9-10 October 2011 - Some Wine-making

We went for a walk today up the hill behind Hredle because Josef wanted to pick some ‘fruit’ to make wine with. The walk was only short, but it was uphill through the recently planted barley fields. The soft footing made the walk more challenging than it should have been. We were going to the edge of the forest to see if the plants had enough berries on them.

The view of Hredle behind us was outstanding and I decided to take a picture.

The berries that we were looking for looked like a cross between a blueberry and a small plumb. They were blueberry sized and their skins had that blue/white haze to them, but they looked more like a plumb than a berry. They also had a large seed in them.

We needed about 3 liters of fruit to make wine, and we were hard pressed to pick all of these small berries. The small black berries grew from the stems of this plant and were surrounded by thorns. I kept thinking to myself, “I wonder if these are blackthorn berries? It would be a fitting name for them!”

When we got back home I asked Josef what the plant was called and he told me it was trnka. Popping the word into the translator on my iPod to find out that they were indeed blackthorn berries!

The berries were very dirty and even after washing them a few times the water was still coming out a bit brown. Josef said it wouldn’t matter because he’d filter the wine before bottling it.

We attained some big glass bottles from Alan, Josef’s friend, and cleaned them. In went the water, sugar and yeast and then the berries. Corks were placed on the tops of the bottles with those special bubbly thingies to keep the bugs out, but to let the air from fermentation escape. Now all there is to do is wait for fermentation to begin!

Update: a few days later and we have bubbles!

It should take about 5 weeks for the wine to be ready for bottling/drinking. That’s right before I leave, so hopefully I’ll be able to taste some before I go.

Drinking with Friends

Finally! A picture of a typical end of the day drinks! In the picture is Alan, Josef’s very good friend in the village. Alan makes his living by building old cars and bikes on commission for people. He is always doing something in his workshops. Josef tells me that in his younger days, Alan biked from Czech Republic to France and back again on one of those old bikes with the huge tires. It would have been a feat that I’d like to have witnessed! Alan knows many different languages like French, Russian and German. Unfortunately, his English is a bit lacking. He knows a lot of English words, though. And when he does speak, he makes sure that his grammar is correct.

The only other thing to say about Alan is when he’s drinking at his house, beware. He will make sure that you go home well into your cups!

Kofola

Kofola is a cola that tastes like a cross between root beer and Coca-Cola, with half the sugar. When I first tried it, I was expecting it to taste like a Coke, but it doesn’t. It is good though, and I have to say that it is an enjoyable beverage.

1-2 October 2011 - Mala Upa Weekend

Mala Upa

A group of us scored free accommodation at a Penzion (hotel) in the mountains with complimentary champagne, breakfast and dinner. The four of us thought it was a fantastic idea since we’d only have to pay for the bus ride there. We set off on Friday morning to Prague by car. From there we caught a bus to Mala Upa, a small ski town in the ‘hills’ of Czech Republic. It’s right on the border to Poland and about 20km from the border to Germany. The bus ride was about 4 hours long and by the time we got there, we were all famished. Luckily, someone thought to pack us some lunch!

It was a cute little town with ski rental shops all over the place and Penzions everywhere. When you looked up the hill there was nothing but ski lodges dotting the super steep hillside. For Friday afternoon, we set out to look around and discover exactly what Mala Upa had to offer in its off season.

We decided that the next day, we would summit the 1502m mountain and then try to find the Relax Park because Josef wanted to try the bobsled track. Decision made, we had a couple hours to kill before dinner would be served. We settled on bowling and beer. I fine combination, if you ask me! The bowling alley was part of a restaurant and had only two lanes. That was fine. We played a couple of games before it was time to walk back to our hotel for dinner.

I bowl with my right hand, and it was the first time I had put this sort of strain on my wrist since breaking it. I have to say, there are some very fine muscles that are used to hold on to bowling balls and those muscles have ceased to exist in my hand! I did alright though, but by the second game, I could feel the strain. Bowling, a test for the previously broken-wristed-people! I suppose I could say that I can use the experience for future reference – ten pound balls are good, twelve pound balls are deadly!

Dinner was soup, a type of sausage goulash, and another type of sausage that I haven’t had before. It was the sort that comes in a casing, but you don’t eat the casing, you just squeeze the insides out. The sausage tasted sort of like a cross between pate and sausage. It had a yummy flavor, but a very mushy texture but you could taste the herbs and garlic in it. Josef said it was like squeezing poo out of a bag, and I said it reminded me of giving an enema. We still ate it, and liked it. Other things on the plate: boiled potatoes with garlic butter and sauerkraut.

They have two types of kraut here, the sour type and the sweet type. There was another meal that I had before that had the sweet kraut, and it went well with everything else on the plate. The sauerkraut went well with the rest of the meal. If you ask me, it’s a total crap shoot as to what one you’re going to get with your meal.

After dinner, we played darts and ping pong until the hotel manager kicked us out. Then we went to bed.

The next day, we got up and ate our breakfast. It was a selection of cheese, deli meats, rolls, sweet bread, jam, cereal and milk, coffee and tea. We scarffed it down and headed to the ski lifts.

The total walk if we started from where we were would have been 8km uphill. We shaved off a fair bit by catching a ski lift to the first part of the journey. From there we went by foot to the summit. The walk was well established and everyone seemed to have a dog with them. If you were lazy, and had some spare cash, you could catch a lift all the way to the top. We were hard, though. We decided to brave the face of the “very large hill” and walk to the top. The first 3km were fine. But then, the last km was very steep and there were odd-stepped stairs made so that the averaged-legged person would end up taking a step between these stairs, so you ended up using one damn leg over and over again. Bah! Of course, Josef had long-enough legs to only take one step between stairs and practically flew up to the summit.

The view was pretty awesome. You could clearly see into Poland on one side. Poland, even though it was right on the border, looked to be very well-populated, but the houses looked very similar to the ones in Czech Republic. I mailed a postcard home from the top of the mountain.

We caught the lift halfway down the mountain and walked 3km back to Mala Upa. The way down was steep and our legs were already feeling a bit wobbly from the climb up. By the time we got to the bottom, we were all glad to be on flat ground again that was paved and not full of pesky rocks jutting out everywhere.

We got some food and went to find the bobsled track. It was actually like a small roller coaster, but you were in your own capsule with breaks. They cable you up to the top of the hill and let you come back down again. It was exhilarating! I had a good look at the “bobsleighs” and decided that there was no way you could actually come off the track. Right-o, time for second round! I talked to Josef about not being able to come off the track and told him my plans of not breaking until the bottom. He thought I was crazy, but then decided to give it a go as well. The term g-force is all I’ll say here. We both ended up breaking a little bit, because it’s hard to stay on your bobsleigh when centripetal force really wants you to fly off of it. Luckily, we had seatbelts on. At the bottom, Josef told me that he had about 20 butterflies in his stomach and he didn’t want to do that again! Haha. I don’t think he’d do well on a large rollercoaster.

Dinner on Saturday was a very yummy goulash with bread dumplings. Holy crap, it was fantastic. It was thick like stew and exactly what we needed after a long day of walking. We were all spent and headed to bed early.

We didn’t do much on Sunday except travel back home. We all had a blast on the weekend though!

25 September 2011 - Dog stuff

A note about dogs:

If you are a dog owner/lover, you should move to the Czech Republic. Dogs are allowed everywhere here. In shops (but not grocery stores), on public transport, anywhere in towns, and anywhere a human is allowed. I’m sure there are some exceptions to the rule, but I haven’t seen many.

This fact really hit home when a friend of ours came with us to Rakovnik and took his bulldog on the bus with us. He had an appointment with the shrink and took the dog with him. I couldn’t believe it. Then I thought of it, and realized that I always see people with their dogs in restaurants and other places that many people would find unusual to see dogs in the Non-Eastern-European world.

24 September 2011 - Trains!

Luzna Train Museum

There was an open weekend in the nearby town of Luzna, and a group of us from Josef’s village decided to go for a few beers and some lunch and check out what the museum had to offer. The little village was packed and we ended up parking on the road behind a long row of cars that decided to do the same thing. We checked out the prices to enter the museum, and had a look though the gates to see if it was worth going to, then headed to the pub.

I realize that I don’t have any pictures of us drinking, because that’s what happens in Czech Republic. If more than 2 people are together for more than 30 minutes, a beer appears. There have been many occasions that have ended in drunkenness, but unfortunately, none of those times have I had a camera about. I must remedy this.

Where was I? Oh yea, the pub! Josef and I were a bit hungry and it didn’t look like our companions were about to move anytime soon, so we got ourselves some sausages. Typical Czech variety, it tasted like a cross between a nice Portuguese sausage and something a bit spicier. It was nice a meaty with an excellent smoky flavor. This was served with a couple pieces of Czech bread and mustard. The combination is heavenly and it cost us about $2 each.

Fed, watered (beered) and ready to go, we decided to check out the museum while we were there. After admission, our first stop was at a honey wine stall. The taste was very honey like, and a bit alcoholic at 18%. It was super sweet and served warm. The bees were around in full force trying to get their honey back!! Yum, very yum.

There were a lot of trains in this train museum. Everyone was selling model trains and there were a bunch of kids that looked to be in a “train club” at the helm of a huge model set (which I realize I didn’t get a picture of, oops). Old trains, new trains, trainy things, trainy bits - it was all there and in Czech, so please excuse me if I don’t go into many details.

Back to the pub to pick up our friend who had decided that beer was better than trains. He was already well inebriated. From there we went to the next pub on the way home and had a few more beers, and then to the next pub on the way home for a few more beers. At that point, I had stopped drinking and was really hungry. So, our inebriated friend ordered me some fried chicken at the pub. This looked good on the outside, but it was raw on the inside! It got sent back, thrown in the fryer again and re-presented to me…still a bit raw! You gotta love Czech Republic – waste not, want not. They’d never get away with it anywhere else, I believe.

The other night, some old farts from the village bought me some liqueur at the local watering hole that was made from cherries. It was a nice deep red color and smelled like chocolate and cherries. They must not serve many shots in this pub because there was an assortment of a dozen fruit flies floating around in my shot. I asked Josef if this was “normal” and he laughed, told the lady and she took the shot back. She must have only skimmed the top of the glass with a small spoon because soon enough, it was back, only with fewer flies. I figured two flies weren’t going to do me any harm and sipped them down! It was some good liqueur, though. I’d want to drizzle it over some nice vanilla ice cream.

17 September, 2011 - Rounice

Rounice, Jan and the Wine Festival

A friend from New Zealand picked me up in the morning and we returned to his home village 45km north. It was the day of a wine festival with games and music and a whole assortment of food. At around 10am, we met up with a couple of his friends and headed to the festival.

For me, it seemed like a combination of a carnival and music festival, with wine and beer involved. There were some interesting attractions for the kids and the usual carnival rides that are seen at small fairs. There were some awesome sausages sizzling away on the grill, served with your choice of horseradish or mustard with traditional Czech bread. The bread is a light rye bread with some caraway seeds sprinkled throughout. It can be found in any store and is served with the more flavorful dishes like goulash.

I tell you, these people know their sausages. There are so many different kinds and all of them make my mouth water. They have a paprika sausage that reminds me of homemade Portuguese sausage, a white sausage that is soft and fully cooked. You eat it by squeezing it out of its casing – yum. Then there are blood sausages and ones that remind me of frankfurters. The deli’s in the stores serve an assortment of cold cuts that are usually shaved right in front of you. But I digress.

The festival had numerous stalls with knickknacks and doodads, like you’d find at just about any fair. There were a few cheese vendors who let us sample some cheeses. The names are completely different, and I have yet to find a Czech cheese that is familiar to me. I did get to try some excellent parmesan. It was very nutty and I was tempted to buy some to take back to Hredle with me.

They had an assortment of drinks. We stopped on the grass in front of a small tree in close proximity to the Bacardi hut, a homemade fruit wine stall, and numerous food stalls. The homemade fruit wine was only mildly alcoholic and you could taste the fermentation process slightly. These “wines” were made fresh and only boasted 2-3% alcohol. They are made from plums, or apples, or whatever other kind of fruit is plentiful at this time of year. They are usually very sweet.

The music was interesting. I got to see “Elvis from Rakovnik”, who’s English while singing made me think of Elvis while completely intoxicated. You know they don’t understand the words that they are singing because that little pause between words gets lost and they start running together to form new words that no one has ever heard before.

We sat, we listened to music, we ate – and then there was the air show. Para gliders launched themselves from planes and landed right in front of us. It was pretty cool to feel like you’re right in amongst all of the action.

The light faded and night was upon us. The friends we met had to catch a train back to their town and we all left together.

Fantastic day!