Took me on a date

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Oh, how to celebrate Valentine's Day when your sweetheart is not around, when Aphrodite isn't on your side?

Well, I went straight for this:


Yep, I took myself out on a date to one of Prague's sugary Ovocný Světozor (i.e. Fruit Delicatessen) spots near my flat. This chain has an insanely delectable assortment of cakes and ice cream treats. It looks a touch like a Super Mario Brothers game on the inside, but no matter.


I savored a piece of amaretto cake and chased it with a latte. 


The shops are difficult to miss, with their vivid red and green exteriors... and steady streams of customers.


That wasn't my only V-day treat, though; the night before, Art Teacher and I attended a Blood, Love and Rhetoric performance of "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen, at Studo Alt@. Nothing like a play about misogyny and a failed marriage to ring in Feb. 14! Nonetheless, the lead actress was a talented former student and the whole performance was fetching. 


Blood, Love and Rhetoric is one of the few outlets for English theater in Prague, and they're often doing edgy, atypical takes on old favorites or highlighting lesser-known playwrights (though their take on Ibsen was quite traditional). Studio Alt@ is a gem of a small theater, in what first appears to be a sketchy industrial park in fuzzy lighting...


...but once you pose for a few photographs by the incessant graffiti...


...you enter a cavernous, cozy space filled with theater lovers and ping pong. We also saw a woman getting a haircut there after the play.

Via bonza.cz
So Valentine's Day was not a tragedy, thanks to a play, a pal and a pile of baked goods :)


A doggone good hike

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

A post by Jayda. Woof.

Mom and I went for a two-day hike in the Czech Křivoklátsko woods all by ourselves, since dad is out of town on a cookery course. We had everything packed up before going, from rain gear to my doggie treats to a special turistické map mom got at the Neo Luxor bookstore on Wenceslas Square. I just had to get my fuzzy behind up early enough to catch the right bus.


Yeah, that's right. I'm in a puppy bjorn. Got a problem with it?

Day 1 

KM hiked: A measly 4
Missed buses: 1
People met who spoke English: 0
Maps lost: 0

We rode into the town of Rakovník and had plans to switch to another bus... but we missed it; mom had us standing on the wrong side of the rode when it whizzed by. And there wasn't another one to our intended trail-head village for 4 hours! Doggonit! I was pawing at mom to share the hard-boiled egg she was peeling in frustration when an old man hollered at us in Czech from behind a fence. He'd been locked a decaying old track-and-field-complex near the bus-stop, and said something about a "klíč". Mom knew that meant "key," so she ran into the building adjacent to the track and found a lady who could let him out. He was laden in photography equipment and took mom's and my picture; I gave him my best bow-wow.

At least Rakovnik was pretty
With grey clouds looming, mom made the executive decision to walk to the local train station and catch the next carriage to Křivoklát, where we'd booked a pension for the night. So... the first part of our hike was gone to the dogs. We considered getting off early at this station to get at least somewhat of a hike...

It's pronounced MYEH-stetch-koh

...but decided against it as it had begun to sprinkle.  Safely in Křivoklát, the walk from the train station into town was pleasant but wet.



With the rain falling abundantly at this point, we nestled into a restaurant. Mom read and drank grog and planned a more local hike for the afternoon, and I dozed on the bench next to her. The waitress loved me and kept clutching me to her cleavage. 

Waiting for the rain to subside


A grey day

When the rain lessened to a drizzle, we did a mini-hike around the town environs and up to the local castle. 
Oh, the things you find in the woods

Křivoklát Castle

Mom noticed how it was a sort of crossroads for a number of hiking trails; she said she'd like to explore the area a bit more in the future.

So many places for me to mark my territory

Back down in town, we checked into our cozy little pension, which had a castle view!  


And then we went out for a big schnitzel at the local pub and mom got asked on a date by a local yokel. She replied, "Můj manžel bude mít zmatek" and the whole pub erupted in laughter. (Translation: "My husband would have confusion.")
Carbing up

Day 2

KM hiked: 12
Missed buses: 0
People met who spoke English: 0
Maps lost: 1

Now THIS was a proper hiking day. For mom, anyhow; my little legs tired fast and mom had to carry me most of the way. And the first 4km was straight uphill! 


We wound our way south through the village of Roztoky, with some neat garden patches...



So that's where they grow all of the horseradish  
...and into the woods.


Paradise
Pink-tongued happiness!
It was quite mucky in spots
Someone made a house my size!
If only mom could have read the Czech interpretive signs

On the last 4 km of the hike, we passed a village and a couple of developmentally disabled adults ran over to us so they could pet my cute noggin. Then some Ukrainian construction workers joined and insisted that they give mom and me a lift to our goal town because they couldn't understand why on Earth we'd choose to walk so far. But we persevered. Mom discovered she'd dropped the map somewhere on the trail, but we followed the trail markings and were fine.

Bless these markers!

We reached Novy Jachmov about an hour before our bus left. I made some chicken friends there. 

#chickensoup

We caught a bus to Beroun, and then a train to Prague. Despite a couple of mishaps, I give the hike two paws up!

A pig bits tradition: Zabijacka

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Caveat: Vegan/vegetarian friends, you may want to skip this post.

Before moving to the Czech Republic, one of the only frames of reference BW had about the country was an Anthony Bourdain TV episode that features a traditional village pig slaughter - a zabijačka. Foodie that he is, BW was enamored. So when our Czech friend told us there would be a zabijačka in Prague 1, we jumped at the chance to go. 

It was put on by the Ambiente restaurant group in the courtyard of Čestr steakhouse, near the Muzeum metro stop, so we weren't in a village, but we were surrounded strictly by Czechs and we did eat lots of pig parts. So I call it sufficient. 

The Cestr courtyard, with the National Museum in the background
As we arrived at the event a few hours after it had started, we didn't see the butchering, which is fine by me. Done traditionally, you would wake up at the crack of dawn and begin preparing foodstuffs like vegetables, barley and seasonings.

Using intestine for sausage casings
I read on Wikipedia this rural tradition thrived under Communism, as it was much cheaper to raise and butcher food at home. Nowadays EU regulation dictates a number of things, from how pigs need to be rendered unconscious as to not suffer and what hygienic precautions need to be in place. Of course, it's a controversial practice and many animal rights groups would like it panned, pardon the pun.

It seems it's a dying tradition. (So punny today.)

The line for pig parts was verrrrrry long
It was freezing outside, yet we pigged out. Nearly all the parts of the bovine were cooked or utilized in the process, as you can see below...

Prdelačka - blood soup. Our pooch looks dubious; so were we
Bread with vepřové sádlo - pig lard

I think this is ovar - boiled, salty white meat

Some řízek (schnitzel) and tlačenka (head cheese)
 
Jitrnice - a white sausage the consistency of pudding
It was tasty and I'd consider going again, but not in temperatures that made icicles of my appendages. To see the Anthony Bourdain episode - for mature audiences and those not offended by meat processing - click below:


Work hard, eat tapas: Andalusia

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Sometimes I look at the amount of traveling BW and I do and feel a touch dizzy. Who gets to do this? We're just a couple of educators, not Sultans of Brunei, though we feel like it sometimes when we look at a map and realize the myriad places we've been.

Life is “ser pan comido”. In English: “to be bread eaten."

Through careful planning, generous school holidays and the beauty of home exchanges, we've managed to see a LOT of Europe. This includes an October trip to the South of Spain, my foodie husband's #1 bucket list stop. The bits we covered of Sra. Andalusia:

ALMUNECAR

We stayed in a home exchange on the coast in October, which meant:
1) cool, quiet beaches - no sunburn or overcrowding
2) lots of retired people - everyone else had gone back to work

This little tourist town bordered on silence - except for when the German retirees filled a pub on a Tuesday night and had a sing-along. Nonetheless, the place was nice for resting, and we rooted out some local hotspots for tapas.






MALAGA

We only had a day here and mostly wandered around and visited the Picasso Museum. A highlight was the spectacular Ataranzas food market, where we indulged in tapas and cava. Note: The beautiful Castilla de Gibralfaro does not allow dogs, even when they are a few kgs and carried in a bjorn (hence BW's cheeky photo below).

 




ALHAMBRA

What a spectacle! Overlooking the white-washed Albaicín quarter of Granada, this Moorish palace is awash in emerald gardens and prismatic tiles. Stylistically, the plaits of calligraphy, honeycombs of woodwork and webs of rhombuses enchant you not only with their beauty but also their algorithms. Wear good walking shoes and book tickets ahead.






GRANADA

Confession: We could move here. We were fed music, sun and tapas at every corner, and we couldn't get enough. And the people! Someone who shall remain nameless left a backpack with our iPad in it in a tapas bar and when we raced back to get it 20 minutes later, it was still there; the staff had found it and held it for us. Gracias!






HILL TOWNS

BW enjoyed hopping in the rental and whizzing around the hill towns in the region, such as Nerja and Salobrena. That is, until we climbed one with streets so steep and wedged together that we weren't sure we'd get the car back down the mountain. A number of wizened old Andalusians shook their heads at us, which flushed us crimson.






MADRID

We had only one afternoon here, before our flight back to Bohemia. We traipsed around Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral. It was Halloween, and at nightfall hordes of costumed roller-bladers poured down Calle Mayor; I dig that tradition. All was agreeable...






...until I ate this offensive plate of paella. The result? The worst food poisoning I've ever had in my life, topping even a terrible bout in Egypt a decade ago. My Czech doctor had to alert the Center for Disease Control because it was so bad and I wasn't allowed to return to work until I tested negative for Campylobacter - not that I could have, anyhow, being that I couldn't even sit up or hold down water for nearly a week.


Ahhh, the hazards of travel. At least this came at the end of what was otherwise an exceptional trip - and didn't involve our beloved tapas.

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