attitudes and impose them on the locals. Why don’t they stay at their smoke-free homes, they said. The American guys were thinking more in terms of “your freedom ends where my freedom begins.”

Mind you, it is virtually impossible to find a smoke free restaurant in Prague and about one half of the adult population smokes. Unlike the US, smoking is still kind of cool here.

Is it OK for a foreigner to ask a local to stop smoking in a place where smoking is allowed? Hmmm, what’s a health-obsessed, smoke-hating American to do?

Finally, Europe Has Its Own Natural Disaster

by Iva Skoch on

As a journalist, I find weather stories pathetic. It’s mainly the use of all the tragic words I despise: devastating, gushing, torn into homes, etc. But people love them. There is nothing like a natural catastrophe that gets the readership numbers up. Now, with the high winds “blasting” across Europe, killing 45 people, European papers have stuff to write about.

Call me cynical, but I have always suspected that Europeans felt slightly inferior in the “natural catastrophe” realm. I mean, the occasional flood or hailstorm pales in comparison to all the weather events going on in the US: hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes…

But now, that’s over! Europe finally has its own storm WITH A NAME – Kyrill. And, it has swept across most of Northern and Western Europe, heading east now. The funny thing is, Americans probably haven’t even heard of it yet. Well, give the PR weather machine time, Europeans are new at this.

And speaking of which, here in Prague the winds hit above 100mph yesterday and are still going strong today. It’s actually really nice to listen to the wind outside, rather than watching calm, gray skies for months.

Travel warning: check for airline and train service cancellations!