First Wednesday of the Month

The view of the river from where I'm currently staying.

At noon today, the first Wednesday of the month, class was interrupted as words came out of a loudspeaker that must have been close by... because a moment later when a siren started that lasted over two minutes, class was temporarily stopped because we couldn't hear each other.  After the siren there were more Czech words and then we could continue.

I think a lot of the class were rather confused, but then I realised what was happening - something I've heard about before but never heard myself.  On the first Wednesday of each month at noon there is a test of the air raid sirens across the Czech Republic.  I guess that before I've either not been around the first Wednesday of the month or I've been away from towns.  

I don't know how often they are actually used apart from being tested - from a brief google search someone remembers them being used when the floodwaters broke the banks of the river shown above in Prague in 2002.

My teacher commented that he remembered the Cold War and them being used a lot more.

Just something else I'm sure I'll get used to!