Karlštejn Vinobraní

So, after 3 weeks here in Prague, I finally had a great opportunity to venture out into the countryside to the town of Karlštejn, famous for its castle and burčák, a partially fermented fizzy wine. This weekend was a celebration of the wine harvest, so there were people dressed up in medieval garb, lots of burčák, sweets, jugglers, fire-eaters, dancers, jesters, knights, and camels.

I found another expat on www.expats.cz that was interested in going to the festival, so we met up yesterday at the train station and barely managed to squeeze onto the train; everyone and his brother (and his dog!) was going to this festival. I've never seen a train so packed!

We arrived at the station but I couldn't see the castle yet, which was a little disappointing, but I could see the jousting grounds (no lists though). We paid our 100 kč ($6) to enter the village and joined the throngs. We later estimated that we saw about 10,000 people there, but I haven't seen any official figures.

TONS of people were dressed up, from peasants to nobility. My fave was the group of knights who stopped at a Coca-Cola stand for some beer -- classic. Matt and I stopped for klobása (sausage/ hotdog) which came with chleb (czech bread, like rye), mustard, and horseradish. We ate with our fingers while watching the local band play Czech folk favorites, which was lots of fun. I put a small clip on the previous post. We tried burčák, which comes in two varieties: bílý (white) and a red variety which I've forgotten the name of. It was fizzy, fruity yet a little raw, and 7% alcohol. I wasn't able to finish mine.

We continued to fight our way uphill to the castle, stopping for kokos kmen (a coconut treat) and watching the local blacksmith manufacture commemorative coins for the festival. The top was a bit disappointing: too many people in a tiny space, nothing happening, and expensive beer, but great views from the battlements and the castle well, which goes down 78m (256 ft) for water.

We walked back to the bottom of the village near the gates for the parade, following the nobility, knights, jesters, pikemen, incontinent horses, and crowd back up the hill to the top where "King Charles IV" would be crowned and other events would happen. We got to the base of the castle but weren't able to get anywhere near the top. We wanted to see the jousting, so walked back down to fields near the train station, but when we found out the show was rather short and cost 200 kč ($12), we decided to skip it and go for trdelnik, pastries on rolls cooked over open flame and covered with sugar and cinnamon...yummm. At this point it was after 4pm, and we'd been there since 11.30; we hadn't sat down all day, so we were out of gas. We joined the throngs going back to Prague and were lucky enough to catch a double-decker commuter train, the CityElephant, which is new this year. Beware boarding the trains, as there is always a foot between the platform and the train!