It's a small world after all...

About a decade ago, ER worked with hip dude MarkInMaine at The White Bear Press in Minnesota, and they kept in touch over the years. Recently, MarkInMaine and his wife ProfessorJen connected us with another alum of the Press who is now the Editor of a paper in New Brunswick, Maine, and happens to be married to a gal from the Czech Republic! Small world, right?

This week, we got to meet the New Brunswick Editor and his wife, Nurse M, while they were back in Prague visiting her family and our own visitors were on a daytrip. We had a lovely lunch at Cafe Louvre. Thanks, guys!

Afterwards, we strolled around town and watched as the carp stalls sold out of their fresh fish for Czech Christmas dinners. 

Butchered while you wait!

That morning, ER had put Cousin Lv and Seahwak on the train to Kutna Hora to see the famous "bone church." When they returned, we all went to tour the Staropramen Brewery in Prague 5, which was slightly hokey (automated tour rather than a human guide) but had a good finish with a crisp pivo at the end. The brewery was founded in 1869, and the word Staropramen means "old spring."

a big 'ol brewery

beer-making mechanics

Staropramen yummies

We learned that Staropramen is shipped to the U.S. and sold within 4 weeks of being bottled at the factory we visited in Prague. Again, small world!

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On a mission for medovina

Mission Title: Medovina or Bust

Assignment: To find the best hot mead in the city of Prague

Rationale: The first night that Cousin Lv and Seahawk arrived in Prague, we swung them through the Old Town Square Christmas markets on the way to the National Theater and they tried hot honey wine, otherwise known as mead, or, in Czech, medovina. Their tastebuds fell quickly in love and they proceeded to scour the city for a perfect, reasonably-priced bottle.

Protocol:
1) Smile charmingly to score a few samples of the stuff, which is only available in winter.

That first, fateful taste

2) Sightsee through entire city whilst keeping eyes peeled and chops ready for more medovina-tasting opportunities.

The stunning National Theater (Narodni Divadlo)

3) Refuel with Czech food like utopenec (drowned sausage), which Cousing Lv loved.

Pickled!

4) Work up another medovina appetite the next day with a trip to Prague Castle and St. Vitus's Cathedral.

No medovina allowed in church

5) Visit the second-oldest pub in Prague and try another Czech beverage in the hopes it will fill the medovina void.

"Good... but it's no medovina..."

 6) Continue to traipse down the "Royal Road" through the center of Prague...

Under a tower bridge...

...and then on the Charles Bridge...

...for a super photo op...

...and past Santas on 4-wheelers on the swanky Parizka Street.

7) Visit two more sets of Christmas markets (Namesti Republiky and Namesti Miru), finding and sampling their medovina. 

8) Put off buying a bottle for fear of polishing it off prior to packing it and flying it back to the U.S.

Conclusion: Mission incomplete. But we've had a lot of fun!

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Deliveries

How thrilling to receive a few packages in the mail the other day, all the way from Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota! We've had some - how do I say it politely - CHALLENGES with the Czech postal service in our 5 months here, so we were thankful that everything arrived intact; only one box out of 4 had a large gash in it. Oh, and the postal authority thought another one was resale goods (taco seasoning, Chapstick, liquid foundation, etc.), so BW had to travel to another part of the city to retrieve it, as well as pay VAT. But, hey, we got it!

Our local P.O.

BW with the goods

And since we were in the vicinity, I convinced BW to eat at a conveyor belt sushi joint that I've wanted to try for months. They have a weekday lunchtime special that is ridiculously inexpensive, and the food was pretty decent. The little belt brings maki, nigiri, dumplings and shrimp right to you.

He likes it!

Let's just say we got our money's worth

However... neither Christmas packages nor rotating sushi exceed the value of our latest delivery - Cousin Liv and her friend, Seahawk! They came up from Austria and will be spending the holidays with us. Smashing!

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Dinner for 14

We've got a love-hate relationship with food in Prague. We LOVE the lack of preservatives, affordability of seasonal produce, and Czech yogurt. The yogurt here is divine. Oh, and we like how nutrition is clearly labeled on products.

Egg liquer-flavored yogurt... it's pretty good!

You know exactly what you're eating

But... we dislike the limited selection (compared to back home) and high cost of imported/out-of-season goods. This has challenged us to be creative about our cooking so we not only stay within a budget but also make sure we're not lapsing into gorging on klobasa and rye bread every night because they're convenient.

When BW informed me after a night of Billiards and beverages that he'd invited 12 (!) people over for an impromptu dinner the next day, I blanched. What could we serve that wasn't root vegetables or typical Czech stuff everyone eats? And how would we fit that many people in our flat?

So the next morning, we organized the kitchen cupboards and took note of what we already had.

This is the cleanest our cabinets have been in a very long time

Then we hit the internet for ideas, planned a menu and hurriedly went shopping. (Of course the cash register malfunctioned when we were checking out and we had to be rung up twice.) Back at home, we cooked up a monsoon of food and cleaned maniacally.

Regretfully, I forgot to take pictures of the dishes we made as well as all 12 guests crammed into our living room, balancing plates on their knees. But here's the rundown of what we made with ingredients available in the CR. Pictures are from the Internet; we could never make food look this good.

Appetizers

Avocado-stuffed cherry tomatoes

Pears and farmer's ham

Balkan flatbread

Dinner:

Coq au vin

Rosemary potato fans

Onion pull-apart bread
Tomato-corn salad

Dessert:

Store-bought strudel :)

The experience made us enjoy and appreciate what our local grocers have on offer. Perhaps we'll have to invite another group over to inspire more creative cooking. It definitely got us to clean our flat head to toe!

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A snowy goodbye

Those snowboots I keep intending to buy continue to sit on a shop shelf because, well, there is a serious deficit of snow here! We did wake up to one morning of flurries, though, and took Miss Michigan (a student teacher at my school) to Vysehrad to see the grounds blanketed in white before she returned to the U.S. It was so becoming that we stayed outside a bit too long and literally froze our tookuses off, but the views were worth it. 

This was our third trip to Vysehrad in the short time we've been here. There's something magical about it that I can't quite pinpoint... peacefulness and nostalgia just seem to fill your lungs when you breathe the air up there. I love our proximity to it - one metro stop south on the red line from our flat. Previous visits can be seen HERE and HERE.

Miss Michigan poses over Praha. See the castle in the back?

Barren trees allow for a good view of the Basilica

Snapping away before heading back to the U.S.

People leave candles even on a frigid morning

The St. Peter and St. Paul Basilica is a grand Gothic wonder

Mosaics crown the entrances

Unsettling door decor

They really pack 'em in

Happy day! I finally found Mucha (famous Slavic artist)! 

Snowy candles

A famous Czech poet keeps an eye on his own grave

Anton Dvorak (the composer to the left) photo-bombed our pic

The powder was perfect for snowballs

Our neighborhood is in the distance

Prague's oldest surviving building, the Rotunda of St. Martin (11th century)

Miss Michigan lived with us for a couple of weeks toward the end of her practicum, and she's now back in the States. Another teacher-in-training, Miss Spain, left in December, too. We wish them both much happiness and a long and illustrious teaching careers! Miss you guys.

Future teachers Miss Michigan and Miss Spain

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Market-able

Q: What's the secret to getting BW to go shopping with you?

A: Suggest you visit a Czech Christmas market together.

Whereas I practically have to trick him into entering an H&M or drugstore, BW is the one repeatedly pulling me into the pine-swathed wooden stalls of Prague's Vanocni Trh (Christmas markets). Not that I'm complaining. Bundling up, cupping a steaming mulled wine and meandering aimlessly is bliss. Throw in some roasted chestnuts and the clink-clank of a medieval-era blacksmith, and you've got a near-perfect atmosphere.

The markets are open Nov. 30 to Jan. 12, and a Reuters Virtualtourist poll ranked them #4 out of all the seasonal stalls in Europe.

Daytime...

...and night. Students performed on the main market stage and even J-dog came out to clap for them.

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