4 September 2011 - Pravda Castle

Pravda, in Czech means "Truth".

From the Hops plant, we cycled to Josef’s uncle’s house in order to borrow a quad bike to take us the 2km to the castle. It was a good idea considering the distance and hills we went up and down to get there. The castle was showing its age and there used to be a moat around it, but it is now covered in plant life.

There was a door leading down to a hole in the ground, it was very cold down there. It was probably the keep’s cellar back in the day.

Most of the castle walls were half coming down and none of the wooden beams that may or may not have been a ceiling were intact. The most amazing thing for me was that, even though this castle was over 500 years old, there was no moss or lichen growing on the stones. They looked as clean as they did when they were put there centuries ago.

As we walked through the castle, I tried to imagine what it was like centuries ago, before disuse and disrepair took hold. It wasn't huge, which made me wonder if it was a castle for a minor lord of some sort or possibly only a keep. The stonework looked functional but not necessarily elegant. From the layout of the land and the evidence of a moat, it looked like a place that could be easily defended.

4 September 2011 - I Feel Hoppy

Visit To The Hops Plant

We biked to Mutějovice today and had a quick stop at the local hops plant. I got to see the whole process from putting the tall vines onto a conveyer to be separated into the hops flower and the discarded vine. I totally loved the smell; it was like floral beer everywhere you went.

The hops were put into bags and transferred into a huge building to dry them. They were moved up to the top of the plant and put into a large room at 60 degrees C to dry them for a certain time. From there, they were moved lower and lower down until they were filled on the bottom level into large yellow bags weighing about 50kg a piece. These bags were numbered and checked for moisture levels before being stored.

It was an amazing process to see. The hops season is a short one in Czech Republic and comes towards the end of the summer. Since the whole country drinks beer as though it were water, they need a lot of hops in order to keep the population fully saturated.

3 September 2011

Kamenně Řady (Stone Rows)

Josef had told me about this place close by that had rows of rocks every 20m or so in the middle of the forest. I decided it would be a good day to go and see them. He gave me directions and I hopped on one of the bikes and off I went.

The day wasn’t overly warm, but I worked up a good sweat biking out there. The start of the trail was up a hill through a forest, and what a workout it was! I lugged my elderly bike up the hill and rode across a field of barley and into another forest.

There they were, neat rows of rocks quietly sitting in the middle of a pine forest. There were signs about telling the average Czech about their origins, but alas, nothing was in English for me.

Despite the lateness of the afternoon, there were a bunch of people and their families around looking at these rocks.

26 August 2011

We hopped on our bikes today to take a tour of the surrounding towns. The first stop was Mutějovice about 3km away. We had a beer at a small pub that had a slight hint of banana to it. Apparently, there’s no name for this beer as it’s brewed in the small village. Each batch tastes a little bit different. We headed out of town and through some hills, a forest and around the corner to another small village. We visited some family of Josef’s. How exactly they’re related, I’m not sure. We got out of the heat for a while and Josef talked about New Zealand and a few other things I can only guess at. We had another beer and some food that was nicely offered by the wife. It seems that families live in units with the grandparents living with their children and grandchildren. It was a nice house and there were numerous happy children milling about and playing in the small pool they had in the back yard. After that we headed home.

I decided that I wanted to go find some more of these big mushrooms because I wanted to have some schnitzel. The place where we found the other mushrooms had at least one more that was too small for us to take that day, and I headed up the hill alone to see if it was still there. Luck! It was still there and I found another one that was even bigger! These mushrooms are amazing because they’re very soft, yet hardy enough to withstand schnitzeling. When you taste them raw, they taste like they’ve been laced with oregano. Absolutely amazing!

They’re even better as schnitzel!

Josef tells me that there are other mushrooms that taste like chicken!

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom!

25 August 2011

There wasn’t much planned for the day, that being said, there hasn’t been much planned at all and we’ve ended up going on adventures every day. We were going for a walk and noticed that Josef’s friend Alan was home. He invited us in and offered us some Moravian cherry wine that a friend had made at home. It’s essentially wine and cherries that had been distilled and concentrated until it was about 50% alcohol. It almost tasted like cherry Nyquil, but without that awful medicine taste. It reminded me of something that a Polish friend had made once. It was very good. The glasses kept getting refilled and I had an enjoyable afternoon getting drunk and wondering what everyone was talking about.

By the time we left, the little store was closed and Josef and I decided to take our half-drunk asses up into the forest to see if we could forage for some mushrooms. The task was harder than it sounded because the combination of the alcohol and the heat made for a very slow going up the hills. We did manage to find a few mushrooms. I got to see the large flat white mushroom that he was talking about. It makes for good schnitzel. Unfortunately, we only found a small one that was flat, and another one that was only half opened. The few mushrooms we had (and the large half opened one) got chopped up and put into a pan with some onion and egg. It was a tasty meal!

24 August 2011

It was hot and humid today, so we decided to take a 6km bike ride through the bike trail (and some of it was only a trail) to a local lake. It was 4pm when we left and the whole group was wondering if we’d make it in the heat without passing out. We all made it just fine and ceremoniously stripped down to our swimsuits to jump into the water.

I got to try some Langoš, which is essentially round flat fried dough that has tomato sauce, garlic and cheese on it. It was quite like a pizza, but a bit different.

23 August 2011

Prague

We had an early start because the busses only come to this village 3 times a day. The bus for Raknovik left at 7am, so we were up in order to catch it. It takes about an hour by bus to get to Prague, with only one change in Raknovik.

From the station in Prague, we headed down to the subway (Metro) and jumped a free ride into the heart of the city. We hopped on a trolley for a little while and then headed up a huge hill. Petřín is a park that houses a huge “Sky Tower” that was built in the early 1900’s by Jara Cimrman. This tower was put in place to give the visitors to Prague access to some stupendous views of the city and surrounding country. As you can see, the day was not exactly clear, there was a haze sitting over the entire city. As with Dubai, I bet that when there’s a bit of a wind to blow the smog away, it’s a breathtaking view. Climbing to the top was a pretty good feat; a tight spiral with 299 steps. You were breathless before getting to the top to see some views to take your breath away. This means that if you weren’t careful, you could asphyxiate on your first full glimpse of Prague.

We had taken a cable car to the top of the hill, to save some energy for the stairs. The way down was a much easier route that went through some nice forest and popped out on the way to Prague Castle. This was our next stop, but we decided that some food was in order first. This meant going all the way down the hill to find a store that didn’t have completely jacked prices from it being main tourist season. (Though, mind you, even in the height of tourist season in Prague, everything is a heck of a lot cheaper than most other places in the world with no tourists. But travelling with local Czech makes one more frugal than usual.) For instance, we had a 500ml beer for 40Kc, which is equivalent to NZD$2.85, or USD$2.28. Josef informed me that it was twice as expensive as anywhere else. How can you not love a country that gives you excellent beer for less than $3 a liter?

After a good feed of bread, fish salad, and pears we went back up the hill to the Prague Castle. By this time of the day, the temperature was already climbing into the low 30’s C (86 F). The humidity in this country reminds me of Hawaii in the summertime, without the nice trade winds to cool you off.

Charles Bridge was built in the 1400’s and still stands today. It’s a major tourist attraction in Prague and there are numerous people with small kiosks selling anything from jewellery to sketches of paying customers, to paintings of the scenery. Some of them are very good, while others leave something to be wanted. The bridge itself is about a lane and a half wide and hosts numerous sculptures that reflect the time of its building. It made me think of medieval days with the wrath of God upon the sinners of the Earth. There are a couple of sculptures that you can touch and make a wish. The bronze is rubbed shiny from the gentle caresses that many wishing hands have bestowed upon it. The rest of the stonework and metal work is black due to age. It gives the bridge an almost gothic look and feel to it.

The Astronomical Clock was another big tourist attraction. The clock is amazing and I only wish that I could decipher what all of the hands mean. At the top of each hour, a little window opens half way up and a small parade of figures take their turns bowing to the public.

One of the interesting things about Prague, and most of the Czech Republic that I’ve seen so far is the fact that there are a lot of cobblestone roads around. Josef tells me that asphalt lasts around 10 years, while the cobblestone has been there for centuries. It’s all worn smooth from the many wheels that have passed over it. Even smaller country roads have small areas of cobblestone that have been painstakingly laid out in a nice pattern by some very patient fellow years ago!

Still, Prague is a tourist destination. About half of the working population there can speak English and a handful of other languages. If you’re not familiar with the language, though, it can be tricky to navigate. It is not laid out in the typical grid-style that later cities boast. There were many tours operating when we were there, all of them in a different language. The guides to these groups would have a nice wand of some sort with a colored ribbon at the end so that their tourists could find them easily when in large attractions.

There are old and new buildings that have been mingled together to form some very interesting skylines. The older buildings are fantastic, and it made me wonder what their original purposes were.

22 August 2011

It’s unbelievably hot today. I think it’s supposed to get up to 33 degrees C in the shade. This time of year it is unusual to have a lot of wind, so it feels like you’re cooking in a sauna. Some friends of Josef’s invited us to the Berounka River, which was about a 25 minute drive from the village. It’s the river that meanders through the country from Pilzn to Prague.

We stopped next to a shop that offered some food and beer, of course. I wish I had a camera with me because I would be able to show you the origins of Budweiser Bier, which comes from Czech Republic. I’ll have it be known, that it tastes a hell of a lot better than anything that comes from the States.

The river was running a little bit brown, but it was cold and refreshing. It was about chest deep all the way out into the middle of the river. It was great to relax and unwind and get some sun!

Czech sun is great for tanning. I’ve spent 3 full days in the sun and I’ve gotten toasty brown without much sunburn at all. I wonder how long it will last?

21 August 2011

I got to meet Josef’s mother today. She’s a woman with a very bubbly personality who greeted me with a huge kiss, called me her beautiful girl, and babbled on in Czech while she pinched my cheeks, smooched me some more and gave me a few more hugs.

A few of her friends came over and I had a very nice afternoon listening to the language and wondering what the hell everyone was talking about. It really reminded me of home, with the aunties and uncles coming over for a few pupu’s and beer, talking about nothing in particular. All in all, it was very pleasant. Had some very good food, drank some beer, and played charades with his sister and mother as the only form of communication we could muster.

I have a feeling that I’m going to get better at this game as I learn more words.

20 August 2011

Today was a exhibition of “old car and motorcycles” in the area. It was a sort of small festival and people from neighboring villages came to see the spectacle. The cars were lined up down the one street in the village and most of them were old rally cars of mostly Czech make, but some of them were from other parts of the world. The motorcycles were old, some of them looked like relics of ages long past. The cars and the motorcycles, in turn, participated in a “race”. I don’t think it was a serious race, but they did hand out trophies at the end of the day.

One of Josef’s friends had a Velorex, which is a small 3 wheeled motorcycle surrounded by leather. I got to take a turn around the village in it. It was very cool, but a bit small for my liking. I said that it looked like a small turd driving down the road, I believe it an accurate description.

The day was sunny and warm and the multitude of people around was unusual for the village. Josef showed me some of the stone statues around with stories of the guy who made them. Apparently, he did a lot of his work while drunk and most of the statues are unfinished. Still, they’re on display for everyone to see.

Josef’s dad was in charge of making some goulash for whoever wanted to pay for it. When it was finally finished, we took a container and filled it, grabbed some bread and then made our way back to his house to eat it outside on the bench. It was a little bit salty, but it was also damn good. It was more like a soup than a stew and I have no idea of what kinds of spices were used. The bread was alight rye bread with caraway seeds in it. Josef informed me that it was “Czech bread”. I can only assume that it was typical bread made throughout the country.

We shared some ice cream in the shade of a tree and some girls, around 10 years old, came to talk with us. They were trying hard to utilize their English skills, and I found it amusing to watch. Of course, I was as helpful as I could be. They managed to get us to watch a soccer game with them. The game was for kids between 5 and 7 years old, and Josef and I were moderately uninterested in watching. We helped ourselves to some drinks and talked about the day while enjoying the sun.

Back at home, we made a fire in a brazier and cooked some thin sausages over the fire and ate them with mustard and some more of that “cigar bread”.

It was a great day and I enjoyed meeting some of Josef’s friends.

19 August 2011

Woke up very early to a lightning storm. The sky flashed brightly right outside the window and the thunder followed with great booms. Josef and I watched it for a while, unable to sleep and talked about what I wanted to see today.

We went to the store in the morning for some food and I got to see the village. It’s quite small with a population of around 500 people. Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows who I am. You have to love that about small communities.

The houses are rustic and made of limestone (or some other sort of light colored stone) and they tend to be more than one building. It’s quite normal to have a house and attached to it a barn, stable, woodshed, and other buildings to house tractors and other vehicles. The properties tend to be long and narrow and the buildings on them in a row. The buildings owned by people usually adhere to one side of the property, and the wall on the other side is the outer wall from the neighboring buildings. Most of the rooves are steep and covered in red tiles.

We decided to visit his sister in Rakovnik and prepared to take the bus. I got to meet his sister, Lucie and his 5 year old nephew, Dominic. We decided to walk into down town to get food at a local pub. The weather wasn’t on our side today and it decided to rain on us a bit on our walk there, but it passed quickly.

They luckily had a menu in English for me and I was amazed at the amount of different meals they offered. The combinations tended to be on the strange side with a mixture of meats, gravy and sweet fruit together on one plate. I had trouble finding something that looked appetizing. I finally settled for a half order of chicken with mushroom sauce and “American style” potatoes. This ended up being a half order of chicken breast covered in mushrooms and gravy, and a full order of wedges. The veggies consisted of coleslaw and a few bits of carrot, cucumber and a wedge of tomato.

After returning to Hředle, Josef asked me if I’d like to go for a walk in the forest around his village. He wanted to show me the wild mushroms and some of the nice views of the countryside. The forest had a dirt path carved into it, and you could tell that civilization was near. Off of the trail, the underbrush was very thin and it was easy to walk around looking for the elusive edible mushrooms. I was impressed with the calmness that surrounded us as we meandered through the trees. The oddity was that even though we were surrounded by trees, there was enough signs of human habitation that made me feel less than isolated.

The walk ended near the neighboring village of Krušovice where we stopped at a pub for a beer before going back the way we came....in the dark! (see picture)

It was about 10pm when we finally saw lights on the path. It had been a long day, but at least I made it and was able to pass out without any issues!

18 August 2011

From Praha to Hředle

Josef told me he wasn’t quite sure what bus to take back to his village, but we figured it out eventually. We caught a bus to a main bus terminal and figured out what bus to take to Rakovník. We had almost an hour to kill so we had a beer and waited.

The bus ride to Rakovník was about an hour long. There a lot of small villages interspaced with fields of barley and hops. I could tell that I was in a beer-making country. New Zealand was a place with 4 million people and 40 million sheep, Czech Republic is a place with 10 million people that make 100 million liters of beer, on a good day.

We arrived in Hředle at around 6pm after being picked up in Rakovnik by some friends. We bought some chicken and funny long bread rolls that remind me of oversized cigars. After that, I forced myself to stay awake until at least 9pm, even thought I felt like I was dead on my feet!

Showered, slept.