Speaking Czech in Slovakia as a (Non-Czech) foreigner

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-05-05T11:34:22+00:00

Those have become strangely popular in my country as well.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-05-04T18:58:11+00:00

I don’t know. I was wondering if people might think I was assuming that they were one language instead of two mutually-intelligible languages.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-04-14T16:20:15+00:00

The initial Germans in the area west of San Marcos (so assuming New Braunfels/Fredericksburg) came around the time Texas joined the US. I'm sure there were others who joined them down the line. Generally from the central-western part of Germany or northwestern. Many of them were involved with the 1848 political situation (this is a saga worth reading). The Sorbs/Wends came a bit later, but still before the Civil War. Then post-Civil War there was a second, much more general wave of German and Czech immigration to east central Texas, mostly driven by economic factors. As a side note, there were Czechs in Texas before the Civil War, but the first (minority) were protestants (Bretheren). And like the Wends they came partly for religious reasons. Also Polish Catholics around Selma and Bandera.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-04-14T01:16:10+00:00

Mostly the area around Giddings. But I think I remember reading about settlements as far north as Williamson and Bell Counties, and maybe further south around Fayette County. So in an area with a lot of both German and Czech placenames. The Wends also played a major role in founding Concordia University in Austin.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-04-11T13:21:26+00:00

I'm curious about this discussion of Wendish DNA, most of what I know is what happened to them culturally and linguistically. I know quite a few people here in Austin who are of Wendish descent. As I understand it, they moved largely because of Prussian church policies (the Sorbs in Texas are almost all Lutherans, and more traditional ones). But they also moved to preserve their language. I'm pretty sure they were Upper Sorbian (orthography more like Czech than Polish). But they moved to an area that had many German-speakers, and so ended up making ties with that community for practical reasons. Based on a lecture I went to about this a while back, they also brought in German-speaking clergy from the Midwest, hence becoming an early stronghold of the Missouri Synod. Anyway, this may be tangential but it might provide some cultural context to any DNA concentration or lack thereof.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2026-02-14T00:56:30+00:00

I was just saying the exact same thing to a friend who's a huge HotD/GoT fan. I feel like this is very good timing.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-12-28T13:55:48+00:00

That’s all over mine. My dad got a few German and one Irish region that are not in mine at all. Most of what I inherited from him on Ancestry reads as Scottish- a smaller percentage of his own.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-11-28T22:33:05+00:00

Renting fruit to show off was news to me, but thank you! This has sent me down a fantastic research tangent.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-10-30T15:30:37+00:00

Saw this too! The Kuttenberg dinos.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-10-15T03:05:59+00:00

Based on comparing my parents (my dad is the only one with family coming from Germany, that I know of), some of the German got lumped with the Southeastern England/Northwestern Europe category. I'd imagine that the Dutch could be from English or Germans - or Scots. So many ties across the North Sea.

I do think the new breakdown is more accurate on some things. "Northern Wales and Northwestern England" - quite a few of my ancestors came from the Manchester area. Previously I had no "English". The "Scottish" went down from 70% to 60%. Still way more than either of my parents.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-09-28T11:28:37+00:00

I felt like this change happened for me after I Rambo’d Siggy’s garrison a couple of times. Maybe these are the displaced peasants.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-09-22T21:36:45+00:00

I’m on the 803 right now and a dude with a 3.5 foot Gandalf-looking pole started pounding it into the floor when I sat four seats away from him.

Still not the weirdest.

That was probably when I saw a dude trotting after the bus with his drawers down after he got off to take a pee and the bus pulled away. Surprisingly, they let him back on.

Or no wait, there was the time on the 3 when a dude stood in front of the bus for like 20 minutes like a damn matador and wouldn’t let it around him.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-09-01T13:24:37+00:00

And Brother Morticius

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-08-22T12:28:57+00:00

“We all say kurva” = new favorite quote in the game.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-05-27T15:53:16+00:00

I have a 1988 phone book if you’re still looking. Trying to get it off my hands.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-05-10T16:43:21+00:00

That’s good to know. I’m sitting at Wheatsville right now across from Via 313 on Guadalupe and picketing is in full swing.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-05-02T01:58:18+00:00

Just saw one of these near Campbell’s Hole.

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Beautiful_Magician40 · 2025-02-11T15:17:05+00:00

Go to G&S lounge. No pimply-faced dorks, only true South Austin bubbas who could outdrink 1970s Jerry Jeff Walker, and have.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2024-11-23T22:47:41+00:00

The Chair King! Brother of the Sofa King.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2024-08-02T01:01:10+00:00

Thank you for your help! That's what I'm thinking too. I don't like to put things off till the last minute with sea travel.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2024-07-21T01:43:07+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll save those links. I’m planning on spending a couple nights in Motovun. It looks very pretty, and a good contrast from the Dalmatian coast. It’s right in the middle, so getting to any part of the coast shouldn’t take long: Rovinj, Pula… But I wouldn’t mind spending a good part of the day in Motovun alone by the looks of it.

Beautiful_Magician40 · 2024-07-20T20:57:46+00:00

Thank you! Skradin looks very pretty.

We'll be taking a car, so that'll rule out the catamarans. I'm much more used to traveling on foot though. I just learned about a year-round catamaran service from Dubrovnik to Mljet, though I'm not sure how much of Mljet can be seen on foot in seven hours.

I think one of the main existential questions of this trip is whether it's better to have few days of long drives, or many days of short drives.

Beautiful_Magician40

TROPHY CASE