Ok, first of all, please accept my apologies for the delay of this review, (Christmas review in March???) Any way, I would like to take this opportunity to explain a little (that I learned) about the Czech Christmas and then how this played a part in my Festive Celebrations....
If you asked an English child what, or more importantly, who they associated with Christmas, I think we would all agree the answer is more than likely to be Santa Claus, Father Christmas etc. However, ask a Czech child and the answer will not only be very different, it will also be the one you would expect to hear about the festive season. Jesus Christ or Baby Jesus. (Czech Pronunciation to be added)
In Czech it is believed that Baby Jesus will deliver the presents under a Christmas tree and then the children of the family will distribute these presents. (Not too dis-similar to English so far....) The chain of events leading upto this and the Christmas meal, however, are somewhat different.
Christmas lunch is bought or caught and kept alive in the householdbath tub, around 22nd - 23rd December. Depending upon when you "obtained" your "lunch" then usually it would be killed around the 23rd or even the morning of the 24th. Keeping it alive for too long would mean the meat would not be as good as it would start to die. What is it? Well, read on to find out more..
The tree is decorated by the children (in our case, I assisted my girlfriend) and this was done 24th December. (a.m.) Then we had Christmas lunch (yes on the 24th) Nothing too filling like the vegetables and puddings and stuffing and TURKEY you have in England (despite Turkey for Christmas Lunch coming from America), instead we had Carp. (Hence keeping it alive in the bathtub.) First of all is the fish soup, which tasted absolutely fantastic and personally, having never tasted this sort of thing before, I was more than pleasantly surprised! This was then followed by Fried Fish Fillets, now if you wanted to add anything else at this point, you were more than able to do so, however, it was my first tradditional Czech Christmas so I certainly
wasn't going to change anything.... This was served with Potato Salad, granted this does sound a little strange to the English, however, I am open minded and I did try it, tell you something else as well, I didn't enjoy it, I LOVED IT!!! I am guessing some of you may be thinking this does not sound that appetising, hey, don't knock it until you have tried it!!! Dessert was just as appetising, we had home made cakes, not just one or two but several different kinds, the kind of cakes your grandparents used to make for you when you were a child and you would clean the bowl afterward, with your tongue!!! Delish!!!
Now, all this sounds to be very straight forward and if I am to be truthful, which of course I am, IT IS!!! What else is there to this day? Well, this is just the start of it. We now have a few hours to relax, watch TV, (I couldn't understand any of it but I was introduced to a show I will mention a little later, just remind me of the intitals P&M). We went for a walk around the village and to be honest, where I was there for New Year the year before, (as well as a few times since) it was still so very different. Whilst there was not the snow this time, there were beautiful green fields, ok so we have them in the UK and to be honest, The Lake District does boast some splendid foliage, however, I had never before seen THREE Deer running in the wild until this day, any how, back to the plot. We relaxed and drank lager, (with every meal it's offered, however, due to the occassion there was also the option of liqueur MMMMmmmmmm. Cherry flavour, Egg (Tastes much better than it sounds....)
Soon, it was 18:00, the first few relatives arrived with their delightful offspring, who all though it was hilarious to listen to an Englishman demonstrating the sounds of our farm yard animals because although they may have the same animals, they of course do make different sounds, due to the language barrier of course. (An example as where our Rooster would call Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, do you think a Czech Rooster makes the same noise? Heck no! Theirs' call out Kick-la-Dickie (Please excuse my spelling any Czech readers)), so, as I stated, each family arrived in turn until everyone was gsthered, bearing in mind this is still Christmas Eve. Now, an alarm clock is preset and once that alarm sounds, the children are told that Baby Jesus, (as I mentioned earlier) as arrived, delivered the parcels and left again. This is the point when you have some very excited sub 10 year olds running around and asking what the labels on the presents say if they are unable to read them, then they are handed to the individuals respectively. This was highly amusing and I got a few cracking pictures whilst it was all going on. There are various nibbles and sandwhiches and cakes and alcohol on offer at this time and whilst the children are comparing toys and the boys are shooting their sisters' Baby Doll with their new Action Man gun, the adults casually sit back and relax, having a little drink, snack and chat. (I know this is starting to sound like the chaotic part, however, it's no where near as chaotic as I have just made it out to be, unless I was lucky enough to be with a well behaved family :-)
Just when you think it's all over, the call comes through, the next house is ready! We then moved onto the next door neighbours, which obviously was a family member as they do not just descend unannounced to some random house. The whole process started again.
Not once was there a screaming child, not once was there anyone who had drank or eaten too much and had the need to taste their concumption a 2nd time round as it departed their stomach, instead it was all very organised and in all, a fantastic experience to which I am so pleased to say I was a part of.
During the dispatch of the gifts in the first house, which happened to be my girlfriends' mum's house, I was given 3 DVD's by my girlfriends brother, Zdanyek. Whilst I can not understand the Czech language a great deal, who cares when the DVD's are animated and sound is not required.... The DVD's were an animated series from the early 1980's called Pat & Mat and it tells various 10 minute stories of two friends who live very close to each other who always manage to get themselves into some spot of bother around the house, the garden, with the car.... The list goes on and to be honest, I spent a few hours with Zdanyek, over the following days watching these DVD's and I was so grateful for him buying them as we were able to communicate so well through our laughter that it was almost like we could understand each other without actually speaking.
Back to Christmas Eve, Around 20:30, we received word to say the two of my girlfriends friends were coming over and we were going to go with them into the Town centre of the local town, Klatovy. The purpose was obviously to socialise, however, also to carry out a time honoured tradition of the past few years and that was to ring the bell at the top of the Black Tower at the stroke of midnight to commemorate Christmas Day and also start off the Midnight Mass in the church next door.
The pub was packed and once again, whilst I could not speak a great deal, I did learn one or two choice phrases and had a great laugh in the process. Soon enough it was time to visit The Black Tower and ring the bell, the only thing was, due to Health & Safety, only the bell ringers were allowed up the Tower, previously everyone could go up. Whilst I was given the option to take on this task and ring the bell at the top, I couldn't understand what I was been offered to do and had I gone ahead with it, my girlfriend was not able to come up with me so I would not have known when I was supposed to take my turn to ring the bell. An experience I would have loved to have, however, as it was cold, I was more than happy to make the trip into the church with everyone else. Ironic how after spending 27 years in England at Christmas, I have never attended Midnight Mass, however, my first Christmas away and I attend a service to which I can not understand and in all honesty, with no disrespect intended at all, the scene did remind me of the Mr Bean sketch with Rowan Atkinson in the church, you can hear the minister, you can see the congregation listening attentively, however, can you make any sense of what is been said? Not a chance. (This did make me laugh, however, thankfully I had not drank too much Czech Rum at this time so it was not out loud)
All this seems like quite a bit to happen in one day, well, if I am given the chance, I will definately do it again, but this was not the end of Christmas as we still had Christmas Day to go yet.
Christmas Day was a lot more low key and this was fine, although the one thing I must admit to is that I have never been 10 Pin Bowling on Christmas Day in the past.... We saw a few friends and went bowling, not like in the Uk, where you have a machine that lifts the pins and re-sets them from a rack, instead, the pins are all on strings and once the bowler as bowled, ALL the pins are hauled up into the air and those that were not knocked down are re-set by been lowered back down. (not entirely sure but think it could be magnets that keep them in place and also link up to the computer to advise which ones are to come back out.)
Unfortunately, I was not able to experience New Year in Czech this year as my boss was, how would you put it, a PAIN IN THE A*** and would not allow me the last 2 days of the month off. This said, there were not alot of shops open in the town due to the festive period so I didn't miss out anything there and even managed to get a bottle of Czech Rum to bring back :-)
In short, the flight was expensive, booked via easyJet.com and between the two of us, we did not get much change from £600.00 but it was worth it. To see my girlfriends' face with her family at Christmas and to experience a completely different way of life to my own was something money can not buy! Had I booked the flights earlier, well, maybe would have been a bit cheaper, at the end of the day, you can't take it with you and I would tell anyone to experience this even just once. Czech is in the EU and there are many Czech citizens in the UK, I am sure if you look hard enough, you will meet at least one!
Vesele Vanoce a Stastny Novy Rok! - Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
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Advantages: Cheap food, beer, lovely scenery in countryside and cities Disadvantages: Hard language to learn, some people not tolerant of non-Czech speakers
Itssteps 05.02.2001 (05.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of General: Czech Republic
Advantages: value for money, easy to get by in prague ,good for sightseeing Disadvantages: pickpockets in underground stations, some taxi drivers will overprice you
sansilver 30.07.2008 (30.07.2008)
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Review of General: Czech Republic
Advantages: Fantastic city, plenty to do and see, beer still relatively cheap Disadvantages: City is loosing some of its authencity by becoming Westernised with the likes of McDonalds popping up
Mar 10th, 2007
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