Praha, Pivo, Prosim

While this isn’t a dedicated food blog, the last two entries have been food-related so today I’m continuing the trend….

Green/mixed salads aren’t impossible to find here but not as many places have really good salad options so in the past week I’ve been throwing together a few random ones to compensate for my lack of veggie eating.

I hit up Tesco last night and bought the requisite ingredients. I had no specific salad in mind but I bought what looked good and knew I would make something ‘on the spot’ when/if I needed/wanted it.

First, I sliced up 2 red peppers and 3 small zucchinis. I tossed them with dried rosemary, salt/pepper and olive oil. Into the oven they went. 200-ish C until they are soft enough for your own liking.

While the vegetables were roasting, I made a vinaigrette. Mandarin oranges were on sale so I sliced off a sizable section and squeezed it into a jar. Some zest was also added. Salt & pepper were added as was dried rosemary, sunflower oil, olive oil and some apple cider vinegar. Shake, shake, shake….shake your booty.

The other ingredients of my salad included: baby spinach, mixed greens (Iceberg & radicchio), cherry tomatoes, cucumber, eidam cheese, salami, mandarin slices, and a hard-boiled egg. I’m a big fan of meat & hard boiled eggs on salads–I realize some are not into it but whatever–my salad!

Said salad was assembled and drizzled with the rosemary mandarin vinaigrette.

All in all, a rather tasty salad–and colorful, too!

MORE FOOD……

From the Smitten Kitchen, I read about a super EASY recipe. I usually find tomato sauces a bit too tangy (therefore I tend to add other ingredients to balance out the tang) but this one was SO SIMPLE I had to make it.

Strange though-it really IS as good as the other food bloggers said. I’ll certainly be making this again.

I modified the plain pasta with some leftover brown-sugared bacon I had made a few days before. I also added heavy cream to the mix to make a ghetto carbonara. Yes, I know carbonara IS a sauce so I essentially had two different sauces on my pasta but alas, this girl likes sauce!

And since I just mentioned it, here’s the brown sugared bacon I made last week. In a thread on Reddit, someone posted the merits of preparing bacon this way. Dude, it works. Yum. *Basically just get some thick-sliced bacon and sprinkle brown sugar over it. Put it into the oven and cook until it’s as crispy (or in my preference, floppy) as you like. Voila–salty, sugary, fucking delicious bacon!

Other random stuff… last week there was a festival/carnival in town. These festivals are quite frequent but with varying themes. Last week was Eurokarnaval… different bands (or ensembles? not sure on this one) from all over Europe came to town and played their stuff. Each group had their own theme/wardrobe…. One group was dressed like cavemen, another looked like wizards while yet another were all dressed like giant babies (yes, BABIES).

The guy from this group was very enthusiastic and fun to watch. His group did covers of Hush, Radar Love & Paint It Black. Good stuff!

Cavemen–complete with layers of fur!

In other news, it’s Saturday. I’m not working. Therefore, it’s time for pivo. Pivovarsky Klub here I come!

I love how much awesome stuff there is in a big city. And it’s even better when this big city is in Europe and you live there. Bonus.

The street I live on is a sidestreet. Although it’s a sidestreet, there are still plenty of drunk revelers and ‘action’ to keep things interesting. On the back side of the building is my grocery store (but this one sucks) as well as the metro, a tram stop and a big mall. It pays to live near convenience. Anyway, on my little sidestreet there are a few restaurants and bars as well as a hostel and a police station. But additionally, there is a cute little cheese shop (that I think specializes in Dutch cheese). The door to this place is about 20 feet from the front of my building so it’s beyond convenient. Although the shop is small, they do have a decent selection of cheese that I’ve never heard of as well as various klobasas and meats. There are also two tables which I’m fairly certain are for drinking wine & eating cheese. What a wonderful idea!

So, in this country many businesses are either closed on the weekend (including Saturday) or they close at noon on Saturday. Therefore, if you are requiring anything from a smaller shop, you best be hauling your ass out of bed on Saturday. I went to the cheese shop at 10:30 this morning and I bought two kinds of cheese. I don’t have an itemized receipt but I think one is Farm Cheddar (brand name? not sure–thus the capitalization). It has a black rind and the cheese itself is rather pale yellow. It’s certainly not the bright orange cheddar Americans are used to seeing. Cheddar is nearly non-existant here so that’s why I bought 100g of the stuff. Cheese #2–I cannot possibly remember the name because 1) it was in Czech and 2) I had never heard of the stuff before. Maybe I’ll be nice and take photos for you.

Voila!

Today is a day of cooking–here’s the menu

Herbed baguette with cheese–not original but hey, it’s a good start

Roast chicken–made with a compound butter of: rosemary, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, marjoram, basil, garlic– also stuffed with lemon, onion, apple & garlic

Roast vegetables–organic carrots & potatoes with onions–made with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, basil, marjoram

Steamed broccoli—snooze, I know but my guest likes broccoli. See, I’m a good hostess!

Vanilla nutmeg pudding–layered with an organic blueberry reduction made with lemon zest, honey and apple liquor –topped with an almond/brown sugar/cinnamon crisp

Midnight–food gone, two bottles of wine gone. Done. Time for bed.

The Christmas markets opened yesterday. Reason #410 why Prague is awesome. There is a gigantic tree in Old Town Square. It’s beautiful. Enjoy.

I know, I know, you might all be surprised to hear that I’m at home on a Saturday night. And I don’t even have any beer to keep me company. A serious consideration is hot tea at the moment. Yes, I am living the dream!

NEWS and EVENTS

The biggest news is that my birthday is on Tuesday and I bought an off-camera flash for my DSLR today. I’d rather focus on the latter part of the last sentence as it’s more exciting than the getting older part. But alas, I’ll address both…

The flash–it’s an off brand therefore it is less than the pricier Nikon variety. I wish I could drop some serious cash on super quality equipment but funds are tight and I can’t go spending frivolously; as much as I’d like to do the aforementioned, I have to be aware of how much I have and where it is going. Budgets suck. Boo. Thumbs down budgets! Either way, I’ll be fooling around with this new toy tomorrow so I’ll post some photos in the future. Oh, and to answer anyone that might ask–why is it necessary to buy this kind of flash when most cameras have a built-in flash? Well, that’s a simple one. On camera flashes make people look like fucking shit. Horrible. Skin tones are horrible and complexions look like hell. An extra flash option adds for the possibility of angled lighting or diffused lighting thus making human subjects look human and less like pasty beasts.

The birthday. Ah, yes. Getting older. Those of you that know me, know my age so we’ll leave it at that. However, I will say that I certainly don’t ‘feel’ my age nor do I necessarily ‘act’ my age, either. The number attached to an age is kind of arbitrary but it’s that pesky reminder of just how long we’ve been trotting the globe and making memories.

Important history lesson…. Nov. 17, 1989: The Velvet Revolution, Czech Republic. The end of Communism. As the 20th anniversary of this historical event approaches, the city is preparing many activities and celebrations to commemorate such a momentous time in this country’s history. A Czech friend (and student) told me an interesting story last night. We were out drinking wine under the Charles Bridge at a cute little bistro and she said that her university was located near Vaclavske Namesti (Wenceslas Square). Vaclavske was where much of the Velvet Revolution action happened. For fourteen days she and her fellow students were locked in their rooms. They could hear shooting and shouting but had no idea what was going on. The Berlin Wall had fallen earlier that month and now the time had come to Czechoslovakia. It was their turn.

I now know a substantial amount of locals and/or those raised behind the Iron Curtain and it’s really fascinating to hear stories about the Communist Era. Although, they certainly don’t see it as such because they were living it, there are so many little things about ‘western’ life that I have taken for granted. Things that I would never even think about were unavailable or unknown here during that time. For example….. I was talking to another Czech friend and colleague about how my sister (thanks, V!) would give me green olives but she would SAY they were green cherries. Like a fool, I believed her and ate them only to spit them out. My Czech friend then told me that the first time she had olives was when she was 15 and in Greece because olives were just not available here at that time. She also told me how everyone wore the same shoes. And how the queues (lines) for fruits were extremely long. And how they ate Cuban oranges which are more yellow than orange. Hmm, interesting–importing the other Communist oranges. How apropo.

I’M IN THE MOVIES, BEYOTCH!

I’m hopefully getting a copy of my world premiere film tomorrow. No, no, not porn. Nobody would want to see that. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all Carrie Prejean and tell Larry King he’s being ‘inappropriate’ when he asks me about it. (And as an aside…and I apologize I’m about to use this word but…. Wow, she’s quite the entitled cunt, isn’t she?) But anyway, I should be meeting Libor and Petra so they can give me a few copies of the documentary. I think there should be an official screening with a red carpet, popcorn and media. Who can I call? I wonder if Povich and Chung are available for press?

FOOD

Here’s something anyone out there could possibly help me out with… The backstory: Ok, a Czech friend (the first one mentioned above) grew up in a small village. She goes to visit her parents frequently. But, because this village is so small, many people grow crops and raise animals so as to provide for themselves. I had known that her parents have chickens and that she often brings free range eggs back to Prague. But, I did not know that there are also rabbits, goats and even friggin’ beehives. Yes, beehives! I want to get my hands on some real organic honey. Being the food geek I am, I was very excited by all this bounty she was telling me about. So, I made her a deal. If she can bring me some organic goodies, I offered to cook. It’s a good trade, really. I get to play with high quality organic food and cook and she gets some free English. The challenge: So, here’s what I’m thinking….. if she brings some awesome eggs, I would like to make a souffle. For anyone that has never had a souffle, trust me when I say they are delicious. And if you love eggs, go find a restaurant that serves them now! Souffles are just big fluffy, eggy goodness. I think cheese souffles are the most ‘go-to’ but there are various savory options as well as sweet. If anyone out there has souffle experience, I’d like to hear about it. What did you make? How did it turn out? Tips? I’m always down for making new recipes so getting feedback would be most helpful.

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.

I love the SAPA market I really do.

It’s horribly cliche to say a place is alive, to say that it has a pulse. But I swear SAPA has a heartbeat. Granted, it’s a heartbeat spoken in a different tongue but alas, it’s there.

The workers are constantly unpacking huge boxes of wares and organizing their little shops. Some of the people listen to music while others play cards. Others even play some kind of game where money is exchanged and even yet another strange table game that looks to be a cross of chinese checkers, chess and dominos. They drink their tea and they laugh and conduct their business and go upon their merry way. Meanwhile I walk about with mouth gaped like the out-of-place ‘tourist’ who is amazed at it all. I’ve been to SAPA enough times now so that I know the little alleyways and where the hidden spots are located. But, that doesn’t keep me from cruising them all. The SAPA market is a city within a city. It’s a community with lawyers and schools and even an insurance agency. I love it!

I made an unplanned trip to SAPA this morning because it was still early and I was in that part of town so off I went. It was a quick trip today as I didn’t do much browsing but I certainly wanted a steaming bowl of Pho. I know I’ve blogged about this before but I’ll recap….. With relative confidence I can say Pho is the Vietnamese national dish. In short, it’s a big bowl of piping hot broth with noodles. No, it doesn’t sound very interesting but trust me when I say it’s freaking delicious. The broth is super flavorful and that alone would be good enough for me. But then there’s all the extra fabulous stuff they throw in the mix. Aside from the broth, noodles & meat there is a combination of onions & misc. fresh ‘greenery’ that is added last minute so as to retain it’s bright color and freshness. Additionally, it’s up to the consumer of said bowl of goodies as to what extras he or she would like to add. I usually opt for them all: freshly cut lemon, fresh sliced red chilies, sliced garlic, chili/garlic paste & of course Sriacha. Sriacha is a fiery red sauce that while being fairly ‘hot’ on the scale of heat, it’s not so hot that you can’t taste any other ingredients in what you are eating. I seem to be able to handle hotter foods than I think I can therefore I always end up gradually adding more Sriacha. The stuff will make you sweat a bit but sweat in a good way. I found myself blowing my nose this morning and it’s August. A bowl of chicken & pork Pho with a .5L of Pilsner Urquell - 110Kc. All in all, a most excellent price. Now go eat your Pho!

Update on yesterday’s post: I’m recording the voiceover for this documentary tomorrow. The demo/audition/whatever was super brief this a.m. I met a guy at 10am at a recording studio and I read 2 bits of script while he recorded. One take–nice & easy. I’m not even sure how much of a script I’m scheduled to do but it pays well and will be an interesting experience. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for a short documentary on scuba diving & photography in Mauritius!! Hmm, wonder if I can bag an entry on IMDB out of this. Something to chew on.

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?!

In the Czech Republic the first of May is a big holiday. Schools and offices are closed and everyone gets to enjoy a day off. Also, it’s a day when Czechs are quite amorous and expressive of their love and libidos. You see, the first day of May is also kind of the Czech version of our Valentine’s Day. According to tradition, you must kiss your lover under a blossoming cherry tree on May first and you will be granted love/luck/prosperity. Frankly, I’m not quite sure if all three of those are true but you get my point. So, a bunch of us headed up the Ujezd funicular to the Petrin where there is a nice park and plenty of cherry trees.

Petrin has a big observation tower that looks quite like the Eiffel Tower. As a whole though, the locale in its entirety is called Petrin Hill (as Prague is a city of hills) so there are great views of the city from there. I cannot confirm this as yesterday was my first trek to Petrin and my ass wasn’t about to hoof it up the tower. I’ll certainly do it another time but I had already walked enough this week and I just wasn’t in the mood to wait in line and get all sweaty when my priorities were elsewhere. Where else could my priorities have been? Ah well, one of the political parties here sponsored some kind of even at Petrin and thusly sold beer and klobasa (I supppose it’s like a Kielbasa–just a big damn sausage that is served with thick sliced Czech bread and spicy mustard). There were also miscellaneous treats for kids (cookies, marzipan confections, etc.) as well as a few of those stupid bouncy-type rooms where kids can toss their lunch onto a plastic vibrating surface. But, going back to the beer and klobasa thing…this was by far the cheapest beer I’ve experienced in this country. The sausage and beer were only 10Kc each. Yeah, EACH. That’s about fifty cents. They WANT you to drink it. It’s an offense to the beer Gods if you do not do so.

So, going back to the Czech day of love and romance and all things sex. I actually really like the idea of kissing your lover under a tree and somehow it guaranteeing continued love and happiness. However, the skeptic in me realizes that’s just a silly tradition but at least it gives people a way to make out as much as possible. That said, Czechs are very open with affection. Much more so than anyone would ever be in the US. Sure, there’s the occasional kiss and hand holding but nothing to the degree that I’ve seen here. There are more than enough make-out sessions on the metros and trams. But they don’t stop on public transport, these folks will be kissy and grabby in most places. Similarly, this openness to sex and love is part of the Czech culture; this behavior is not unique to May first. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, this is a rather sexually liberated country and they have little issue with sexuality, discussions of sex, prostitution, or pornography. So, knowing this, I was fully expecting a flat-out park sex incident yesterday at Petrin. Color me disappointed when all we saw was a bit of spooning and a guy engaged in some kind of yoga/stretchy thing. In fact, the afternoon was low-key which was quite the opposite of what I was expecting. I suppose I was likening it to the ‘if you can shoot up on the sidewalk and not get arrested’ scenario, then why can’t you copulate with your burly hairy backed man lover in the park?

I uploaded some random videos I’ve snapped with my cheap point & shoot over the past few months. Enjoy. Note: they are out of sequence and I didn’t bother to edit them or make them more interesting via iMovie.

On a final note, today is Derby Day and I’m missing it. Something tells me though that my friends back in Kentucky will be having great time!

I’ve had a few screencaptures on my desktop for a while now and I fully intended to integrate them into a blog. It hasn’t happened. So, to clean up my desktop, I’m giving you a random synopsis of what I have…..

A few weeks ago President Obama gave a speech at Prague Castle. It was free to the public and many, many people attended. With all my democratic will I planned to watch/listen to this event as not only have I never had this kind of experience, it would certainly make a unique and memorable milestone all the while doing it in a foreign country. Alas, I did not attend. Considering my massive beer intake (free!) the night before, my priorities shifted in the night. If I mention that I slept in my clothes and shoes, that could perhaps give an indication as to my immediate motivation–GO TO BED. When 7am rolled around and I was supposed to meet some peeps to go to the speech, my hungover and pathetic ass was in a deep slumber. Damn that free beer.

Although I have yet to read the full transcript, I understand President Obama spoke about Iran and all the requisite things an American President should talk about. Following the speech, The Prague Daily Monitor printed the transcript as well as posted some viewer comments. Here are two of them.

Pavla is pissed. Is that a fair assumption?

A most excellent idea!! Including myself, I know more than enough people who would echo such a sentiment.

I saw a human gnome on the metro this morning. Yes, a real life gnome. I shit you not. This little man was probably about 4′10″ and that certainly didin’t help his gnomish predicament. Ok, so the guy wasn’t wearing a cute little red hat or shoes that curled up but by God, this guy had the beard and long hair. I’m half convinced that this guy was probably an extra Hobbit.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, here’s a super nerdy thing that I should mention. At one of my jobs/schools they have a secure in-house web connection for anyone to use. When you are on the network all the other connections appear. Since this is a password protected connection, all the computers are on company premises. I just want to know who the big LOTR freak is that dude names ALL the connections about imaginary places.

And lastly here’s an amusing bit from a class I taught last week. I did a lesson on the ’second conditional.’ (The second conditional is a way of speaking that is used when talking about something that is unlikely, hypothetical or IMAGINARY. Structurally, they are commonly seen as the IF…..THEN statements. Note the IMAGINARY part there.) So, in the lesson there was a series of questions relating to photos I had on the table. The photos were of famous people and the questions were actually from real interviews. One of the questions was about living in another period of time. After the questions, I then asked the student about what that the interview questions were based on. Primarily, I stated, ‘Ok, so these previous questions–were they about REAL or IMAGINARY things?’ My student then proceeds to tell me that in particular the question about going to another period of time could be real. My thinking, ‘Uhhmm, ok–where is he going with this?’ The student then goes even further to mention his past lives. Yes, past lives. He then stated that in one of his past lives he owned a small castle but that he was a very bad man. How did he know he was a bad man? Well, he was bad because he pushed his wife down a hill and killer her. So yes, to wrap things up, he was a bastard wife-killing feudal lord. That wasn’t exactly where I was expecting that line of questioning to be going. Good times.

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.