Prague: the Jewel of Europe

Before we get carried away with everything that Prague has to offer, we would like to take a moment to thank our most gracious hosts for making our Prague expericence unforgettable. Not only did they hook us up with the most unbelievable apartment overlooking the city (minutes from the famous Prague Castle), they also left us with a fridge full of food, tram tickets, a cell phone, got us wasted the night before they left and fed us yummy home made deserts. On top of all that, they connected us with two brothers from a different mother :). THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!!!!!

Prague is a perfect example of an ex-communist eastern european city making a smooth transition into western europe. If the EU was to write a ``how to`` manual, in our opinion, Prague should be the role model. Please note that this is looking at the Czech Republic from an outsiders point of view based on a short stay in one city, so the Czech people might completely disagree. But they would have to be crazy to.

Prague`s old architectual beauty is juxtaposed with its new ultra-morden self. Anything you would want and are accustomed to you can find in Prague, and then some. From Tony & Guy hairsalon, all brands and clothing labels, to grocerry stores filled with fruits and vegetables Canada has never seen. The city has gotten rid of all its old school analog antenas and has gone full on HDTV digital. In addition to that, the thing that blew our mind, coming from a city with a pathetic and archaic transit system, is that you can get up to minute transit information (arrival, departure of any tram/bus in the city anywhere on any line via internet) which is to the minute 99% accurate. For example, we looked up how to get from the apartment to the train station and were provided with detailed instructions on which tram to board, at various departure times from our stop to get us to the train station at the desired arrival time, with changeovers, including minutes needed to walk from stop to stop or enter the metro. Unbelievable!

In all this modenization, however, Prague has not lost its historic charm of cobble stone covered roads and old gothic and baroque buildings. We spent almost all of our days walking the streets and snapping hundreds of pictures (to give you an idea, a walk from the apartment to the lower part of the castle should normally take about 45min - 1 hour and it took us at least several hours each day). The rest of the time was spent chilling with ``the brothers``.

Staromestske nam square



The Dancing Building, Prague

 We don`t want to bore you with a list of all the stuff to see in Prague as that`s what Google and The Lonely Plant are for, but we do want to mention a cool building designed by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic called the Dancing building after Astaire and Rogers. Pretty cool.

Our stay included a chill night with the two brothers with a fantastic view of the city and a Seinfeld marathon and a little Prague nightlife with one of the greatest Czech directors of our time. Very cool maaaaan. Great views of the city, some communist cola, Austrian tourists, lots and lots of laughs, great Czech food and a happening club later made for a fantastic night. And who can forget the Hawaiian Czech cellar :). Just awesome. Can`t wait for more good times and gentlemen thank you very much for your hospitality!!

We`d like to point out, again, that Czech (well, the written language) is really similar to Serbian. We were amazed at how much we could understand walking around ... but when it came to spoken Czech, we were pretty clueless. We`re still convinced they`re in-the-closet Serbs and they`re just trying to isolate themselves from us.

Here are a few pics and a link to more pictures: http://photobucket.com/SM_Prague2010 (password: praha).  
Talk to you again soon,
S&M



Obecol dom, next to the Powder Gate



Powder Gate



Hram Svetog Vito, by Prague Castle



 

Krativ Most

Food in our 1st Moon (Al sam gladan, al sam gladna, mm mm, yum yum yum)

Here is a little retrospective of food during our first moon (yup, one down, eight to go):

NYC - same food you would find back home in Toronto, just more expensive.  The New York pretzel is whatever (and according to M, borderline shit).  We would like to give special mention to two restaurants we ate at.  First night we ate at a fantastic Indian Restaurant around the corner from our apartment called Taj Restaurant (www.facebook.com/tajrestaurant).  We got these three dipping sauces and papari (thanks Harry G!) and Mango Lassi's while waiting for our take-out.  Yummy.  Then the food we ordered, which we asked for extra spicy, was exactly that and delicious.  The prices were great and we have to say, it was one of the better Indian experiences we've had.  Then there was Les Halles (http://leshalles.net/brasserie/, yet again, thank you Andrea and Paul!!) where we ate for S's birthday.  Some of you may have heard of the head chef there, Chef Anthony Bourdain, who wrote the great book Kitchen Confidential.  Fantastic French cuisine, along with a great atmosphere and decor.  We had a few entrees, the meat platter for two, chocolate cake and a bottle of red.  Heavenly and affordable.

Amsterdam – we were treated to wonderful food at home with Tina where we had our first taste of traditional Dutch breakfast bread which the Dutch use to keep regular (no joke).  We'd definitely eat it on a regular basis J.  We also had the pleasure of eating the Dutch caramel waffle (‘Stroopwafel’, S's favourite treat in Holland) and tried food we bought out of a whole in the wall, literally. There are these fast food joints with coin operated 8" x 8" holes where you can purchase mini burgers and various croquettes (cufte).  Not bad for a 1.05 Euros.

Febo fast food

Cvraci, now picture
these swimming in their own fa

Prague - We have to say that Czech food is very similar to Serbian food (as is the language).   We had a fantastic welcome Italian lunch with our fabulous hosts but here we're going to focus on traditional Czech cuisine.  We sampled a few traditional dishes that were a twist on what can be found in our motherland.  As expected, we stuffed ourselves silly and made everyone around quite uncomfortable with our ungodly consumption.  Special mention goes to the Cvarci we had (for those not familiar with this Eastern European delicacy, this is pork fat that has been boiled into curds in pork fat. Yup, you read that correctly.  In Serbia you can even get it smoked ... anyway, back to our story).  The cvarci were in a mason jar floating in their own fat, accompanied by dark rye bread and mustard.  OH MY GOD, was this ever delicious and we inhaled it (to M's astonishment, S absolutely loved it too ... and she says she's a healthy eater! ha!).  Next honourable mention has to go to the pickled sausage which we don't have in Serbia.  We would definitely have it again.  Last honourable mention from our tasting is pork salami encased in pork gelatin (or so we think).   And let's not forget that we had the pleasure of drinking communist coca cola (which we call Cockta in Serbia) - the one thing that the Communists managed to get right.    

Budapest - pastries, pastries and pastries.  We had great apple pie and yummy strudels and made only one bad choice when it came to pastries ... this awful chicken pastry which we found out was filled with nasty chicken liver that tasted like ass (we’re getting the shivers writing about it).   We also went out for a Hungarian dinner and had some so-so goulash and a decent new age meat platter (I know, we're all about the meat platters ... wait till you read the next part on Serbia). 



Karadjordjeva snicla

SERBIA - not that we're biased or anything but Serbia has hands down the best rostilj (BBQ) in the world.  Where do we start?!?  I mean from the internationally popular cevapi to the Karadjordjeva schnitzel (pork tenderloin rolled and stuffed with kajmak - Serbian cream cheese of sorts - breaded and deep fried .... heaven!!!), to pljeskavica (Serbian hamburger on steroids) to vesalica, which is either a grilled or smoked pork cutlet, to the punjena vesalica which is a pork cutlet stuffed with cheese and ham.  Let us stop for a second to wipe the drool from our faces.  Ok, we're back. 



Leskovacka Muckalica

In addition to the rostilj, you can order cooked dishes, our favourite being Leskovacka Muckalica (bbq pork, sometimes beef and deer as well, with stewed tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers, onions, etc) and a close second being wild game goulash.   Aside from meat, every meal is accompanied by roasted red peppers (either spicy or regular) sitting in a bit of oil and garlic and usually a simple salad such as: Sopska salata (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta cheese), Srpska salata (tomatoes, onions, green peppers and cucumbers) or kupus salata (cabbage, oil and vinegar).  

Before we move on from the meat portion, we have to pause and mention the rotisserie lamb we had in Mladenovac (a city about 50km from Belgrade) at a restaurant on the side of the road called MB Restaurant.  This place goes through 36 fully grown lambs a day which are made in a rotisserie next to the patio of the restaurant.  And it was FINGER LICKING GOOD!!!!  We devoured it.  The meat is usually accompanied by freshly baked bread (made on the premises), the roasted pepper salad mentioned above and 0.5L of draft beer. 

** Please note that including MB Restaurants, we ate at so many great restaurants in Belgrade and surrounding areas and Jagodina City :), including but not limited to: Cebic, Klub Knjizevnika, Lovac, Vitez, Hotel Avala and a fantastic fish place on the river Danube (where we saw the biggest cat fish EVER!!!).

Burek with cheese

Moving on to the breakfast and entree portion of the meal, one must mention the pitas and bureks. Pita is very similar to the Greek spanakopita except that it can be made with cheese, meat or cheese and spinach.  Burek is also made with phyllo pastry but this time in layers and filled with cheese, meat, mushrooms or left plain.  We had these with Serbian drinkable yogurt every morning in addition to french toast and rostilj :).

Do we even need to mention that we each gained 10lbs in Serbia or was that obvious??

* for those in the Toronto area who want to sample some of the Serbian meat dishes mentioned above please visit Royal Meats BBQ (www.royalmeats.ca) in Etobicoke. 

Lunch at Hotel Avala - Karadjordjeva, kupus salata, hot and sweet peppers

Lunch at Hotel Avala Part II - cevapi, sweet peppers, lepinja and a pork chop

dinner in Budapest with our meat platter :)