The Gare de Lyon in Paris has Le Train Bleu. Grand Central Staion in New York has a superb Oyster Bar; Washington Union Station has this neo-classical wonder; while Prague this prime example of art nouveau; Helsinki, meanwhile, offers something suitably democratic. With cafes as good as this, railway stations become destinations in themselves.
posted by MrMerlot on Dec 6, 2008 - 17 comments

When Prague Spring Gave Way to Winter. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Sep 17, 2008 - 12 comments

The žižkov television tower in Prague was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten much stranger...
posted by Artw on Jul 19, 2008 - 42 comments

The proposed new home of the National Library of the Czech Republic. The old one looks like this. The new one ... well ... is it an octopus? What the hell is this thing?
posted by pyramid termite on Dec 4, 2007 - 42 comments

The Black Light Theatre of Prague ("Černé Divadlo" or simply Black Theatre) is a Czech performance style characterised by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light trickery. Although this performance style can be found in many places around the world, nowhere is it more prolific or specialized than in Prague. Some sample images: 1 2 3 4. YouTube: 1 2 3.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Feb 8, 2007 - 13 comments

A strange ritual is played out in Choupic, Louisiana on Mardi Gras day. Something similar happens in Prague on Easter Monday too. [via]
posted by tellurian on Mar 2, 2006 - 13 comments

Weird buildings.
posted by angrybeaver on Feb 20, 2006 - 64 comments

David Cerny: frilly pink tanks, babies climbing TV towers, and the president feeding slops to the director of the national gallery out of giant asses. Why, this could only be the NEA gone awry! Actually, it’s Magic Prague, the land of Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera, and the artist, like the dissidents of past generations, would rather not do political art , political art. His latest sculpture ridicules the perverse situation in which the country finds itself post Havel: a place where right-wingers like President Klaus and national gallery director Milan Knížák— a past collaborator with secret police, and worse, completely idiotic and banal performance artist — prosper and rub shoulders at the expense of those with a conscience and good taste. Like David Cerny. This isn’t the freshest post, but I’ve been waiting to join Mefi for a long time, and today is the first day I can post.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk on Apr 9, 2004 - 4 comments

Prague's latest attraction - the Museum of Communism : it's interesting how the times have changed in eastern Europe...
posted by starscream on Mar 21, 2004 - 0 comments

Stone inhabitants and extraordinary houses of Prague. More at the Praha experience.
If you like this, you might also like fifty doors of Paris and San Francisco.
posted by plep on Jul 18, 2003 - 6 comments

Vaclav Havel is retiring as president of the Czech Republic this weekend. The former dissident and playwright-cum-politician is profiled in the Guardian, the Globe & Mail and Radio Prague's site; or you can browse the great man's website.
posted by plep on Jan 31, 2003 - 12 comments

I live in Prague and I've been looking for English language sites for expats living here recently. Prague TV is the best I can come up with. There are a few others, some that look promising but not fully functional yet, some absolutely terrible, and a some not so bad, but not really community sites. Do you live or work in Eastern Europe? Know any decent English language sites?
posted by mis on Oct 8, 2001 - 7 comments