Fondue for three

"I firmly believe that a bowl of cheese melted and shared with amazing people can make you feel like the luckiest person in the world."

Friday night I finally met up with my dear friends Joanne and Lada at their house in Kobylisy (an area north of Prague) for a little fondue excitement. Both Joanne and Lada have never experienced classic cheese fondue before and both, I am afraid to say, seemed a bit skeptical of my cheese! I arrived with my beautiful Crate & Barrel fondue pot, cheese, bread, apples and pears in hand ready to start preparing. Lada was very eager to help so he was in charge of cutting up garlic for said fondue. I brought about 350grams thinking that this would be more than enough for the three of us!

*Last week i bought about 500 grams for Dave and I and we threw half of the pot away... a sin really in my world*

The fondue was finally ready, the flame was lit, and the pot went on and everyone started digging in. Lada, who was the most skeptical of all, was digging in full force and was utterly amazed by my little pot of cheesey goodness. He kept saying how he would never have experienced anything like this about 20 years ago (communism). I think he did a better job of taking over the cheese pot than both Joanne and I combined. In the end, I didn't buy enough cheese, and felt really terrible about it. Next time i know to buy at least 500 grams!

The rest of the evening was us sitting in the living room, chatting, and catching up. Joanne made me some really fabulous remedy for my having yet another cold, and gave me a "wheat bag" that I kept around my neck for most of the evening (it helps with relaxing your muscles and is seriously amazing). I left my sweet friends around 11pm and came back here for a good nights sleep!

I can not wait until the weather turns warmer and we can start doing more things together outside. I love getting together with these people, as they really are amazing and always have me laughing... and what could be better than that? Good people, good food, good drinks, and people that make you feel special!

Vienna 2010- Getting there

"We are not morning people."

Our bus left Sunday morning at 8am, which means, if you want a good seat you got to be on it around 7:30am. So, very "happily" we left my apartment at 7:00am thinking we must be forgetting something. And of course, we did. We had prepared sandwiches for our 4 hour journey down to Vienna and of course only remembered them when our tram was coming around the corner. So much for being on it.

Bus ride so early

Before we could check into our hostel (Wombat, yes that's the name of it), we had about 2 hours to kill so we decided to look around the city center for a while. We got of f the metro in an area called Stephenplatz where there is an old Catholic Cathedral. They are currently doing restorations on it so there is only about quarter of it that actually looks decent. The rest has this tarping over it so that you can "see" what it will look like when it's all completed.

Cathedral in Stephenplatz

Old horse and buggy rides that you could do.

We roamed around this area for a while and then just wanted to sit and well, get warm! It was freezing while we were there, though i know the pictures don't do it justice. We found a nice little pub, sat down, had a beer and tried to figure out where our hostel was and how we were going to get there.

Beer and Warmth time

Quick picture in a passage

And we finally made it to the hostel! It wasn't far from the city center, maybe three or four metro stops. We stayed in a 4 person dorm and wasn't near as bad as what I was expecting. It was really clean and everyone that worked there was really nice! I told my sister that I would of course take a ton of pictures, because apparently, I don't look like the roughing it type of girl; whatever that means!

unpacking


"kissing" the top punk for a good luck sleep

posing, because it seemed right

The dude that was sleeping in this bunk was the worst smelling person EVER! He woke us up in the middle of the night because of his stench!

Last dorm picture Monday morning before heading out into the city for the day of sight seeing!

Vienna 2010- Schoenbrunn Palace

"I felt like Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette.."

Welcome to the home that I wish I could afford if I didn't have to pay the heating and electric bills. The gardens themselves would put me into the poor house faster than even the house! It's an amazing complex. So many gardens and different areas through out the property. We only saw a small quarter of what they have here. Most of it was closed, as they were gearing up for tourist season. It opens at the end of March... when they actually start planting flowers (they were all gone when we were there)

In front of a small portion of the house. I think there are about 3 on the property.

Better picture of the palace

Dave and I. I wish the sun wasn't in my eyes for this one, it would have turned out better

Crazy squirrel we found.. the old lady that was feeding it was stranger!

View of another area of the gardens and an observation area. Behind that building there is another one. We didn't go up there though... we were on a time crunch.

Another picture of me

Dave and I. Now you can see the palace a little bit better. It's literally massive!

Beautiful fountain that was taken over by seagulls. I felt like I was in the movie the birds.

Full scale of the fountain. Greco-Roman

The front of the palace, just as amazing as the back!

Vienna 2010- Hotel Sacher

"I love chocolate cake, coffee, coat checks, and anything with history.. input the Hotel Sacher."

There were only a couple of things on our itinerary list when we showed up to Vienna last weekend; 1) Florence and the Machine Concert, 2) beer, 3) Hotel Sacher, and 4) Schronbruner Palace. After we went to the palace we made it into town to check out the Hotel Sacher and their famous cakes. Needless to say, they lived up to what i thought they would be... absoultely delicious! Dave and I were both blown away by the quality of food and service, but also the fact that it was NO WHERE near as expensive as what we thought that it would be... thank god for that!

Quick history lesson: During an important Hampsburg dinner the head pastry chef got sick and the assistant was called in to make a delicious dessert that would be sweet and would compliment the other dishes. He was a chef at this Hotel. The dessert was such a success that he became famous and then became the pastry chef for the Hotel and the key maker of the Sacher torte (his last name was Sacher). The recipe is still a secret to this day and only cakes that come from the Sacher hotel are known as the original Sacher cakes!

People waiting outside for the yummy cakes. We got their just before this line started!

Me outside after eating our yummy cakes and drinking fabulous coffee!

Which coffee shall I take? Ah... orange liquor coffee... perfect. It has Vitamin C you know!

Coffee and cake

Dave and I getting ready to eat everything incredibly fast!

Vienna 2010- Sightseeing

"I realized on this trip that I am very much like my mother when I travel."

I figured it would be easiest to put these pictures into a couple of sections, just to make my life easier. These are all pictures that we took on Monday after we visited the Hotel Sacher and had their famous Sacher Torte, which I must admit absolutely lived up to its hype!

There is an entire area of Vienna where most of the historical buildings are all in one area, which make sight seeing a rather easy event. Unlike some other major European cities, they are in a 5 block radius of one another, which means not a lot of walking and easy public transportation

Beautiful green house with a cafe inside. It looked so warm and inviting

Some goverment building

I was freezing and my ears felt like they were about to fall off


"Where are we?"- I look a little too much like my mother in this picture

Cherubs outside the governement buildings. They were everywhere

Beautiful Cathedral in Vienna

Sushi, Wine night, and Crazy Czech Carnivals

" Big roasting, cheap beer, country songs in Czech, and home made liquor... this is endin up to be a pretty amazing afternoon."

So, when I left college I was a bit concerned with the idea that I would never again hear country music, drink cheap beer, enjoy the BBQ-ing of animals (deer, pigs, etc), and was really worried about the lack of proper moonshine! Well, then I moved to the Czech Republic and realized everything that I was worried about was in fact a farse.. Europe, especially the small towns of the Czech Republic, are scarely similar to the small towns of the south... which means... they ARE AWESOME!

This week was the end of the Masopust festival (a.k.a. the end of carnival and the end of meat eating for Fridays... but not Saturday)! I found this little gem searching websites and told Dave to pack his best smile and best czech skills as we were going about 20 minutes outside of Prague for a small adventure. Really, I just told him there would be a pig and he was pretty much a done-deal. The town itself is pretty small and it was definitely a sight to see. Drunk old people everywhere! I was a little nervous that if any of these older folks fell over (from the amount of moonshine they were drinking) that it would be the end for them... you know, hip injuries can be fatal!

Roasted pig! We had the klobasa and two beers for the equivalent of like 50cents. It was amazing!

Ok... so here is the picture of my lovely self drinking the moonshine and Slivo (plum liquor... it sounds good but tastes like vinegar... terrible!) We literally would walk about 100-200meters, stop, have a drink of this weird alcohol (for free i might add), and then walk another 100-200 meters and do the same thing again. I have never been to a parade where everyone was giving out free alcohol! It would be the same as being at a Bama game and having everyone walk by and give you a shot of Jim Beam... CRAZY Czech people!

Slivo and Bozkov(i think).

So, when we aren't classing it up in the outskirts of Prague we are going to wine bars. And what wine bar would be better than a one named Sideways; yes, like the movie! It was date night for Dave and I and I thought I would take him to a winebar that I went to with my friend Iveta for her birthday. They actually have some amazing Czech wine (the Czech's aren't really known for their wine) at a reasonable price! We had our own little corner table in the back so we spent the entire night laughing and having a really great time!

Date night is fun!

About 3 weeks ago my dearest friend Iveta decided she was going to try and make sushi. Now, I am a girl that LOVES raw fish, so when she told me about this little offering of course I wasn't going to turn it down! Iveta, her boyfriend Petr, and their adorable puppy Ebbie, live in a town named Brandys nad Labem, about 20 minutes outside of Prague. The day that I went it was wretched cold... like -12C... I HATE cold! I assisted with stirring sticky rice and helping Ebbie with lots of puppy kisses! It was a lot of fun and definitely a great experience. I was very impressed with Iveta's sushi skills... she has no formal training but is a WHIZZ in the kitchen! Literally, the women can make anything and everything, regardless of whether or not she has ever seen it before... she's like a kitchen god.

Ebbie girl waiting for her sushi turn!




Our amazing spread made by the amazing Iveta Horackova!

Snow days are here to stay

Don't let anyone fool you; snow, when having to go to work in it, is not fun!

So, about a week ago the Czech Republic, well Prague actually, received about 2 1/2 feet of snow in one weekend. This is more than Prague has received in more than 20 years!!! Needless to say getting to work on Monday was nothing short of a National Disaster! Public transportation was running late, or in my case, not at all. Roads were shut, snow was falling off roofs and onto people. This, I must admit is really funny as long as it doesn't happen to you or anywhere near you. The poor Czech woman that this happened to was covered in snow and had to dump the entire contents of her purse out just to get the snow out. I snickered but i was a good 10 feet away so i think i got away with it.

Below are some pictures from that weekend when the snow refused to stop. The first picture is a person enjoying a little cross country ski action, since you know, we live in the middle of the city and the snow was so deep this was the old mode of transportation that was actually working. Typical.

WEEEEEE... Skiing is fun!

The next two pictures is just to prove how much freaking snow was actually on the balcony. We built, Dave and I, a snow man, but we had to prop him up against the door because he was too powdery to mold into anything snow man like.

Stylish and Cold. Snow!

Kisses for the snow man!

We still have about a foot on the ground. Luckily, Prague has finally got the snow situation under control and has put more salt on the roads than is probably necessary, but it's keeping it from sticking for periods longer than evening. But on some positive news; I was told today that we have had sunshine for 20 consecutive days, which is also more than Prague has had in over 5 years... so... that's at least an improvement over the snow! Sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!