#ostrava 2023

[beatrack92]

Valerie Janků 🇨🇿

2023 Czech Championships U23 (Ostrava)

[elenitrack]

Eliška Zahradníčková 🇨🇿

2023 Czech Championships U23 (Ostrava)

[figureskatingcostumes]

Nuriya Suleimen competing in the 2022 Junior Grand Prix Ostrava.

(Source: kissncry_pics)

[mikimeiko]

Day 12 - Ostrava (Czechia)

It's definitely summer today in Ostrava. It's the first day in this entire trip where I felt the need to wear a tank top, and I honestly hope it's not gonna get hotter than this XD

The city center is very nice in the sun, filled with colorful buildings. There's still not so many people around, but the city is not empty.

Ostrava is an industrial city, and the main attraction that every guide tells you to visit is Dolní Vítkovice, and it's a good thing they do because it's kind of amazing.

Have you ever looked at an abandoned factory and wished you could go wander inside the compound? Well in Dolní Vítkovice you can! It's a massive steel working+coal mine that was in operation until the 90s, and now you can visit, learn about the history and the technical aspects, or just vibe with the aesthetic XD

There are museums, a gallery and cafes inside and it's basically a cool neighborhood you can hang out in. 10/10 would visit again (also maybe don't come on Monday because many things are closed on Monday XD).

After seeing it many times on the menu, it's finally the right temperature to try an espresso tonic (a cold espresso with tonic water). And, no. I did not think it was the right combo for me and it wasn't. Damn my curiosity XD

Next stop: Landek park. There's a mining museum here, but it's very hot and the park looks so appealing with its trees and shade, and I don't really need to visit another mining museum (I visited one in Wales years ago with a very good tour guide), so instead I head into the wooden path.

I get a pomelo and grapefruit birell (which is a Czech non alcoholic beer - I wish I knew it was non alcoholic before because it's as inexpensive as beer and I would have gotten it many other times instead of spending all my money on water or sodas XD) and just enjoy the green and the breeze for a while.

The walk through the park is very nice, though sadly the path is very close to a highway and most of what you hear is traffic.

I was very lucky and not only is today the first day of Ostrava's folklore festival but the first event is basically next to the place I'm staying <3

It's mostly dance focused (I thought it was going to be musicians) and though most performers are Czech or from neighbouring countries there are also a couple of acts from farther away (China, Costa Rica). I love that it started in the afternoon!

[whatodoo-czechia]

Zkrocení zlé ženy - Ostrava, Czechia | 13 Aug, 2023.

Find out more / Get your Tickets here.

[delicris]

today has been a devastating day for czech people all over the country. 14 people dead and 25 injured, 10 of them seriously, in today's school shooting at the faculty of arts, charles university, prague. the gunman shot himself half an hour after starting the killing.

this happened nine and a half hours ago. as of right now, there's no official info about the victims and the people missing. the only pieces of information available come from other students who took on compiling lists of names and the current state of those individuals and sharing those on social media in hopes of being able to help. the news coverage is constant, but poor.

there are many terrifying testimonies and photos from the ones present at the faculty at that time. there are also many disgusting photos and videos of the gunman circulating on social media even after the police department urged not to share those out of respect to the victims and to prevent the rising panic.

there would've been way more victims had the police not acted as quickly as they did. still, there were mistakes made and i hope the department will be able to recognize them and act on them.

school shootings and shootings in general are not a thing here, they don't happen, people often haven't been given proper instructions on how to act in case of an active shooting in years. i still remember a mass shooting that took place in a hospital in ostrava. that was five years ago, 7 people dead.

this mass shooting is by far the worst one in czech history.

a national day of mourning has been scheduled for tomorrow, december 23rd, 2023. a minute of silence for the victims, the injured and their loved ones at noon, UTC+1 time. flags flying at half-mast. the victims will never go back home for christmas, they'll never see their loved ones again. this is the crushing reality of massacres like this one.

[dailyniallnews]

Colours of Ostrava | July 20, 2023

[petpav]

Ostrava, 1/2023. 

Vše bude dobré, Markéto / Everything is gonna be ok, Marketa.

[djuvlipen]

02/17/2023 Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has condemned the approach taken by the Health Ministry in connection with the compensation being paid to illegally sterilized women. He has called the behavior of the ministry bureaucrats too bureaucratic and unhelpful.

Fiala’s statement was made for public broadcaster Czech Television’s “Reporters” program. The victims of illegal sterilizations and the nonprofit organizations aiding them have been criticizing the compensation mechanism for some time because many cases have been denied.

“I have ascertained that the bureaucrats at the Health Ministry are looking at the compensation for the women who have been affected by forced sterilization in a very unhelpful, too bureaucratic way, they want them to document matters that the women concerned objectively simply cannot,” the Prime Minister said in a text message sent to the Czech Television “Reporters” program. Of 525 women who have applied so far, just 243 have been awarded compensation, or less than half.

While bureaucrats are still handling some of the applications, more than 160 women have already been denied compensation. “They want the women to submit unambiguous evidence in the form of medical records, but many of them cannot because the documentation no longer exists,” human rights expert Monika Šimůnková explained to Czech Television.

“If medical records, as one of the main pieces of evidence, are missing, then the Health Ministry must follow the law and the administrative proceedings must unfortunately be assessed as having failed,” admitted Deputy Health Minister Josef Pavlovic (Pirates). Some women, of course, do not have these medical records because the originals have been shredded by the organizations maintaining them.

Some of the women whose applications have been denied by the ministry then turned to the courts, and the first-instance courts have agreed with them in at least two cases. “At this moment there are already at least two judgments overturning the Health Ministry’s decisions as too strict and too formal. The ministry has appealed those judgments through a cassation complaint and is awaiting the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict,” Czech Television reports.

For example, Vlasta Holubová, who was sterilized against her will at Fifejdy Hospital in Ostrava at the age of 24 in 1988, has succeeded before the first-instance court. “They did this because they wanted to abate [the reproduction of] the population of Roma. That was a disgrace, including in the families, because among the Roma, a woman is rich because she gives birth, because she has children, and she is honored for it,” she told news server iRozhlas.cz.

Pavlovic said the ministry is researching the reasons for which some applications were rejected and is seeking amicable solutions, if possible. Illegal sterilizations on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic happened in the 20th century, but cases from the 21st century are also documented.

In 2005, then-ombudsman Otakar Motejl warned of this practice and also began to speak for the first time of the possibility that the victims could be compensated. His report was followed by many years of struggle by NGOs and the victims themselves until, on 1 January 2022, the law took effect that awards a one-time payment of CZK 300,000 [EUR 12,660] to the victims of illegal sterilizations.

[reallyinkyhands]

A little post-intermission gag by Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (Cats Ostrava, 2023).

[stygiy]

Fantastic Ostrava 2023 💥

[beatrack92]

Linda Suchá 🇨🇿

2023 Czech Championships U23 (Ostrava)

[elenitrack]

Apolena Švábíková 🇨🇿

2023 Czech Championships U23 (Ostrava)

[figureskatingcostumes]

Sophia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev's free program costumes at the 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final and 2022 Junior Grand Prix Ostrava and, with more blue, at the 2023 World Junior Championships and 2023 US Nationals:

They skated to Pilgrims on a Long Journey by Cœur de Pirate and Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3 and 4)

[mikimeiko]

Day 11 - From Slovakia to Czechia

The train to Ostrava goes in the same direction of the train I took yesterday XD I really thought I was going on a different line XD

Sadly I'm not forward facing, and the window next to me is small, but I still manage to see some pretty landscapes (though I'm on the wrong side to see the mountains).

(prettiest station, too bad I only saw it from the train)

Five hours on the train are too many hours.

I arrive in Ostrava around one pm, and there's NO ONE around. It's like being in Italy at lunch time XD also, it's kinda getting hot again ;_;

I forgot that Czechia has a different currency. On one hand it has been very easy having every price in euro, but on the other nothing says "you're ABROAD" as using a different currency.

I have a very nice room :D I relax for a bit there, and gather my clothes because it's LAUNDRY DAY! (I have never been to a laundromat, I NEVER use dryers and I hope I'm not gonna screw things up).

Watching the clothes tumble dry is a hypnotic experience.

My clothes survived!

I take a walk before dinner in the city center and it's remarkably empty compared to... Well, every city I've been to so far XD I wonder if it's only that it's Sunday or if it is because it is less of a tourist destination.

I discovered at some point that the reason why Vietnamese restaurant are so ubiquitous in Slovakia is that there have been historically strong connections between the two populations during the communist era, and the same is true for Czechia, so I don't even feel a little guilty when I decide to go for a Vietnamese dinner for a night away from dairy XD

Best choice. So good!

One thing I've been noticing this entire trip is that there are A LOT of dads around. Either alone or with their partners, but actively involved in taking care and playing with their children, and it's lovely to see.

[whatodoo-czechia]

Macbeth - Ostrava, Czechia | 4 Aug, 2023.

Find out more / Tickets are here.