Yesterday and the Drink Before
Yesterday was a trip to the Castle. The castle (especially St. Vitus cathedral as its highpoint) is one of those "must sees" for visitors. The cathedral is in nearly every tourist picture of Prague (& typically someone took the picture from the Charles bridge).
If someone chose to walk to the castle from our place, it could be a 90 minutes taking the round-about way through a large park. (Incidentally, the walk is barely be a third that once we move.) Well, yesterday we took a taxi to there, but we attempted to walk it coming back. I'd say we did well, going through Letna Park, down to Old Town Square, up to and through Wenceslas Square...a bit over 2 miles with hills...but then mom's scooter quit on us and a taxi was in order. Pretty impressive distance, though. I think the record for a single day's walking is still held by our first visitors, Jenn & Courtney, who walked to the castle and back, plus some.
The castle always seem impressive to walk around, but it seemed another couple thousand people had the same idea. Armed with a camera and guidebook, we all plodded along the courtyards, watched the changing of the guards and bumped into each other on a mission. Can't blame anyone - it was really nice weather yesterday, maybe our last good week of summer (or "babi leto" = grandmother's summer, here).
Let me put up a couple pics of our strolling through the castle and cathedral...
...the drink before
It's burchak (Burčák) season again. Burchak is fermented wine, sort of.
Burchak looks like orange juice, tastes like apple and orange juice mixed (& a bit soured) and is unappetizingly cloudy. Once you've gotten used to the cloudy look and the awkward taste (wondering if it's safe), then it kinda of grows on you.
By the 2nd glass, you've long forgotten it's as potent as wine, at 15 proof.
By the 3rd glass, you're thinking to yourself "Wow, I feel like I could just chug this stuff." (Dad actually said this out loud).
Maylia was at home with Ella, so we had no control of ourselves. That explains how we bought (and drank) two 1.5 liters of burchak between the 3 of us. Yup, that's a liter each. We felt it that afternoon, through supper and during our castle stroll.
The burchak festival at our local park is a grand mock-medieval affair with jousting matches, band music, and kiosks selling crafts, rotisserie cooked chicken, cotton candy, balloons, etc. But it's clear people go there for the burchak.
To make sure there's enough for the festival, burchak is brought in by the tanker...
...bottled on the spot in 1.5l bottles...
...and sold to people waiting in long lines (...guilty).
One and a half liters of burchak costs you 114 crowns this year (~$6). I figure that is under half what the same amount of beer costs this year at Oktoberfest this week, plus we can stumble right home in 5 minutes, so we'll pass on Munich for another year. :)
See you next year at the Burchak festival!
One more photo ... Jeff's favorite picture of our castle trip. Can you guess what daddy gave Ella (and will never, ever give her again, if he knows what's good for him)?
Yesterday was a trip to the Castle. The castle (especially St. Vitus cathedral as its highpoint) is one of those "must sees" for visitors. The cathedral is in nearly every tourist picture of Prague (& typically someone took the picture from the Charles bridge).
If someone chose to walk to the castle from our place, it could be a 90 minutes taking the round-about way through a large park. (Incidentally, the walk is barely be a third that once we move.) Well, yesterday we took a taxi to there, but we attempted to walk it coming back. I'd say we did well, going through Letna Park, down to Old Town Square, up to and through Wenceslas Square...a bit over 2 miles with hills...but then mom's scooter quit on us and a taxi was in order. Pretty impressive distance, though. I think the record for a single day's walking is still held by our first visitors, Jenn & Courtney, who walked to the castle and back, plus some.
The castle always seem impressive to walk around, but it seemed another couple thousand people had the same idea. Armed with a camera and guidebook, we all plodded along the courtyards, watched the changing of the guards and bumped into each other on a mission. Can't blame anyone - it was really nice weather yesterday, maybe our last good week of summer (or "babi leto" = grandmother's summer, here).Let me put up a couple pics of our strolling through the castle and cathedral...
...the drink before
It's burchak (Burčák) season again. Burchak is fermented wine, sort of.
Burchak looks like orange juice, tastes like apple and orange juice mixed (& a bit soured) and is unappetizingly cloudy. Once you've gotten used to the cloudy look and the awkward taste (wondering if it's safe), then it kinda of grows on you.
By the 2nd glass, you've long forgotten it's as potent as wine, at 15 proof.
By the 3rd glass, you're thinking to yourself "Wow, I feel like I could just chug this stuff." (Dad actually said this out loud).
Maylia was at home with Ella, so we had no control of ourselves. That explains how we bought (and drank) two 1.5 liters of burchak between the 3 of us. Yup, that's a liter each. We felt it that afternoon, through supper and during our castle stroll.
The burchak festival at our local park is a grand mock-medieval affair with jousting matches, band music, and kiosks selling crafts, rotisserie cooked chicken, cotton candy, balloons, etc. But it's clear people go there for the burchak.
To make sure there's enough for the festival, burchak is brought in by the tanker...
...bottled on the spot in 1.5l bottles...
...and sold to people waiting in long lines (...guilty).
One and a half liters of burchak costs you 114 crowns this year (~$6). I figure that is under half what the same amount of beer costs this year at Oktoberfest this week, plus we can stumble right home in 5 minutes, so we'll pass on Munich for another year. :)See you next year at the Burchak festival!
One more photo ... Jeff's favorite picture of our castle trip. Can you guess what daddy gave Ella (and will never, ever give her again, if he knows what's good for him)?
