Christmas in the Czech Mountains

To be honest, I (It's Heidi this time) was not looking forward to Christmas this year - being away from home and all - and had it not been for Mirka, a dear colleague of mine, I probably would've celebrated it as Scrooge did prior to his ghostly visitors. But Mirka reminded me that the girls needed the celebration - that I needed it too. So Mark and I went out and bought our own tree for the apartment, and I have to admit - it transformed my spirit. With a few colored lights and some candles, our stark white apartment actually felt a bit warm and cozy. Here's the final result - again.

What's more, Mirka invited us to go skiing in the Czech mountains over Christmas with her family. They had found very affordable accommodations and as we had no other plans, we accepted! That decision was probably the wisest one we've made here because not only did we get to ski (or learn to ski in my case), we were able to celebrate Christmas the Czech way, which the pictures below will describe.

I'll start with the skiing.

Day 1 - the 3 beginners. We sure look like we know what we're doing!

Mark spent most of this day instructing the girls - Mariana quickly learned to steer herself down the beginner's hill so that by the 3rd day, she was on top of the mountain - enjoying the tea and the view!




Day 1 - Elise: well - she's light and eager and quickly learned to snowplow all the way down the hill - no steering for her! She learned that on day 2. By day 3 - She was navigating the lift by herself, flying down the hill, and even taking on the one jump! She'd ski down the hill 2 1/2 times to my one - no fear, this one!


Me? Well - I had the camera most of the time and have no pictures of me skiing - probably a good thing as most of them would be of me laying strangely on the hill, trying to pick myself back up again with skis in line. I got better each day and by day 3, I was able to make it down the hill without falling and with some respectable speed! But I'm not sure I can stop yet - I can get myself into the line for the lift, though - a major feat, I might add! - oh yes - that's the bunny hill I'm talking about - no mountain for me yet! That's for the next ski trip! Here's the hill from the top:

Oh look - I found a picture of me trying to get to the lift on day 2! I cheated and put my skis on right there - no snow plowing into that line just yet.
And here's the experienced one - on top of the mountain enjoying the
grog (tea with rum and lemon) and at the bottom, in need of another grog to warm up!

And now for our host family - Mirka, Jiri (George) and Jiri - their oldest son
Our meeting point at the bottom of both the mountain and the hill - with Bara too - she's also 7 and also learned to ski as Elise did - no fear that one either!
And Andrew, the younger son - right after he flew into me and lost a ski in the process!
This was Christmas Day - skiing in the Czech Mountains!

And now for the celebration of Christmas, Czech style.

Everyone has a favorite Christmas show - our family's favorite is "A Christmas Story" - which we brought with us and enjoyed. My personal favorite is "A Charlie Brown Christmas". I identify with Charlie Brown's search for the true spirit of Christmas amidst the big budget commercialism that seems to have sabotaged Christmas. But every time Linus quotes the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2, I am reminded of the quiet, beautiful truth of Christmas, which is perfectly symbolized in Charlie Brown's christmas tree. Well, we had that tree this year with Mirka and her beautiful family; and in the end, we experienced the rich yet simple truth of love and friendship.

Here's the tree in its humblest form

Pine branches taken from the side of the road were transformed into a lovely, sparkling Christmas tree, made all the better because everyone contributed to the process, albeit Mirka's artistic eye and her husband George's craftsmanship guided the transformation.

Andrew decorates and George stabilizes the tree.

Mariana and Elise decorate.

We realize now that we didn't get one final picture of the tree with all of it's lights and decorations. But here's the closest one, with Mirka's three children - George, Andrew, and Bara.

Christmas in the Czech Republic seems to be a sacred celebration. Traditionally, Christmas occurs on the 24th, when the tree is decorated and Baby Jesus brings gifts. With few exceptions, Christmas dinner is fish soup, fried carp with potato salad and cookies for desert. The cookies here are works of art - there are sometimes 15 - 20 different varieties and most of them are small, so you can eat lots! Gifts are chosen carefully and are very personal in nature. After gifts are exchanged, everyone watches the year's new fairy tale - old fairy tales play here the whole week and seem to be a highlight of the whole season. Many of these movies have become cultural icons, and, like our own favorite Christmas shows, are essential to the celebration of Christmas. Since we were in the Czech mountains in a cottage without a kitchen, we ate our Christmas dinner at the local hotel/pub
Fried carp and potato salad would have to be cooked back in Mor. Budejovice on the weekend!
After dinner here, we put up the tree, and then went outside to enjoy the mountain air and to allow baby Jesus to deliver gifts. The girls went sledding and we illuminated the night with sparklers and 3 fireworks.

Words are not capturing this night - maybe it was the quiet mountain setting, or maybe it was watching Mirka's family celebrate the holiday together: but I have never before celebrated the holiday with such awe. Christmas here is a simple, intimate affair. It is celebrated collectively and traditionally, which is certainly how we honor Christmas in the US. But here - well, they don't seem to get so lost in the mad dog commercialism that plagues Charlie Brown. Christmas here seems much simpler and quieter and is all about spending time with the ones you most love - talking, eating, drinking, laughing, playing games, and watching fairy tales together. In fact, the whole country seems to be closed from noon on the 24th until the 27th. The 25th and 26th are holidays as well - days designed for you to visit family and friends and to share in the season together.

In our mountain cottage on the 24th, we too celebrated with friends - eating, drinking, playing games, and watching fairy tales.
I love my own holiday traditions and I dearly missed being home for Christmas, but the Czechs seem to keep Christmas so beautifully and with such a generosity of spirit. I know that I'm seeing these Czech traditions as an outsider, and that my perspective may be slightly askance. But Mirka and her dear family showed us such kindness and were so gracious to let us share in their holiday, that the memory of this Czech Christmas will always be one of love and friendship.
Vesele Vanoce! Merry Christmas!

Yule Time blog

Vesele Vanoce!

( Merry Christmas)

Ok, a lil late. But then the holidays are a busy time. This pic above is brought to you by Mari. We went to Vienna a few weeks ago to see the Christmas market. It's quite famous and it seems that every small city tries to cash in on the idea. Basically the market consists of small wooden shacks all decked out selling their various wares. The picture above is one that was selling Christmas ornaments, as you can see. But others sell mulled wine, orange rum, spiced apple cider. What is obvious is that everyone in town shows up. Here is my recommendation. Go Monday morning... avoid the crowds.

Above is Vienna's city hall, or Rathaus. This is the main stay

of the Christmas Market. If you like lots of people, meandering aimlessly as without sense, then this place is for you.

Here is our tree. 200 Crowns or 12 bucks. Not bad.

see finishied product below

oh, very Christmasy. don't the sparkling lights bespeak the correct sentiment? ...and presents to boot, most of which are from America.

But I get ahead of myself. After Vienna we went to Prague for a night of Fulbright entertainment... and a chance to see Prague at Christmas.

Above: rendering of Prague from the artistic eye of Mari.

I must say, this is much better without the flash... but alas, we must give what we have. This picture above is taken in Prague's old town square, which even when it's not Christmas is beautiful. There was a Christmas market here as well... and many pork vendors... some pictures which were displayed in the last blog entry.

ok, I'm not working very chronologically here. We all need to go back in time... before Christmas, before all that you see above. We need to imagine that we have been transported back to December 5th... because in the Czech Republic on Dec. 5th it's...

Cert a
S. Mikulas!
literally: Devil and St Nicholas day.

See, that's St. Mikulas, (St. Nicholas). He's in white. Note, the devil is pictured holding the beer. No silly, not Frank... yes, he has a beer too and really may be the devil. I'm talking about the guy dressed up with horns. You see, because we know Frank (pictured in the middle in the hunter's cap) we get to go behind the scenes where the devils and Mikolas have a drink together. I knew they were in cahoots!! It's a sham, I tells ya!

Let me back up some more. On December the 5th, St Mikulas comes with an Angel and a Devil and visits all the children to see if they've been good. If they've been good they get some presents... I think...candy and an orange or a kiwi. If they've been bad they get a potato or are possibly carried away by a devil.

In this case, they actually came to our house. Guess word got out about Elise.
For some strange reason I felt like I should be giving them candy.


Below: A Mikulas celebration in Nova Syrovice's town hall.

There he is, St. Mikulas. Look, Santa leading a conga line! Don't ask me. Maybe it's a Czech tradition... but it sure looks like a conga line to me.

Who can refuse a conga line.... even the devils are sorely tempted.

Doesn't matter, we cheer all the same from the side lines
Oh, btw, as was asserted in a comment by Tracy... regarding my getting tired of beer. My response: I'm learning to adapt. When the stuff is on tap, it's pretty tasty.

Hey, look who got busted! Potatoes for you, girly!

Hmmmm, Devilin must be hungry work. Damn miscreants - they give in to all their desires.


Ok, this mishmash blog entry has seen its fill, as have I. But I leave you this interesting weather tidbit. (Martha, pay attention, I know weather talk fascinates you.)

We have had an amazing amount of fog here. I would say realistically that perhaps half of December has been fog. We are at a higher elevation, so perhaps this is a factor. But as it's turned colder, this below is the result.

It's not snow, but a continual cold mist that ends up coating the trees. Even as I write now, the 27th of December, we have this fog. We really haven't had any snow to speak of... but we've had this fog for over a week now. It adds up. Imagine having a night of a hard frost and how it looks in the morning before the sun comes up and melts it. Now imagine a hard frost with no sun for a week and a half, and no sun melting it. This is what you get.

Notice the ice cleaving to one side.
This is caused by the wind direction of the mist moving through the area... and it just keeps building on the windward side of the branches. This all made me think about people who buy flocked christmas trees. Here they have no idea what that is in terms of purchasing one. Everything gets flocked here.

Next up - Christmas in the Czech mountains!

Wild Boar Hunt: Czech porkedosis

Yep. It's true. I went on a wild boar hunt. Sounds pretty cool, eh? Well, it always does. Well, I'm no Odysseus; I didn't have a spear and have to plant my weapon in the face of a charging boar. No, it wasn't quite like that. It was, however, a hunting party, where the hope of the group was to shoot wild boars, or at least wild pigs. The pictures below are actually of two hunting excursions, one which I got to go on and the other I came late to but made the party. I will show the pictures and explain as needed.

There it is... that's a wild boar.

He's not alive, of course, so for the squimish, you may want to sit this one out and try to forget where your meat products come from.... just look at these next pictures and realize, that while you might not see this side, the above makes the next three pictures possible.

MMMMM. no it's not the party after the hunt; this is just pure gratuitous pork. These next few are for Darin, Chris, Ryan and Jason. Pictured above is Old Prague Ham. New, old, it was real good.

Nice!

Now back to the hunt. There is some question just who shot the boar. See each claimant below and judge for yourself who the real hunter is.

hmm. There are four here. That's already confusing. But yes, when these guys all see a wild pig, it's just possible they get trigger happy.

Only one claimant here. And it's Heidi... and she clearly has that look of victory. Besides, she has a gun and those chumps above don't have squat. It's clear then who mastered this game.

"Wait Heidi! Don't shoot! Its already dead!"

Heidi says it was looking at her funny. She has a gun. I'm not going to argue.

Ok, back to the beginning. There is a bit of protocol here. The local men have a hunting club in the Village of Nove Syrovice. I guess it's fairly common for many villages. Below is the hunting lodge; we arrived around 8:30 in the morning.

Here is a picture of it inside before many arrived.

Someone is stoking the fire in a small wood/coal stove.

Between 8:30 and 9 everyone starts to wander in. It is customary to greet and shake everyone's hand in the room when they arrive. Tea and coffee only, no drinking yet. Alcohol and firearms, not a good idea before the hunt.

At 9 sharp they all gather out in front of the lodge.

That's a lot of hunters.

"Stara Myslivecka"
The old hunter blows his horn
...and they all line up.

The hats come off, announcements are made - I suppose some directions like, no shooting each other, important stuff like that.

Then we all, or most of us, pile into this wagon and are taken somewhere, not sure as there aren't any windows, and we pile out and the hunt starts.

And then we all go out and they kill lots of things like wild boar, hare and foxes. I won't bore you with any more of that stuff.

Now that the hunt is done it's back to the Lodge. Time to eat and drink.

Anything look odd in the picture? Heidi with 40 men. Frank said that Heidi should come, that lots of guests would come and there would be other women. ...perhaps something was lost in translation... but that is how it sounded. No one seemed to mind.

Dumplings, sourkraut and some stewed deer and boar meat.

Frank puts Mark to work. I poured...countless trays, and Frank served. That green stuff is peppermint. oye vey. But he and most of them were very insistent on having it. I was always happy to see a bottle finished. But they always brought out a new one from somewhere.

But there were several kinds to choose from. Yes, that's peach. It wasn't really popular

Just so we're clear, I'm no freeloader.

Mark gets put to work again. Some notion of having a guest, eh? Funny, they didn't ask Heidi.
Behind me is the cook. He's a good man.

There is Mark working and Frank telling me that he really doesn't care for cleaning. Frank is feeling no pain. That's a stogy in his pie hole. I started calling him Clint Eastwood.

Ah, Stara Myslivecka, tooting his horn again.

Well, perhaps this doesn't seem as exciting from your vantage point. From here it has been one of my favorite experiences. I don't think this will easily be duplicated, unless I move to Nove Syrovice.

My thanks to Frank who has really made a place for us here.