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Hard alcohol banned from Wenceslas Square stands. Kielbasas saved!
The sausage stands on Prague's Wenceslas Square are probably familiar to anyone who stumbled its cobble-stoned streets after midnight, looking (unsuccessfully) for a more civilized place to eat. The after-dark scene around these stands is not what most people have in mind when they picture the fairy-tale city of Prague: homeless people, prostitutes, and people of various stages of drunkenness.
Prague has been trying to figure out how to clean up Wenceslas Square and some people argued that these stands should be the first to go. But Praguers don't want to give up that easily. They signed a petition against the elimination of kielbasas from Wenceslas Square, citing "tradition." It is peculiar because there are hundreds of legends about the ingredients of these things (urine being one of them). A lot of people call the kielbasas "cancerbasas" because of the burned oil used to fry them up. Consequently, the Czech Republic has the highest colon cancer rate in the world. Traditions, it seems, are hard to kill.
The city has decided to ignore the sausages for now. Starting this summer though, stands won't be able to sell hard alcohol. As for cancerbasas, it is only a matter of time.
Filed under: Food and Drink, Europe, Czech Republic, Budget Travel
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Oddsocks Feb 10th 2008 10:47PM
Hooray for the saving of the Klobasa (for now). The idea to get rid of them was one of the stupidest i've heard in ages. Did they really think people were going to find homes, stop being or frequenting prostitutes and confine their drunkeness to indoors because they could no longer buy Klobasa?
Now that's fairytale thinking.