Azerbaijan Airlines will start operating flights to Prague within the summer schedule of 2022.
The air carrier will operate flights on the Baku-Prague-Baku route twice a week – on Mondays and Fridays. The first flight will be operated on June 17.
Air tickets for these and other flights of AZAL can be purchased on the official website of the airline, as well as in accredited agencies of the air carrier.
Passengers who meet the indicated conditions of carriage and who are allowed to fly under the current epidemiological restrictions will be accepted for transportation on these flights.
Information on the rules of entry to Azerbaijan can be found in detail at this link
About AZAL
Azerbaijan Airlines are also known as AZAL and it’s the flag carrier of Azerbaijan Airlines and is based in Baku. The airline is the largest airline in the country.
The airline was founded in April 1992 as the first national airline established after the country gained its independence.
Azerbaijan Airlines flies to many destinations including Ankara, Aktau, Antalya, Bishkek, Bodrum, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Ganja, London, Milan, Moscow, Nakhchivan, Vienna, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Tbilisi, Tabriz, Saint Petersburg, Rome, Riga, Paris, Perm, New York City, Minsk and many others in Asia Europe, the commonwealth of independent states and the US.
Azerbaijan Airlines is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Discover Israel through its culture, cuisine, and fun. MINT Market with the support of the Embassy of Israel brings you the first festival of Israeli culture on the Vltava river to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day.
You are invited to Střelecký island on May 14 and 15 to taste Israeli food or hire a blanket to have a springtime picnic.
Enjoy an inspirational weekend full of music, games, talks, and workshops, as well as fun activities for children including a children’s corner. The entry is free, four-legged friends are welcome. Both days will be filled with great music.
The festival is headlined by Boom Pam, an Israeli band playing a blend of Mediterranean rock and surf music that has over nearly twenty years played at festivals such as WOMEX or Primavera.
Other musicians include the classical pianist Marina Kantor, Prague-based band The Muslim, The Jew and The Ugly, or electronic Israeli – Turkish duo Colibris Music and Roksan Mandel.
Visitors can also attend a poetry reading by Lucian Zell, or watch a live visual performance by Israeli female artist El, whose designs can be found on t-shirts and jumpers of Plazmalab streetwear brand that will also be present at the festival.
The weekend will be filled with workshops for the whole family. Visitors will get a chance to try Israeli martial art Krav Maga, play backgammon or Matkot, discover Israeli folk dance Rikudej Am or choose from a program prepared by the Jewish cultural center JCC Prague, offering music workshop for kids, as well as a debate forum that will discuss how Israel is perceived in the Czech Republic, or offer stories of students studying in Israel.
Families will be invited to join a fun game or take advantage of the children’s corner and other activities. MINT Market will bring stalls with great Levantine food and drinks, as well as fashion and accessories created by designers with Israeli roots.
Traditionally, Israelis celebrate their Independence Day by having a barbecue outdoors. There will be barbecues around the tip of the Střelecký island where visitors can prepare their own food, or buy some ready-to-grill Mediterranean delicacies.
You can also take part in the Hummus Master competition judged by Prague’s top Israeli chefs. All that will take place at the beautiful island on the Vltava river full of trees, shade and great spots for a family picnic.
Israel on the River starts at 10 AM, finishes at 10 PM on Saturday, and at 6 PM on Sunday. The event is free, wheelchair accessible and dog-friendly.
For more information, visit this website or follow the Facebook event
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix.
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The Interior Ministry is having problems finding accommodation for the several hundred Ukrainian Romanies who are seeking refuge in the Czech Republic. The problem is that they often come in groups of up to 30 people who want to stay together in one place and refuse to split up into different localities.
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Health Minister Vlastimil Válek has indicated that he is prepared to do away with compulsory respirators in hospitals and care homes –the last places where they are still required -at the end of April.
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Avast has stopped offering its products in Russia and Belarus. It has stopped all its marketing and sales activities in both countries. Avast is a Czech company that develops and provides software for cybersecurity pays an equivalent of CZK 50m per year on value-added tax in Russia.
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The 8th Open House Prague festival is ready for the annual celebration of Prague’s architecture, this time taking place on May 16–22, 2022. On the weekend of May 21–22, the festival is set to open 101 buildings and spaces across Prague for free.
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The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MPSV) is launching a mobile phone app named “Smart Migration”. The app allows foreign residents to easily find answers in Ukrainian, English and Russian to common situations they need to deal with after arriving in the Czech Republic, including employment, healthcare, and education.
Romani refugees from Ukraine are encountering more and more frequent problems in the Czech Republic.
While the authorities, with the significant aid of nonprofit organizations, have managed to house several hundred Romani Ukrainian refugees, accommodation allegedly does not exist for some of the newer arrivals, and some Romani refugees are running into bias and discrimination.
As of mid-April, housing similar to that offered to non-Romani Ukrainian refugees is practically inaccessible to Romani refugees.
The authorities are said to be recommending some Romani Ukrainian refugees leave the country altogether. “We wanted to remain here, but they told us they have no housing for us and sent us to Germany,” one Romani woman who fled Russia’s aggression with her husband and five children told news server Romea.cz.
“Our child is ill, but nobody would aid us,” she told Romea.cz from inside a train car at the Main Station in Prague. That family is not the only one.
There were about 100 Romani Ukrainian refugees at the Main Station on 13 April, mostly children and women for whom it is allegedly almost impossible to find accommodation.
Martin Kavka, spokesperson for the firefighting service in Prague, claims that accommodation has been found for 300 Romani Ukrainians since the beginning of the refugee influx.
Kavka said that he believes the reason Romani Ukrainian refugees are not succeeding in finding housing now is that they want to remain together in big groups. “Romani people have requirements that are a bit specific, they want to live together in big numbers, for example, 30-50 people,” he told news server Romea.cz.
“We are doing our best to find accommodation for all, whether they be specific groups, invalids, or pet owners. We’re responding to offers that come to us from all over the country, de facto, doing our best to fill them,” the spokesperson said.
“I know there was a case of Romani people who traveled on to Germany, so it is likely that accommodation for them was found there,” Kavka told Romea.cz. However, a person familiar with the situation to whom Romea.cz promised anonymity stated the following: “I see differences in the provision of information and in the treatment of the Romani versus the non-Romani refugees.”
“They do not tell the Romani refugees that they are even able to remain in the Czech Republic, that they can apply for visas. They are instructed to go elsewhere from the start,” the anonymous whistleblower said, describing this rejection of the Romani Ukrainian refugees as a common practice, not just as isolated excesses.
Czech diplomat Tomáš Hart, who was expelled from Russia this week, was contacted by the Russian secret service with an offer of cooperation, the websites Respekt.cz and Deník N reported, citing the diplomat himself.
The Russians also threatened another Czech diplomat in Russia before deporting him. “We know about your family situation,” an FSB agent told a Czech diplomat on the street.
Mr. Hart was invited to a meeting in Moscow. According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, it was a clear attempt to recruit co-workers for espionage.
On March 30, the Czech Republic decided to expel a diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Prague out of the country, to “lower the Russian intelligence presence in the EU“.
According to Deník N, the embassy worker in question was the deputy ambassador Feodosyi Vladyshevsky.
Diplomatic relations between the Czech Republic and Russia have been strained for some time.
Last spring, the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian embassy staff following revelations by the intelligence services that GRU agents were behind the 2014 munitions explosions in the Vrbětice munitions depot in the Zlín region, in Moravia.
The Czech Republic also became the first country to send tanks to Ukraine, specifically a dozen T-72 tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
Defence Minister Jana Černochová had repeatedly announced plans to step up Prague’s military aid to support the Ukrainian army against the Russian invasion but refused to disclose the details for security reasons.
“The Czech Republic has been sending old Soviet-designed tanks into Ukraine, providing badly needed heavy weapons to outgunned Ukrainian troops that are battling a much better-equipped Russian invasion force,” the Wall Street Journal wrote, citing Czech and Slovak security officials.
A festival of Ukrainian gastronomy and culture will take place in Prague on May 5 at Pražská tržnice in Holesovice.
Visitors can try borscht, vareniki, dumplings, and other dishes of traditional Ukrainian cuisine. Ukrainian musicians, national ensembles and artists will enrich the cultural program.
The festival will run from 16:00 to 21:00 and all the proceeds will go to help Ukraine.
The organizers will publish a detailed program on the Facebook page of the event.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Yevhen Perebyinis recently thanked all the Czech people for providing humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian army.
Czechs have donated at least 3.4 billion crowns in aid of Ukraine since the war started. Around a third of the total amount was sent to the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague for the purchase of military equipment for the Ukrainian army and the Home Guard.
The Defense Ministry has sent military aid worth nearly 1 billion crowns to Ukraine since the war broke out.
“We must do even small things, expressing solidarity with Ukraine. If you are here, then Ukraine is not indifferent to you,” Perebyinis said.
Ukrainians are the most numerous foreign national community in the Czech Republic, ahead of Vietnamese, Slovaks and Russians.
According to official figures, about 110,000 Ukrainians legally stay in the Czech Republic, and almost half of them live in Prague.
The Czech Republic has granted over 293 000 special visas to refugees since the start of the war, according to data published by the Interior Ministry.
Easter, the most important of Christian holidays, symbolizes redemption, hope, and the resurrection of Christ. As is true for all big holidays, food is a big part of it.
Easter Sunday lunch is the most plentiful meal of the holiday. The amount of prepared food was in the past mainly determined by how much each family could afford, but mostly everyone would eat some type of meat on this day.
In addition to the roasted meat, an integral part of the meal is the sweet lamb cake, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.
The name šmigrustovka comes from the Easter Monday tradition of young lads “whipping” girls with pomlázkas (braided willow switches), or šmigrusts, as they are referred to in Moravia. On this day, boys will spend the morning visiting girls around town to “whip” them, which is supposed to make them healthy for the rest of the year.
One ingredient of the šmirgustovka are the eggs that the boys receive from girls they visited. It is certainly a colourful food and can soothe a stomach tired from spending the morning welcoming the spring outdoors.
Czech traditions on Sunday and Monday
Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday (Neděle velikonoční) is a day of preparations for Easter Monday. Girls paint, color and decorate eggs if they haven’t done so already, and boys prepare their pomlázkas!
In my family, decorating Easter eggs is a simple affair: dip some hardboiled eggs in water filled with boiled onion peels and then place store-bought Easter stickers on the eggs.
Easter Monday
Easter Monday (Pondělí velikonoční) is a day off, the day of the pomlázka.
The origin of the pomlázka tradition (pomlázka meaning both the whip and the tradition itself) dates back to pagan times. Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to chase away illness and bad spirits and to bring health and youth for the rest of the year to everyone who is whipped with the young pussywillow twigs.
Boys would whip girls lightly on the legs and possibly douse them with water, which had a similar symbolic meaning. An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping.
The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlázka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.
This tradition is still largely upheld, especially in villages and small towns, although it may have lost its symbolism and romance and is now performed mainly for fun. Some boys and men seem to have forgotten that the whipping is supposed to be only symbolic and girls don’t always like that. T
he reward has also changed – money and shots of plum brandy (slivovice) are often given instead of or in addition to painted eggs and candy. So by early afternoon, groups of happy men can be seen staggering along the roads… All that aside, Easter remains one of the most joyful holidays on the Czech calendar.
These fascinating black and white photos were taken by Greg Wass that show street scenes of Prague in 1990.
A record-breaking suspension bridge will be opened in the northeast of the Czech Republic between the crests of the Kralicky Snezník mountain, offering spectacular views to hikers.
According to Czech tourism officials, the Skybridge 721 is now the world’s longest suspension bridge, spanning 721 meters between two mountain ridges.
Located near the holiday resort of Dolní Morava and crossing the Mlynicke udolí valley at the height of 95 meters, the bridge’s formal inauguration is planned for May 9 – just in time for the hiking season.
According to Czech tourism officials, the bridge was built near the Skywalk, a 55-meter-high viewing platform from where you can slide back down on a slide that runs for about 100 meters.
The winter sports and hiking resort of Dolní Morava is located around 200 kilometers east of Prague, close to the Polish border.
The breathtaking bridge will open to the public in spring 2022.
Until now, the world’s longest suspension bridge for pedestrians has been located near the Portuguese town of Arouca. It measures 516 meters and hangs 176 meters above the ground.
Dolní Morava is the most famous mountain resort in the Pardubice region, attracting approximately 750,000 visitors every year.
While the new suspension bridge will eventually bring more tourists to the area, the local population agrees that the site will suffer from overcrowding. Naturalists also have reservations about completing the new bridge that could result in a possible disturbance of the mountain’s ecosystem.
Sustainability is a topic of great significance for Prague, including the city’s transportation system.
If the Czech capital wants to be perceived as a modern destination, it is also necessary to consider the current climate situation, and to prevent, to a maximum possible extent, any influences that negatively affect it before they grow to dangerous proportions.
By promoting sustainable mobility, Prague also strives to meet the expectations of those event organizers who prefer destinations that focus on sustainable development, when choosing locations for their events.
Prague has been working on a sustainable mobility plan for a long time seeking to mitigate exhaust gases as much as possible by using electric power or by supporting bicycle transport. As a result, the number of Prague cyclists has also increased dramatically since 2019, by about 73%.
It was the great leap in the popularity of cycling that led the representatives of the capital city of Prague to decide to expand the network of cycle paths even further.
The development of electromobility in the Czech capital is supported as well. A good example is the signed memorandum regarding the cooperation of the City of Prague, Pražská energetika (Prague Energies Company) and ŠKODA AUTO.
The main goal of this cooperation is clear: to fill in the white areas on the map of the capital city, where the infrastructure is still lacking, so that the recharging facilities are available for the electric vehicle owners more widely. In places that will be located on the routes busiest with the electric vehicles, construction works on high-speed HPC (High Power Charging) charging stations have started.
“In the future, high-speed HPC charging stations, together with slow parking charging stations built by the city, will form the core of the electromobility infrastructure for Prague and will help the city achieve the emission targets resulting from the Climate Plan by 2030,” adds Jaromír Beránek, Chair of the IT and Smart City Committee of the Prague City Council.
Another goal of the city is the advanced visibility of the charging stations in applications so that drivers have an overview of where they can recharge their vehicle.
This article originally appeared on Prague Convention Bureau website
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix.
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The British man whose backpack caught fire at Prague’s Václav Havel Airport on Tuesday, has been found guilty of illegal possession of weapons. A spokesman for the city prosecutor’s office, Aleš Cimbala, said the man had part of a military grenade in his luggage.
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The Billie Jean King Cup, formerly known as the Fed Cup, will get underway at Prague’s Štvanice on Friday with Czech Markéta Vondroušová playing Harriet Dart in the qualifying tie against Great Britain.
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Two new dates will be added to the Czech Republic’s list of official “significant days”. May 27th, the day of the assassination of the Nazi governor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, Day of National Resistance and June 25th, the anniversary of the signing of the protocol on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia in 1991.
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Presidential elections will be held in the Czech Republic in January 2023 at the latest. According to election modelling by Median agency, former general Petr Pavel has the highest potential of being elected, followed closely by Andrej Babiš.
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The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MPSV) is launching a mobile phone app named “Smart Migration”. The app allows foreign residents to easily find answers in Ukrainian, English and Russian to common situations they need to deal with after arriving in the Czech Republic, including employment, healthcare, and education.
The cost of living crisis is only getting worse in the Czech Republic. Only the Baltics are a little worse off with regards to the rate of inflation.
The cost of living crisis in the Czech Republic is rising rapidly with the growth of inflation to almost 13 percent almost certainly not yet over.
Due to the recovery from the pandemic and the Russian invasion, most economies are suffering, but Czechia is an exception. Almost nowhere are prices rising as fast as in this country — only the Baltics are a little worse off. There are several reasons for this.
“High inflation in the Czech Republic consists of several parts,” Unicredit Bank’s chief economist Pavel Sobíšek explained. “One is the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, combined with wasteful fiscal policies that have pushed inflation up before the pandemic.
“The common characteristic of the countries of Eastern Europe is a larger share of energy and food in the market basket compared to wealthier countries, which leads to higher inflation,” he added.
According to economist Radim Dohnal from the Capitalinked company, the cause is wage inflation in recent years due to low unemployment and energy prices in recent months, which is related to the low share of renewable energy sources in the Czech Republic.
It is the situation in the field of energy and energy prices that is critical in the Czech Republic. More and more households have a problem with high gas and electricity payments.
In many European countries, governments have intervened and introduced various regulations or capped prices. Slovakia, for example, has frozen electricity prices for people for three years. The Czech government regulates only the price for energy transmission and distribution. On the contrary, Slovakia also adjusts the cost of the commodity itself or power electricity.
Czechia is a great exporter of electricity, which it produces cheaply, but repurchasing it from the European Energy Exchange in Leipzig will make it more expensive for consumers. At the end of last year, several countries, including France and Spain, submitted a proposal to the European Commission to amend the directive on the functioning of the internal electricity market.
Under the reform, the final customer should pay the price for electricity that reflects the cost of the energy mix in his country. However, Czechia was not among the countries that came up with the proposal.
“I see the change in electricity pricing as a particular topic. It needs to be addressed, not only for households but also for companies,” Sobíšek claimed. “The solution must therefore be at the EU level. Otherwise, there would be a risk of the collapse of the pan-European electricity market, which has operated without major problems for 15 years,” he added.
Higher inflation is also caused by the fact that the government of Petr Fiala has so far rejected any blanket regulations in general. According to Sobíšek, this could reduce inflation temporarily.