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The 57th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicked off in great style at the weekend. The major Hollywood stars Russell Crowe and Ewan McGregor both received awards – and wowed the crowds – at the start of the region’s biggest cinema event.

Prague is home to beautiful cycle paths in quieter areas of the city, but when it comes to hopping on two wheels in the heart of the city centre, it can be a safety gamble with aggressive drivers behind the wheel of cars, coupled with narrow historical streets.

Barbora Tellinger is a Czech-born jazz singer, composer and music teacher who spent most of her life in South Africa, only returning to her native Czechia shortly before the covid pandemic broke out. After a successful career in the South African jazz scene, she now works with her husband, Grammy-nominated pianist John Fresk, performing under the name Tellinger and Fresk.

One of the most valuable medieval monuments at Prague Castle, the glass mosaic of the Last Judgement at Saint Vitus Cathedral, is undergoing a close inspection. Two decades ago, the 650-year-old glass mosaic of the Last Judgement was completely renovated, but some of the glass pieces have now started showing signs of corrosion.

Marine biologist Petra Nevečeřalová, who hails from the north-Bohemian town of Ústí nad Labem, has been obsessed with whales since early childhood. Today, she is part of an international team of scientists who study evolutionary genetics of the Southern Right Whale and spends a significant part of her time off the South African coast. When I caught up with her in Prague to discuss her work, I started by asking her what sparked her interest in the giant ocean mammals:

As every year, a restored Czech classic gets its premiere at the Karlovy Vary film festival on Saturday afternoon. However this time out the slot will feature a relatively little-known work from the Czechoslovak New Wave: Every Day Courage, directed by Evald Schorm. I discussed the 1964 film with Michal Bregant of the National Film Archive, which oversaw the restoration.

In your standard guidebook it may be referred to as the “city of a hundred spires”. Its municipal administration is certainly interested in making Prague a destination for high culture and congress events. But, if you know the right people and the right places, you will discover that the Czech capital is also a budding techno hotspot.

Established in 1945 by members of the Czech and Slovak community, the Masaryk Memorial Institute, a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada, provides a space for young and old to celebrate their Czech and Slovak heritage.

Pornography, sex shops and prostitution were all taboo in communist Czechoslovakia. And there was no sex education of any kind, neither in schools nor in teen magazines. So how did Czechs live without all that?

One of the landmarks of Prague’s Holešovice district, the Veletržní palác or Trade Fair Palace was once the largest functionalist building in the world. Constructed in the 1920s, the palace now houses the modern art collection of the National Gallery. Before that, it was one of Prague’s important business and shopping centres, complete with restaurants, cafés, and one of the largest cinemas in Czechoslovakia.