Prague: The Food Edition

---

Mom and Leigh came to visit! I love family in Europe. Take note, people. Visit me in this place. We had a long weekend in May for labor day. Labor day is May 1st, which was a Thursday, so they gave us Friday off too. Thanks, Hungary! Mom and Leigh flew into Prague on Wednesday morning, and I took a 7 hour train right after school. On the train I graded lots of tests and read the entirety of The Fault In Our Stars. It's really an experience to be SOBBING to yourself on a very public train and having the ticket inspector walk over.

I got to the train station around 11:00, and a guy from the inn picked me up (luxury!!). When I got to the inn/hotel/flat/whatever it was, Mom greeted me and Leigh sort of did, although in her jetlagged daze, I don't think she remembers. We all slept soundly in our gorgeous flat.

On Thursday morning we woke up to an unbelievable breakfast delivered to us! Croissants, pastries, fruits, cereal, yoghurt, orange juice, coffee. The best. Mom and I walked around for a while in Old Town while Leigh did some work. In the afternoon, Mom had a surprise for us. We went to meet this guy outside a church, and he proceeded to feed us shots of what is the Czech version of Palinka. 1) delicious. 2) Mom taking a shot. An older couple came and joined us as well as these two guys who were...friends? a couple? We're still not fully sure. Our tour guide told us a little bit about Prague's history, and then we went on...

THE TASTE OF PRAGUE TOUR.

This combines all of my favorite things. Food and walking around cities while eating food. The first place we went to was unbelievable. But I'll use that word a lot. They had little tastes of food like pickled celery, rabbit-ear crackers with honey, and other things. It was served beautifully. The first celery thing was actually served on cobblestones (see picture)! Then we got a tour of the kitchen. Everything was labeled in English because that's how the chefs are trying to learn English. This place is trying to get back to the roots of Czech food and found a book from 18something where they get all of their recipes from (again, picture). It's falling apart, but it's awesome.

After that lovely tour of fancy things, we went somewhere less fancy. We had open-faced sandwiches at a place called 2 Sisters (or 3 or 4...some amount of sisters), which were tasty. We get open-faced sandwiches in Hungary too. Yummy. Across the street from this was a butcher's shop where we proceeded to eat the best meatloaf that has ever graced my taste buds. Then a butcher brought out a huge leg and showed us the different kinds of meat on the leg. THEN he cooked up some fat for us, which melted in our mouths and was AHmazing.

After the butchers shop, we walked through Wenceslas square and into a steak house. We got beers that were poured differently for girls and guys. The girls was basically all foam, but it was milky rather than foamy, so it was really interesting. Then we ate ALL OF THE FOOD. Chicken and fish and veggies, and mashed potatoes. And more that I can't even remember. We finished that off with beer ice cream, which I could eat forever. Our last stop was Cafe Savoy, which Darcy and I stumbled upon on our first visit to Prague. We proceeded to have all of the dessert in the world, and we could barely eat it. It was so tasty, though. Rather than slip into a food coma, Mom, Leigh, and I went out to get coffee with the two (gay?) guys. Leigh and I had this really fancy coffee that tasted really weak but was actually super strong (picture), so we perked right up (get it?).

That night we walked around the city, stopped at a wine bar, and went back to our flat.

Friday. We woke up early, scarfed down breakfast, and got in a van to Pilsen: Home of the Pilsner Urquell factory. We had a really nice tour guide who told us all about Czech history on the way. When we first got there, we noticed there were American flags everywhere. Turns out that the Americans liberated Pilsen from the Nazis, so they love us there. We went into a museum commemorating the liberation. The two craziest parts about the museum: 1) The actual Nazi flag. I've seen them on TV and I've seen the posters and stuff, but there was a real one here, and it was really creepy. 2) All of the stuff that the American soldiers left behind after WWII. I mean, it just never really occurred to me. Books and mess kits and knives, and basically anything you can think of. So they all picked it up and put it in a museum. It was super cool.

Then we went to the Pilsner factory for a tour, but turns out that stag parties have all the fun because it was all booked up 😞. So we went back to Prague and took a tour of the Jewish Quarter.

On Saturday we got up and went past the Fred Astaire Dancing House to a little outdoor market, where we proceeded to buy a ton of food. We walked up to Visehrad (castle on a hill) and had some coffee. We walked through one of the craziest cemeteries ever, through a park, and down the other side of the hill. On the way we met the most adorable 8-week old puppy, but his owner wouldn't let us play with him for too long because he was a grumpy man, and why would you not let us play with your puppy???

We ate our lunch from the market in the bus station because it was cold out, and we didn't want to eat outside. Fanciest Burger King meal I've ever had. After lunch we hiked/walked/scrambled up to a big hill with a statue of a horse and a tomb of the unknown soldier. Leigh was sick of the walk up the road, so we slipped and slid up what was a barely a path but was wicked steep. It was hysterical. When we got up to the top, we were able to climb a million stairs and see a great view of the city, complete with faceless babies crawling up the TV tower.

We walked back down (on the road) and went into Old Town Square and then to the John Lennon wall. We had a really unbelievable dinner that night and went to bed exhausted from all our walking.

On Sunday we spent the morning doing the tour of the Jewish Quarter. It was really interesting but crowded. Then we walked up to the "Prague Eiffel Tower." Except that wasn't the most interesting part at all. On the way we found an unbelievably beautiful garden with hanging flowers, blooming dahlias, and cute white benches. We could've spent forever in there. After we got to the top, we walked back into the city, bummed around Old Town Square for a bit, and went to the airport to fly back to Budapest.

I was able to take the day off of work on Monday to spend a day in Budapest with Mom and Leigh. We went to breakfast at Brioche and then walked into the Grand Market. The best part of the day was getting to go to the Gellert Baths, which are generally too expensive for me to go to. It was a maze in the locker room, and I'm surprised we found the baths at all. But it was incredibly relaxing and beautiful. We had a great dinner at Spoon on the water. On Tuesday I went to work while Mom and Leigh went to the castle district (but somehow managed to miss the castle). When I got back we went to the Basilica for gelato and then Szimpla for a beer. Szimpla is super cool during the day. After an unbelievable dinner I said goodbye. They got their plane back to America on Wednesday morning.

Best visit ever!

---