By Mark

I am now into my third year of living in the Czech Republic and I find I am still as thrilled now by some of the quirky habits displayed by the Czech people as I was when I first arrived. In this series I will offer up some of those that I find most interesting or worthy of comment. These are merely musings and observations and are in no way judgemental.

In this first instalment I want look at one habit I had only heard other people discussing until I experienced it at first hand on my recent trip back to the UK for Christmas. What is the deal with Czechs having to eat on bus journeys? I don’t mean just grabbing a bite to eat at a service station en route but a fully packed hamper containing enough food for every meal that comes around during the journey.

Last December I took a Student Agency bus from Prague back to London.

Student Agency is a great company with very comfortable buses, free wifi, individual entertainment consoles in the backs of every seat and free tea, coffees etc served at your seat but one of the attendants. The 18 hour trip passed in no time and in comfort overnight as we passed through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and finally into the UK.

The bus was set to depart Prague’s Florenc Bus Station at 17:30 however we were delayed by some 20 odd minutes. During this time when we hadn’t even left our departure point my fellow passengers at least 50 other people set about arranging their dinners. The food of choice for most was the much famed schnitzel sandwich. The ingredients for which are two pieces of Czech bread or chleb, a pork or chicken schnitzel or řízek and a gherkin. Then put them together in a sandwich. Now I had had this once before when I was generously invited to one of my students work outings last year. His wife very kindly prepared one for him and one for me, he joked as we ate it that Czechs love this form of subsistence on long bus trips and he was certainly right about that. Picture an almost full bus sitting in the bay at it’s departure station and 90% of the passengers unpack an almost identical meal the only exceptions that I could ascertain were the non-Czechs like myself who just sat there getting hungrier each moment as the alluring scent of deep fried meat began to fill the bus.

As foreign traditions and customs go this is certainly one that I have no issue adopting. I found the above pictures by doing a Google search and it’s very fitting that the photo on the bottom left does indeed appear to be on a bus. Now most people had finished their portable picnics before we left Florenc, let alone Prague. Though each time the bus had a pit stop, the Czechs on board also refuelled with other snacks such as garlic salami which I do like in moderation but however is not the best idea for a snack on a crowded and enclosed bus. This ritual carried on every few hours throughout the night and into breakfast until we arrived at London Victoria. Ten days later I made the return journey and a few minutes after departure as lunchtime rolled around on the road from London to Folkstone the ritual was played out once again with schnitzels lovingly prepared by Czech relatives living in the UK no doubt. I couldn’t help but smile to myself and try to stifle the pangs of hunger I felt that grew with each mile. Until we reached the Channel Tunnel terminal I would have to make do with a bottle of Evian and a packet of Trebor Extra Strong Mints.