Stužková and Christmas Markets

According to Google Translate, stužková means "graduations"--whatever that means. Mostly, it's a formal party, a combination prom and graduation bash, a kind of promissory note event at which fifth-year students are honored, and sign up for doing well for the rest of the year. The party comes in the fall because students are too busy (or they should be) studying for their maturita, the big test in multiple parts which determines how successful they've been as students and what path they can continue on. Since Paula is a teacher of fifth years, she got invited. Certain things happen at all of the events--the students get their green ribbons, they dance with teachers, there is a cake, and so forth. Each event goes on until the wee hours--Paula got home about 1:30AM from the 5B party in late October, and about 2:30AM from the 5A party in late November.

The Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkt or Adventsmarkt in Vienna; Vianochné Trhy in Bratislava) opened between the parties--November 13 in Vienna and the next Friday in Bratislava. We didn't get to Vienna until yesterday, December 10. We enjoy both a lot. Advocates of Bratislava's say that the planners and participants keep it much more traditional, and the emphasis is on food. You can see them both; Bratislava on the left, Vienna on the right.Vienna has eleven(!) markets; we saw three; to be fair, each had its own character, and all were more commercial than Bratislava. Of course, we have been to Bratislava's much more often; not every day, as some local folks do, but a couple of times a week, anyway. Both feature great sausage, as you might imagine, and both have wonderful hot wine (glühwein in Vienna; veréne vino in Bratislava) in either red or white, spiced and sweetened. The white stuff in the picture is hlušky, Slovakia's national dish. Bratislava has more traditional crafts. In Vienna, we went to the large, traditional market first, then to the Spittelberg (about a kilometer), and last to the Altwiener Christkindlmarkt in Freyung, about half a kilometer. The central market is very impressive; the Spittelberg market, on several pedestrian streets, is very artsy; and the Freyung market, very upscale. Come visit us next Christmastime--we'll show you!

And the extra picture--we went to Pieštany last weekend with the International Church choir to sing in a choir festival. The town is flat, at least compared to Bratislava, so instead of taking children around in prams as they do here, people pull little sleighs! The sleighs can be rigged to carry a cradle-like apparatus for the very young, through sitting up. Grandpa was pulling grandson along and Paula snapped a picture. Yes, we've had snow. But more about that in January!