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Photo: YouTube An internal video produced by Pilsner Prazdroj for the amusement of their bosses at SABMiller, the company that owns Prazdroj, has become a hit on You Tube. The video presents the Czech Republic – and more specifically the town of Plzen as the beer belly of the world –if not the universe. Beer is presented as something of a panacea – a drink that makes people healthy and happy. Czech men don’t need airbags –they have beer bellies, and dark beer is what gives Czech women big, sexy breasts, the video claims. Czech people enjoy doing any work that builds up a thirst and the real reason why Czechoslovakia broke up was because Slovaks weren’t really into beer. Since it was leaked the video has got 100,000 hits with one viewer saying it was the PR video of the millennium. Meanwhile, Pilsner Prazdroj is looking somewhat shamefaced about it – the company spokesman told the press the video was never meant to reach the public. Had that been the case the references to beer bellies as airbags and big breasts would have been dumped, he said. PR experts say that, while the airbag reference may have been a bit over the top, the video is not likely to hurt the company – indeed quite the opposite.

Photo: CTK The observation terrace of Prague’s Ruzyně Airport was more crowded than usual on Wednesday as plane enthusiasts turned out to see the arrival of one of the biggest planes in the world – the A300 Super Transporter Beluga nicknamed the White Whale. There are only five of its kind in the world and this is its first trip to the Czech Republic. The airbus is used to transport excessively heavy constructions – in this case it carried reserve parts for another airbus stranded in the Czech capital.

Photo: CTK The Czech Republic is a land of country cottages and in each cottage there is an attic - chock-full of junk and long-forgotten antiques dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Old radios, musical instruments, cameras, irons for hot-coals, washing-machines that resemble a space shuttle and funny-looking alarm-clocks –to name just a few. A town bearing the poetic name Vepříkov - or Pigsville -has decided to lay a claim to fame by opening a museum of bizarre and quaint objects found in attics. On hearing the news, people contributed from far and wide and the locals spent several months turning an old warehouse into an exhibition hall. Some people brought an entire collection of tools relating to a given trade at the beginning of the century – tools used by the village barber, blacksmith, butcher, seamstress and basket-maker. And each trade is represented by a life-size figurine in appropriate dress. So when you next visit the Czech Republic and see the name Vepříkov on the map don’t head the other way – this may be a place worth visiting.

Photo: www.pianotrip.com Twenty-five-year-old French pianist Guillemette Dufouleur is bringing her art to the public around Europe and she’s got the Czech Republic on her map. However there is no agency to smooth the way – Guillmette is touring Europe on a bike pulling a mini-caravan holding her piano and stuff. Although equipped with a solar-powered motor the bike still needs man-power –or in this case womanpower –to stay on the road. Having arrived in a country, Guilmette goes where the fancy takes her, stopping in unexpected places – on the beach, in a park, on a main square to give an impromptu performance for onlookers. She’s now in eastern Europe and is expected to arrive in the Czech Republic in late summer.

Photo: CTK Many weddings have been labeled disastrous for a wide variety of reasons - but the one that takes the cake this year is a secret wedding in the Aichelburg hunting lodge near Horní Maršov. Built on a cliff in the middle of a protected nature reserve – with 400 steps and a small wooden bridge leading to it – the hunting lodge seemed the perfect place for a romantic wedding. And, all went well, until the bride and groom and seventeen wedding guests assembled on the bridge for a wedding photograph. The bridge collapsed under their weight and the entire wedding party fell into a 4- metre deep ravine. Seven people –including the bride were airlifted to hospital – the rest were treated on the mountainside. That’s one wedding none of them are about to forget in a hurry, but having survived such a disastrous start – let’s hope the newlyweds live happily ever after.