Pelhrimov: It's the journey, not the destination.

Hello folks,

I'm currently writing to you from Prague, and I promise there will be an entry in the next couple of days about my time here in this beautiful city, but it will take a lot of organization since I did take on so much stuff, so bear with me as I try and sort it all out in a logical manner that will be easy for you all to read.

In the mean time, I'd love to tell you about my recent trip to a small village outside of Prague to see my friend Marie's hometown of Pelhrimov.

There comes a point in every traveler's life where you just need to get out of the big city you're based in and breathe some fresh air. Pelhrimov was that escape route for me over the past couple of days.
I just returned this morning.

The added bonus to the fresh air and great company was the fact that there was a celebration here in the Czech Republic which roughly translates to "The night of the burning witches"

I went to Pelhrimov with Marie and two friends that we connected with through our editor from I Love Chile, Kayla.

The celebration is based on folklore.

The smoke over Tambour signifies the start of the celebration
(Photo by Avery Cropp)

According to local legends April 30 is the night of the largest congregation of witches in the world. To prevent the witches from flying over on their broomsticks and causing all kinds of trouble small towns and villages in the Czech Republic will organize huge bonfires and create an effigy of a witch to burn. The smoke allegedly prevents the witches from flying over the towns or disorients those witches that try to create chaos and keeps the residents of the town safe until the next congregation of witches.

Kids dress up as witches and parade around, parents hang out and have some fun, and us 20-somethings, we do the same.

In reality, the celebration is  an organized excuse to have huge bonfires and drink some delicious Czech beer, but I prefer the first story better. What can I say, I'm a romantic.

Though we missed the primary witch burning for a variety of reasons that involved labor day holiday traffic, a missed bus, and a wonderful father willing to pick us up in a town an hour away from his home, it was a great time.

One of the small bonfires for the celebration
(Avery Cropp)

So now that I've piqued your interest:
The last direct bus to Pelhrimov was full by the time we arrived at one of the main stations here in Prague so we opted to hop on another bus that would supposedly connect us to Pelhrimov in another town, Tambour.

Well, we got there and there wasn't a connection until much, much later, if at all; so Marie called her dad who agreed to pick us up. We walked around Tambour and ended up popping into a pub where we ordered some drinks and ended up having a nice chat in Spanish with the owner.  We ended up flagging down Marie's dad who passed our meeting spot because he didn't see us right away and all four of us squished in to a little Ford Fiesta to get to Pelhrimov.

Along the way Marie's dad treated us to trivia about all of the little towns that we passed through which was pretty interesting.

After we arrived at Pelhrimov around 10 p.m. or so,We had fun cooking sausage over the fire, being able to actually see the stars, and talking or attempting to talk with some of the locals at the party (I wish I knew Czech, it's such a pretty language). It was a great evening, and one of those things that you don't quickly forget.

 

Until Next Time,

Avery Cropp