Praha, Pivo, Prosim

Ok well, there have been a few interesting/fun events over the past few weeks so I’m here to share them with you.

Scavenger Hunt

Well, I’m not sure how technically correct the scavenger hunt title is but alas, that’s the name we used at the time. Essentially, it was just a fun way to get out and about on a Saturday afternoon and a reason to make multiple stops for pivo.
A few items from our lists to see/do/photograph included: a gun, a baby with a big head, a cowboy hat, a sombrero, someone holding two sausages, a cat, a mullet, bright hair, a Segway, a horse, etc.

An Impromptu Trip to a Castle

The Czech Republic has a plethora of castles everywhere. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see a castle for a day trip. Last Sunday, I visited Krivoklat. Its’ a short 60-75 minute train ride from town. Domestic train travel is really quite inexpensive and easy to navigate so off I went. The weather was quite cold & gray but it’s a castle so that makes it doable in my book.

I took the train from Hlavni Nadrazi (main station) to Beroun and transferred to a teeny funky looking train to reach Krivoklat. As is typical for most castles, Krivoklat is on a hill therefore when approaching it looks pretty awesome. The town (well, village really) is incredibly small–we’re talking population 40 or something. No, that’s an official Czech census statistic, I’m just sayin’….

There’s a short footpath from the train station to the ‘town’ and then visitors must walk up a respectable hill to reach the castle. Once at the castle there’s a main courtyard and at one end of the courtyard are a couple of Robin Hood looking dudes. There’s a table set up and they are shooting various forms of bows & arrows at targets and of course, any man, boy or child is attracted to such activity.

In no particular order I completed the following tasks: ate lunch, had a beer, walked up another hill, was a tourist, took scenic pictures, and peeked in the dungeon.

At this point I’ll mention that on the train to and from Krivoklat I was about the only person on any of the trains who did NOT have children or all the necessary child accoutrements. These people & their prams were freaking everywhere. Child overload.

Cesky Krumlov

Everyone I know has been telling me how lovely & adorable Cesky Krumlov is and how it’s a must see when in the C.R. They were right.

I hopped a train (again, cheap domestic travel–yay! 383Kc roundtrip = about 20$) on Friday afternoon headed towards Ceske Budejovice. From CB, I got on a bus to CK.

Cesky Krumlov is a really small town with a small permanent population. The summer is the peak time and from what I’ve been told many shops/places close up for the winter.

The Vltava (same river that runs through Prague) winds in and around CK thus making it even fucking cuter than it would be if it was riverless. The river makes big swooping loops and there’s a big castle that sits on a rocky hill above. I think it’s one of those places where it’s difficult to take a bad picture. There is a main square in the center with many little streets (with shops, restaurants & cafes) that surround the main square.

I arrived at about 5:30 so I found my pension which was, as the website indicated, at the ‘castle steps’. I could see the base of the tower from my window as the building is practically next door. Great location & a reasonable price. I did well!

Food….what to eat for dinner? Sorry, I just looked for a web link to the restaurant I chose and cannot find one. Booooo. A table of young & rowdy guys were next to me speaking some European tongue I’d never heard before. They were loud & obnoxious therefore, not Czech. They kept ordering tons of beer & Becherovka and I think generally being rude to the poor waiter. The waiter already had on a somewhat silly outfit so I’m sure he wasn’t pleased about their behavior. The restaurant is some kind of medieval-themed place with meat spinning around on sticks over an open fire.

I ordered an appetizer of pork ‘flitch’ and various cheeses. And yes, I ordered it because I had no idea what flitch is, was or could be. My main course was a wood-fire-grilled pork chop. A pork chop wouldn’t usually be my first choice but the Czechs go fucking apeshit for their pork so when in Rome…. Both items arrived at the same time which frankly, I really had no problem with…. I wasn’t expecting to finish everything but I was most curious about this pork flitch mystery. For those who aren’t in the know (as I am now) pork flitch is simply a cured & salted side of bacon. This particular item arrived slices with 3 kinds of cheese (I think Hermelin, something similar to Mozzarella and a mysterious third–probably Eidam). There was no way I was going to eat all that damned pork and cheese WITH my pork main meal. I’m ashamed (or is it a little proud) of what I did next…. this is a total old lady/ghetto thing to do…. I wrapped some pork, cheese and bread in napkins so that I could eat it for breakfast. Pathetic, right?

I walked around some more and went to my teeny tiny room around 9:30. On a sad note I was rather excited that not only did the room have a television but also satellite! Most of the channels were Austrian but I was able to view some programming from the following: MTV Austria, Al-Jazeera, Algeria, Morocco, France, Russia, Germany & even a religious Polish channel. Oh how I miss my DVR and cable!

So Saturday morning arrived and I promptly unwrapped my old lady pork & cheese breakfast. Lame, I know. But here I speak the truth!

The obligatory walk around the castle with requisite photo ops was in order. Additionally, a few stupid self-portraits were on the itinerary. Normally I’m not a fan of looking at photos of myself therefore taking photos of myself is even further down the list. I was feeling frisky yesterday so done and done!

Beer is king in the Czech Republic so the Eggenberg Brewery was next on the agenda. There is a basic tour (with no beer) for 100Kc or for 130Kc you can get the tour plus 2x.5L of the brew. All in all, a good deal! There’s even another tour package that includes as much as you can drink! Yet another reason why I love this country. No way in hell any American brewery would make such an offer. LAWSUIT! COMPENSATION! INJURY! DEATH! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I met a few cool people on the tour too; it was a nice break from the monotony of silence! Nevertheless I chose the unfiltered beer and the dark beer. Thumbs up!

Eggenberg is mainly a regional beer that a bit difficult to find in Prague. The tour guide said they do however export to Italy, Russia & I think Finland. Interesting, eh? I had a special Christmas beer that was recommended by a beer-drinking pal and he didn’t steer me wrong; it was tasty and really reasonably priced! So yes, an enjoyable venture.

Other recent stuff: Witches Day & May Day!

Witches day is April 30th…. I really don’t know the details so here are some for you. h Basically, it’s yet another reason to drink. And we did. The evening was spent at Zlute Lazne (also known as ‘the beach’). It’s an outdoor area next to the Vltava that offers sand volleyball, swimming, food, beer, and lots of other stuff. The lines were insanely long and we kept trying to find maybe some ‘secret’ areas or service lines that were shorter. We were not successful. When you stand in line for 45 minutes you tend to buy a lot of beer which makes for an interesting ‘carry’ to your area.

May Day is May 1st…. It’s also a public holiday. Unfortunately, this year it was on a Saturday. May Day is the Czech ‘Labor Day’ as well as some kind of day for lovers & romance. LIke the previous day, we decided that this is another reason to drink. ODS (one of the big political parties) offers some kind of celebration/rally/whatever at Petrin Hill on this day. As part of their ‘subsidized’ festivities one can purchase food and drink for ridiculously cheap prices. Klobasa = 10Kc and also beer was 10Kc. Yes, 10Kc. That’s bout .50 cents. And don’t forget these are half liter beers. Therefore, one usually purchases as much as he/she can carry. I love Ceska Republika!! Aside from the working aspect of the holiday, the romantic thing is actually rather cute. You must kiss your lover (or anyone I suppose) under a blooming cherry tree otherwise you’ll be ‘dry’ for the year. We never did get clarification in exactly what way this translates but use your imagination. I’ll leave you with a quote from Raising Arizona, ‘Her womb was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.’

A picture of sandwiches. Big deal, right? Most of the time I’d agree with you and admit to the ‘uninterestingly high level of blah’ there. However, allow me to explain.

Thursday 10 December

There’s a bit of a set-up first. Since I’m so awesome and have three jobs at the moment, I wanted to prepare a nice edible treat for the holiday party. No, actually contributing food or drink for this party was not a requirement but I was feeling generous this week and I had a plan. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. Wow, big deal–snoozefest. Not exactly.

You see, although Czechs go apeshit for their chocolates and sweets (as is evident by the size of said departments in the supermarket), they do not have chocolate chips. And to expand that idea, they do not have chocolate chip cookies. While they can be purchased (Marks & Spencer has them but M&S is a British chain), it’s a largely unfamiliar sweet treat for the locals. As all my dedicated American readers know, chocolate chip cookies are just fucking delicious. Czechs seem to be really interested in our culture (and food as one friend asked me what we eat last week and I forwarded a big list of typically ‘American’ food items). I thought chocolate chip cookies would be a great foray into the American food genre. Plus, free food (laced with butter, sugar and chocolate) is a good way to win people over and get them to talk to you.

Expats.cz is a great resource for all of us living abroad. The site is really a compendium of all things necessary and not-so-necessary for surviving here. It ranges from flat shares, restaurant reviews, movie listings and holiday guides and local events. The forum on expats.cz is also a great place for really specific and random questions you just can’t find the answer to otherwise. It was there I posted about where to locate chocolate chips in this town. I was given three options but of the three I chose Robertson’s. Robertson’s is an importer of British products–food products. There are two shops in town so I hopped the 8 tram to Dejvicka and began my search.

Robertson’s is a small-ish shop but I wasn’t necessarily expecting a huge high-ceilinged warehouse filled with scones and crumpets. I asked the woman behind the counter if she had the chocolate chips and she quickly plopped down two bags. Nice work! Robertson’s also has other goodies unavailable elsewhere in Prague: Dr. Pepper, root beer, Duncan Hines boxed mixes and lastly CHEDDAR CHEESE. Cheddar cheese is pretty much non-existant here. It’s mostly Eidam. And when I say mostly I mean to say about 90% Eidam. When shops have other cheese options, it’s not cheddar. It’s a mild light yellow cheese that is delicious in it’s own right. I’m not here to knock the cheese; the cheese didn’t do anything to me. But again, like the chocolate chip issue, we Americans love our cheddar cheese. We do. The bright orange refrigerated wheel was staring at me from behind the glass case. I had already paid for my purchases but I wanted some fucking cheese.Therefore, I bought 100g of the stuff. Ok yes, that’s metric. I know. It’s nearly impossible to make the mental conversion so here’s a gauge on how little 100g really is…… 1000g = kilo = 2.2lbs. I knew 100g wasn’t going to be much (nor would it last very long) but I needed a fix, bad. If I could mainline the stuff, I would. Yum.

So, continuing on the food train… another item that we Americans really love is peanut butter. While peanut butter is available here it’s some random Euro brand and a small (6oz-ish) container sells for about 80-85Kc (USD 4.50 or so). I’d venture to say that unless there’s an allergy, most American homes have some PB somewhere in the cabinets. We love it that much.

On the way home from Robertson’s I knew what I was going to do. I was going to buy some slice white bread. Yes, I said WHITE BREAD. Sorry, I know all the mutli-grain stuff is better for you but white bread is WHITE FUCKING BREAD. When I got home I was going to slap a shitload of cheddar on buttered white bread and make a grilled cheese sandwich. AND, because I was feeling frisky, I would make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, too. Yes, I know–the rebellion is jumping off the page here.

Friday 11 December

The cookies were a hit with my Czech colleagues and fellow teachers and they were gone in a hurry. I buy my friends with sugar and sweets. That’s how I roll. But perhaps I’ll make some more for the office staff to keep myself in their good graces and maybe get myself some more work out of the deal…..

Saturday 12 December

The Christmas markets are here. They’re pretty fantastic. The Christmas markets are an annual tradition in Prague. They really do give a nice Christmas-y feeling with their red roofed huts and smells of roasted chestnuts and spiced wine floating in the air. Old Town Square (a 5-7 minute walk from my flat) has the biggest markets as well as the busiest. Other markets are all over town; they’d actually be quite difficult to miss if you were strolling the streets.

The markets in OTS have a huge Christmas tree that is lit-up to the 9’s. It’s beautiful. I don’t wax nostalgic or poetic often but this a beautiful giant tree from the Krkonose mountains. The lights on the tree are everywhere and it blinks and sparkles for all to see.

Other Christmas Market pretty stuff.

Food at the markets:

(Various markets pop-up several times through the year and some food/drink is a staple while other items are seasonal.)

Trdelnik…. I have yet to experience these but they look smell delicious. First some kind of dough is made. It is then rolled over a steel/iron pipe and turned over hot coals. The cooked dough is then rolled in cinnamon and sugar (and I think nuts).

Langose... Another dough-based item. I haven’t had these either but I have it on good authority that they are delicious. It’s a circular baked crusty-looking thing on which you can choose your toppings. The most popular seems to be cheese with ketchup (yes, I said ketchup). There are also sweet options as well but the savory is the preferred.

Roasted chestnuts… Yes, we have the famous Christmas song but do you know anyone that has ever had a roasted chestnut? Yeah, me neither. This is certainly a seasonal item and I had to try some. The stands are all over and a bag of about 6-8 chestnuts sells for 50Kc. The chestnuts are roasted in the shells but the moisture of the roasting softens them so removing the contents is quite easy. The taste? It’s ok. I thought they should be sweeter or saltier. By no means gross or nasty–just rather bland. The chestnut ‘meat’ was about the texture of a slightly firm potato and the color was similar as well.

Medovina.... is delicious!!!! This is a honey-based alcoholic drink. It’s diluted with water and either served hot or cold. The markets sell the hot version and I will confirm it’s awesomeness.

Hot spiced wine…. (svarak) served red or white it tastes as you would probably expect. It’s quite delicious. Imagine the flavors of clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, etc. all swimming around a steaming portion of wine. Nice.

Grog… Rum with hot water. It tastes like rum with hot water. I didn’t notice any additional flavorings added to the serving I had so I can’t give a wordy (and bullshit) flavor profile as if I was drinking a 1964 Chateau Lafite.

Miscellaneous stuff in my brain today….

Architecture–Panelaks… remnants of a Communist past. Panelaks are classic Socialist architecture in every way. They are huge buildings of flats that still pockmark the cities here. There seem to be areas of town that have more than others. Czechs generally dislike panelaks not only for the past that they represent but also because they are ugly. Since I live in the center of town, I live in a ‘regular’ building so I cannot confirm the crappyness that is a panelak. But, I know some people that have lived in panelaks as well as inhabit them presently. They are not spoken about favorably. Here are some examples…

Dinner–Chicken was on sale yesterday. I bought some. With minimal ingredients I made a marinade of olive oil, orange zest, fresh-squeezed orange juice, brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg…. Said chicken was marinated and roasted with an onion. A cheap meal!

Work–I have two weeks of holiday time coming up and my flatmates will both be out of the country. Bethany is going to the UK and Olga will be in Romania. It’s times like this that I wish there was a common room in this flat; I would so have a party. I am planning a ‘roll your own’ sushi night with some friends so we’ll see. I suggested heavily boozing it up and hitting the Christmas markets, too. Does someone want to contribute a big bottle of Becherovka for the occasion? I’ll thank you later.

I had to go there with the lame title. It’s Halloween!

It’s been a productive day thus far. Many people like to be lazy on Saturdays. I like to get shit done. That’s how I roll. Up at 730, two loads of laundry done by 9, shopping at the mall and the supermarket done by 1030. Cooked lunch and having a glass of wine by 130. Good times.

Whole roaster chickens were on sale (AKCE! One of my favorite Czech words) at Albert today so I had to buy one. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite foods and roast chicken skin? Sweet Mother of God–it’s my crack. I knew I wanted to make a chicken salad today so I threw some random things together. Here’s what I did…..

Mix olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, marjoram, rosemary & oregano in a bowl. Rub it all over the bird. Stuff the bird with a cut up onion and an apple. Cook your bird and baste periodically.

I like cucumber and tomatoes so I used those today. Chop to the desired size. I also had an extra onion left so I decided to use that. Since raw onion isn’t one of the greatest things to me, I sauteed it in some olive oil and salt. After the onion started to brown, I added a chopped clove of garlic and a splash of red wine.

Assemble the salad and dress with your favorite dressing. Since I’m an American living in Europe, I used Hidden Valley Ranch. Trust me, it’s a gold mine here as Ranch is unavailable. I have my Mom to thank for shipping me goodies.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and bon appetit!

Here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure!

The above were taken at the Wine & Cheese Festival in Old Town Square. Ironically, we only saw one place that was selling a few spices and there was no wine to be found anywhere. Boo!

RelfBowl ‘09: Letna Park–Go Big or Go Home

Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

The Sedlec Ossuary–everyone knows about the bone church! Wikipedia says it’s made with 40-70k skeletons.

Wine. It’s good for you.

It’s made from fruit.

Saturday September 19

Wine has quite a history throughout the world and here in the C.R., it’s no different. Every year in the late summer/early fall there are harvest festivals. These festivals are for a specific kind of wine called burcak. It’s young wine that is also fermented. It doesn’t taste like any wine you’ve had before. It’s available in both the red and white varieties.

2pm

So, cut to last weekend I went out with a bunch of people to the local burcak festival (there were actually several all over town that weekend) at Havlickovy Sady (a city park). The even at the park was really quite cool. Aside from tons of people, there was a big main stage as well as various tents/vendors for drinks, food & miscellaneous knick-knacks. The theme of the festival was some kind of 19thC. thing. I don’t know how to describe it other than saying many people were wearing period costume. There was also even the old-fashioned giant bikes; you know the ones with the huge front wheel and the teeny back wheel. To the side of the main stage was also a performance area (we happened to be sitting to the immediate right of it) where several Cirque du Soleil-type acrobatic performers did cool stuff throughout the day.

8 or 9pm

After the events at Havlickovy Sady, we headed over to Jiriho z Podebrad. There were yet more tents with more alcohol as well as several bands playing.

10 or 11pm

Off to Riegrovy Sady beer garden. Oy, the events get hazy at this point. Good times. I can report that some random drunk passed out guy was sitting across from me and the new TEFL kids decided to fuck with him so I snapped all kinds of hilarity.

1 or 2am

Next stop a bar in Vinohrady. Wow, I’m too old to do this power drinking. Yikes. I need to go home. But not until I finish my requisite pivo!

230am

After midnight the metro stops running and the trams change routes, numbers and times. I walked home. Most excellent. It’s good for circulation. That’s what I kept telling myself……’it’s for health….it’s for health!’

The verdict?Burcak is mighty tasty stuff.

*Burcak is sold in various quantities: ,33l ,5l 1.5l or 2lAlthough it looks a bit ghetto to be carrying around a 1.5 or 2l plastic container of wine, everyone does it. It’s in the pictures. You shall see.

Friday September 25

Another Friday night at Riegrovy Sady beer garden. It was rather chilly that night at not many people were out drinking. But perhaps that’s because it’s a three day weekend. I write this at 830 on Monday morning when I would normally be getting ready for work. Woo hoo for holidays! Nobody knows what the holiday actually IS today but we don’t care; it just gives us all another day off.

After Riegrovy we went to Akropolis. This is some random club/restaurant/bar in Zizkov. I’m normally opposed to paying a cover charge but this place was a paltry 30Kc. Oh well. I bit the bullet and did it. From what I saw the place wasn’t that fantastic. Although it looked quite large and also looked to be another one of those ‘how-many-rooms-in-the-basement-of-this-building-are-there’ kind of places. We ended up there with a friend of Sean Hardy’s who is hardcore French and introduces himself as (seriously), ‘Hello I am Freddy and I am ready.’ With the super thick Frenchie accent it’s even more hilarious than it reads.

Saturday September 26

I got a text message from Natalie and Jack saying they were going to Karlstejn Castle that day. Sweet! I hadn’t been there yet so I was game.

The Round-trip train ticket is only 109Kc so why not, right? We got on the 12:41 and headed out.

Tons of people got off at the same stop and we just figured that they all had the same idea as we did for a Saturday afternoon. Karlstejn is probably the closest castle to Prague that isn’t IN Prague so it’s quite a popular day-trip. Anyway, we soon realized that all these people were going to Karlstejn because of the annual burcak festival!! Sweet! I love this fucking country. We hadn’t planned on this extra bonus event! We were stoked.

Karlstejn is a really cute little town just W/SW of the city. It’s a good 2mi. trek up the castle but it’s right up the main street of the town so it’s by no means a difficult walk. Along the sides of the road were of course burcak vendors as well as lots of local trinkets, etc. Additionally, there was this big medieval theme going on, too. The castle was built in 1348 so there were tons of people dressed in period costume, etc. From the program information we read that at 230pm there was to be the ‘royal procession’ to the castle gates and then after there would be various performances inside the castle. Oh excellent!!! We made it up the hill to the gate and waited for the procession. I’d say there were a good 150-200 people involved in the procession. There did not mess around. Once inside the castle there was music, bellydancers & faqir as well as a court jeser/juggler/comic who the kids loved. Pretty cool stuff!

Along the way we guzzled a few beers and purchased a nice huge 1.5l of red burcak. The previous week I only had the white burcak and my personal rating of the red is higher than the white. I was told burcak tastes like cider or juice and I didn’t think the white tasted like either. Both versions have an obvious smell of fermentation and both are bubbly. (Actually, bottles of the stuff can explode from the bubbles. I nearly had the remaining red I have explode all over my yellow walls last night. I avoided disaster with my ninja-like skills.) The red burcak actually DOES taste more like ‘juice’ than anything and I can understand why it’s so easy to drink massive amounts of the stuff. Danger Will Robinson, danger!

We got on the 636pm train back to Prague and I was home by 8pm. All in all a fantastic start to a three-day weekend!

Sunday September 27

Since the day before we did a spontaneous trip to Karlstejn I was feeling the urge to do more. I consulted some online resources and travel books and waffled back and forth between Melnik, Krivoklat Castle, Kutna Hora & maybe Tabor. In the end, I decided on Tabor. Tabor is a town in Southern Bohemia. I had some friends go the day before and I got the thumbs up that it was a good trip so I went by myself.

I made it to the train station at noon and bought my ticket for 241Kc. The train departed on time (as everything does in this country) and I was off. The train was a (not really) nice old Communist-era clunker. It was old and rusty and had plenty of graffiti.

Arrival in Tabor was at about 2 and I made my way into the ‘old town’ area. Although I had no map, I’m usually quite good with directions (despite my possession of a vagina) and can make my way around places fairly easily. Along the way, I made the correct judgment calls and I found the old square with no problems. The main square of Tabor is really cute. I know centuries old cities shouldn’t be referred to as ‘cute’ but I’m a female, so it fits. Around the square are cool old buildings as well as a clock tower and an old church with an even bigger tower. I hiked up the church tower for 25Kc and it has a freaking fantastic view of the town. The walk up the tower is interesting. Up old stone steps and then to rickety wooden stairs that are quite steep. The rope ‘railing’ looks questionable but it seems to work. Additionally, I’ll note that you have to bend way down and walk UNDER the giant church bell to continue to the top. Ha ha nice! My Nikon was happy once I got to the top.

Back down in town I continued to walk around for a few hours and have a few beers. I even managed to get a Wi-Fi signal at a restaurant so I started Facebooking. A girl has gotta have her priorities. For those interested, I had garlic soup (oh yeah, good stuff) and roast pork knee on toast with cheese (also yummy). The main beverage in town is Budvar (where American Budweiser gets the name) but this is the ‘original’ stuff and people get pissed if one assumes the Czech and American versions are the same. Budvar is made in Ceske Budejovice which is a bit more south than Tabor. Ask the Google.

I decided to get on the 7pm train back to Prague and I was home by 9pm. Another good day!

Monday September 28

The last day of my long weekend. Did I stay in? Nope. BBQ, baby. It was the ‘Goodbye to Summer’ BBQ so there were many men grilling the meat while we woman foraged for berries and tend the fire. Ha, no not really. But something like that.

A GREAT WEEKEND!I’m going to post a bunch of photos to Facebook rather than here. Photos can only be loaded individually here and they also need to be resized. I want to share a lot of them so it would take a lot of time on my end to do these things. A mass upload on FB is in order. Stay tuned.

I’m doing the classic/lazy copy/paste on this because I wanted to share this here. I sent this to a friend last night and I’m passing it along to all of you (albeit with a few minor edits)….

I just experienced something that for some reason I thought you would appreciate. Sure, many people could appreciate this but I think you would be one of the few who would ‘Oh damn, this IS amazing’ with me on this one…

I just returned from Letna Park. Of course you have no idea what or where Letna Park is located….. Allow me to explain Letna Park and a bit of Prague first. Prague has been built on 7 hills. These hills aren’t vast mountains spanning across echoing valleys but they can certainly make navigation on foot a pain in the ass. In addition to these hills, the Vltava River also cuts through Prague. Two of Prague’s nicknames include The Mother of Cities and The City of a Hundred Spires. Needless to say, this is a very old and a very weathered place. Perhaps one could say that Prague is even the ‘heartbeat’ of what one would consider to be a Gothic city; we’re talking 1K years here. It’s practically everywhere you look and I love that. From the small little architectural details to the street signs and such, the age of Prague is inescapable. But the funny thing is, I don’t want to escape it; I don’t know anyone who does. Here it’s old stuff with a past. But it isn’t just age or something from a history book, it’s years and time and it’s effortlessly timeless. There are so many historic structures and so much history here, both known and unknown, it’s crazy. The darkened alleyways and cobblestone streets have so many stories and secrets to tell. I would like to hear them all.

Anyway, back to Letna Park…. Letna sits on one of the seven hills of Prague. The park is across the Vltava and directionally, it’s N/NE(ish) of the Old Town area. Letna also has a fucking great beer garden. Yes, I said beer garden. Those are fantastically useful words when used separately but when in unison, it’s as if the clouds part and God Himself is speaking to you. Jesus is your bartender now, pull up a stool.  The beer garden at Letna is hugely popular, especially on warm summer nights. That’s when the beer is the best! Sitting in Letna park at a table right by the railing overlooking Prague is just pretty damn amazing. Because of the geography and the short distance across the river, you can see so much; you can see everything and yet it isn’t enough. More is what you want. You can look left and you can look right and see the spires of centuries old buildings all while enjoying a gloriously golden Czech lager. The beer is tall and inviting and calling your name.  It’s cold and bubbly and tastes so very good. You can silently wonder to yourself who has done the same thing in that very spot on a night just like this and be humbled by it all. It’s a moment of GD perfection, if I do say so myself. And although I have been to Letna many times before, the view doesn’t get old. Ever. It’s something new everyday even if only slightly so…. it’s another day added to the calendar of this beautiful and historic place.

Tonight, I was there during twilight. You know, twilight is that that special time of day when the light is just so and everything flickers just a bit, it lends to this etherial kind of glow and mystery. The shades of blue are everywhere; and some hints of orange and red still twinkle in the streetlights below and in the reflections in the windows. I really smiled a big smile when I was taking it all in and I just know you’d have done the same. I’d equate it to one of those, ‘Damn, it’s great to be alive,’ moments.

Sometimes it’s just those silly little things that make us smile.So, I raise my beer (pivo) to you and send a big na zdravi (to your health!) across the big wide pond known as the Atlantic……until we meet again!  After reading that I pose this query: who is ready for a visit?!

COMMIES

I don’t have a television. I don’t have a radio. Well ok, I do have these things but they are packed away in a storage unit that is 4k miles away. As such, I get all my information from this here lovely interwebs. So……

One class (that happens to be in what I’m convinced is a former Communist Doctor’s office) has a radio. Because the class isn’t in an office building that requires a special security pass, I usually arrive early and pre-board any necessary text for a lesson. Since I’m always early, I turn on the radio and get my fill of weekly Czech radio. Of course I cannot understand what the DJs say when they are speaking. I still listen. However, English language music (like all forms of popular culture) has infiltrated the radio waves. Peppered between Czech songs are the ones I can understand. There are of course songs I don’t know and this just isn’t because I’m tragically unhip. It’s the Euro tunage. A few months back I heard a song I liked. I’m a writer of lyrics. But this is not for some deep and soulful purpose; this is only for the task of locating a particular song to download later. Anyway, I came home and downloaded this song. Ha, it is a Romanian pop group. Nice.

Cut to this week….most recently (as in Tuesday of this week) I heard another song I liked. I presume my ear noticed it because the band sounds quite a lot like Depeche Mode*. Camouflage is a German synthpop band from the 80s. I admit it, I’m a sucker for shitty synthpop. Go ahead & rag on it, I deserve the ridicule. It’s just damn catchy music. If you like bad 80s synth, check out these lyrics.

Or here’s the video if you so choose. Does anyone else thing the band has a Matt Damon-faced singer? How does Jason Bourne have time to program his Moog when determining his own identity?

*As an aside…… I found out about this place while reading an article on something else this week. It’s in Estonian but it’s real. Yes, a DM-themed bar. I’m a DM fan but I won’t be making a special trip to Tallinn for this.

LUNCH

There’s a great vegetarian Indian place about 2 blocks from here. (Check the menu for Dhaba Tynska) I’m pretty far from vegetarian on the food scale but Indian food is so tasty that meat really isn’t necessary. This place is literally in the shadows of Tyn Cathedral and insanely cheap. It’s in a courtyard of a sidestreet and unless you knew it was there, you’d walk right by. I love those hidden little gems. Beas offers a rather small menu but the ‘big menu’ is a mere 100KC. Score!

I also tried my first Kombucha. Kombucha is fermented tea. I can confirm that it does not taste like tea but does indeed taste fermented. The taste is really quite odd and off-putting. To be more specific, it rather tastes like something rotting; like something you should have thrown away 2 days ago but were too lazy and hungover. Like many similar foods that taste funky and gross, Kombucha is supposed to have some curative and beneficial qualities thus the reason for ingesting the stuff. If you haven’t heard of Kombucha, it’s not a fancy Euro-fied beverage. I had heard of the stuff in the US and my friend John used to buy it. Just look around in any health food or organic store and they’ll probably have it in their inventory.

Prior to having the stuff though I do recall Tina Fey on Letterman talking about her recent addiction to the dubious beverage. Go to 4:15 to hear her talk about it. She’s pretty spot on in her assessment and commentary.

On the note of Tina Fey, oh how I miss 30 Rock. Too bad I can’t get Hulu over here. Season 3 episodes are damn hard to locate online. Sadness.

CHEESE

If I said pickled cheese, the reaction of any normal person would be one of the following: ick, eew, gross, fuck that, nasty, hell no, etc. However, contrary to these thoughts, pickled cheese is freaking delicious. Pickled Hermelin is a staple bar food here in the C.R.. I was hesitant to try it for the very reason any normal person would hesitate to try the stuff. But I can report with great glee that pickled hermelin is the bomb. It’s not pickled in the traditional sense of being pickled. I usually associate tart, tangy, sour and vinegary with pickled foods. The hermelin is packed in a jar with various herbs, spices and other goodies such as garlic, peppers, juniper berries, capers, black pepper, onion, and oil. Basically you just let the stuff sit and work it’s magic in a jar. That easy. When the stuff is ready, you smear it all over some hearty Czech bread (Sumava is suggested) and you have a wonderful treat. I loved the stuff so much that I went to Tesco and bought a big plastic jar of the stuff. By no means is a 60Kc purchase of cheese going to be the world’s finest but it will surely satisfy my new cheese obsession.

Voila!

WORK

Here’s an example of the boring stuff I was researching last week to do a lesson at Kaufland. It’s at their logistics center in the Czech countryside. The place is huge and cumbersome and you can see the facility from kilometers away. It’s kind of one of those, ‘Oh shit, what the hell IS that over there,’ moments.

You can imagine the riveting buckets of information one can locate about grocery stores and related vocabulary. It’s rather boring and uninteresting material to do for 90 minutes.

NEWS

While surfing around on links from Reddit (my new go-to source aggregator), I saw the words penis and laser so naturally I did a little tap of my track pad and off I went. But what struck me as more tragic and interesting than the actual article was the sidebar. Yes, those are all associated news blurbs related to penis trauma this week. So this makes me query, ‘Does some dude behind a monitor aggregate articles on genitalia?’ Interesting gig. Is this a WTF moment? Or perhaps even a FTW? You decide.

ADVERTISING

What? Where’s Tom Cruise when you need him? How many level II Thetans approve of this message?

RANDOM PICS OF THE WEEK

Letna Park and an invader

Find the pivo!

Church at Strahov Monastery

Reminder: I live here

Just a quick blog so I can post a picture for Jayne. While on Skype tonight she requested I photograph the dinner I was making at the time. I did. Here it is.

Cheap Euro Shopper brand pasta + olive oil + milk & 2 kinds of cheese cheese to make a ghetto alfredo sauce + garlic + tomato + oregano & basil + salt/pepper + a wee spot of thyme & rosemary = dinner! I also added a scrambled egg to the mix. You can’t tell it’s there. And because I am my Mother’s daughter, I had to add extra garnish for the purposes of the photo. Note fancy Czech street backdrop.

When I opened the fridge I lost an egg. Sadness.

As I’ve mentioned, the weather has been crazy here (read shitty) lately but it cleared up nicely today so I took the camera & tripod to the nearest bridge (less than 400yards) and snapped away. This is what I got. Enjoy. Happy desktopping!

Here’s a deserted alley in the Jewish Quarter. Pretty cool, eh? I love that all this stuff is so close to where I sleep. Awesome. I just took these an hour ago.

After two gorgeous weeks of weather it had to end. As I sit here in my room on a Saturday morning, I listen to the wheels of the cars drive through the wet streets and I am reminded that it just can’t be pretty beer time all the time. As much as I wish it were true, it cannot be so.

As far as reporting my activities this week…… I have no exciting news. On Wednesday however, I was absolutely furious due to bad directions given to me by one of my employers. The directions failed to mention construction so that made my journey even more adventurous. Two metros, a bus AND a tram later I finally made it. With each step down the sidewalk, I let out another audible expletive. Fun. But, the client is a maker of sportswear and the class is in their ’showroom’ so maybe I can bag some freebie schwag out of the deal. It’s nice looking stuff, let me tell you.

Problems aside this week, I can confirm that I rode the metro like a mother last weekened. With 4 days off and no Budapest, I had to keep myself occupied and with the cheap/free options which, in my book, are always acceptable. I want a website dedicated to all the non-obvious cheap/free things to do in various places. Or am I just a moron and don’t know where this miraculous place is located inside the wonderful world of the web? Of course parks and just walking/wandering are available options but something a bit more stimulating would be nice. Discovering new part of town is enjoyable enough and certainly the added mystique of being in a foreign land adds to the journey. But, one’s legs begin to tire so one cannot walk forever. I do quite like the idea of just taking the metro/tram/bus to some random part of town and walking around. There was plenty of that on my schedule last weekend and despite all the cardio, my ass didn’t seem to get the message.

What am I doing today? I’m headed out to this place later this afternoon. (Scroll down to the South Eastern suburbs section….and read about U Klokonicka) It’s in Prague 4 and my friend Keith is a regular. Kacov is apparently some super-small micro brew (and brewery–or pivovar) that typically only distributes to villages and this place is the only pub in Prague that carries the stuff. I met Keith and Karl & Dita at the pub last week and it’s nice only paying 18-20Kc/beer. That’s cheap. And for stuff you can’t get anywhere else? Even better. So, if the beer is made, you must drink it. It’s offensive to the pivo Gods if you do not obey. Keith also says they pretty much give you a double portion of smazeny syr there and it’s crazy good and cheap, too. Cheese AND beer? Count me in!

In case you are wondering……. I think I’ve mentioned smazeny syr before but it’s fried cheese. This fried cheese is not the kind Americans are used to, though. It’s not mozzarella and it isn’t served with marinara. Smazeny syr is usually made with Hermelin (tastes like Brie) and often served with a sauce similar to tartar. If it sounds gross, trust me when I say that it is not. Three cheers for cheese!

Here are a few pics from Vysehrad and the Prague Zoo. More will be on my Facebook page. And it’s repetitive of me to say but click for larger view.

Well, I had intended on getting out of town this weekend as it’s a holiday and I have a 4-day weekend. I’m still trying to figure out why Easter is on Monday but I’m not going to lodge a formal complain with the government requesting that I be permitted to work on a scheduled holiday. Oh, well. And also since I don’t have anything scheduled for Fridays, I thought this would be a great chance to get out of Prague. 

Prague is great and beautiful and awesome (certainly now since the sun is here) but I haven’t left the city yet and I’d like to get out of Dodge for a bit. I had heard about a great travel agency that sells super cheap tickets to Budapest but since they ARE cheap, everyone uses this firm. As such, I tried to book a reservation too late and the only availability conflicted with my work schedule so my hopes of going to Hungary were dashed. Fear not loyal readers, I’ll get there soon. Maybe next weekend. Transportation tickets AND 2 nights in a hostel could theoretically run me about 80$ USD.In case you weren’t aware, that’s fucking awesome.

So, since I’m stuck in town this weekend, I decided to max out my newly purchased 3 month metro pass and ride my ass off. (Too bad I can’t do that literally.)  Off we go!

Day one….Yesterday, I finally made it to Vysehrad. Vysehrad is an old walled castle complex (although there is no castle) just south of the middle of town. There is also a cool cemetery and an old church. Prague has shitload of old churches. St. Vitus is still the most impressive but they’re all far cooler than anything you can see in the U.S. save for the National Cathedral in D.C..

Prague is a city of hills. As such, Vysehrad is on one of these hills and it’s next to the river. The complex has killer views of town and you can see everything. It was a gorgeous clear day yesterday so it was perfect. The flowering trees are now in bloom and some flowers are starting to appear so the grounds of Vysehrad are really quite pretty and serene. There wasn’t nearly the amount of foot traffic there as is at Prague Castle so it’s perhaps a bit more do-able for anyone who has an aversion to crowds. Note to self: this would be a great place to bring some food and beer when M&D come in June. Cheap lunch at a ‘pretty place’ will be right up their alley.

After Vysehrad I decided to go back to the SAPA market in Prague 4. Again, the weather was much better than the previous visit so that was a bonus. I went into a random small cafe/restaurant and ordered a bowl of Pho. Unlike the Pho I had in the Vietnamese market in Prague 10, this one was with chicken. Don’t quote me on this but I’m fairly sure the it’s traditionally made with beef.  It’s all good because it was a paltry 80Kc. Hooray for cheap!

After the market I stopped by Glossa to do a few things in the resource room. Hooray for work! Oh, and I finally started working this past week. I can happily report all of my students are super cool and very nice people. Czechs have a reputation for being surly and standoffish but of all the people I’ve met, they are not this way. They might not be initally very chatty with ‘filler’ conversation but they are more than willing to talk. I’ve had no problems with students not wanting to talk or participate in planned lessons. Maybe I’ve just had a good week but I’d like to think that either a) they’re just super cool or b) I’m that fucking awesome.

I sent out a message to Keith (my teaching partner in TEFL) and a fellow beer lover so we went and had a few beers at a pub in Nusle. We met up at U Klokočnika and drank some super hard to find Kacov brew. Good times. And cheap. Karl and Dita came for a few as well and somehow I ended up going with K & D to Malostranska to listen to some dude’s band. Funny how random an evening can become. I went out at 4 p.m. for a few beers and got home at 2 a.m. I am a freaking rock star. We sat with other people that knew the lead singer (who happens to be a friend of Dita’s) and I learned some dirty Czech phrases from a cool Czech girl who was more than eager to teach me the local versions of fuck off, I am drunk, don’t shit on me, I’d like to take a piss, etc. I was a good student though, I took notes. Ha.

Day two…..Thankfully, due to my new schedule, I’m no used to getting up early so I was up at 8am on a Saturday. Boo. Day two of my 4 day weekend was a day at Bohemia Bagel and the Prague Zoo. Aside from the usual Gothic/historical stuff to see here, I’d highly suggest checking out the Prague Zoo. The place is enormous and they have everything. It’s really quite scene and pretty and constructed on and around a huge hill. Of course since it was Saturday it was family day and there were plenty of cute kids running around (or being towed in the zoo’s wagons) by tired parents. And even though I’m childless, the zoo kicked my ass, too. Three hours of hiking up and down hills is tiring on an old broad. Good thing I don’t have bunyons or a hump in my back.

This evening I  walked around my neighborhood and hopped a random tram to Prague Castle. The castle gardens opened for the season today. I went at about 6 or so and it was perfect. Although St. Vitus was already closed (or in the middle of a service), the complex was rather deserted and the light from the setting sun gave everything a really beautiful yellow glow. Ack, I should have brought my camera!

So tomorrow is day three of the weekend and I’m not quite sure where to go. It needs to be cheap or free. Hmm.</p> <p>Oh and the party in THE NATURE last week? Yeah, it was great. Open bar at a cool hotel/restaurant in the woods. These half liter beers can be killer if you drink 600 of them. Aye aye aye! Check for photos on Facebook. Due to my rather inebriated state,  I was clearly incapable of getting up to see Obama speak on Sunday. I’m a bit pissed at myself for that as it really was my intention to go. I give myself a big thumbs down!

I have plenty of photos from my adventures but I need to upload them all and do some editing. They will be posted soon so stay tuned.  

Just a quick post with pics before I head out to a birthday party in the woods. Yeah, the woods. Or as Westergaard and the Czechs would call it, ‘The Nature.’

The weather finally got nice this week and it’s been a much welcome change! After 2 months of constant gray and clouds and cold and rain, it’s great to get some sun up in this piece! That being said, the beer gardens have now opened and I was able to experience 2 of Prague’s pivo offering locales… There’s a great beer garden at Letna park as well as one right in the middle of town at Riegrovy sady. Ask the Google. Here are some pics and as per usual, you must go clicky clicky for bigger. Also, I feel obligated to mention these images are compromised for the sake of speedy upload time. Although the originals were snapped with my point & shoot, they still have more color pop and greater clarity than the ones here.