Pigtails and red ribbons

Again, another bizzare day in the Czech Republic. Some days I wonder if it could get weirder and then I am again dumbfounded.

I start in sequential order because its logical and I feel I need logic right now in my world of randomness.

I took the train to Pilzen which is about 1.5 hrs outside of Prague. One of my fellow teachers grew up there and was home for a short time visiting her mom. Monika (my friend), met me inside the train station that looked like it hadn't been updated since 1948. Thank you communism.

Pilzen is the home to famous brewery, Pislner Urquell. As I have been to many brewerys in my life, I didn't need to see another. =)

We went out into the little city and went right up to Amerika street. Yes, that is what you are thinking. A street soley named after the good ole' USofA. Why? Well, let me tell you a little story. In 1939 Germany invaded and occupied the poor ole' CR till May 1945 when American troops that came from Normandy and Italy, liberated Pilzen. The American troops didn't go into Prague because... I'm not sure why acutally... but their other allies, Russia, liberated Prague.

Anyhoo, they named a street after us and put up 2 monuments. One is in Czech and the other is in English. It literally says "Thank you America for liberating us!" with the dates etc. Obviously after the new reigme set in in 1948 (communism). The monuments were taken down and the street was renamed. Monkia told me that in the schools, she and the other students were taught about how they were liberated. They would talk about the Russians and yah... there were a few Americans... but the Russians!

Never trust your govt! Commies or not!

After Monika thanked me for liberating her, we went and saw the Jewish synagoge. Its the 3rd largest in the world and its a miracle it lasted to this day.

Then we did some shopping where I found some good treats including a Czech paradoy of Harry Potter called Barry Trotter. bahahaha.

We ate lunch inbetween there as well at a Monika's fave veggie spot.

Then we ventured to a tea room. There we sat on pillows on the floor under a picture of the Dali Lama with the very low lights. We drank tea, chatted and relaxed.

Lastly Monkia said there might be something cool to see at one of the gallerys in the town. This is where it gets very entertaining and the title of my post.

We walked to this gallery and it happened to be the opening night for a couple new artists. Cool beans, we got in for free and got free wine. Perfect. As we were walking into the door, we noticed a line of white powder outside. Odd.

We went in and realized we were among some different people. It looked like all of these people had been doing acid since the 60's and perhaps thought it might still be the 60's. Whatever, we grabbed some wine and wandered around. Some of the art was really cool then we realized we were going to get a free show. Among the people Monika and I noticed a specific character. There was a man standing around that was wearing a pretty blue skirt without shoes, a shawl over a shirt, and best of all his hair was put in pigtails and tied with red ribbons.

This is a true story. I am not one to judge a person but this man def struck my eye and made me look twice.

Of course there were many questions raised and many more before we left.

The man in question moved towards the center of the gallery. He had three bags of salt in his arm. He proceded to open the first bag and shake it into a circle around him. He did this with all three bags. Thats when the throat singing started. Throat singing is a terrible noise 2 me. Its a noise made from your throat and without words. Its what you think of Buddhist monks and the noise you might associate with them.

So picture this we are standing there, wine in hand, watching this man dressed as a woman in a bohemia gypsy way pour salt around him while making noises from his throat. THEN he pulls out glass test tubes and puts them around the edge of the circle in the salt. He then moves from his salt circle and goes to the corner. He pulls out a big seashell with a hole on one end. He blows into the shell and it sounds like a fog horn. He did this 4 times in each direction, N, S, E, W. At this point Monika and I are laughing out loud and taking pictures. I mean, COME ON.

Then he picks up his violin. He starts playing and singing in Czech. Monkia translates it to basically he talking about the salt and throw it between his eyes. As hes singing and dancing around he starts dancing on the glass test tubes! Mind you he is barefoot and breaking them. Then he stops and basically walks away leaving the room clapping and my mouth wide open.

Then he came back and started talking to people again. He didn't even have a cut on his feet. This according to some people in the crowd is because he is a shaman.

We decided at this point it would be a good time to leave because nothing else that we could see would top that. I took the train back to Prague and this is where I leave you.

The Czech Republic is weird.