Guess again

I know you were probably thinking you were done hearing me talk about food. But not so fast.

We are just winding down our stay in Prague. Four full days here is why I haven't been able to bore you with many more details. We have mostly just been strolling the same streets and hanging out.

We did go to a recommended watering hole last night. Tlusta Koala...or Fat Koala for a beer. A local joint with a bunch of stevedore-looking guys and cigarette smoke. I did get a marketing tip, though. As we were leaving, on the little shelf by the door was an advertisement for a veterinarian. I honestly hadn't considered placing ads in bars. Something to think about.

But back to food. We did walk all the way down to the local farmer's market yesterday. A real put-em-up-take-em down kind of market by the river. Had some coffee. And harkened back to my Czech roots by picking up some nut, poppyseed and apricot kolache. And then, much to my own surprise, I dragged up an old Czech vocabulary word from my childhood. We were standing in line to buy a potato hash out of a big vat. The next vat had a different mixture with sausage and cabbage and some little, oblong, white bits in it. No idea. Was it different potatoes? Or what? And then I saw the word written in magic marker on the vat...Halusky. Huh, I thought. My mom used to talk about 'penny' halusky. Noodles that weren't rolled and cut but rather pinched off (somewhat lazily, I suspected) into penny-like bits. So these were pasta, I guessed. And I was right. In this case, potato pasta, aka gnocchi. But I think my mother would have been proud.

Then today we went to have lunch at the Café Imperial. A lovely room covered (even the ceiling) in tiles:

 

Mostly mosaic on the ceiling but the also lovely bits like this:

Anyway, I digress from the topic of food. When the waitress brought us bread, rather than butter or oil it came with a little bowl of ...well I am not sure what she called it...but growing up it was ham salad. Chopped up, almost pasty bits of ham mixed with mustard and cucumbers. From my childhood I remember pickles and mayo...but basically it's like a ham spread (egg salad with ham instead of eggs). I won't show you a picture of it because it isn't particularly appealing to look at but it did, again, take me back in time.

Finally, I have to mention the mashed potatoes. Prague won the competition for prettiest city in a trip of many pretty cities. It also won the competition for the best potatoes in a trip full of great potatoes. These clearly had to be served in a bowl because they were so soft and creamy they would hardly have kept their shape if you tried to mound them. Again the staff claims that they are just normal, every day potatoes with cream and butter. But all I can say is if Blue Bunny made mashed potatoes that you could serve like ice cream, these would be those. Nirvana.

And that is it for Prague. Tomorrow we are off to Tromso, Norway to Chase the Aurora. Fingers crossed. More next from the tundra.
 

St Vitus

OK, so more photos.

The Prague Castle complex sits up on the hill west of the Charles Bridge.

On the right are the white towers of St George Chapel, but the predominant building is the Gothic cathedral of St. Vitus.

Our first up close view of the cathedral was this:

By the time we got to the South Tower side the sun was shining and it looked like this:

But from the right angle all those crazy little spires really look like this:

And this:

And on the inside you get this:

and this:





And bunches more beautiful images that I won't trouble you with. You will just have to come see it yourself.

Doppelganger

"In all the gin joints in all the world...."

What a crazy morning. We took a different street this morning that ran parallel to our usual street only to find that it actually apparently ran in a parallel universe. We were passing what we thought was a normal archway full of people that turned out to be a time/space travel portal. I didn't even look in as a maneuvered around the crowd, but Michael's eyes were drawn to the $8 all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet sign for the restaurant back down the corridor/black hole/whatever.

The waitress attempted to seat us in the interior of the restaurant but the other section was a sun room of sorts with more light so I asked if we could sit there instead. As we walked to our table, I had to take a step back. I don't think I could even hide my surprise as I turned to Michael to point out one of the two guys sitting at the next table.

As a bit of background, we have been thinking of Michael's son, Jaeson, a lot since we arrived here because he came here to Prague years ago during a summer off from college to teach English. We even called him via WiFi from the Old Town Square last night when we were having drinks.

Well, there, in the flesh, was Jaeson's doppelganger - or as close a one as I ever expect to meet in four more lifetimes. And we told him as much...asking him if he would mind having his picture taken with Michael. Other restaurant patrons were quite amused at the spectacle. But he was up for the game and quite obliging, throwing his arm around Michael's shoulder for the pic.

Even more amazing was that he asked us if we were from the U.S. because he wanted clarification that Puerto Rico was part of the U.S. governed by the same entry requirements. Turns out that he is an AVID diver and is going there on vacation to dive. (Anybody who knows Jaeson knows that diving is one of his passions.) Then just for an added bit of realism, his sidekick/friend asked if they could borrow Michael's car! Yeah, Dad, could we?

Anyway, tooooo funny. So rather than just post the picture of this random, not-Jaeson guy. Since I had to quickly scour facebook looking for a picture of Jaeson to show not-Jaeson and I have them handy....would the real Jaeson Paul please stand up:

 

Well, Folks, It Looks Like We Have a Winner

Nope, not talking about the elections. Talking about the undisputed winner amongst recently visited eastern European towns. Thanks to all the other contestants for playing, but Prague is freakin' ADORABLE.

We arrived late afternoon/early evening, checked into our airbnb apartment 1-1/2 blocks from the Charles Bridge and strolled right on over. Our immediate thought after "Prague is freakin' adorable" was "if Disney was going to create the ideal eastern European town, it would look just like this."

Much like Bagan in Myanmar, this is simply one of those places where all I can really do is post pictures. Sorry, a whole bunch of pictures.

Looking west up the hill in the mist:

 

Looking east off the bridge:

 



Looking west off the bridge:

Or down from (the Starbucks on) the hill:

Every building is unique here. It's like another world of colorful, Italian buildings but these are all wearing haute couture, embellishment and bling.

Like this:

 

Or this:

Or these:

Or these (does everybody in this neighborhood put sculptures on their roof?):

 





The point is that absolutely everywhere you look there is something different and beautiful.

It is quite simply astounding.
 

Let Them Eat Cake

Back to food. Always back to food.
Michael may not be into song cues but he does love food. I love food, too, but maybe not quite as robustly (or I just don't want to be robust). That means that part of my personal balancing act when we travel is eating enough to keep him happy but not so much that I can't fit into my jeans for the long flight home.

Austria is trying my resolve. My pre-arrival research recommended that we engage in the age old Austrian tradition of eating coffee and cake. No problem, you think. Coffee pared with cake is pretty standard, right? Sure. Once a day. After dinner. Maybe in lieu of lunch on a rare occasion. And maybe for breakfast when you first move out of your parents' house and you think, "Ha, I am a grown up now. I can eat, say, CAKE for breakfast if I want to and nobody can stop me."

For most of us, however, this does not become a habit. Not so in Austria.

Coffee and cake are apparently consumed ALL DAMN DAY. Much like my explanation to Michael when all the cookies disappear in one day....Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack. Here coffee and cake ARE breakfast, a late morning snack, lunch, and a late afternoon snack (nearly an appetizer for heaven's sake). And then an after dinner dessert. Every time you turn around people are sitting around drinking coffee and eating cake.

And just to be clear I don't mean English tea biscuits. I mean CAKE. Sachertortes. And Strudels. And well this stuff:

 

I thought I couldn't be anymore surprised after nearly a week now. But there we were at the Naschmarkt early this morning and, of course, needed to stop for coffee and something. In the pastry shop window we saw something that looked like a big, old, chocolate-coated, dairy queen cone dusted with snow. Hmmmmm. We thought. Guess we should see what that is so we bought one from the slightly amused looking woman at the shop.

 

 

And what was inside of it under all the snowy coconut and chocolate?

 



Whipped cream. An ice cream cone filled with whipped cream coated in chocolate.  I have to say that my throat still tightens a little bit just at the thought of all that sugar.

Austria 1 Georgia 0
 

Perspective

Our first full day in Vienna we headed off to Belvedere Palace. It was brutally cold and overcast and gray and I apologize for mentioning this so many times but it is just startling to me. After 16+ years living on a perpetually sunny Caribbean island, I just do not remember what weather can do. Certainly there have been other times in the course of those 16 years that I have been off island, in other places, experiencing this before; but obviously I forget. Time and time again, I obviously forget because here I am again in shock and awe of grayness.

Anyway, off we trudged. Here is the Palace:

No amount of average every day photo-shopping can make that sky look anything but just exactly like that.

In fact, the weather was so miserable we bought tickets to tour the art museum inside. OK, I stretch the truth a wee bit there because the museum at the Belevedere houses the largest collection of paintings by THE famous Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt, which makes it a "must do" akin to visiting the Rodin museum in Paris or the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam (both of which we have also done).

It also gave us the opportunity to catch this view from the upper floor windows:

Same sky, you say. Yup. And gardens in fall so not in their full glory. Yet still pretty neat patterns like on a sculpted rug. The reason I posted this image, though, is because there off to the left in the distance you can see none other than the St Stephan steeple towering so much higher than anything else on the skyline.

And that makes me realize that perhaps my other picture of the steeple didn't do it justice (even though it was an attempt to shoot it from the ground straight up). So here is another one which will also remind me that we did see those blue skies from time to time:

 

And On to Vienna

After our lovely last morning in Salzburg we headed off on the train to Vienna. Since this was a shorter trip, we had economy tickets. Sticking by the 'when in Rome' travel adage, we noticed immediately that two young local girls were settled in opposite each other across the table in the window seats of a group of four. So that's what we did. In all fairness it was a very empty train but we had plenty of room to be comfortable.

By the time we got settled in our latest airbnb apartment it was already after 4P. But we headed out anyway. Past St. Stephans (in all fairness only about two city blocks from our apartment) and over to the Stadtpark and around again. The day was too beautiful and the sky too blue to pass up any opportunity to get out and about (especially since we had to sit on the train missing out on over 2-1/2 hours of clear skies).

So here is the church:

 

And here is the steeple (just shy of 137 meters):

and up above the doors see all the....nope not the people...the array of animal gargoyles:

 

 

Auf Wiedersehen, Salzburg

I am catching up. Not intentionally throwing you off by posting out of order. I just found that photo of us at the church in Vienna on the phone while we were without internet access on the bus this morning. (Thank you T-Mobile for our ancient international plan with free international services.)

We are currently on a very slowly moving boat in the Danube Valley having elected to get out of a city for one during our trip. We are on a day tour of the Valley heading to the Melk Abbey. Unfortunately, the wifi on the boat is as slow as the boat, so this is probably all I can get done during the cruise. (if this..two resized photos are taking 45 minutes to load*.)

But to travel back in time. Our last evening in Salzburg was overcast and drear but we still found our way to the Mirabell Gardens. For aficionados of the Sound of Music, here is the gate and fountain that were the setting for 'Do Re Me'.

 

Then in the 'what a difference a day makes' category the next/our last morning in Salzburg was Bee-you-ti-full. Sunny and lovely. In fact, you might say that the "hills were alive...."  (I would but Michael is already tiring of my song cues. But you go right ahead.)

*in fact, after an hour they still hadn't loaded so I am only just now posting this after finally getting back to the apartment.

 

Us in Vienna at St Stephan

Food and Food for Thought

In the food department: part of traveling abroad is always googling 'what to eat in (enter the city of country)' and then doing our best to accommodate. That means that we ate pierogis and drank "wodka" in Krakow. Gorged on goulash and beer in Hungary. While here in Salzburg we have had meatloaf sandwiches (that turned out to be really more like bologna), pretzels, and brats, schnitzel and boiled beef (really like a roast) and lots of Veltliner wine in addition to beer. And across the board, I have to say that there is something crazy, awesome about potatoes here in this part of the world. Waxy and buttery. Great roasted but sublime mashed.

However, all over Salzburg are photos of their famous dessert, Nockerl. It looks like some kind of Baked Alaska but is, in fact, a triple peaked soufflé. So tonight, after a lovely cheese platter and a sampling of three different veltliners at a nearby wine bar, we set off to try the local dessert.

 

A huge portion for just two people, to be sure. But very tasty.

 

Now, back to the food for thought. As I mentioned before, we cannot seem to drag ourselves away from always checking on the political happenings back in the States. We couldn't watch the last debate but we watched the highlights. Every day we are checking online or reading comments on facebook so that we are staying nearly as current as we would have been back home. That is not surprising. As much as everyone wants this election to be over, it is hard to turn away in the meantime.

 

What is always surprising, however, is how riveted the rest of the world is by our politics. Everywhere we have been so far...and I mean in EVERY single city, at least one person has approached us and asked us how we thought this circus was going to turn out in the end. Tonight, at the aforementioned wine bar, the woman at the table next to us leaned over to me to ask if we were Americans. And then asked if she could ask me a question. Who did I think the next president of the United States would be? Without going into excruciating detail about the conversation suffice it to say that she was old enough to have lived under communism and wanted to recommend against choosing leaders with autocratic tendencies. And was also incredulous that we would be so far behind the times by way of anyone questioning a woman's fitness to lead.

 

So far, then, we have yet to talk to anyone in any of these countries who is not (1) sincerely worried about what this election means to the ENTIRE WORLD and (2) who is not terrified at the thought that Donald Trump could become President.

 

The world is watching.

 



 

Favorite Things

Here we are in Salzburg. After an uneventful train ride through the countryside we arrived late yesterday afternoon. Most of the way here the scenery was really reminiscent of Ohio. But once you reach Salzburg it is adorable: pretty, pretty architecture and little street after little street with lots to see. I mentioned it before, I think, but we are always looking up and around and down corners.

To a little church at the end of the street:

 

Or a clock tower that appears right in front of you

 

Or something across the way:

(Oh and YES the sun came out today ... see the difference between this sky and yesterday's sky in the previous image!!!!)

 

Inside the Cathedral:

 

Or to see this little guy amidst all the rosettes in the ceiling of the State Rooms in the Fortress:

 

And every now and then.....looking down at street level

 

Granted this little guy was in a below ground level apartment in Budapest but he was really cute.

















A Taste of Home

Nine days out. Time always seems somehow to pass both faster and slower on vacation. This trip especially so because we are moving at a snail's pace compared to our typical itineraries. Days in each place. Plenty of time. Sitting and sipping Hungarian wine. Strolling with no particular place to go. Almost reminds me of the days when we vacationed on tropical islands like Anguilla and all we did was lay on the beach all day, sleep and eat. That seems like a lifetime ago.

I remember traveling way back when you couldn't find a diet Coke to save your soul. (That is when I started drinking beer, in fact.) Now there is a Starbucks on every major corner in Budapest. GoPro camera stores. Office Depots. And Subway sandwich shops. It's called globalization, I think.

Sometimes, though, the things that take you back home are even more geographically specific. From:





To the offer of either Hot Cinnamon Apple Juice with Schnapps OR a Rum Punch.

Or even a faux beach to relax on:

(Yes, that is really sand on the floor of the bar.)

Between these little things and constant internet connectivity (so thank heavens we don't miss a bit of the U.S. political circus :-( ), it hardly seems that we are five thousand miles from home.


 

The Parliament

As the third largest parliament building in all the world, (Romania and Argentina apparently take top honors), it is also one of the must-do tourist attractions in Budapest. We went there on Sunday because the google said it was open but the guards and ropes and black limousines all around it made us think differently.

We returned on Monday. No ropes and limousines but it still didn't look like it was open. Not a single sign led us around the building to the far side to the stairs that went underground to the tour entrance. Luckily we kept looking, but even so, we had to buy our tickets for later and then return at 4:15P for our brief tour. The place is quite roomy (100+ stairs up to start the tour, thank you) and very ornate. From the gilded ceilings:

 

To the original stained glass windows that were taken down and stored underground before the bombings in WWII.

 

 

Unfortunately, I can't show you the crown jewels. (No photography in that room.) But they too were saved during the war when they were somehow given to the American Army and kept in safe keeping in Fort Knox until Jimmy Carter returned them.

However, by far the prettiest sight, again, was the building at night outside. I have to say that I don't think I was so unprepared for the temperatures as I was for the nearly constant cloudy, drear and drizzle. In Michael's photos of the outside of the Parliament last night, the flash captured the falling mist:

Pretty!

To Market to Market

Monday, we started off with a morning stroll with a Starbucks coffee down to the Market. A wonderful place full of gorgeous and yet ridiculously inexpensive produce (that's just under 300 florints to the dollar and pricing per kg)

 and meats

along with baked goods and so many paprikas we couldn't pick without coming back to the room to translate the different kinds. (sweet, pungent, spicy, etc)

We even navigated through the upper floor's tourist trinkets stands and had the requisite langos with sour cream and cheese. (Sort of a sweet pizza shaped donut with toppings.)

In the basement, were the fish mongers and the pickle sellers. And they pickle EVERYTHING here. Not just cucumbers and peppers and sauerkraut. But look at this:

Kittens! Oh no!
 

The Lights, Master, The Lights

Sorry for the poetic license. But the lights of Budapest are simply amazing. Last night we took the trolley out to the Bridge stop at Magrit Island just north of here looking back. Never saw the moon but the sky glows just the same. I cannot even imagine their electric bills to light up the world like this.

Two quick images as we break now between the Market and the Parliament tour this afternoon.



And zoomed in