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!