One Saturday morning Audrey, Natalie, Ian, Vojtech and I hopped on a train to Vracov (where my colleague Martin is from) which is around an hour or so from Brno by train.
We were there for Hody - an annual celebration where the locals wear traditional clothing and play out an eccentric procession through the town singing, drinking, eating and dancing as they go. There is a story behind it (which sadly I don't really know), but essentially there is a Stárek (a guy) and a Stárka (a girl) to whom the Mayor hands the responsility of the town for the day. The procession through the town revolves around these guys - stopping off first at the Town Hall to ask permission from the Mayor to proceed with Hody.
Initially the Mayor refuses (as is tradition), but once he's been given a couple of big jugs of wine he relents on condition that everyone drinks lots of wine and sings about drinking and girls. There are a couple of more stops, at Stárek's house (where everyone dances, sings, and drinks lots of wine) and at Stárka's house (where everyone dances, sings, and drinks lots of wine - after Stárek climbs in through her window).
OK I must admit that I don't really know what was happening, here are some pictures though
Once the procession reached its conclusion and everyone went their separate ways we stopped off at Martin's grandfather's house to eat and dress up.
After we were fed we toddled over to Martin's grandad's wine cellar and drank yet more wine
Later I would fall asleep on a table at a ball through drunkenness because I was tired, only to be woken up to jump in a dodgy Škoda to take me to where I was actually allowed to sleep.