February 2008   Tynec, Village Firemans Ball...

This was a great weekend we had.  We left on Saturday at mid day for Tynec to visit Klara and Honza and the rest out there in Tynec nad Sazavu.  The main reason we went this weekend was for the Annual Firemans Ball which was a swild event held in an old Cinema theatre.  I would guess there were about two hundred people there maybe a few more, some young, some old and everyone wearing there best outfits.  There is a raffle that you can buy tickets for, which we did, three tickets for about three dollars, and the prizes are pretty interesting.  Probably one hundred prizes in total.  Ranging from new bike, to can of pickels, to salamis, to old paintings, to trash cans to a large mirror I remember seeing.  It seemed like someone cleaned out their garage and put all the stuff on the stage for the raffle, I liked it.  Everyone we met there was really nice, and quite a few people spoke some great English so that made it easy for me to enjoy myself even more.  Unfortunately I was not able to get any close ups of some of the village hair styles as I would have liked, but let me tell you the old fashioned mullets might be a Czech thing not an American one.

ball picture

Heading to Tynec from the Budevice bus terminal in Prague

Takhle Adam vypadal lehce před druhou hodinou ráno :-)

We Met Clara and Honza, and here is little Honziek

to the right is tatarski biftek, which is raw meat ground up with some spices and lots of garlic.  you rub garlic clove on the toasted bread then spread the meat in the back.  Sounds nasty, but really tasty appetizer Czech style.

Klara and Honza from Tynec.  This is a photo from the ball.

village band playing on stage at the old cinema for everyone

the ball in full swing, villagers with mullets are dancing away

Hard to make out below, but to the right are all the prizes for the "tombola" or raffle with prizes.  Prizes ranging from a bike to salamis, to trash cans to a pigs head... some strange things indeed.

Some friendly villagers...

The guy below is a local police officer... enjoying the ball.

Sazavou River there in Tynec, morning after ball

Old Jawa motorcycle factory in Tynec, pretty sure nobody is working there anymore...