The Czech Republic is a country my father could love. Not so much the walking around everywhere, because Prague is certainly a walking man’s city and my dad is not that kind of tourist. I’m mainly talking about the cuisine. It is absolutely made to satisfy the midwestern pallet; it is entirely based off of meat and potatoes and in such a way to require a beer in hand. To use Andy’s new favorite word, it’s dipsomaniacal.
Sure, that may sound boring for some, but the thing about meat and potatoes is that when it’s done right it’s absolutely fantastic. And every meal I’ve had so far has been great, from street vendor sausage to pub-goulash. Sauerkraut, pork, lamb, beef, potatoes, and bread are the basis for pretty much every standard Czech dish. The only thing I’ve seen that was outside of the meat & potatoes genre has been the ‘turdlo’ which is a thin dough baked on wide spinning cylinders, covered with a light dusting of sugar. And that, my friends, is delicious.
As for what it’s like being in Prague: it’s the history that just astounds me. Being from America, I feel like I have such a shallow history, at least in terms of how short the history of my country is. Roughly 230+ years of history are nothing compared to the centuries of culture, history, stories, and lifetimes lived in a country like The Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia, formerly Nazi German occupied, formerly part of Austria-Hungary, formerly… Realizing that the U.S.of A. has only had 2 major skirmishes on our soil, and that scant few of our buildings are hardly over two centuries old, makes us look like wee babes in the world of geo-politicalness. So, wondering around castles that are older than my country kinda helps me put it all into perspective.
We have just seen the most beautiful things. It’s really hard to take it all in when every building looks like a work of art compared to what I walk past every day in the states. Between the castles, the bridges, the churches, and the museums I’ve had more input than I can really deal with in two days. And I’m love’n it. Today was a re-tour of the Prague Castle (we missed a lot on the first day) and the Museum of Communism. Andy and I also got the chance to explore Hradcany, which is the neighborhood around the castle. It was kind of nice to be on our own for the good part of the day and just explore at our leisure.
(The picture below is from the Museum of Communism: this was propaganda in the late ’50s, inciting fear about possible American chemical warfare on the communists. Remember, kids, hold hands when you’re running for your life.)
Sounds like my kind of place for food and your Mom’s kind of place for the walking. I did do a fair amount of walking in Hawaii however..up the stairs to get food and down the stairs to get more food.
Glad you are having such a wonderful time with your friends