The Food
In Prague we went for some spit roasted ham which is carved and served the way that all ham should be - in big hearty chunks. None of this wafer thin, shaved shit here. We also had a decent serving of potatoes with speck, onions and paprika from a massive cast iron pan that were bloody great in the cold with a steaming cup of glühwein.
Over the week and a bit in the rest of Czech we had some freshly fried potato crisps covered in various salts and spices, some deep fried Karp, which contrary to the opinion of some wasn't muddy at all and was v enjoyable, more potatoes, this time with sauerkraut, onion and speck and the grilled Czech style sausage, klobasa, which Nix rates higher than any sausage she tried in Germany (Nix does know her sausages - HA).
And yes, that's a Karp eating a Karp.
Sweets weren't as prevalent across the Czech Christmas Markets however we stupidly waited until the final night to try trdelnik (which Nix refers to as tradelinks). They're bits of memory foam like pastry that are wrapped around a cylinder and are then roasted over the flames. They come out with their memory foam like texture intact but with a lovely crispy crust and are then dusted in a selection of stuffs. We just went for the classic cinnamon and sugar and it was bloody delicious. A sweet highlight of the trip so far.
The Drinks
I'll start with the bad. Medovina (honey wine) we had in Prague that Nicola likened to hot pilsener. Mmm. And glühwein that had clearly been sat in the urn for the entire day and tasted like two week old red wine that had been left in the sun and was flavoured with a shot of vinegar and a splash of lemon juice. We went to the rare step of suggesting to the stall owner that it wasn't right and after tasting it he just told us to add some sugar and subsequently closed his stall and buggered off. First World problems hey.
The good was some Moravian punč with sultanas and liquor soaked strawberries added to it that Nix raved about, I gave medovina a second chance and it paid off and the final glühwein we had in Brno was spot on.
And the interesting? Grog. Rum with hot water, a slice of lemon and sugar to taste. We get the appeal but it's not something we need to go back to.
The Other Stuff
A bigger Christmas tree budget results in a bigger more spectacular tree so Prague was probably always going to take the points here. And the setting of it's markets in the beautiful Old Town Square look amazing lit up at night.
However, the much more local and homely feel of the other markets we went to made them a lot more enjoyable to wander around with a cup of glühwein than the massive, sprawling, busy Prague markets.
The Verdict
It's the collective effort of the the non-Prague markets than wins it for mine. Less homogeneity between stalls, the markets feel more real and Prague's felt a bit like the poor man's Brussels Christmas Markets to be honest.
