Bohemian Rhapsody: Looking for the silhouette of a panda

I spent the next few days of my non-lethal panda hunt in the small towns of Telč, Třebíč, and Třeboň. The B&B where I slept was one of many colorful houses (the blue one to the left of the orange/red house in the photo below) that lined the central square of Telč (Telch). The town is a sleepy one of ~6,000 and while much of the income is tourism-derived, when I would get out of that main square it was like I was one among many Bohemians.

Actually, that was one of the differences with traveling in Europe vs in China. I'm sure my American apparel is obvious, but I don't stand out among the Czechs like I do in China. Either that or they're more discrete in staring.

windows of a castle

some artistic decrepitude

On Easter Sunday I visited Třebíč (Treh-beach) and got into town early for Church meetings. They watched the General Conference talks from Salt Lake the previous week, but in Czech. Unfortunately for me, I had no miraculous gift of tongues, but I was able to enjoy the milieu of ~20 Czech Mormons. After the meeting they invited me for a lunch of spaghetti at the church. Not quite an Easter ham, but the company was charming.

Třebíč is a substantially larger town (37,000) with an incredibly well-preserved Jewish Quarter with two former synagogues and a Jewish cemetery. However, all of the Jews in the area were deported during WWII and none live in the Quarter anymore. Interestingly, many of the inhabitants are Roma (often mistakenly called Gypsies), another group that has experienced marginalization and discrimination.

At one point I climbed up the tower in the main square to get a better view.

I was really surprised at how few people I saw out and about. I knew that it wasn't a tourist season (which gave me all the sites to myself) but there was surprisingly little activity of locals, considering it was a holiday. Nearly all of the markets and restaurants were closed for the holiday.

On Monday I visited Třeboň (Trey-bonne). This is another ancient town and was once run by the Habsburgs. Hundreds of years ago, some city planners had the foresight to transform the marshes into ponds for fish culture and that was the source of significant income for quite a while. There's a Soviet-era relief featuring fish above the bank near in the town square.

Like Sunday, I saw few other tourists, but the locals came out for Easter traditions!  One included tying dyed and colored eggs to trees a la Christmas ornaments.

The other tradition that initially confused me featured roaming groups of stick-wielding boys and men. Driving through small towns on my way to Třeboň, I would see three to seven boys, teens, and men walking door-to-door with baskets and switches consisting of braided pussy willows.

After conveying the observation to my sis, Bev, she came to the cultural rescue and wrote that they are pomlázkas and used in an Easter trick-or-treat. Apparently males gently rap females to impart good luck and health, and the girls give eggs, chocolate, or other treats in return and tie a ribbon to the stick. I have to say, though, that even though 95% of the faux floggers I saw consisted solely of guys, I did see one small group of intrepid girls carrying sticks and staking claim to eggs and candy.

I finished my excursion into the countryside without spotting any pandas. But I got a mouthful of spaghetti, a few colored eggs, and street after street of vibrant houses. I consider it a win.