We enjoyed our Saturday morning hot chai, emails, blogging, and getting laundry started. Then we headed out to our local Christmas market that appeared for this weekend. The entire square and all the pedestrian areas leading to it were filled with small booths of vendors selling a huge variety of items.
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| Honey is a big seller here - honey wine too! |
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Oblatky (kind of a waffley sweet crisp, traditional for Christmas with honey)
walnuts, garlic, and other local products. We bought walnuts here! |
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They had artificial trees and garlands at this booth.
And you can see one of the big carnival rides in the background. |
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| These decorated gingerbread cookies were very popular items. |
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| Lots of stands were selling these cookies and candies. |
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| Hedgehogs are popular too - along with angels and baskets. |
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| Many vendors were selling sausages - peppers and garlic hanging too. |
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| You could also get a hot meal of various meats and sausages. |
In the afternoon, we took a bus to Liptovsky Trnovec to visit Patka and Rivi. They took us out into the woods to cut greens for holiday decorations, and we continued our 31-year tradition by cutting down our own fresh Christmas tree. Then we went back to their house and had supper, baked the same cookies as we'd seen in the market, and enjoyed the beauty of the logs burning in the fireplace.
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| Ready to head into the woods with a big gunny sack! |
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| Thick hoar-frost on the branches - just like back in Iowa! |
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| The trees were beautiful all frosted in white. |
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| Our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree = just perfect!! |
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| Walking under a canopy of frosted tree branches! |
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| Heading down to Liptovska Mara - the lake. |
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There was mist rising from the water which was warmer
than the air temperatures. (It was pretty cold out - in single digits F.) |
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The view across the Mara was surreal with the mist, fog, and frost!
We really enjoyed taking in the beauty of God's creation!! |
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Playing board games with Patka and Rivi, listening to a CD of
Christmas carols being sung by a fire --- in Czech!! :-) |
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| Rivi and I rolled out and cut lots of gingerbread cookies! |
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| We all got in on the cookie decorating action!! :-) |
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| This didn't get in focus - bummer. :-( |
Peter (the one who brought the drum to the party) plays in a band who performed on the stage at the Christmas market tonight. So Patka dropped us off there in time for Peter's concert.
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The band had really good instrumentalists - very impressive!!
The crowd was a bit small because it was soooo cold!! There were heaters
on stage for the band, thankfully. We had a few fresh gingerbread cookies
in our pockets from Patka, and we sipped on a warm beverage from a vendor! |
It was a cold walk home, but we were bundled up in many layers for all our outdoor excursions today. We got to do some Skype/facetime with family after we got back to share our day. And tomorrow will be another full day!
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