Today started really early…6:30 a.m. early. I got up, showered and went to breakfast, a win in my book. We loaded the bus at 7:30 a.m. and headed towards the town of Vlcnov for the "Ride of the Kings". This is a traditional Czech festival that has been happening for the past 200 years!
Basically, long ago a Hungarian king fled from a Czech king dressed as a girl, veiled himself and held a rose in his mouth. Now, a young boy in the village is chosen to dress up as this king. He has quite a few other male teenagers that ride along with him, dressed in traditional clothing, that yell insults (in Czech so it was quite humorous not knowing what was being said) at men in the crowd and they expect money in return. It is all fun and games and with no hard feelings! The festival had many booths set up and men and women singing at various stages throughout the town.
My favorite part was when we stumbled on a carnival towards the back of the festival. We all acted like kids again, and we all had to ride a few rides! The funniest part was that in the Czech (and in many other places in Europe) they listen to modern day American pop music. As we were riding the rides, "Whip My Hair" blared from the carnival speakers.
After the "Ride of the Kings", we took a short bus ride over to the city of Velehrab to see a BEAUTIFUL cathedral, the first of the hundreds I suppose we will see. We didn't stay long because mass was starting, but it was still beautiful to see.
We made in back just in time to see the local professional soccer team, the Sigma Olomouc, play a game against Znojmo. Our hotel is actually located in the lower part of the stadium so we didn't have to go far. Apparently Olomouc HAD to win this game to avoid being regulated (I'm still learning my soccer lingo) and the pulled out a 2-0 win!
We ventured to a traditional Czech style restaurant tonight for dinner, and I tried goulash for the first time. It was rather tasty! After dinner a few of us came back to the hotel and sat out front and played "SPOONS" with candy. We enjoyed many laughs while basically tackling each other for our candy pieces (spoons)!
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