Travel Guidebook & Czech Movies

Hi Everybody,

For those of you coming to join us (or for those who want to learn about Slovakia and the Czech Republic in general) Kat and I found a really good tourguide last year. It's a DK Eyewitness Travel book about Czech and Slovak Republics, and it was the first time we'd seen a tourbook just for those two countries--usually, we find "Eastern Europe" where Slovakia gets two pages, and one of those pages focuses on Bratislava. But this is such a good book, we've given it as a gift to friends:

Czech & Slovak Republics (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)
ISBN: 0756615380
http://tinyurl.com/4mpxdx

That link will take you to Amazon.

One book I read last year that I really liked about travel is Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir by Franz Wisner. (ISBN 0312340842) The narrator/memoirist gets dumped at the altar (don’t read anything into that, we're already married, so no worries there) and his brother makes him take the "honeymoon" trip, to start healing and dealing with his life. They have such a great time, they keep going, all over the world. Definitely a good read.

And for those who would like to learn even more about Slovakia and the Czech republic, there are a few movies I would recommend:

Kolya (or Kolja, depending on who you ask)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0116790/
This film won the Oscar for best foreign film of 1996.

Franta Louka is a concert cellist in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, a confirmed bachelor and a lady's man. Having lost his place in the state orchestra, he must make ends meet by playing at funerals and painting tombstones. But he has run up a large debt, and when his friend, the grave-digger Mr. Broz, suggests a scheme for making a lot of money by marrying a Russian woman so that she can get her Czech papers, he reluctantly agrees. She takes advantage of the situation to emigrate to West Germany, to her lover; and leaves her five-year-old son with his grandmother; when the grandmother dies, Kolya must come and live with his stepfather - Louka.

It's touching and entertaining, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

The second, and my current favorite for absolutely beautiful film about mid-20th century Czechoslovakia is Želary (the little hat on the Z makes a zhhh sound, like the 'g' in "rouge")

Želary
http://imdb.com/title/tt0288330/

A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time seems to have stopped 100 years ago agrees to hide her as his wife.

For anyone who wants to know more about what rural Czechoslovakia was like, even up to the middle part of the 20th century, this is invaluable. There are still villages like Želary in both Czech and Slovak republics, but they are few and far between. Some can be seen today as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and tourist villages.

If you get a chance, please check out either movie (both are available on Netflix). And if anyone has suggestions for other Czech and/or Slovak movies, I'm all ears. (hint hint you lovely Slovaks reading this blog! Add your suggestions to the comments!)

More later,
Matthew

Currency Calculator

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know there's now a currency calculator on the Blog page. With it you can calculate US Dollars and Slovak Korunas (Crowns) or Euros. it's pretty useful.

Have fun!

New Registry!

Hi All,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are now also registered at Target. You can see it at: http://www.target.com/clubwedd then put in our names, and it should pop right up.


It turns out some of the things we had registered for at Crate and Barrel have been discontinued, so we jumped over to Target and registered for them over there (food processor comes readily to mind)


And someone had asked about where and when to send gifts, so we'll take a second here to clear that up:


We truly appreciate each and every gift that we receive in celebration of our big day, so THANK YOU first of all!
It will be much easier to keep everything if gifts are sent to our apartment in Stamford either before or after the wedding. A good friend had considered bringing a gift to Europe, but the transport over and back again will make this a bit too cumbersome. So please, send your cards, good wishes, etc, to us in Stamford.


Lucy, Kat's little sister, will be living with us this summer, so she'll be there while we're honeymooning, so no worries about gifts being left out. Our building's pretty secure anyway.


That's it for now

Some downtown hotels in Bratislava

Here are the links to the hotels. Any of those would be great. They
all seem to have weekend specials which is great. If you do not mind
holding off couple more days and I will figure out if one of these
hotels do brunch and I will organize it there.

This hotel is the one with the pool right next to the Danube and
opposite to Bratislava castle. It is just about 10-15 minutes walking
distance from my parents apartment.
http://www.bratislavahotels.com/hotel-danube-bratislava

I always heard really good things about this hotel. Right off of the
main square – 10 min from my parents house.
http://www.bratislavahotels.com/hotel-perugia-bratislava

This is the one that is the closest to my parents. I believed it has
been fully renovated and it should be good one and it is so close.
http://www.bratislavahotels.com/hotel-crowne-plaza-bratislava

Another one that's really close to my parents is the Kyev. (I think
I've posted this one before, but just in case)
http://www.bratislavahotels.com/hotel-kyjev-bratislava

This is the one where we have the reception after the church. It is
outside of town so it would be only convenient for Saturday night.
The manager mentioned some discount but I have not ironed it out yet.
I think about 10%. I think Matthew and I might stay there for
Saturday night or just get something in the city.
http://www.bratislavahotels.com/hotel-kamila-bratislava

We'll post more as we find them!

Little Itinerary

So Katka and I fly out of JFK on Monday, June 9th, in the evening.
We're airborne overnight and have a connector in Milan, and then we
finish in Budapest on Tuesday morning. We make our way from Budapest
to Bratislava, and will hopefully be at her parents' place by
mid-afternoon.

Tuesday, June 10
Arrive Bratislava mid-afternoon
Kat has appointment that afternoon.

Wednesday, June 11
Final dress fitting, various wedding-prep activities
Running around like headless chickens begins.
My parents arrive (I think) today

Thursday, June 12
More people arrive
Frantic errand running continues in earnest

Friday, June 13

rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

final night as 'single' people ;)
Kat stays with Maren,
Matthew may stay with the boys--Aaron, Martin, Josh, etc

Saturday, June 14
relaxing morning of getting ready, touristy stuff, etc
Final preparations, dressing, hair & makeup, etc.
4pm ceremony - Velki Kostol, downtown
after ceremony, pile into minibus for trip to Hotel Kamila
reception, photos, etc at Kamila
Dinner at 6 ish (??)
dancing, partying, lots of fun
SECOND DINNER at midnight
stragglers can be shuttled back to Bratislava
Party continues til 5 or 6 am :) :)

Sunday, June 15
make our way back to Bratislava,
Meals, hanging out time,
touristy stuff, nurse headaches

Monday, June 16
Matthew & Kat head to GREECE for 10 days!!!
Everyone else is free to do what they'd like :)

While this is not what we originally had in mind, as far as traveling
with everyone went, there is still some wiggle room in there.
Depending on when people arrive, what they'd like to do, and how much
time we have, there is PLENTY of stuff to see and do in and around
Bratislava.

So--for those of us who are going, when do you arrive, and what would
you like to see and do?

Cheers,
M

--
For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe,
grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges
ahead of his accomplishments.
--john steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

hotel info coming

We're working on finding some more info on hotels in and around the area.

Depending on how many people are coming, and how many are interested,
we may be able to get a discounted block of rooms at the Hotel Kamila
for saturday night, after the reception. We hadn't wanted to lock it
in way back when, because it's a slightly more expensive hotel, but if
enough people want to do that instead of motoring back to B'lava,
we'll make it happen.

Airlines

Good morning everyone!

Kat and I finally have our tickets for Europe. We used a nifty site
called eufares.com (http://eufares.com/ ) and got a pretty decent deal
from NYC to Budapest for about $800 each--and that's round trip.
Definitely give them a shot.

I know Amy and her mom are coming from California, and they used Kayak
(www.kayak.com) to get their flights.

Who else has had success with tickets?