So, we made it to Prague. Woohoo!!! Again we lucked out and had an absolutely beautiful Airbnb right in the historic section of the town. Everyone I have met who has visited Prague has told me that Prague is beautiful. I was worried that my expectations would be too high, but I was not disappointed. You have to check out the view from the kitchen table. Nothing like sipping tea and looking at a beautiful castle. It was a bit surreal. We had 4 full days in Prague. We walked over the Charles Bridge several times. It was lined with vendors selling handmade jewelry. I love, love to buy things from these people because it us unique and interesting. I spent two mornings walking up and down the bridge deciding what to buy. I was sad that I couldn’t buy most of it. Mmm. Everyone is getting jewelry for Christmas if , in fact, I can part with it.
I booked a vintage car tour through Prague. That was pretty cool. EJ was excited because we actually got one of only three true vintage cars in Prague. Our tour guide was excellent. He drove us all around and gave us stories for each site and then dropped us at a beautiful restaurant on the river. Our dear friends, the Christoffersens, hosted an exchange student from Czech Republic for one year about three years ago. We had a lot of fun that year with Honza and knew that one of our main reasons for visiting Prague was to reconnect with him. One day, Honza and his girlfriend Ana, walked us all over the city to see the sites. We were so impressed with how they remembered dates and names and the stories behind them. Quite frankly, they could give our car tour guide a run for his money. We walked to the castle, popped into the cathedral, went to the market, old town square, Wenslasas Square, walked the bank of the river, what else? It’s a ll a bit blurry now, but we walked 15 miles with them that day and covered a lot of territory. At the end of the day, Ana took us to a traditional Czech Pub that her three older brothers loved to frequent. We tried goulash and more schnitzel and deep fried cheese and pork something or other. Ana had tripe and really wanted us to try it which was never, ever going to happen. We tried their beer. Czechs love beer and they are quite proud of it. Let me tell you it was absolutely delicious on that hot afternoon. Being that EJ and I are old farts, we bowed out for the remainder of the evening. The three of them went to the liquor store and bought some beer. They went down and sat by the river, drank beer, and shared stories, relived a few memories from Honza’s visit. (Annie, I hurt myself. Not again, Honza!!) One of Honza’s friends joined them and told Jordan how he had lost his job because segways were recently banned in Prague (for the safety of absolutely everyone). His boss had to pack up the segways and set up shop in a new city. This upset Jordan very, very much. He felt it was very unjust and wanted reform and change and justice for this poor man who had to move away. We tucked him into bed and gave him two advil and a gallon of water in the morning.
I feel very strongly that I need to tell everyone about the ice cream in Prague. It comes in these cones that are made by spinning dough over heat on a cone mold. They taste like sugar donuts. You can fill these delicious morsels of goodness with strawberries, chocolate, custard-like ice cream, and a few other choices. Yes, I am going to try to make them at home…right after I master paella and tortilla.
As I mentioned before, EJ loves water so, of course, we booked a lunch cruise on the river. Honza and Ana came with us. The food was surprisingly delicious as were the very fancy cocktails. I have all of these plans to make my friends and family fancy cocktails this summer. Oh, and to make goulash and paella and these potato things and schnitzel. The things is that this goes against my plans to dry out and cleanse and recover from my debauchery.
One night Honza brought us to his home about 30 km outside of Prague. First, we stopped at Ana’s granny’s house where we were given an apple strudel that she made especially for us that day. We got to meet the two remaining rabbits in the back garden who were lined up for future execution and consumption. The strudel was absolutely delicious!!! At Honza’s, we were able to have a swim which was woooonnnndddeerrfulllll! Zdanka, his mama, made us the most amazing dinner of duck, potato dumplings and cabbage. Honestly, it topped any Thanksgiving I have ever had. Of course, I now have plans to make this for my family for Thanksgiving, but it would be such a disaster if it didn’t turn out. I really, really enjoyed sitting around the table and talking about the differences in our culture, the Hruska recent travels, our current journey, future plans. Nana’s cookies came up a few times. Nana is Annie Christoffersen’s mama. She makes the most delicious ginger cookies on the planet. I think there is about 2 pounds of butter in each one, but that is beside the point. Nana is famous for her cookies…even in Czech Republic. The Hruska’s tried to replicate the cookies when they returned from US, but to no avail. They do not have the same flour that we have. They showed us a few types. One was so fine that it almost felt like sugar. Their brown sugar is also quite different from ours. I have been charged with hinting to Nana that perhaps the Czech Republic could really benefit from a batch of cookies. After dinner, Honza (who was our designated driver and did not touch a drop) thought it would be a great idea for us to try all of the different Czech alcohol. Oh my. See picture if you think I am exaggerating. We had little sips of each one. Otherwise, I am not sure if the night would have ended. I was not fond of any of it, but Jordan liked the one with the peach flavor. EJ…well, I let him have one sip since alcohol like this would knock him out of commission for a week. With each sip of a new bottle came a funny story about the fact that the uncle actually made the one we were drinking or that they made sure to bring this on their vacation because they believe that if they do one shot of this a day, it will kill all the bacteria they were being exposed to in the Indian food on their climbing holiday in India. After tasting it, I would tend to agree with them. One of their travel partners did not do the shot every day and she actually got very sick thereby proving and validating this theory.
We were very sad to leave the Hruskas. Early the next day, we departed for Frieburg, Germany.
And now a word from Jordan:)
We had a driver pick us up from Vienna and take us to Prague. His name was Jorgi. He preferred a quicker way from Point A to Point B rather than a legal way. I think we ended up on the airplane taxi-way of a small airport at one point. We also drove around a barrier by driving up onto the grass of a golf course at a 45 degree angle. That was interesting. We stopped at a smaller town called Kutna Hora, where there was a church with a crypt made of bones, and one of the biggest cathedrals I’ve ever seen. It was a really nice place to have our first Czech meal. We then continued our journey to Prague. Prague was really similar to Vienna in that there were a very diminished amount of tourists compared to our previous locations, which was really nice. Our friend Honza, who was on an exchange 3 years ago in the United States at my school, and his girlfriend Ana, were so kind to show us around the city on the first full day that we were there. We got to see all of the historical sites of Prague, most impressively, the enormous castle that overlooks the city. We finished the tour with a late lunch at a pub that Ana’s brother likes with some really good beer (they drink a lot of beer in Czech). After that, my parents went home and Honza and Anna and I went and hung out and had a good time down by the river for the rest of the night. The next day, we did another tour of Prague, this time in a car from the 1920’s. It was really cool to see the city again, but this time from the perspective of a driver. We got to see more great views of the city, and we also saw John Lennon’s Wall, onto which anyone can paint whatever they want. The next day, we saw Honza and Ana again, this time for a little river cruise down the Vltava. It was lovely. I liked the accordion player. The Hruskas had us over for dinner, which was so incredibly generous of them. It was a really great meal of duck and potato dumplings and cabbage. They also have really nice dogs and a bunny. We then tried different kinds of alcohol from different fruits and things and that was really fun. The Hruskas and Ana really made our trip to Prague absolutely awesome, and we’re really really grateful for showing us around and having us for dinner. I wish we could have stayed here longer because it was very fun.
Jordan and Erin's European Adventure 