by the Night Writer

Tiger Lilly has been terribly consumed with her certification class. The program started out fast on the first day, and has steadily ratcheted up the pace and the amount of work since then. The classroom part is only the beginning; she has hours of work to do once she gets home each evening. Frankly, some of the requirements appear to be unnecessary to the job at hand, but it’s their program and they’ve been doing it for some time. I think Tiger Lilly will be alright, but it’s a good thing she has her mother around for freak-out sessions. It leaves little time for blogging, though.

Fortunately, the program is just four weeks – and she’s now more than half-way through. In a way, I think the freak-factor is a good sign; it means she’s being challenged, and in every step of her education she has overcome each big, hairy challenge and emerged on top.

She did take a little time over the weekend, though, and created this neat little video-log, or vlog, about her arrival in Prague. Not all of her vlogs will appear on The Night Writer; she reserves certain things for family and close friends, but I’m happy to be able to share this beautiful piece with you. For one, I think you’ll enjoy it. Secondly, I think it was therapeutic for her. It’s entitled, “On Beginnings”.

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by the Night Writer

It’s not hard to get something to eat here. There are numerous stands and take-away places along the well-traveled routes where we’ve seen some amazing pizzas and calzones, as well as things that we can order by pointing. This evening Tiger Lilly brought home “box kebab” – gyro meat, fries, and cole slaw all piled in a carton similar to Chinese take-away; just 75 koruna (Kc) each ($3). It was a great meal, about as much food as in a Chipotle burrito, but at less than half the cost. I washed mine down with an ice cold “Bud”:

Budweiser Budvar beer, from the Budweiser brewery operating in Bohemia since the 1300s.

If we venture to a restaurant most places have menus in Czech and English. The lunch menu at the restaurant closest to our apartment (and my most likely lunch spot if I don’t “eat in”) is only in Czech, however – and neither of the waiters speak much English. It was a bit of an adventure, but the food was delicious.

As a result of that experience, though, I decided to create a little cheat sheet on my phone of common foods and terms for future use.

(Note: I haven’t figured out yet how to make WordPress import a letter with the little Czech hat over it. Therefore, where you see the ? in the middle of a word, look to the letter immediately before the question mark for the actual letter, then picture a little hat on top of it. Generally, the hat adds a “ya” sound to the letter, except for c’s and s’s, which could be “sh” or “ch”. 

Meats

hove?zí – beef

Jatra – liver

kachna – duck

kur?e – chicken

králic?í – rabbit

rizek – steak

sunkou – ham

vepr?ové – pork

 

Style

grilovaný – grilled

pec?ený – baked

smazžený – fried

uzene – smoked

varene – cooked

 

Pasta

Noky – gnocchi

 

Veggies

listový sšpenát – spinach

brambor – potato

r?epa – beet

zelí – cabbage

hribkach – mushrooms

okurka – cucumber

 

Other

vývar – broth

nudlemi – noodles

knedlík – dumpling

krkovicka – neck

maslem – butter

Stehno – thigh

sýr – cheese

syrovu – cheesy

svíc?ková – tenderloin

omackou – sauce

hranolkami – French fries

cervene – red

chléb – bread

houskovy – bread

rýže – rice

Tatarka – tartar

c?esnek – garlic

 

Dessert

c?okoláda – chocolate

dort – cake

Medovník – honey cake

slehackou – whipped cream

I’ll keep my eyes open for the králic?í and knedlíks, and stay away from the jatra and r?epa!

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by the Night Writer

Tiger Lilly arrived on Thursday, a bit wrung out, and we really haven’t had the opportunity to do any sight-seeing as a family until today. Photo documentation is below. The weather is finally cooling down a little bit, but it was still mostly sunny on Saturday. We’ve been enjoying the weather and the off-season “crowds” which makes it easier to get around but with still enough people to add some buzz.

Speaking of buzz, we discovered that cannabis candy is for sale in the convenience stores here, and a package of cannabis tea is in the kitchen cupboard of our apartment. We haven’t partaken, but it’s an interesting contrast. Similarly, there appear to be no open-bottle laws here; I’ve often noticed people walking down the street with bottles or cups of beer.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant today, just off of the Old Town Square. We knew it wasn’t going to be a bargain, but it was close, we were hungry and it was just across the alley from the Museum of Chocolate, which suddenly shot up to the top of our “to-do” list. Of course, the restaurant was in an old, old building, mostly made of stone. The upstairs “dining” room held three tables, and we were directed downstairs to a much larger eating area. The dimly lit stone stairs spiraled down between old stone walls as if we were going to the catacombs and I suddenly had the creepy notion that a devious old guy was just ahead, urging me to “Try the Amontillado!”

Instead I had a very nice Pilsner beer. The CR is known for its beer because the soil of Bohemia is ideal for growing excellent hops. While we stayed at the hotel earlier this week I had a very crisp and refreshing beer called Staropramen that was very tasty. While I tend to favor ales after my days in England, I have decided to try the local offerings and compare – especially the unfiltered beers which don’t travel well and need to be enjoyed right here. I had a Kozel with my dinner tonight and it was similar to Staropramen, but a little maltier. I have a Pilsner Urquell (the most popular brand) and a Gambrinus in the refrigerator right now, awaiting their turn. I did have a sobering moment today, though. The Czech name for the Old Town is “Staromestska”. I wondered if “Staro” is the Czech word for “Old” – and if in my praise of Staropramen I was unknowingly honoring the local version of “Old Milwaukee”. I’m gonna go brush my teeth now. In the meantime, enjoy the photos of Tiger Lilly’s first tourist day.

Three years ago my daughter first started thinking about moving to Prague. It’s a long way from a pipe-dream to a lead-pipe cinch, but – lo and behold – here we are. The first couple of days since she arrived in Prague were full of activities related to her program, finding groceries and learning how to get around. Today we really got to to some sight-seeing, which of course started with the Old Town Square. Here I bought her a hot honey-wine to officially celebrate a dream come true.

So…three years of planning, working, saving – you’d think she’d look happier now that she’s here. Or it could be she just wants to try on the “look” to fit in. What could possibly cheer her up?

Oh, well…of course!

Next to the Chocolate Museum we found this painting commemorating, not the discovery of the new world, but the discovery of chocolate (well, the natives discovered it first but didn’t have good IP lawyers.)

The gift shop at the museum has its own homage to that great, historic moment.

As we were leaving Old Town Square we had to step aside for an anti-fur protest march. My wife mused that she should have had her fur coat on. As she did so I noticed that she was standing right outside the Kafka Cafe. Not exactly “Kafka-esque” but it was kind of funny.

Prague has often stood in for Berlin in the movies, especially in WWII films. Today the corner outside our apartment building was blocked off as a film crew shot a “Nazi rally”. The name of our street and our building number were covered over with German signs. Tonight the filming goes on in the street right below our windows – we can see the bright lights and the guy swinging a smoke machine, and hear the shouting of the actors from up here in our apartment. I don’t know if it’s for a movie or a TV show, but it would be both fun and weird to be watching a show sometime and to suddenly say, “Hey….!”

One of Prague’s many names is “The City of 1000 Spires”. Here are just a couple of them in the distance. It’s one of the cool things about being in a city like this; even the ordinary street scenes can surprise you with sudden history, art and architecture.

There’s just the one castle, though (that I know of). It does tend to work its way into photos, though.

The Powder Tower, at the periphery of Old Town Square, and the place where the Kings of Bohemia started the procession to their coronations.

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by the Night Writer

Wednesday we moved into the apartment where we expect to stay for the next month. It’s a loft in a 19th century Art Deco building, on a cobblestone street with a tram stop at the corner of the building and close to the Old Town. It has much of what we need – and one thing we didn’t: a guy with a gun inhabiting our lodgings.

No worries, though. He was the previous renter (it’s an Airbnb unit) who overstayed his visit. He was a small fellow with a large semi-automatic in his backpack. The Reverend Mother asked him if it was difficult to have a gun here and he said that Security was much more concerned about his knife. Knife? “Yes, it’s a big one.” I was thinking maybe Crocodile Dundee, but though his English was in a South African accent (“My family fled to South Africa in 1969”), he was Czech. He didn’t show the knife, which was good because about that time our landlord was on the phone to us, upset that the guy was still there. “He’s crazy,” she told my wife. He had an interesting and convoluted tale of woe, but quietly packed up and left without incident. Other than the surprise of finding him here, we didn’t get any weird vibe from him, so despite his armament I didn’t consider him a threat to life.

No, the biggest threat to life (well, my life) was the stairs. We had been told that there wasn’t a lift and that the loft apartment was on the fourth floor, but that the steps were “gentle” (presumably lined with kittens or some such). Of course, in Prague, as in London, they start counting floors from zero, so this meant the apartment was actually on the fifth floor. We’re talking 10 stone steps, a landing, and another 10 steps per floor, plus 20 some steps once you’re in the building before you even start climbing the stairs to the apartment (and not a kitten in sight). So, 120-some steps altogether if my math is right – but that wasn’t the calculation that concerned me. THIS is what I was calculating:

• 120 steps
• Two large, loaded suitcases, and two carry-on cases
• One bad knee
• One cane

To quote Emperor Cuzco, “Bring it on.”

The execution, then, was to drag one big bag up 10 steps; go down and get the second big bag; drag it up to the first; do it again with the smaller bags: lather, rinse, repeat – and I was definitely lathered. I’m not even going to think about how many steps that all added up to with the repeated ups and downs. The Rev Mum did some of the dragging but a good chunk of the time she was at the top of the stairs, dealing with the unexpected lodger. The cruelest part, though, was seeing a shiny elevator at the top of the first landing. The sight made my heart pound even harder, but then I saw a resident walk past me and use a key to open the elevator door and ride up. Ok, so it’s restricted – but certainly a “service fee” can be arranged and a key provided, right?

As it turns out, this elevator is a continuing skirmish in the Cold War. Our landlord used to work for Radio Free Europe and now lives in the U.S. while renting out her former apartment. To gain an elevator key she has to be approved by the Board of the building’s tenants. One of her neighbors is an old-line Communist who hates her for moving to America and renting the apartment for gain. As such the neighbor does whatever she can to make our host’s life more difficult, and apparently this includes having enough pull with the Board to deny an elevator key to the unit. It is all now in the hands of lawyers, but if I hadn’t been so out of breath I would have stood on the landing and shouted, “Madame Elevator Czar – tear down this wall!”

Anyway, by the time I made it to the top of the stairs and into the apartment it didn’t matter if the tardy tenant had a rocket launcher; I was making my (wobbly) stand right there. No way was I going to take those bags back down those steps. Perhaps, as our host said, the other tenant was crazy – but he probably took one look at my sweaty, bright red visage and decided he better get out of blast range as quickly as possible.

This allowed us to then scope out our new home. We had seen photos of the place on the Airbnb website, of course, but those can be deceptive. The place looked much like the photos, but was also rather worn. It reminded me of some of the college flop-houses my friends rented. All the necessities are there, but kind of rough around the edges, the wood floor scuffed, the furniture mismatched, and herds of dust rhinos roaming the plain. For that extra collegiate touch, the previous tenant left two empty pizza boxes, a loaf of moldy bread and several overflowing ashtrays.

I guess you could say it’s all rather Bohemian – but we are, after all, in Bohemia.

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This blog is still in tourist mode as the Reverend Mother and I roam Prague seeing the sights, trying new food, going the wrong way on the tram and trying to figure out how to pronounce words with four consecutive consonants. There’s nothing like seeing a billboard in a completely incomprehensible language to make you feel “foreign”. Fortunately it’s not too disorienting as there are a few billboards in English, and even more that are in the international language of boobs.

My holiday is almost over, however, and I will soon be back “working from home” – but from Prague rather than the Twin Cities. This is like a dream come true for me; when I travel I like to try and experience what it’s like to live in a new place rather than just barge through with a camera in front of my face, heading for the next attraction. This probably goes back to my first trip overseas when I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a semester at Reading University in England. I rented a room from an English family and hung out with more English kids than American ones at the “Off-Campus Student Hall”. The hall had showers, a laundry, social and studying areas, and even it’s own pub which was staffed by students. I took up darts, a tweed cap, and a liking to real ale. I even took a turn tending the bar.

Later our best times in Italy where when we stayed at an agriturismo in Tuscany that was also a working olive farm and winery. When we went to Spain we spent a week with the Pueblo Ingles program, speaking English to Spaniards who’d signed up for an English Immersion week to improve their language skills. It was a well organized and interesting week and we learned so much about the country, it’s culture and history by talking to the “students”. After the program we rented apartments in Madrid and Barcelona rather than going to hotels in order to get closer to “street life”. Going grocery shopping, doing laundry and other common things while also sight-seeing has been a great way to get a feel for a country from, perhaps, 5,000 feet instead of 10,000.

The other thing I always do when I travel is to stand at certain spots and try to imagine what happened there, from the epic to the mundane, in the past. Sometimes I imagine spooling time backwards like a movie rewind. How great would it be to stand on Stirling Bridge and watch William Wallace rout the English, or sit in the plaza in tiny Dicomano in Tuscany on market day and imagine the sights and sounds from 500 years ago? This urge is especially strong in Europe where so much history is layered so densely in relatively small spaces. This is certainly true of the Czech Republic as well, with the added texture of so much more recent and world changing history. Today (Nov. 17) we stood in Wenceslas Square as the country celebrated a national holiday in honor of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that freed the country from the Soviet Union, made all the more poignant by the non-velvet iron fist of USSR’s crushing of the “Prague Spring” in 1968. The history here beats, breathes and bleeds all around you and I am eager to immerse myself in it over the next 8 weeks.

I am also eager to share the experience with you here through regular postings that will be part travelogue, part monologue, and hopefully part dialog. Please feel free to share your comments and especially your questions in the posts here. We’re not going to have time to look up distant cousins for you, but will try to respond to your curiosity!

Click to enlarge the photos below.

Taking the view of Prague from the Castle; charm, culture…and Starbucks.

Approaching the Castle, the sculptures offer a clear warning of what happens if you try to sneak in without a ticket.

There are a lot of views in Prague that can jump out and take you by surprise, such as this one in the Castle district. For me, though, this one was strictly “look, but don’t touch.”

Prague is enjoying the warm autumn weather. Temperatures have been in the 50s (F) this week, extending the sidewalk dining season. The inviting heater, fleece seats, lap robes and hot mulled wine are also worth a pause.

Prague is also a city of bridges, and the most famous is the Charles Bridge. We were able to get a little more unorthodox view from river level, even though the photo had to be shot through the dirty glass of the tour boat. I like the light, though.

The most ornate bridge in Prague, however, is the Art Nouveau Èech Bridge, named after Czech poet and writer Svatopluk Jones, I mean, Èech.

Another view from the Vitava River, through the tour boat glass.

The monument to Bohemian reformer Jan Hus, an antecedent to Martin Luther in terms of the Protestant Reformation. He was given a guarantee of safety to meet with Church leadership, only to be burned at the stake. His monument is in the Old Town Square, not far from the old town hall where his followers later tossed the mayor and city council to their deaths out of a window in the town hall; the first Defenestration of Prague (there have been at least three defenestrations in Prague’s history, and at least one depontification (thrown off of a bridge).

They didn’t throw them from a window or off of a bridge, but the Czechs and Slovaks did kick the Soviet Union out of the country as a result of the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Nov. 17 was the date the revolution started, and it is now a national holiday. It’s also the day we visited Wenceslas Square to see the celebration, which typically includes some political demonstrations. This photo shows one such gathering. The speaker was angry, the crowd around him was chanting, but the police and most of the other people in the square seemed bored. (The police – or Policie – presence was very large.)

In my first trip to London I went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a real American hamburger. I know, I was supposed to be getting the English experience, but after a month of experiencing British “beef” my friends and I were delighted to sink our teeth into some prime grease. I was surprised to see Budweiser on the menu, and while I wasn’t a big Bud fan, I thought it would complete the experience. Imagine my surprise when it came to the table in a pink and yellow label, from the original Bud Weis brewery in Czechoslavakia. They’ve been brewing since the 1300s, and are still going strong, it appears.

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