Spanish Birds & Moravian Sparrow

Many Czech dishes have names that don't offer a clue as to what's in them, but certain words will give you a hint: savle (sabre; something on a skewer); tajemstvi (secret; cheese inside rolled meat or chicken); prekvapeni (surprise; meat, capsicum and tomato paste rolled into a potato pancake); kapsa (pocket; a filling inside rolled meat); and basta (bastion; meat in spicy sauce with a potato pancake). Two strangely named dishes that all Czechs know are Spanelsky ptacky (Spanish birds; veal rolled up with sausage and gherkin, served with rice and sauce) and Moravsky vrabec (Moravian sparrow; a fist-sized piece of roast pork). But even Czechs may have to ask about Mec krale Jiriho (the sword of King George; beef and pork roasted on a skewer), Tajemstvi Petra Voka (Peter Voka's mystery; carp with sauce), Sip Malinskych lovcu (the Malin hunter's arrow; beef, sausage, fish and vegetables on a skewer) and Dech kopace Ondreje (Digger Ondrej's breath; fillet of pork filled with extremely smelly Olomouc cheese slices).

Majales

Until WWII, students regularly celebrated 1 May as Majales, a spring festival dating back to at least the early 19th century. Banned by the Nazis and later under communism, it was revived during the 'Prague Spring' of the mid-1960s, only to disappear once more in 1969. Nobody got it together again until 1997. Majales 1998 coincided with a visit by Beat Generation writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti for the Prague Writers Festival, recalling the crowning of Allen Ginsburg as king of the 1965 Majales. Ginsburg was allowed into the country on the strength of his anti-US government views, but he made his distaste for authoritarianism quite clear and was quickly thrown out. The secret service documents surrounding his expulsion were published in a booklet in 1998. Today's Majales kicks off with an early-afternoon parade - with bands, students in fancy dress, and a float with the Kral Majales (King of Majales) - from namesti Jana Palacha, via Kaprova to the Old Town Square and the Karolinum. From there everybody moves on to Strelecky ostrov for an all-night bash, including live bands, student theatre and nonstop sausages and beer.

Love Hurts

Sarka was one of a renegade army of women who fled across the Vltava River after the death of Libuse, mother of the Premysl line. She was chosen as a decoy to trap Ctirad, captain of the men's army. Unfortunately she fell in love with him, and after her cohorts did him in, she threw herself into the Sarka Valley in remorse. The women were slaughtered by the men of Hradcany in a final battle. There's a monumental statue of Sarka and Ctirad in the Vysehradske sady (Vysehrad Gardens).