Popular Culture Of The Soul

Part of my mother’s family is from Czech Republic and in the 90’s I had the opportunity to visit the country and my relatives. I felt an unconditional love for all the places that I got to know, Olomouc, Bzenec, among others.

I dug in deep into the local culture and my family’s history with an open heart. Different habits such as bottled water and enxofrada, orthodox church, all of them have a cellar, with the coffeepowder in the cup, also well-preserved castles, clean cities, rich culture, basic schools with a university-like structure, the simplicity of the people and its gastronomy.

Anyways I felt like I lived a lifetime in just one month, I grew, I felt evolved and seduced by the country, a citizen of heart and soul. I visited antique shops, museums, castles, libraries and street fairs, I also got to know the irreverence of a newly free people able to express and enjoy themselves.

In one occasion, I visited a castle with my cousin and his family, he took a huge stone that had come loose from the walls of the castle and carried it to the entrance and I asked me to take asmall one too, then the receptionist and I asked him why he was doing this and he replied smiling that it was souvenir for hium because he descended from the horse's ass’ owner of that place, indeed a noble!
He put the stone in the can we went home. The next morning, after breakfast, he went to the car and grabbed the huge stone and threw it on his backyard. I realized then that there were severallarge and different stones on his lawn and I immediately questioned my cousin about it and he wisely answered me: "Be proud, our family is large and noble and I visit many castles!", as he was laughing.

Situations like this are the ones I appreciated so much observing and reporting, because I feel that they make me whole. I bet he would have never done such a thing in the 70s. Such attitudes and other details are glimpsed only away from the big tourist centers, it is what we call the “charm” of the place, that's something else that people seek when they travel. These are the best stories,the history of a people and a nation.