Grocery Shopping Adventures

As I have previously mentioned, we do not have a "meal plan" or "cafeteria" here in Prague. In order to not go broke, cooking meals is unavoidable. Each floor has 1 kitchen. I had been avoiding "real" cooking during the week of orientation as well as the first week of classes. My excuse was that I was getting adjusted and had no time. Anyone who knows me well, however, might be surprised to hear this. I am an avid fan of the Food Network, and often am glued to the TV with this channel on. I'll often refer to Rachel, Giada, Ina, and Sandra so often that you might mistake them as my close friends rather than chefs and tv personalities. Additionally, in the fall of 2008 I had taken a 7 part 2 hour vegetarian cooking class at Bucknell's craft center, and a similar baking class in the fall of 2009. Well, before coming to Prague my extent of cooking on my own has been limited to heating up Lean Cuisine entrees in the microwave, baking brownie mix from the box, and making tuna sandwiches ("tuna in the toaster..." - that's for you, khs '08-ers!). The thought of replicating one of Giada's italian feasts or Ina's home cooked wonders has always been something I have eagerly anticipated. But, the thought of approaching this task in a foreign country with different cooking units in the metric system and heating units in Celsius, and grocery labels in a different language was more than slightly intimidating. And yes, I was also just really, really lazy (and tired!). This is coming from someone used to food magically appearing on the kitchen table at home (a la Mom) or in the caf at Bucknell. I didn't exactly have the time or energy to make elaborate meals (or for that matter, a kitchen to myself... there are 6 other hungry people on my floor using the kitchen as well!).

So, I slowly proceeded to get "staple ingredients" from Tesco and local grocery stores. I went every couple of days after class. After all, I don't drive here so I have to carry all of my groceries back myself!

09/07/2010 Shopping Trip at Tesco

Some "staples": salt, soy sauce, nutella, hot sauce, roasted red peppers, grilled vegetable seasoning (garlic, ginger, sweet pepper and turmeric), whole wheat pasta and "cling film" (aka saran wrap, in the US)

09/08/2010 Tesco Trip

Whole wheat wraps, rice, olive oil, plastic containers, peanut butter, honey, Neapolitan tomato sauce, tuna, black pepper, paprika, carbonara sauce, oregano, and bay leaves

09/13/2010 Alberts Trip

Canned chickpeas, potatoes, eggs, cheese, and frozen vegetables(cauliflowers, green beans, carrots, and bell peppers)

09/15 Alberts Trip

Frozen broccoli, mushrooms, milk, deli chicken, foil, bananas, sponges, and mixed salad

Buying milk also proved to be an interesting experience. Hearing the stories of a fellow Machova-er who thought she had bought milk only to later realize she had bought "sour milk," I knew I needed to do my research first so I wouldn't come back with buttermilk instead of regular skim milk. In fact, for the first week I instead just ate my cereal with strawberry yogurt. Eventually I was able to find out that "mleko odtucnene" is "defatted milk" and is labeled green or light blue. So that certainly made my job easier! (And that particular store only had them in the boxed variety)

I'm still deciding on what my first kitchen experiment should be... A blog entry to come on that, shortly!

Václav Havel Gallery and Vyšehrad Tour

Today in my English class (Literature and Place of Central Europe) we went on a little field trip! We walked about 3 minutes from Old Town Square to Řetězová 7 where the Václav Havel Galerie is located. We have currently been reading a few pieces by Havel, who is a Czech playwright and politician. He was born in Prague, and was the last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first of the Czech Republic. The gallery focused on his literary works and how Havel has become a Czech myth: a story that links people, a story told by some community that helps it understand its history and its own mentality. Havel stood against the Communism that he grew up amidst, and became a symbol for the freedom struggle of Central and Eastern Europe. He was the leader of the 1989 Velvet Revolution and since his term of 13 years at Prague Castle as the country's first post-Communist President, he has maintained his role as a leading moral authority.

A look into his "library"

Several of his quotes on posters

These are some of his famous quotes:

"The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle"
- Amnesty International's essay "From Prisoner to President – A Tribute"

"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less."
- Letters to Olga (1988)

Right after class, I went on a tour. NYU offered a few optional guided tours during orientation week, and due to more interest, the program's student council arranged for an additional tour for the student body to go to Vyšehrad, which is located on a hill overlooking the Vltava River.

Vyšehrad is a 1000 year old citadel where, according to legends, Prague was founded.  It was the seat of the first Czech kings, and today you can see the fortifications on rocky cliffs overlooking the city, and also explore the national cemetery, where Antonin Dvořák, Bedrich Smetana, painter Alfons Mucha and many other well known Czechs are buried.

Part of the cemetery

Some pretty columns and alcoves... and also a cemetery

Church of St. Peter and Paul

Cemetery of nun's graves

Rotunda of St. Martin from 11th century. Small weddings (of 10-20 people) have been held here!

Typical day living in Prague... Go to class, go to a gallery commemorating a Czech myth, and go on a tour of a centuries old landmark.

The rest of the weekend and a third trip to Lehká Hlava

Yesterday, after getting back from Český Krumlov, I was able to relax for a couple of hours, and then I met Laura and her suitemate Destiny at Wenceslas Square. We took 2 trams to their dorm building in Praha 3. We, along with their other 3 suitemates, grabbed a quick bite to eat at a place around the corner. It was nice to hear Lady GaGa blasting (instead of Czech music...) and we ended up playing a little foosball! I'm pretty horrible, but we did tie!

Laura and I playing foosball

Today, I had lunch with Kim at the one and only Lehká Hlava. Can you tell by now how obsessed I am with this place? We were seated in the third room, and while it wasn't as grandiose as the previous 2 rooms I have been in, the fish tank was still pretty cool. Here are a couple of pictures from my lunch!

The 3rd room with salmon and orange walls and a fish tank

Eggplant quesadilla with guacamole, tomato salsa, sour cream and a small green salad

Hope you enjoyed reading about my weekend. Now, back to my massive amounts of reading...

Český Krumlov Day 2, 9/11/10

Day 2 and we were up by 8 am to dig into the complementary hotel breakfast. We checked out by 9:30 am and left our bags at the reception. The NYU group then took a tour of the Eggenberg Beer Factory. We had someone who guided us through the different rooms of vats and machinery. Afterwards, we walked back to the castle and went up the tower. The view was great!

Eggenberg beer factory

The bridge going to the castle is an overpass over a bear den. We managed to catch a glimpse while they dug into their food.

The view of the castle from the tower.

The view of the town from the tower. You can see the church and steeple.

See those blue skies in the pictures? It was a really nice day out, again, so we really lucked out. After the castle tower, we had free time to explore the town. We got lunch at Hotel Zlatý Anděl, which is located right on the town square, and ate at the outdoor seating area (http://www.hotelzlatyandel.cz/)

Bramborove noky: potato gnocchi, funghi, chicken meat and mushrooms

After lunch, we decided to take advantage of the town's many museums. These weren't paid for by NYU (unfortunately...), but we decided to get tickets for the wax museum and the torture museum - for a 2 for 1 student deal of 100 crowns. A lot of the wax figures I didn't recognize, so I won't post too many of those pictures. Or too many of the torture museum pictures. Because some of the things I saw in there were just really freaky. No need to immortalize those images!

Pablo Picaso, Bill Clinton, Matka Tereza, and Papez Jan Pevel II

Charlie Chaplin, Salvadore Dali, and Albert Einstein

Louis Armstrong, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson, and Tina Turner

A torture chair at the torture museum

The town square

Well, that was my weekend in Český Krumlov in a nutshell. 2 days and 1 night were (surprisingly) the perfect amount of time to stay here. The place is tiny and quaint, and you can really walk the entire perimeter in a short enough amount of time to soak in everything. Quite a different from Prague, with its metro, trams, and buses! Český Krumlov was a nice little escape for the weekend from the hectic workload and busy city life. The architecture was similar to Prague's, yet almost more Mediterranean with the predominance of red tile roofs. I can see why this place, along with Prague, are the top 2 tourist destinations of the Czech Republic.

Český Krumlov Day 1, 9/10/10

We met at Namesti Miru (conveniently only 4 blocks away from where I live at Machova) at 8 am on Friday and boarded the bus to head to Český Krumlov for the 3 hour ride. A slight bus mishap later (the bus turned out to be fine, but the 2 RAs detoured us to a rest stop after the driver thought there may be a problem with the tires), we had arrived at the Malphovilka Hotylek. It was a small, homey place, straight from a picture book. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30, explore on our own, and meet the group in front of the hotel at 1:45 for a tour. Because of the unplanned stop, we only reached at 1. Valerie (roommate for the weekend) and I were hungry so we grabbed lunch at Pizzeria Don Pietro right nearby. Our pizza was delicious, but when got to the hotel at 2 and the group was gone.

We ended up exploring the castle and gardens on our own. However, since we weren't with NYU, we didn't have the tickets to actually tour the castle or the baroque theater. After we wandered around for a sufficient amount of time without seeing a glimpse of NYU, we explored the town. Český Krumlov is tiny, and we were able to walk through the majority of the area that afternoon.

Quatro Staggiorni: tomatoes, mozzarella, ham, artichokes, olives, champignons, and tuna

NYU took over the hotel. Every room but 1 was booked!

Our room!

 

 

 

 

A view of the middle part of the castle

The building walls seen from a courtyard

The castle garden!

The water fountains at the garden

A view of the town. That's the castle and tower in the distance.

The town church that was closed.

Yes, that is a turnstile and you have to pay to use the "water closets" here.

We made our way back to the hotel and met everyone at 5:45 for the group dinner at Mastal. NYU was springing the bill and I opted for less traditional Czech food (but my entree more resembled rice with vegetables than a risotto). After dinner, a few of us headed into the town to attend an outdoor jazz concert. We watched two groups play, and they were fantastic!

 

 

 Garlic soup with beef, croutons, and noodles

Vegetable risotto

Pancake with fruit and whipped cream

Outdoor jazz concert