Max's Gay Parade

Max's Gay Parade is not a single event, but rather an on-going phenomenon. It started in October of last year, very innocuously, with a brunch at the Mövenpick Hotel in Prague. Or, more accurately, when the taxi containing Monkey, P and Wayne stopped in front of Švandovo Divadlo (our local theatre: I think that set the tone for the day) to pick me up. That was my first meeting with Wayne, who fawned over me lovingly, as was appropriate, and I am sure the taxi driver had absolutely no idea what to make of us.

A hotel brunch in Prague is a beautiful thing. It can also be a very messy thing, depending on the company you keep, but this party was perfect. The food was lovely, although secondary; this brunch included all the beer and wine we wanted. And we wanted a lot of that perfect Plzeňský prazdroj, known to the rest of the world as Pilsner Urquell. We also ordered bloody marys, and they brought the ingredients for us to make them at the table ourselves, augmented by a quick Monkey trip to the buffet for horseradish. We had a table next to the window looking out on the garden, the sun was shining, our waitress was very sweet and attentive, and it was basically a perfect day for a parade.

I could get this day a little mixed up with another brunch Monkey and I had at the Mövenpick. That was a different kind of Gay Parade because the couple with us did not realise that it was a Gay Parade, even though the pastry chef in the window during the post-brunch parade part of the day could tell immediately.

After brunch (back to the original Max's Gay Parade) we rode the hotel's cable car up the hill for a lovely view of Prague, and then went parading. At some point Jono joined us on the parade by phone from London; it is normally very important to have some sort of international aspect to a proper Gay Parade.

Did we finish in El Centro that night? Could that really have been our last stop? The episodes of Max's Gay Parades can blur into each other very easily. Jumping ahead to the present time, we shall have a new participant this weekend as Dalibor is coming to town. Hooray!!