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Thank you, Brněnský drak!
The semi-high-speed express between Brno and Prague, the Brněnský drak, was great. (The "Brno Dragon," which brings up another story but I'll have to post it later...I've been very remiss to have a Brno blog and not mentioned the dragon!) I rode it to Prague last week and it only took two hours and twenty minutes! Buses take two-and-a-half hours. The fun part about the Brněnský drak express is that it is in Czech Rail's new trains that travel slightly faster than the regular ones. Apparently this is possible because the carriages of the trains lean left or right while the undercarriages are traveling on level tracks. This creates enough momentum so that you and your luggage aren't sliding off the seats and shelves whenever you go around a corner. It's fun, sort of like a race car.
I was glad I took the train back, too, even though this was only the Vyšehrad and not the dragon. I even had a conversation with a friendly Czech on the train! (In Czech, of course, although my accent seems to have suffered from a long weekend of Fulbright.) It turned out to be an especially portentous decision as I am reading about the trouble on the D-1 expressway between Prague and Brno. Last night, after a snowfall of "over 20 centimeters in some places," a 40-kilometer stretch of the freeway was closed, "for the first time in its history," for twelve (12) hours! Cars were backed up for 50 kilometers, and reports say thousands of cars had to wait. I can almost imagine sitting in the bus that long. Yikes! (I can't sympathize too much given that this was barely eight inches of snow at maximum, although I'm sure it fell quickly. But they should try maintaining a road in the U.P. where they've already had over six feet of snow this winter!)
It was a dire situation, however. Police reported 13 traffic-related deaths over the weekend and 1900 accidents. I'm glad I rode the train.
In good news, the lower house of the Czech Parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) passed a bill that would legalize domestic partnership for same-sex couples. This is the third time such a bill has come before the Parliament. I believe it would still have to be passed by the Senate to become law, and it is not as well supported there. While it's hardly surprising that President Klaus has not supported the bill, I was surprised to read that many representatives from the Citizen's Democratic Party (ODS) do not support the bill. That is too bad, even though some might claim legal reasons rather than ideological ones. Rumor has it that the bill will not pass the Senate.
I was glad I took the train back, too, even though this was only the Vyšehrad and not the dragon. I even had a conversation with a friendly Czech on the train! (In Czech, of course, although my accent seems to have suffered from a long weekend of Fulbright.) It turned out to be an especially portentous decision as I am reading about the trouble on the D-1 expressway between Prague and Brno. Last night, after a snowfall of "over 20 centimeters in some places," a 40-kilometer stretch of the freeway was closed, "for the first time in its history," for twelve (12) hours! Cars were backed up for 50 kilometers, and reports say thousands of cars had to wait. I can almost imagine sitting in the bus that long. Yikes! (I can't sympathize too much given that this was barely eight inches of snow at maximum, although I'm sure it fell quickly. But they should try maintaining a road in the U.P. where they've already had over six feet of snow this winter!)
It was a dire situation, however. Police reported 13 traffic-related deaths over the weekend and 1900 accidents. I'm glad I rode the train.
In good news, the lower house of the Czech Parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) passed a bill that would legalize domestic partnership for same-sex couples. This is the third time such a bill has come before the Parliament. I believe it would still have to be passed by the Senate to become law, and it is not as well supported there. While it's hardly surprising that President Klaus has not supported the bill, I was surprised to read that many representatives from the Citizen's Democratic Party (ODS) do not support the bill. That is too bad, even though some might claim legal reasons rather than ideological ones. Rumor has it that the bill will not pass the Senate.
Posted 19 December 2005 at 22:56.
A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.
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