I went on a trip to the wine country in Moravia with a bunch of my coworkers, which was pretty epic. It was a 2 or 3 hour drive from prague into southeastern Czech Republic. I may be recounting this out of order, because I'm now remembering that this was the week before St. Martin's day (Nov 12th?ish?). St. Martin's day is the first day of the year that that vintage of wine is available to buy and drink, so we ended up jumping the gun on the wine trip a bit. As it happened, they had some of this year's vintage for us to taste, but it wasn't official because it was a week early... or something. The people who ran the vineyard only spoke Czech, so all that I know was delivered in fragmented translations. Either way, the wine was delicious, and we had far more than should be acceptable at a wine tasting weekend.
All of us in the wine cellar
A few days after the wine weekend, I went back to the State Theater with another friend of mine, and this time we saw Swan Lake. It was fantastic!! And afterwards I was inspired to watch Black Swan, which was also fantastic, but in a very different way... Anyhow, for this excursion we knew what to expect, and we both had fun dressing up and having a classy evening :D Probably the classiest part was when we stopped at a food cart on the way home and got fried cheese sandwiches. They're pretty big here, and they're about as heart-stoppingly delicious as you could imagine.
Later that week, I went to a night club nearby where they were having all of these different Czech rappers do live sets. It was pretty awesome. My Czech friends were rather impressed that I enjoyed it, because everything was in Czech and I had no idea what was going on... But then I explained that I have no idea whats going on in rap when its in english, sooo.... I made do. lol. I could tell it rhymed, and the music was good :) Also, that night my guardian angel visited me in the guise of a friend I made while waiting in line for the bathroom. Somehow my purse and I parted ways during the evening, and hours later, when I'd given up all hope, my bathroom line buddy found me on the dance floor with my purse in her hand! that took the evening from good to fantabulous pretty quick :D
Later (or earlier... I'm not exactly sure, but I know I havn't written about it yet...) A friend of ours came to our apartment and made a traditional Czech meal for St. Martin's day. It is when the wine from this year is first released, so it is a Czech tradition to make a big, heavy meal to go along with the delicious wine. My friend made a goose, potato dumplings, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and this amazing soup with meat dumplings in it. It was epppicccc, and only a week before Thanksgiving!!
For the day of thanksgiving a friend of mine invited me to the Prague Marine house to join in on some traditional American festivities. Unbeknownst to me, it was quite the intimate affair, and it was much more difficult to blend in than I had hoped. Despite showing up knowing noone but my friend (the only other non-marine or non-marine family member) everyone was super nice and the awkwardness was fleeting :) Not to mention, the food was incredibleee and they had live football, so I was happy :D
The weekend after Thanksgiving I went to the tree lighting ceremony in the main Prague Christmas market with a bunch of friends. It was an absolute mob scene, but it was pretty cool to see the tree all lit up. The Christmas markets in Prague are absolutely fabulous. There are a bunch (five? maybe more?) around town, and there are mini-versions in basically every open space in the city. They all have Christmas trees, decorations, stalls selling the usual assortment of trinkets, and most importantly FOOD!!! There are a number of delicious sweets and pastries that are traditional Christmas market fare, then there is usually more substantial food as well. It is all delicious, but the best part about the markets by far is the svarak, or hot wine. Nothing is better when it is freezing and gray out than to get a piping hot cup of mulled wine. And it really doesnt hurt that there are stalls selling it at the exit from my metro station :D
Then, a group of us went to a hockey game. Hockey is pretty big in the Czech Republic, and the game we saw was between two of the main teams, Sparta (from Prague) and Slavia (from Brno). It was my second game ever, and it was so much fun!! It ended up going into overtime, and Sparta won in the end!! Super epic. Then later that evening I won two games of foosball.... against a czech guy!!! Also super epic.
Last weekend I had a Christmas get together at my apartment with a bunch of coworkers and friends. I was a bit worried after a shaky start when my power went out after I turned the oven on, but I got the power back on and it all ended up well :)
I am now in my last week of teaching before Christmas break!! I'm going back home for a week, and I'm super excited to get some sunshine and sushi before heading back to Prague!! I still havn't seen snow here yet, but who knows? Maybe it will be waiting for me when I return...
So, knowing my blogging diligence, this may be the last post of this year. If so, apologies, and I'll try to make my New Years recap worth the wait :D
Till next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment