(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Street Prophets Friday: Protivín (open thread) [1] ['Marko The Werelynx', 'Greg Dworkin', 'Rob In Vermont', 'Thom Hartmann', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Aashirs Nani', 'News Corpse'] Date: 2026-10-02 Greetings and welcome to another little, fuzzy-headed, open-thread, lightly-breaded morsel of community fluff. This week, with only a few photos to share as I go through my many pictures from the next town in my summer travels, I couldn’t bring myself to add (photo diary) to the title. You folks were spoiled last week anyway with dozens of photographs of crocodiles and their kin. When I stepped out of the Crocodile Zoo, I found a little bench to sit on and wait for the stragglers of our little group to exit. Across to street, there was a dilapidated building. Photo: Marko the Werelynx Always a bit sad to see such places, a business closed, a factory shuttered. I wondered about what materials and products moved through those loading docks, into and out of trucks. A few steps away was the main street of Protivín which was closed to car traffic. A fair had come to town. Photo: Marko the Werelynx We allowed ourselves to be charmed into buying some delicious and overpriced Hungarian sausages from a large tent selling regional specialties. Then Mrs the Werelynx and a couple of our friends gave in to nostalgic temptation and rode on one of the attractions that promised a minimal risk of whiplash. Photo: Marko the Werelynx Photo: Marko the Werelynx I remember going to carnivals and fairs when I was a wee lad. The Tilt-A-Whirl was my favorite ride at the Dane County Fairgrounds. One year there was a tent where an illusionist put on a show where a beautiful woman was locked in a cage and before our eyes she was transformed into a massive gorilla which broke out of the cage and charged the audience. I’m not sure what happened after that because I ducked out under the side of the tent. Hee hee, watching that video and seeing how cheap that trick looks has practically ruined my self-esteem. As long as I’m writing about watching stuff; I was fascinated watching my favorite treat, the mini donuts be made. Cotton candy was also something of a miracle. I never quite acquired the taste for corndogs. I usually threw a few darts at balloons and won horrible things like fuzzy plushy bananas or ugly, little stuffed dogs made from some plastic cloth that would start bursting at the seams in the car on the way home. The ring toss games and the booth where you tossed baseballs into baskets or knocked over bottles never tempted me. No, I never won a goldfish in a little plastic bag. The fairs of my youth were usually connected to the 4H Club’s livestock displays and contests, so there were always long halls of neatly brushed sheep, cows and horses to look at and the little pens of rabbits and chickens of course. But the big hit of the barns was always the pen of little yellow ducklings with their low hanging light bulb for warmth and the tray of water they’d splash around in. When I was a bit older there were other attractions that I hadn’t really noticed as a kid. A couple of musically savvy friends and I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble play at the Dane Country Fairgrounds in the middle of the day one year. In my imagination we’re the only people at the show, but that surely wasn’t the case. As it was though, we stood right up next to the stage. When I moved to Prague, Mrs the Werelynx took me to an annual faire that was part of her fond childhood memories. Her favorite ride was the one with the swings that spun around. My old favorite Tilt-A-Whirl in some form, perhaps by another name, was there. There was a huge Ferris Wheel, that the Czechs call a Russian Wheel and even a tiny little roller coaster that rattled, but was good fun. Of course, there were darts to throw, but the main test of skill and he-man virility was a shooting range where lads out to impress their dates could shoot the thin wooden stems of crepe paper flowers with an air rifle. And again I didn’t bring home any goldfish in plastic bags. I did cut the stems of a few paper flowers though. The treats at the faire were a mix of familiar and unfamiliar: plate-sized disks of puffy fried dough slathered in garlic butter and sprinkled with cheese, and long counters of candy. Bags of blue and pink cotton candy. White, nutty blocks of Turkish Honey, the little, translucent violet hard candies called “violets” were even shaped like the blossoms of that wildflower, but I couldn’t tell you if they taste like violets. They were Mrs the Werelynx’s favorites though. Enormous, long, colorful bands of marshmallow and ropes of licorice. My favorite became what is called “little soap” which looks like a colorful bar of soap, has the texture of a bar of soap, but tastes considerably sweeter. Whenever Mrs the Werelynx and I see one of these faires we joke that we need to go because I haven’t had my favorite “mejdlíčka” in so long. Even if we do go, I don’t really feel tempted to buy any. But those silly, soapy treats mark a sweet period of my life. Mrs the Werelynx and I were getting to know each other, learning about each other’s childhoods, sharing experiences. In the evenings we’d work on my Czech by reading her favorite children’s books together. Our kids never really embraced the tradition of going to the fair. They never wanted to go on any ride more imposing than a carousel. It’s a bit of a mystery to me because now they do things like bouldering, sword fighting, downhill skiing and hockeyball. Not activities for the faint hearted. They certainly don’t suffer from an overabundance of caution– especially considering how fast they zip down a mountain on skis. We had better luck introducing them to the treats though. Mini-donuts for everyone! I sadly remain the only person in the family to claim to actually like the soap candy. When Mrs the Werelynx was flying high in Protivín, she and our other friends who’d joined her on the ride had discovered a little courtyard in the town hall which seemed worth exploring. Photo: Marko the Werelynx The door to a pretty baroque church was in the courtyard. Photo: Marko the Werelynx We still had a long day ahead of us, as I hope to show you next week. We walked back to our cars and I noticed a bunch of traffic signs set up on some little paths on the grounds of a school. I’d seen this sort of thing before at a school not far from our neighborhood. It seems a nice way to introduce kids to traffic safety. Photo: Marko the Werelynx We’d left our lodgings in Putím early that morning and drove a short distance to this town of Protivín to see the Crocodile Zoo. Another short drive and we’d be in the city of Písek, yet another new place to explore. Thanks for stopping by. This is an open thread. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/10/2/800106566/community/street-prophets-friday-protivin-open-thread/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/