A sugarplum dream

The holiday season is in full swing here in Prague. The city is completely decked out for the holidays and looks like a sugarplum dream. The "vanoce trhy" (Czech Christmas markets) are up in Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square and Andel. Vendors are hawking ornaments, decorated gingerbread (which is incredible), crafts, toys, hot wine and roasted chestnuts. I finally get to see the legendary holiday morsels really DO exist and weren't just made up for the carol. It'd be nice to say that Europeans are somehow less commercial about the holiday than Americans, but sadly, that's not true.

As is the case in many European cities, St. Nicholas gets his own special day here, instead of being carelessly drafted into the Christmas holiday like in the U.S. That's next Tuesday evening.

Speaking of sugarplums, the first meeting of my gay Prague ex-pats' group is this coming Friday evening. So, I've gotten about 5 responses -- guys from the U.S., Spain, Britian and the Czech Republic! We'll see how it goes!

In the meantime, enjoy some photos:

Old Town Square:




And Vysehrad: