Krteček

The streets of Old Town are littered with many quirky novelty shops which sell things ranging from souvenirs, intricate glassware, and toys. All of these stores had one thing in common – they all had this funny looking mole cartoon in some shape or form. In fact, one of the toy stores that I visited had an entire back section dedicated to this odd character. Soon, I began to realize that this mole was making an appearance at almost every street corner in the town center. It turns out that this cartoon character is actually named Krteček and is an extremely popular character throughout Central Europe and some outlying countries. The cartoon that he starred in was originally about how flax was produced, but the star of the show has a legacy that extends far beyond the original children’s program. Krteček has been featured as a mascot in European Athletic Championships and has even made it in to space on a NASA mission. I found it crazy that I had never seen this character before since cartoons from other countries such as Hello Kitty and have found wide success in the States. Hopefully in the future, Krteček will be making an appearance back at home so that we’ll have our little bit of Czech culture.