October 12, 2009

Friday, 16 October 2009 12:01

So my last blog was a mouthful. Now I’m at work, I have an hour break and I’ve planned so far ahead (for once) that I decided to write more about my life in the Czech Republic. It is very easy to travel but I do stay in the country too, I swear. Last week my friends and I went to Karstejn Castle. It’s kind of funny because we just wanted to have a nice quiet Saturday outside of Prague; we planned on doing some ‘hiking’ and just relax. It turns out that we decided to go there on one of the two days of the year that they charge admission to the town! It was the Burcak festival. Burcak is young wine, it’s delicious and it tastes like grape juice, which could get a little dangerous.  So yes, we accidentally went to a Renaissance festival. There was of course wine, beer and sausage, all of the regular makings of a Czech party but so much more! Jousting, juggling, lots of people in costume, music, parades, stilts and so much more. How did we get so lucky? Yes, we were looking to have a relaxing ‘girls day’ but this was amazing. When it began to get a bit crowded, we decided that we needed a bit of fresh air so we headed for the trees. It was really refreshing to breathe in the crisp cool autumn air. The temperature was perfect, cool in the shade and warm in the sun and we were on a mission, we just walked and walked. On the way to… nowhere I guess, we stumbled upon a poppy field.  Unfortunately there were no more buds but we were able to find a couple and I made a nice little bouquet, which is now in my living room. It makes a lovely autumn decoration but let’s be realistic, I’m making pastries! Poppy seed pastries are very popular here and although all they made me want to do was eat a bagel, I’ve looked up a couple recipes and am trying to veganize some delicious Czech pastries.

It was really a great day but unfortunately it ended early when *Tina, (we’ll keep her anonymous) decided to pee in a bush. Of course, she was allergic to this bush and before we knew it, *Tina was covered in hives and her face was becoming swollen at an alarming rate. With that said, we headed home.  Luckily the Benadryl did its job and we had gotten to Karlstejn early enough that the day was not lost.  Anyway, all of that fresh air is really exhausting!

What else have I been doing? Oh, I know, riding bikes! So I’ve always been an avid cyclist. In New York I would ride to work every day, even in the rain.  When I came here, I started giving bicycle tours that could have been fun but the business was run poorly and it didn’t last very long (Thank goodness!).  After that, I really missed riding bikes.  One day Viktor and I were walking down the street and saw two nice bikes for sale, they were roughly $50, so we bought them and rode all the way home.  It was wonderful to be on a bike again, not to mention without 20 tourists pedaling slowly behind you, which was a little stressful if you can imagine. This quickly became an addiction seeing as now we have seven bikes between the two of us; two are in Moravia at Viktor’s mother’s house and the rest, in my flat.  We have two road bikes, two hybrids and one for visitors. At this rate, we can go as the E.T. gang for Halloween since a few are equipped with baskets and of course, I own a red hoodie.

For the beginning of October there was a massive bike ride in Prague, something similar to Critical Mass back home but the streets were closed off to cars and the police were helping us out.  It was an amazing site, all of these bikes riding along next to the trams, over the river, into the mountains, over bridges, up some extremely steep hills.  A lot of Viktor’s friends from his job were there with their families so we had a nice sized crew.  My favorite were the little girls on their pink bikes w/ streamers and matching pink helmets. It’s hard to feel tough when you are pedaling as fast as you can uphill and there is a four year old right next to you of course not breathing as heavily as you are.  It was a really great day though, just seeing all of these families on bikes and groups of kids, old ladies, everyone was united. After the ride there was food and music all over the streets, there were fashion shows and my favorite, veggie burritos.  All in all, it was a great day spent w/ great people.  It prompted me to quickly plan our next bicycle outing.  Being that I only have weekends free and Viktor has every other weekend off we had to put it off for another week.

When we were finally ready to hop on the train with our bikes two weeks later, just our luck, Viktor’s bike had a flat.  By the time we had this all fixed, it was too late to leave Prague for a day trip as it is getting dark earlier and earlier.  We were pretty bummed but decided to at least ride somewhere, as our main goal was simply to ride bikes!  So we hopped back onto our bikes and pedaled on, to where, we didn’t know. It was a nice day so we decided to stay along the river.  I had some nice sandwiches in my backpack and the sun was shinning on our faces so what more could you really ask for?  Though I had been to all of the places we passed on our bikes, it had been after taking a tram or two there.  So of course we wanted to go a little further, to see how far we could go but eventually, you can only get hit in the face with so many bugs and the sun was beginning to set so we decided to head back to Zlute Lazne where we could sit in the grass, eat our sandwiches and be a bit closer to home for the ride in the dark.  We stumbled upon a ferry that was included in our monthly metro and bus passes. Nice huh?  Then we ate our sandwiches along with the ducks and it was getting a little chilly so we headed home and decided to make Saturday a nice relaxing night. We just watched a movie and cooked dinner together.  The longer I work a Monday-Friday schedule, the more I appreciate Saturdays like these, when you do so much yet manage to get to bed early and are looking forward to the next day.  For us, the next day consisted of brunch.

 


We went to a restaurant maybe 15 minutes from my flat, Radost. They have a great vegetarian brunch.Of course we all walked out with big stomachs and needing a nap. But a nap on a Sunday, that is a rare treat, in fact a nap at all, something I truly love and hardly have time for.What if I scheduled a nap in? Is that totally ridiculous? Something like: breakfast at 9, ride bikes at 10, eat lunch by 12, nap by 1. Maybe I’ll give it a try this weekend. But this past Sunday we basically did the opposite of napping; we went to something like a protest march. It was the precursor to the football (soccer) game we went to. Viktor and a few of his friends were there along with my new coworker Becky and I.  The march was protesting the ticket price and a bit more but getting into that could take forever.  Needless to say, there are two Bohemians teams, Bohemians and Bohemians 1905; rivalry is a kind way to put it.  The march and game were really enjoyable and not violent, just all in good fun!

 

Viktor’s birthday is on Saturday and mine is the following Wednesday so I’m sure I’ll have a bunch to write about within the next few weeks, until then, I’ll eat some of this delicious rice pudding, my mom’s recipe!

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