Food, Friends and Ice Cream, Czech Style

There's pizza, of course. We think you could get a slice of pizza on an African safari - is there anyone who doesn't like pizza? No offense, but nothing is as good as the pizza in the Naples area (don't tell Honza that, this was his favorite place).

A cardiologist's nightmare. The middle plate has a fried cheese log containing three different types of cheese in it. It's served with french fries just in case 1 meter of fried cheese is just not enough fried for you. That's fettuccine Alfredo made with blue cheese on the left, and in the front, pasta salad with, you guessed it, blue cheese. The back plate has a fried chicken breast and rice. Although the white rice has no nutritional value, it was the healthiest thing on the table!

Hot dogs and hot wine?

There are many little stands selling hot dogs throughout the city. They taste just a little different than our American ones, but just like our hot dogs, the less you know the better, so we were not asking any questions. The ketchup and mustard are also a little different from what we are used to, very tasty!

Hot wine? Yes, "svarak" is brewed much like our hot apple cider is brewed in the U.S. with different spices like cinnamon and cloves. The basic brew is not sweet, so most people will add multiple packages of sugar. We imagine it takes some getting used to since we added about four packages each.

Here's a picture from the Internet of a cart selling both hot dogs and hot wine!

Beers with friends. "Want a Budweiser?" was one thing that we thought we would never hear in the Czech Republic (and hope that we don't hear in the U.S., sorry Bud fans). We answered, "No, thanks" so quickly they had to think about it for a second. Then remembering that there was also a Budweiser in the U.S., they promised us the Czech version was nothing like the U.S. version. There are multiple lawsuits between the two companies, and the Czech Budweiser is sold in the U.S. under the name "Czechvar".

Honza's friends did not speak a lot of English, but we figured out that they knew a few swear words. That's all we needed to communicate!

Think about this for a second: Can you imagine having the worst ice cream and the best ice cream in the same day? We get three responses from the people that we have told this to: 1. Some agree that it's got to be unlikely for both to happen in the same day. 2. Many question "There's such a thing as bad ice cream?" (trust us, there is). 3. All were highly impressed that we were eating ice cream twice in the same day!

The bad news is that we do not have actual photos of the ice cream itself. The photo below is the cart where we got the worst, it's on the west end of the Charles Bridge. Ironically it was closed the next day, the Health Department probably shut it down. The ice cream tasted like frozen dirty dishwater. We just threw up thinking about it.

But, that night, we had dinner at the Botel Matylda, and had the best ice cream ever! It was vanilla, which sounds too plain to rank as "the best", but it was homemade with the best ingredients and you could crunch on the sugar granules in it. Now drooling.

It's been quite a culinary adventure from Greece, to Sicily, to Naples, to Munich and finally Prague, and we have enjoyed every bite of it!

Adventures with Honza!

Honza needs to start his own Czech Tour Company, because we saw some things that we are sure more than a few people who live in Prague never see. Not only are there many sights off the tourist trails, but there are plenty of stories and conspiracy theories to go along with the sights.

We are sure that there aren't many tour guides that start you off with a trip to a graveyard. As a result, many people miss the stories of some of the famous people that have made this city what it is today. It was interesting to listen to Honza explain what the people did during their lives, and what it means to the people that live in Prague today. Other things that people will miss are the beautiful statues, unique examples of architecture and the peacefulness that this sanctuary can possess in the middle of a big city.

Honza thinks he heard someone yell for help. Go ahead Honza, we dare you to put your hand in there!

This is just one example of the many beautiful statues, but this one was by far the most amazing. She has the wings of a butterfly, and when you look closely at her face, she actually looks like she has been crying - how amazing is that?

The next field trip brought us to the beautiful hills southwest of the city for incredible views and a relaxing walk through the meadows. Here is where an urban legend comes in: it is believed by some that under these hills there is a Soviet underground bunker where the former USSR is still in operation. We are sure that they can not be too happy with a couple of Americans snooping around.

Sure, these look like beautiful red poppies lining the path, but we know better - they are actually little microphones picking up everything we say. Why are these wild flowers only along the path, and not in the field? Exactly.

Here Honza is explaining that there have also been multiple UFO sightings on these hills. We are outta here!

"Man on the Horse". The man is Jan Žižka and this is the largest horse statue in the world. It stands nearly 30 feet high (over 70 feet including the pedestal), and is the crowning jewel on the Vitkov Hill war memorial. Jan Žižka is the most famous military commander in the history of this country. He lived during the early 1400s, and defended the people of this land against many enemies.

Two things set Žižka apart as a great leader. Most of his troops were peasants and farmers, and he taught them how to fight and defeat much larger armies with weapons created from farming tools. His military tactics would change the way wars would be fought for centuries to come.

The second thing that created an unbreakable loyalty for Žižka was that he led his troops into battle with just one eye. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that he has a patch over his right eye. In one of his last battles, he was severely wounded, and lost the use of his remaining eye. Even though he was now totally blind, he continued to command his armies. It was that fearlessness that led his soldiers to call themselves orphans when he died of the plague in 1424. They felt like they had lost their father. His enemies said that "The one whom no mortal hand could destroy was extinguished by the finger of God".

Here's a disturbing note: Žižka's dying wish was to have his skin used to make war drums so that he could continue to lead his troops even after death. We told you that it was disturbing! Let's hope that was just another urban legend, but with the history of this man we believe this one. Standing at the foot of this incredible tribute, and listening to the stories of his battles that took place on the ground beneath our feet, was absolutely chilling.

Honza, being a musician, always has songs going through his head. Much like everyone else, he may not always have all of the words correct. Somehow he has turned the band REM's song "Who can believe, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon" song into "Who can believe, they put a man on the horse, man on the horse". I'm sure Jan Žižka would be very proud. Since we suffer from LSS (Last Song Syndrome), we were finding ourselves singing "...man on the horse, man on the horse..." for the next 5 days!

In one of the main squares in the city, we purchased a brick with the proceeds going to help those in need. The bricks would actually be used for construction to help create affordable places for people to live.

Check out the Honza, Becky and Steve "Flower, Flower - Peace" brick. Keep in mind that it was for a good cause, and not to be on display at the National Art Museum!

Another field trip took us cherry picking. They were delicious!


A few additional random moments:

Here, Steve and Honza are conquering a Soviet tank that has not rolled in 50 years.

And here, Honza and Becky are practicing for the 2010 Winter Olympic ice skating team?

Honza in deep thought. Probably wondering why that kid is staring at him.

When Honza is not playing music, he is creating some very unique and beautiful clocks. To see some of his creations, go to www.sestka.com. If you don't buy one, then when you visit Prague, you need to sign up for the "Adventures with Honza!" tour package, you will not be disappointed. We can not pronounce it correctly, but děkuji (thank you) Honza! You made our trip to Prague special, and we'll never forget it!

Changing of the Guards

Here is the main entrance to the Prague Castle, with one of the two guard stations.
Maybe if Becky is really still, the guards will not see her...

...here they come...sshhh Becky, don't move.....

...you made it!

They have to be color blind.

Pražský Hrad (Prague Castle) & St. Vitus Cathedral

Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral are the trademark symbols of Prague, dominating the skyline to the west. The Castle is comprised of the buildings seen with the red roof tiles along the skyline in the first picture, and lit at night in the foreground of the second picture. The history dates back to 870, with the ruling parties of this land living here throughout the years. Dominating the courtyard of the Castle is St. Vitus, with huge Gothic steeples rising high above the Castle's walls . In the foreground of the first picture, you can see how the Charles Bridge leads to the castle from the east bank of the Vltava.

The outside of Cathedral (below) is too large to even photograph the whole thing up close. The Castle walls block you from moving far enough back to get the whole cathedral in. The detailed architecture, and the colors, are amazing. The original plans called for such painstakingly detailed stained glass windows that the Castle had a long construction period - from 1344 to 1929! That's when the final window was completed, 1929.

The main tower is over 100 meters high (328 feet). We should have paid more attention to the metric system in grade school, because after 287 steps in a stairwell about 1 meter wide we finally made it to the top! It was well worth it for the incredible views.



Here's Becky inside the fortress walls, and a view inside St. Vitus Cathedral.

The castle has a dungeon where the bad kids were tortured.

Needless to say, we did not act up, touch or break anything.

We enjoyed the day wandering though the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, realizing how lucky we were to see such an incredible piece of history.

The Botel

We were using a few different internet sites to find our hotels on this journey, and when the Botel Matylda popped up, we were a little confused. "What is a Botel?" Well, it's short for BOAT-Hotel! We weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into, but that's never stopped us before!

The Matylda is, by far, the coolest place we have ever stayed. The owners must have spent millions of dollars, ah, we mean Crowns, on rebuilding this boat. It just opened 6 months ago. The top deck is an Italian restaurant, the food is awesome. Dark wood everywhere, warm leather chairs and booths, and all the windows open fully to get a perfect breeze blowing through.

This is where we had breakfast each morning (and a glass of wine each night)!

It sits on the East bank of the Vltava River, near the Dancing Building. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the Charles Bridge, which was a good thing with an Italian restaurant attached to where we were sleeping! The rooms on the boat are small, but ours had two windows looking across the Vltava River at the Prague Castle - think we were wishing for more room? No way! There were ducks outside our windows each morning, the owners would feed them the old bread. The ducks liked the Matylda as much as we did.


If we had an extra $5 million, we would buy a boat like this and run our own botel! Well, if we had $5 million, we would just stay at the Matylda when we visited Prague!

Prague, Czech Republic

Steve remembers when he was a little kid, his hockey pucks used to say "Made in Czechoslovakia". He figured that was not in Maine, and went from there. Did you ever think that two Americans would be trekking though Prague, a Communist country near the Soviet Union up until 1989? We didn't either, and that's what makes it so awesome. We were very excited to be headed off the beaten tourist path that most people take, we knew very little about Prague and could not wait to get here to learn a new culture and meet the people that make it what it is.

Prague promised to be, by far, the most foreign place that our journey would take us. They do not use the Euro as currency, they use the Crown. Our first trip to an ATM was even eventful. The crown options were from 50 to 5,000. We went with the 2,000, and it spit out just one bill, praying that would get us at least a hot dog and a Coke.

The Czech language is incredibly different than anything that we have ever heard or seen, so getting around was going to be a little more difficult than what we had experienced in other European cities. The closest thing that we had ever heard to Czech was Russian being spoken in some 1980s Cold War movies and whichever Rocky movie where he fought Ivan Drago.

But, we had an ace in the hole: a personal guide who had lived in Prague his whole life. Steve's college friend Lorrie used to be in a band that traveled to the Czech Republic on tour. They had made friends with local bands, who then toured in the U.S. So, Lorrie emailed Honza, and Honza was more than happy to show off the hidden gems Prague had to offer.

First, a few touristy things:

The Charles Bridge, populated with artists and musicians, and is the main crossing of the river. This pedestrian only bridge was completed in 1402, and until the 1800s was the only river crossing in Prague. There are incredible statues lining both sides of the bridge, and each end has a lookout tower with incredible views down the river.

The view to the North from Prague's version of the Eiffel Tower.

The view straight down from the Old Town Hall tower, onto the pedestrians and cafes in the square below. Old Town Square has been the principle meeting space in Prague for the last 1,000 years. By the number of people in this photo, you can tell that it's still going strong!

The city has incredible architecture everywhere you look.

One of the most famous buildings in Prague, or at least the one that we as Americans may have seen before, is the unique Dancing Building. It is nicknamed "Ginger & Fred" after Ginger Rogers and Fred Astair. There is a funny story that goes along with the picture. We are posing in a way as to copy the moves of the building itself. Honza took the photo. When he checked it in the view screen to see if it came out clear, he said, "Hey, you look just like the building the way you were standing!". Ya, that's what we were trying to do! Sorry Honza, but it was funny!

We asked Honza to take us where the hockey pucks where made. He laughed and said he has heard that story before from an American, but he had no idea where they made the pucks.

What an incredible city. At first it has a very foreign feel to it, but it only takes a day for Prague to show you it's welcoming side and all it has to offer. We were glad that we were ending our journey here, it would be the perfect place to provide one last opportunity to learn something new about the world.

Check back for the future blog: Adventures with Honza!