Five-Petalled Rose Festival, Day 2

I know yesterday's post was a bit of a cop-out, so I will try to fill you in a little better about what I've done today. I'll preface my story by telling you that I'm currently sitting in Dobra Tea House (yup, the same Dobra Tea that's in Madison; it's like my home away from home) listening to a drumline that set up outside the door. Six drummers, each in matching red renaissance-era costumes, are pounding away on instruments which thunder in the narrow streets of Krumlov. It feels great to sit down, as I've spent much of the day traipsing from the Town Square to the Eggenburg Brewery Gardens to the Castle Courtyard to Široká Street and back again, trying to catch as many interesting events (and eat as many delicious things) as I can squeeze into the day. My day began at the courtyard of Český Krumlov's castle after I took a gander at the program for the day and was intrigued at the prospect of "Swordmen fights by Gral Brno." I had been disappointed yesterday at the the "Knight Training" and thus hoped the sword-fighting would quench my thirst for blood and gore... This is a Medieval Festival, after all. This leads me to a short tangent. Please hold whilst I digress:

I am living in an honest-to-God Renaissance Fair, right? So is it really too much to ask to see some honest-to-God Renaissance tomfoolery? I had visions of encountering an overweight, pompously-dressed man with a feathered hat gnawing away at a turkey leg, only to discard the bones nonchalantly by throwing them at the nearest dirty wench, but I gave up on this dream after I went to every, and I mean EVERY vendor in the city and could not find a turkey leg to save my soul. Disappointed by this, I went to "Knight training" hoping to see my other imagined norm of Renaissance life; lots of blood and gore. If I can't see a turkey-leg-eating slob, then I'd better see someone get stabbed while an onlooking maiden swoons in distress. Am I really asking too much here? So off I go toward the Eggenburg Brewery Gardens to see some knights kill each other; but alas, they were rather tame and I merely watched a few horsemen riding around, occasionally knocking off a few things here or there, but never each other's heads. Disappointing. Anyway, back to this morning...

So off I go the sword fight, hoping to see a bit more excitement. I arrived a few minutes late, and as a result, I was stuck behind several dozen of the world's tallest people. Even the dog in front of me had a better view. OK, OK, I exaggerate slightly, but I am NOT exaggerating when I say this dog was an F'ING MONSTER. His head literally came up to my bicep. Yes, yes, I realize I'm not the world's tallest kid, but when a dog's head is over 4 feet off the ground, that's just unnatural. In any case, I wiggled my way away from enormo-dog to the front, only to discover the "swordsmen" were actually a comedy troop, and the knights resembled John Cleese and Eric Idle more than Richard Harris. Although I saw no blood nor gore, not to mention the whole thing was in Czech, I was nonetheless thoroughly entertained. I then roamed around the historic market, also in the castle grounds. The vendors here sell any- and everything you could possibly imagine: handmade leather shoes and belts; pots, pans, and mugs; metalworking; more jewelery than you know what to do with; wheels of cheese as big as tractor tires; specialty salts, herbs, and spices; hemp clothes and bags; toy swords; REAL swords; miniature canons; REAL canons; woven basket; marionettes... you name it, they got it. With the exception of exotic pets imported from Indonesia (and real canons, I was joking with that one), I think this place has got you covered. After ogling the goods for a while, I wondered back to the Town Square, where a medieval singing troop entertained me as I ogled some more at all the food vendors, some (read: most) of which I visited yesterday. This time around I sampled a potato pancake of sorts, washed down with what else, a beer. You'll be proud, it was nearly 1pm by this time... much later than my pre-noon beer from yesterday.

I went back and forth from venue to venue a few more times before returning to my room for a little rest and a Skype chat with my mama and Kate. Right as I was about to wonder back out to find the "Historic Costumed Parade," I hear the distant thunder of drumming grow louder and louder. I swing open my window just in time for the parade to turn the corner of Široká Street and head STRAIGHT for me. I grabbed my camera just in time to capture the whole parade, with the best view in town. For once I wasn't the short girl jumping up and down, standing on tip-toe trying to catch a glimpse of the action. I was the girl everyone was envious of, comfortably sitting in her window with a perfect view. I'm working on putting all my video clips of the weekend into a little movie of sorts, so you'll soon see how stellar my vantage point was.

After the parade finally rolled out and with it, the throngs of people that subsequently clogged the streets in its wake, I made my way back to the Brewery Gardens for the "Tournament of Roses." Krumlov's really just like Pasadena, only instead of football players running at each other, there's horsemen in full regalia running at each other with jousting sticks. Coool.

It's a shame the tournament also didn't take place outside my bedroom window, because I was once again demoted to "short girl who can't see a damn thing" and spent the first few minutes of the tourny trying to find a good place to scope out the action. Eventually someone abandoned their spot standing atop a bench, and I quickly filled their space. From here I couldn't see everything, but I could make out the knights galloping around, gasping when everyone else gasped at a rider who was knocked from his horse, or cheering when everyone else cheered as the winning knight took his victory lap around the ring. (Hey Ryan, this is as close to real-deal jousting as it comes.) Again, hopefully I'll be able to salvage some of the footage I took here to include in the video. Toward the end of the tourny my camera died, so I returned home to recharge it, and then went to Dobra, where I am now recharging myself with a nice cuppa tea. After this I'm off to scout out a primo spot for the midnight fireworks. More later.