August almost gone

My brother is leaving on Friday, another month that just flew away, so fast...

I am going to miss him, a lot. Now i know. But, he has to go back to his own life, his friends, his "things" you know?. Still i 'll hell miss him. :(


pss pss; on this photo where is Lucia hiding? :)


I have to pack for our road trip to France. We are leaving on Friday too, early in the morning; that's the plan. We'll roll for 10 hours; hope Lucia and Aramis will be fine. Guess we'll have to stop quite often, but better like this.


We are also going to the pool tomorrow. First class for Lucia, hope she'll like it and hope i'll understand - it will all be in Czech, of course.

Praha - August 1968 (part 2)

Pamphlets and flyers spread information about the occupation, calling on Czechoslovaks to resist peacefully and reaffirming popular loyalty to Dubcek and the other reform leaders, who had been interned in the early hours of the invasion and shipped off to Moscow for "negotiations" about the country's future.
Newspapers and magazines continued to publish, often with the words "Legal" or "Free" added to the masthead to indicate that they were not in the hands of the occupiers. Radio continued to broadcast from secret transmitters even after the central radio building in Prague had been battered into submission. Flyers printed in Russian were designed to explain the situation to Soviet soldiers, many of whom had little idea of where they were or what they were doing there.

Cover of the periodical The World in Pictures, from August 21, 1968. The picture caption reads: A view of the situation in front of Prague radio, 21 August 1968, at 10:35 a.m. They were still broadcasting from the building. The headline reads "WHY?" in Czech and Russian.

The popular opposition to the invasion was expressed in numerous spontaneous acts of nonviolent resistance. On January 19, 1969, student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest against the renewed suppression of free speech.

The country persisted in a state of tentative resistance for months. The reform leaders who had been interned and brought to Moscow for negotiations were more or less forced to sign the so-called Moscow Protocol, which re-instituted controls over the media, and rolled back the reforms in other ways.

Protests on August 21, 1969 were brutally suppressed and turned out to be the last mass demonstrations against the invasion, as the country settled down into the gray years of bureaucratic oppression known as "normalization."

Czechoslovakia remained occupied until 1990.


Sources:
www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/czech/
Invaze68: Josef Koudelka
Wikipedia

Praha - August 1968 (part 1)

In the morning hours of August 21, 1968, the Soviet army invaded Czechoslovakia along with troops from four other Warsaw Pact countries. The occupation was the beginning of the end for the Czechoslovak reform movement known as the Prague Spring.

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. The reform movement had been brewing for years, fed by economic problems as well as growing demands from Communist intellectuals for more freedom and pluralism within a socialist system.

In January 1968, the Communist Party's Central Committee replaced its hard-line First Secretary Antonin Novotny with the moderate reformer Alexander Dubcek, who eventually sided more and more clearly with the forces for change. In March, censorship was loosened and Novotny was relieved of his other function, President of the Republic. He was replaced by a career soldier, Ludvik Svoboda, whose last name in Czech means "freedom" - a purely linguistic coincidence.

In the following months, censorship was further loosened, some political prisoners were freed, and topics that until recently had been taboo began to be openly discussed. These reforms were not received well by the Soviets who sent thousands of Warsaw Pact troops and tanks to occupy the country. Although the Czechoslovak reformers always affirmed their intention of remaining within the bounds of a socialist system led by the Communist party, the reforms eventually began to take on a life of their own.

The Soviets attributed the invasion to the "Brezhnev Doctrine" which stated that the U.S.S.R. had the right to intervene whenever a country in the Eastern Bloc appeared to be making a shift towards capitalism. Still the days leading up to the invasion was a rather calm period without any major events taking place in Czechoslovakia.

Before and after

Lucia, baby your hair was growing so wildly, that you urgently needed a haircut.

So, mom and dad bought some special scissors designed for your stunning hair. I watched some "how to" videos on the net, but I didn’t get much of them. So in the end, just 2 basic cuts, chop in the front, chop at the rear and that was it. You didn’t let us do more. :)

Jezz you were moving so much I was afraid to hurt you accidentally. 3 minutes and we were done. And this is the result. Seriously it doesn’t look that bad, does it?

You are still the cutest ever.

But if you prefer... hairdresser next time.

Haircut

Now I know why I was so short-tempered lately. That time of the month… you know. Yes, my period is back. Don’t know if I should celebrate or start to cry. Well that’s part of the symptoms, right? So, this means I am ready for more babies… ha ha just kiddin’ of course. Hilarious sense of humor; is that also a symptom? So this explains everything!!

We are back to normal now. Lots of love, and “ma cherie” here “mon bebe” there. The usual.

Lucia got her last set of vaccines for the moment. She’s doing great. 6.750kg and 64cm. Big baby girl. Long hair too, so we decided to cut it, just a bit. We chose to do it at home. Mission accomplished and no ears missing, ha ha ha!!! But it looks… let’s say quite modern. Sort of manga style but much nicer of course. Last time I cut someone’s hair, it was to one of my Barbie dolls. Next time I think we’ll take her to the hairdresser. But still it was fun!!!

The pediatrician told us we can start with the veggies. We’ll wait a couple of weeks and then start with the spoon phase. Guess I will end with veggies puree al over. Mmm.

Too many things going on lately.

Don’t know what to start with…

Well let’s say first I got really mad at David. On Thursday we went to bed quite pissed with each other. The night went long for me, couldn’t sleep on my side of the bed so far from him; but stubborn as I am, couldn’t get closer to him either. Awful endless night. The reason, stupid one like always. But anyway, we had planned to go to Budapest for the weekend, so in the end we made things up for the trip.

We left for Budapest on Friday afternoon, a bit later than scheduled, but with enough time ahead us. 530Km with a baby wasn’t that hard after all. We just stopped once for fooding(*) and Lucia slept like an angel the rest of the journey. So at 7pm we were in a very nice studio just by the Great Synagogue. The second largest synagogue in the world that can take in 3,000 people - the largest stands in New York.

On Saturday we met with our friends. Ruxi stayed with us and the rest left for the F1 races. So we jumped on one of those flashy buses and went touring. It was really hot and at first I thought we wouldn’t last long, mainly because of Lucia. Poor baby. But with lots of refreshments and some big hats, we made it.

Heroes' Square - according to the legend Gabriel appeared to St Stephen in his dream and offered him the crown of Hungary. This why a 36 m high Corinthian column dominates the square with Archangel Gabriel on its top holding St Stephen's Crown. It reminded me of the independence square in Kiev, much smaller of course.
Széchenyi Bath - one of the largest spas in Europe. The Neo-Baroque building established in 1913, recalls the atmosphere of the Habsburg Monarchy. The water supply comes from 1250 m depth.
Gellert Hill - a 140 m high dolomite rock rising above the Danube in Buda. According to the legend witches visited the hill every night. Part of the drinking water supply of Budapest is stored in an inner reservoir within this hill.
The Citadel - a fortress was built on top of the Gellert Hill by the Hansburgs. From here we enjoyed the most stunning views of the city.
Chain Bridge - For centuries only a pontoon bridge connected Buda and Pest, and then Count István Széchenyi (1791-1860) came up with the idea of constructing a permanent bridge across the Danube. Construction began in 1842 and lasted almost 50 years. A tunnel was dug under Castle Hill to provide easy access to places in Buda behind the hill. This tunnel is exactly the same long than the Chain Bridge. According to a popular anecdote, when it rains the bridge can be pushed into the tunnel to prevent it from getting wet.
Castle district – between its charming crooked streets you can find the buda castle, the fisher Bastion, the Matyas Church and many other places of interest.

On Sunday morning I went with Ruxi to Szechenyi Bath. Very relaxing, but a bit crowded. Felt kind of dizzy afterwards, but maybe it was because of the hot temperatures. Then we walked around the castle district but didn’t have time for any visit. We’ll come back, for sure

Lucia is 5 months now. She’s a much more active baby now, not missing a detail of what’s going around her. She sings to herself and even starts warbling.

My brother is in Prague now. He’s staying over for a month; he will be in internship with David. Is good to have him home. He’s very helpful with Lucia and I love seeing them together…

(*) feel like making up words…