Right now we’re experiencing temperatures of anywhere between an absolutely biting -17 °C degrees, to a ‘warm’ - 5°C, the kind of weather that takes your breath away when you open the front door, that makes your nose and cheeks numb and your teeth ache after 5 minutes. Freezing, stinging, cutting, oh it’s bitter.
Prague is really quiet, it’s actually quite lovely – no hordes of tourists jabbering away and clicking their cameras, no bustling Christmas markets (they’ve all been packed away), and no hawkers trying to sell you stuff (it's too bloomin cold to be standing around).
This is kind of weather makes the busy world slow down, freeze to an almost standstill….and that’s when I, like any other Anglo, discover what Czechs have known their whole lives….the fun of winter.
Winter means sledging and skiing.
Winter means frozen ponds and lakes, and even rivers – and people out on mass with their ice skates...
Remember those shelves of ice skates, sledges, ice hockey sticks in Tescos? Well as the mercury dropped and everyone realised that winter is finally here they’ve been rampaged, they are bare…
We ran to Tescos to make our claim on the last few pairs of ice skates and we had a go at joining in with the locals.
Every Tom, Dick and Hanka is on a pair of skates it doesn’t matter if you are young or old, and if you’re too young to walk you get pulled around on a sledge on the ice, there are go karts on the ice, people playing ice hockey everywhere, dogs running wild (inlucding ours of course),
and don’t let a sleeping baby stop you from skating around.
It sounds obvious but I even get the fatty food – bring on the lard, layer it on, the dumplings, the meat, any excuse for a cake. It’s time to pack on the blubber.
I also understand my husband more - why he wants to drag us out in -10 degrees, why he loves the mountains, and why he’s been pushing us onto a pair of skis over the last years.
It's lovely. But ask me in a few weeks time and I think I'll be ready for spring!
