Just Another Saturday Night in Prague

Phil and I have to laugh at the funny things that happen to us here in Prague. I’m not sure whether it is just “city life” or that we spend a lot of time out and about and are bound to run into things that make us laugh. It could be a mixture of these things, but I really just think that it’s Prague. This city has some wacky things happening on a regular basis, and our Saturday night was just one example.

We spent most of the day doing very typical things that we do on any relaxing Saturday afternoon. I went running, Phil did some work writing and translating, we made brunch together and drank some coffee, nothing too out of the ordinary for us. Later, we stopped by Brooke and Dustin’s house and saw a few friends at their place. We decided to go to our favorite Indian restaurant, Beas, for dinner and had some excellent matar paneer. Mmmmm. Just a regular Saturday like any other. Then, a horse walked by.

On our way home, we walked by the Estates Theater and heard some sort of music playing. A minute later, a man in knight’s armor on a horse trotted by. What?? On closer investigation, there were three knights on horses that lead us to a medieval festival. There were five people playing music, something like a flute/recorder backed up by multiple string instruments. Next came the people twirling fire, eating fire, and spitting fire (one of them was no older than 12 years old.) Lastly, the band stopped and an “MC” announced a king and queen (everyone is in FULL costume) and they mounted horses and rode away. All of this was happening smack in the middle of the city with a pretty sizable crowd of people watching, drinking, and generally being amused by the whole thing. I guess what makes me laugh is that I just don’t expect to come across Medieval re-enactors when walking through the center of a city, much less at 9 pm on a Saturday night. It seems more like a “somewhere outside the city on a Sunday afternoon” kind of event. But maybe I’m just being closed minded. Medieval fun is fun anywhere, anytime. Please see the short video clip below for fire twirling accompanied by a bitchin' lute solo...

After getting back to our apartment, Prague had one more surprise for us. At around 11 pm, we heard some loud noises outside the window. To our surprise, there was a fairly impressive fireworks display visible from our window. This wasn’t just some guy on his roof setting off fireworks, oh no. This was a full on 10-15 minute display that we could see high above the rooftops. We’ve seen fireworks once before from Legii most, the closest bridge. But we had not seen them from our window. I guess I could try and figure out why they were happening last Saturday, but I don’t really want to. I’m happy to think that they were the perfect ending to an ordinary Saturday in Prague: Phil, me, a medieval festival, and fireworks.