Budweiser Budvar prosim

Phrase of the week: Budweiser Budvar prosim = Czech Budweiser please. Although there is plenty of Budweiser in Prague, it is not the same Anheuser-Busch beer that it produced in the US. Apparently the founder of AB was from the region (Germany or Czechoslovakia) and wanted to make a beer that reminded him of home, used the name of a beer that was already in production, and the problems began. There are on-going legal battles around the world, but there is no clear winner thus far.

Observation of the week: As one of the largest drinkers of beer per capita in the world, Czechs believe that it cures all ailments, including colds, an upset stomach and insomnia.

This weekend, not only were we able to visit Prague, but Tim was able to meet other Emr’s and see where his great grandfather was raised in the small town of Zirovnice. When planning our trip, we received help from Vaclav Zeman, the boyfriend of Jarka Emr (a distant relative). They set up the visit to Zirovnice, met us at the airport, and would keep us on busy the entire time we were there if they had their way. Until Vaclav learned that we were in our 30’s (and not teenagers), he thought that we shouldn’t be left alone in a foreign city. Needless to say, we ended up going out every night after they thought that we were in bed at the hotel (they must think that we sleep 14 hours every night).

We flew into Prague Friday afternoon and Vaclav and Jarka took us to Hotel Union. The hotel was perfect for what we needed: clean, inexpensive, and close to the tram. They took us on a walking tour of the city and gave us some history of the country. After about 3 hours of walking around in 10 degree weather, Alicia caught a chill and almost had a heart attack on the sidewalk. Luckily, there was a café nearby and we were able to warm up. Vaclav had the “hot wine,” which is a local favorite for the area. For dinner our first night, we found a nice restaurant in old town and grabbed some pizza (it was excellent).

On Saturday morning (8:30 a.m. to be exact . . .), Jan Emr and his girlfriend Marcela picked us up to head to Zirovnice. The drive took about an hour and a half through the countryside. It is a beautiful country, and it would be great to visit again when it’s a little warmer. We were met by Jan’s parents (Cestmir and Helena), his grandmother (Cecilia), and brother (Cestmir). Cestmir and his wife, Hana, have three children: Cestmir, Lucie and Vojta. In order to keep the Emr family tradition alive, Alicia has already agreed to name a son Cestmir. Although you wouldn’t know it from looking at the outside of the house, they had a chicken coop, hares, and a small garden. Alicia enjoyed playing with dinner. Ariana warned us that we would be overfed and told that we were too thin. She was right. The Emr’s made us a great lunch and even sent us off with some Czech vodka and their version of moonshine. Here are some pictures of how my great grandfather's house looks today. On the way home, we stopped at another town, Telc, which looked like a Hollywood set. When we got back to Prague, Jarka and Vaclav had a big evening planned with traditional Czech music and dancing. Check out Alicia’s moves on the dance floor. Not to be outdone, see Tim here. Maybe the waltz isn’t our strongest dance.

On Sunday, we met up with Jarka and Vaclav at the National Theatre to watch the play, Cyrano de Bergerac. Although Sunday performances are typically in English, unfortunately, the performance was in Czech. It was still very entertaining, and the inside of the theatre was beautiful. After the play, we ate some Mediterraean food at a great little restaurant (who knew that we would have to come to Prague for some spicy food?)

On Monday, we saw the Prague Castle and ate some authentic Czech cuisine at a restaurant overlooking the river. That night, we went to a touristy restaurant in the old town, but it had great food, music, and even had a TV playing some local entertainment. Hah!

This weekend, Brian and Jennie Pastor were in town visiting from London, so we will have some pictures of them to put up soon.

P.S. Tim wrote this blog entry – notice all of the food references? I think we’re both over jamon y queso . . .

“Oh, Porto”

Phrase of the week: “Oh, Porto”: The phrase used many times to explain the less than optimal situations that we encountered when travelling around Oporto, Portugal.

Observation of the week: We realized that we like Spain a whole lot more than northern Portugal.

For this trip we teamed up with our friends from Duke, Myles and Jason. Another friend from Cornell, James, had left a couple days earlier, but we were able to meet up for a day. We arrived in Oporto on Friday morning and took the train to the city center to check into our hostel. It was raining, and the city looked completely depressed, but we still stayed positive.

Unfortunately, Tim didn’t confirm the specifics of the room in the hostel, because when we checked in, there were 8 bunk beds and a shared bathroom. We quickly left the boys and found another place to stay down the road. It had a hand-held shower and no heat, but at least we weren’t sharing it with strangers. We had a dinner at a local seafood restaurant – Alicia had one of the region’s specialties, grilled octopus. Everyone decided to skip the tripe. We went down the river that runs through the city for drinks after dinner, the only redeeming part of the whole city. Sat in a bar with heat lamps (they have something against heat in this town) then called it a night. James, Myles and Jason had Port tours lined up for the day, but we didn’t meet up with them until lunch time. After two tours and realizing that we’re not big port fans, we decided to sit at one of the outdoor cafés along the river and people watch. After an early night following a McDonald’s dinner, we couldn’t wait until we left for Santiago de Compostela the next morning. Needless to say, we don’t recommend that anyone visit Oporto. If you want to learn about Port, head down to your local liquor store.

Santiago de Compostela, Spain, was a bright spot on our weekend. The hostel where we stayed was spectacular. All of the rooms were recently renovated, so everything was new and clean. There was a small bar on the first floor and the staff was really nice. The smaller city has an “old town” similar to the one in Barcelona, but it is much less seedy. It is the final destination of the pilgrimage and one of only three cities deemed "holy" by the Vatican. There were plenty of small shops to walk around and check out. The restaurants were all pretty nice and an Irish pub even played the Superbowl. Tim lasted through the middle of the second quarter before exhaustion kicked in and he called it a night.

We were in town this past weekend and saw the Font Magica (Magic Fountain) in Montjuic on Friday night. It was spectacular. The fountain was lit with different colors and was programmed to complement a mix of classical music. It was nice to be able to walk around the city and get a weekend off from travelling. We are both looking forward to visiting Prague next weekend!

No es posible

Phrase of the week: no es posible = it’s not possible, or “no”.

Observation of the week: Aside from having a more formal culture, the Spaniards take their scheduling/appointments very seriously. Drop-in’s are not welcome and scheduled opening times/tour times are always subject to change, especially if you’re looking for a tour in English.

This past weekend we took a trip with our roommates to the Basque region of Spain and visited Bilbao, San Sebastian and the La Rioja region (for anyone looking to make a similar trip, look for Maribel’s guides on-line – fantastic resources). Similar to the Catalan region, they speak a different language and are consistently trying to separate themselves from the rest of Spain. We are starting to think that each region is not so different from Texas. Bilbao was surprisingly a wonderful town. We stayed a great little pension in the old quarter called Iturrienea Ostatua, recommended by Alicia’s friend Kate who lived in Bilbao for a while. We spent the majority of the day at the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum. Great new additions to their permanent collection, including works by Jenny Holzer and Richard Serra. We treated ourselves to the “menu del dia” at the restaurant in the museum too! Basque country is known for their “pinxtos” or tapas. Everyone starts around 7:00 p.m. and goes until about 10 or 11. You start at one bar, order one or two items and a drink, then move to the next place. It’s very social, everyone congregates outside – unlike anything we’ve seen. There were some great places right on the street where we stayed (Santa Maria) including Bar Gatz, and of course the main square in the old quarter. We weren’t quite sure what we were eating, but I think we had blood sausage and kidney inadvertently . . .

The next day we rented a car and drove to San Sebastian, one of the best beach towns in Spain. We stayed with some of Nic’s friends, Maria and Benat. They were so incredibly nice and showed us true Spanish hospitality! They took us to a place that I cannot even begin to describe – during cider season, these “cider houses” open for about 3 months. They are literally in warehouses with huge cider barrels and tall wooden tables. Everyone gets a glass and runs back and forth to whatever barrel the “pourer” is to fill their glass up (only a little! We later learned why – cider is a bit strong . . .). The food comes out on big platters – salt cod tortilla (Tim’s favorite), grilled salt cod with peppers, huge slab of meat (Alicia had a special one cooked bien hecho – well done), and walnuts, cheese and quince preserves. Fun night out in the town afterwards.

Woke up the next morning to make the drive to the La Rioja region. Our recap of the visit will be brief – it was nearly impossible to schedule any of the tours, much less tours in English. They all require you have a reservation, but when calling, they were never sure if they were having certain tours for the day, asked us to call back. “Can we just stop in for a tasting and not take a tour?” “That is not possible.” “Do you offer tours in English?” “Today, that it is not possible”. “So can we just visit the facilities for a tasting as we won’t be able to understand the tour?” “I’m sorry, that is not possible. You must go through our hour tour that is just like every other vineyard you’ve visited in order to taste our wine.” Needless to say, after visiting the vineyards closer to Barcelona a few weeks ago and after our first English tour at Marques de Riscal (hotel designed by Frank Gehry), we can all recite the various phases of wine making in almost perfect Spanish by the time we finished with the Ysios, Cune, and Muga tours on Monday. We did stay in a “quaint” little town, Elciego, at the Casa Rural la Cueva. The entire town was closed on Sunday, so we ventured to Laguardia nearby, an old town surrounded by the original fortress wall. No cars are allowed inside because the entire underneath of the city is comprised of wine cellars and caves. Headed back to Bilbao to fly home Monday night. I think we are all in need of a hiatus from our beloved vino tinto.

As a side note – we visited the Fundacio Joan Miro last week and loved it. We were lucky to see their temporary exhibition, “Un cos sense limits/A body without limits”, a retrospective of nudes from 20th century artists like Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti, Antonio Tapies, Miro and more. Tim had class the next day, but Alicia went to an opening there for a Japanese artist the next night, fun times.

We think our internet is officially gone from our apartment now, so the full postings will be a bit more sporadic. However, Tim will keep everyone updated from his postings at school. We are headed to Portugal this weekend, should be fun!