April 30-May 4

Thursday



On April 30 Czechs have a burning of the witches in hope of bringing warmer weather. Several witch burning parties were held around Prague. I went to one festival near my dorm that had a big stage with live music and several bonfires going on. People cooked hot dogs and played instruments around some of the fires. It was a lot of fun to see all the locals. This was definitely not a tourist event since it was held outside the downtown area and not advertised in English anywhere. Sometimes it pays to be a local. : )



















Friday

Another Czech tradition is to kiss under a cherry tree on May 1st. This is supposed to bring good luck and fertility in the next year. I came across random cherry trees walking down the street for people to take pictures with....interesting Czechs.






I visited the Totalitarian Circus. This is a traveling project about communism. This picture shows the giant time line on display.









This was some sort of performance part of the event. I really wish i understood Czech so I knew what was going on. These 4 people were constantly changing clothes and dancing/running around to music. I'm not really sure what was going on because I didn't understand the commentary between each costume change however it was very interesting.





Saturday

On Saturday I went to Pilsen, Czech Republic to celebrate the cities Liberation Day. Since American troops liberated the city this day is all about LOVING America.



American flags EVERYWHERE

Literally every lamp post had a Czech and American flag.






Gals at the festival!













Pilsen is home to the beef factory! Had to have a pic in front of the giant Pilsner.















We climbed the bell tower of the church! Amazing view.








Sunday

We had a picnic in a nice quiet park near our dorm.













It was great until a dog came. Dogs are allowed everywhere in the Czech Republic, restaurants, stores ect. They are shockingly behaved, never bark and rarely on leashes. We were kind of suprised to see this dog invaded our picnic repeatedly to see what was going on. We brainstormed words to yell at him in Czech to get him to leave...semi successful for only a short time. We were very annoyed to find his owner sleeping around the corner behind some trees.

Sunday evening I went out to dinner at this place called The Globe. It is AMAZING. I didn't take any pictures but I'm definitly going to go back. This place is a bookshop/coffee house/bar type deal. It's unique and pretty. On Sunday nights they play a movie on a project screen. Since it is owned by former Americans the movies are in English and the food has a strong American influence. If I had found this place sooner I might have gone there like everyday....

Oh what an amazing weekend in the Czech Republic!