The Magic World of Czech Illustrators for Children

Photo gallery: The Magic World of Czech Illustrators for Children

The special exhibition has recently taken place in Sydney… Even in the Czech Republic I’d never seen a similar thing :). Almost each of these illustrators is world known and has won many international awards.

On one spot we saw the most popular pictures from fairytales by such names as:

• Adolf Born (e.g. Max and Sally, Puss in Boots, Pipi Longstocking),
• Karel Franta (e.g. Punch in Hell),
• Stanislav Holy (e.g. Mister Pip’s Walk),
• Vladimir Jiranek (e.g. Bob and Bobbek: Rabbits from the Hat),
• Josef Lada (e.g. K.J.Erben’s Fairytales),
• Zdenek Miller (e.g. The Mole),
• Radek Pilar (e.g. Rumcajs),
• Odrej Sekora (e.g. Book of Ferda The Ant),
• Zdenek Smetana (e.g. Stories of the Stump Cottage),
• Jiri Trnka (e.g. Arabian Nights),
• Helena Zmatlikova (e.g. Jenicek and Marenka), and much more.

The translated titles of fairytales are so funny, aren’t they? So sit down comfortably and go back to your childhood…

NYE 2006 in Sydney

Photo gallery: NYE 2006

The New Year's Eve in Sydney was spectacular!

During the day we went to the beach from where we moved to a club (made in an old English style) in the afternoon. Then we visited our good friends and late after midnight we went for a walk to the beach where a huge dance party had been on. Unfortunately we were too tired to start dancing :)

There were two fireworks - a "family" one at 9pm and a bigger one at midnight. We watched it from a hill several km from the city - a marvelous show! It included 7 main firing locations placed around the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Thanks to our location we could see most of them.

There was about one million spectators celebrating in the city. Crowd of people began to arrive early in the morning to gather around popular spots to watch the fireworks.


Several interesting facts about the fireworks and bridge effect:

• Approximately 11,000 shells, 10,000 shooting comets, and a total of 100,000 individual
• pyrotechnic effects.
• More than 60,000 metres of wires and cables.
• Equates to 91,000 kg of equipment.
• In excess of 3,000kg of explosive devices.
• 6,000 hours of design and preparation by the crew of 35.
• Fully digitally launched, requiring 12 computers.

The organizer said, that the Sydney NYE fireworks display was regarded as the largest and most technologically advanced annual fireworks display on the planet.

Christmas time in Jervis Bay

Photo gallery: Jervis Bay

We spent the Christmas time in Jervis Bay that is about 200 km south from Sydney.

Jervis Bay is a serene beautiful stretch of coastline full of beaches, bushes, lakes, cliffs, forests and little villages. We have been to many of these places and met interesting animals in the nature.

We stayed a couple of nights in a camp in Booderee National Park where kangaroos, parrots, possumes and many other animals lived around us.

Among others we explored the Hyams Beach with the whitest sand in the world o), and an aboriginal village as well.

We spent the Christmas Eve on the beach next to our camp, where a group of dolphins appeared and started playing just twenty meters far from us. A simply exciting show!

So that was really unusual Christmas :).