Quite A Grand Adventure: Masopust

This past Saturday, we ventured out to an annual celebration known as "Masopust." It's a Czech carnival that takes place in various cities, including Prague and our very dear Český Krumlov. We took the train to Raztoky and wandered around a small complex (for free!) for an hour or two, eating delicious food (not free), drinking beer (also not free), and taking in the sights - costumes, make up, masks, etc.

"Masopust" literally translates to "meat fast." While historically it has been related to various pagan - and then later, Christian - festivities, it symbolically serves as a celebration to say goodbye to winter and hello to the warmer seasons.

But really it's just a time for everyone to dress up and be noisy and eat good cheap food and drink good cheap beer and watch various performers - we mostly saw dancers and jugglers.

That's about it. Considering our round-trip train ticket was $1 and lunch/dessert was $3.50, I'd say it was an afternoon well spent. It was definitely an experience I don't expect to ever be able to duplicate.

Here's a guy on stilts. There were a lot of them.
This particular one was working with three other guys, running (hobbling) around
the crowd and proposing to girls.
I don't think he was ever successful.
Poor stilted man.