Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tabor

We attended the annual Tabor Meeting on Saturday.  Imagine the Renaissance Festival except, instead of constructing a facsimile of a medieval city, you just close downtown off to car traffic for a few days.  Throw in a little Pola-Cesky Days and you have the Tabor Meeting.

Tabor was founded by Hussites in 1420.  It rivals Cesky Krumlov as the coolest medieval city out there.  Some of the city walls have been preserved and it has these incredibly narrow streets to make it difficult for an invading army to reach the main square.  By the way, it is also a recreational mecca and will be the site of the 2010 Cyclo-Cross World Championships.

After a whiny train ride to Tabor (this is getting to be a theme), we split up.  Kristine and Caleb went to listen to medieval music while Lucy, Silas and I went to see firetrucks.  Silas got to climb on a big ladder truck.

On one of the squares, we bought Silas a sword and shield.  This was our best move of the day because it kept him occupied a lot of the time.  He entertained a lot of people with his solo displays of swordplay and even got into it with a couple of other kids at one point.  It also made him popular with the ladies. 

From Tabor Meeting

We ate pork and listened to polka music on the main square at lunch.  Our web album has a video with one of the songs.


Side note...the Lions Club had a stand and people out on the streets selling candy to raise money.  I include this because my Dad is a Lion and I'm proud of the humanitarian work he has done with this organization.

From Tabor Meeting

Then, off to the children's area with Lucy and Silas (Kristine and Caleb were off to look around again.  Silas got to ride a horse, play on a neat playground, and shoot a crossbow.  Lucy meanwhile got to push the stroller on field stone walks.  It was probably not the most fun for Lucy.  She did get to shoot a bow though.


We met up and went to watch the Italian archers.  They had big longbows.  They asked if anyone wanted to try.  Caleb and I got in line.  That was dumb.  You see visitors should be aware that queuing norms are different here than in the US (and Minnesota in particular).  People butt in line without so much as an Ave Maria to save their souls.  So, the line quickly disintegrated to the most "sin verguenza" (Spanish term for "without shame") element getting in front of us.  Caleb and I were finally next in "line" when they decided to call it quits.

At least we got excellent seats for the equestrian tournament.  We were on the opposite shore of a small stream from the field.  It was gorgeous.  The storyline was that four sons of the head of the House of Rozmberk were participating.  Our section of the viewing area was rooting for the blue rose guy.  It turns out that a fifth, illegitimate son showed up.  He was mocked and beaten by the others. They lanced rings, sliced melons with swords, grasped a chalice, and finally jousted with their mocking father (who beat them all).  When he went to mess with the illegitimate son, though, he met his match and was unhorsed.  He went on to knight the son and give him his own horse. 

From Tabor Meeting
After this Kristine, Lucy, and Silas went back to Ceske Budejovice, while Caleb and I stayed to have some real fun.  We walked from the bottom of the valley to the old city on top of the hill only to realize that our destination was our origin.  We trudged back town.  We were hungry (6:00 p.m. now) and were on the hunt for smoked pork knuckles.  We didn't see it on the sign at the grill so we went into the tavern, it was a really neat, dark (lighted by hearth fire and lantern), crowded place.  After looking around, we asked where the find the knuckles.  They directed us back to the grill.

Things started to go downhill quickly now.  We were woozy from hunger and in a long slow line.  They had these big grills, but didn't load them up with food.  In fact they sometimes didn't have more than one of their three menu items on at a time.  Then there was the butting.  Cursed by the butters.  It didn't help when the server asked who in line wants sausage (Caleb wanted pork steak) and a bunch of people went ahead.  As we got to be second in line and the guy in front of us had not jumped on getting any of the sausage earlier and there were only two steaks even started - I was smart and asked for "whatever is fast."  She repeated "fast."  So I was sure we had an understanding.  She said sausage would be ready soon, so Caleb and I stood there eating the slice of bread that came with it.  Then she asked the crowd, "Anyone want a steak?"  She handed a steak to a woman behind us in line.  There was still one steak on, I told Caleb I'd get it for him.  When she brought our sausage, I asked to get the steak too.  She said okay, and put our sausages on two plates instead of one.

We stood there dazed for a moment, then bit into our sausages.  Our still cold sausages.  Our, I hope these are precooked sausages.

After eating the sausage, I went to get pop.  My turn came up, I'll take two 7 UPs.  What size?  How much for the 2 liter?  Well, it's 7 crowns for a deciliter, so 140 crowns (about $8).  Well, I wasn't sure how many deciliters I wanted, but I did know that I would not be standing in line again so I bought the whole bottle.  We both got stomach aches and narrowly avoided an accident on the train, but I did not stand in line anymore.

Well, we watched some of the programs, but they were sort of Puke and Snot like, funny - if you understand what they are saying.

We walked back up to the old city commenting on how all day as I put Silas on horses or watched him shoot the crossbow or swing his sword, I kept thinking that this will really be fun once we don't have to be chasing a toddler around.  Then, free, we found ourselves a little bored.  So we took the train home two hours earlier than we had planned.

Peter

1 Comentário:

Wes said...

Silas has always been the chick magnet! ;)

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