St. Mathew's Fair

The St. Matthew's Fair is the first of Prague's annual spring fairs. Filled with rides, games, toys, and masks. It's a celebration that spring is on it's way and attracts people from all over to the Prague Exhibition Grounds.
Though the carnival isn't huge, it seems that the people get a bit more festive than any carnival I've been to in the States. Almost every parent is holding their child's balloon or toy. People buy the glasses and wigs and wear them all day around the fairgrounds. I'm not even sure if they knew why they were celebrating, but it seemed that everyone jumped at the chance to dress a little crazy.

I saw the Kamikaze ride, and while it wasn't exactly tame, it was familiar and I was pretty sure it wouldn't make me sick. Vicky & I paid our 25kc to hop on what I grew up knowing as the "Salt & Pepper." We locked our vests in place and the ride began. We screamed as we got higher and higher - threatening to go upside-down. It felt as unsafe as most carnival rides. Everything seems to creak and shake, but something about being in a foreign country, and not at the YMCA in Huntington made the experience that much more frightening. After a short period of time we got lower until we came to a stop again. We decided it wasn't as bad as we thought, until our vests didn't unlock. We sat. Everyone around is is speaking Czech. The ride operator said something. Still stuck. We had no idea what was going on. We joked around that we would be stuck there. Or God forbid go around again. After about 10 minutes we started to move. The ride was actually going again. I couldn't believe I had to do this again, and apparently the first time was just a preview. It spun us upside-down, often leaving us suspended with hair flying everywhere for longer than necessary. I've never climbed out of a ride faster than I exited the Kamikaze.

For the rest of the day we walked around, stopping to get ice cream (soft serve is rare here in Prague), and fried cheese, unfortunately there was NO funnel cake (there was a brief, possible sighting that we eventually wrote off as a mirage). The main attraction of the carnival is the standard "Swings" ride, that takes you up to quite a height before spinning you around. Not as scary as the first ride, it provided a beautiful panoramic view of the city. We could see the river, the castle, parts of Old Town, and everything in between.