Not as young as I used to be

When I first traveled in the Czech republic in 1996, it was a land of beer fountains and meat mountains, and I ate and drank myself into a stupor over the course of several days. We even spent an afternoon at the pivovary (brewery) in Ceske Budeovice, a stuporous occasion that left me almost unconscious on the floor of the bus back to the train station. I returned in 2000 to spend what would be the most outrageous year of my life there, you may recall such blast from the past episodes as Meat Night, and Oktoberfest, with many more of my past exploits yet to be unveiled. As I just told you, this last trip was Avivas first to the Czech Republic, and we were going primarily to attend Pavlas wedding, as well as do a bit of touring, as Czech is one of the most beautiful places in the world, after all. And its got such great castles ...

We woke up the morning after arriving feeling surprisingly rested, and went to meet up with the whole crew (Pavla, Petra, and Robik) over at Pavlas place in Modrany. Martin was originally going to join us, but he had attended his own bachelor party the night before and was in no condition to go sightseeing. An hour drive took us to Kutna Hora, once (around the 13th century) a major silver mining town, second in importance only to Prague within the whole of Bohemia. It was during this time of plentitude that the town built the magnificent church of Saint Barbara ... must have been because these days the town, a lot more run down and caters mostly to tourism. And you would think, in an area full of tourists, that the overpriced meals would at least be reasonable. But no such luck ...

Our first Czech meal was very disappointing ... for the Czechs. Despite their tepid response to the meal, I had not had real Czech food in quite some time, and I attacked my poor excuse for goulash with relish. After looking back on the meal after eating dumplings all week, I can say now that it was quite poor ... but at the time I loved it. After lunch we walked back to the church, taking a number of pictures along the way. We explored the church for a short time, then spent a good hour wandering through Kutna Hora and the nearby town of Sedlec, until we reached the unique ossuary (kostnice sedlec) that was the real purpose of our visit. I had been to the kostnice a number of times but Aviva wanted to see it and I was happy to go, because each trip to Sedlec was a truly unique experience. The reason the ossuary was so bizarre is that it is full of decorations made of bones, including a large scale Schwartzenberg family crest, several large bone urns and a chandelier made from at least one of each bone in the human body.After the ossuary, we walked back to the cars, stopping for a some coffee on the way.

Another hours ride took us back to Prague, where we all had dinner at Hanas before going out for the evening. This nights entertainment was to be found in Lochkov, not Prague, and soon enough we trundled out to visit Pavla's father Josef at the pub he managed by the village soccer field. It was a short walk to Josefs bar, and once we arrived Josef, who was thrilled to see us, shuttled us off to the second of the two small rooms and brought out beer, and several bottles of strange alcohol, including jaegermeistre and stara myslivecka, a type of pine alcohol that went down surprisingly easy and was a bit stronger than I expected. We all drank beer and took shots with Josef and the other soccer fans who came in to talk with us, a surprising number of whom spoke passable english. The night passed quickly and too soon we had all had too much to drink and headed back to Hanas, planning to meet downtown the next day to tour around the city center ...

Gettin' to Czech

So the first step in our big summer trip was getting to Europe, something that used to be easier to accomplish than it is these days ... the purpose of my return to Czech after 4 years was two fold, first and foremost, Aviva and I were attending my ex-girlfriend Pavlas wedding and second, Aviva had never been to Czech, and I really wanted to meet Pavla and her family and to see the country where I had maybe the funnest (sp?) year of my life.

So back when I lived in the Czech republic a ticket across the big pond was only about 600$, but these days, with the completely crapped out dollar and the rising price of gas (and therefore airline tickets) the tickets were more than twice that. Still, with a bit of finagling (meaning 5 hour phone conversation with Stella, the helpful United ticket agent and several long and frustrating follow up calls ... gotta say United used to be a lot better at this) we were able to get across the ocean without inducing complete bankruptcy.

We flew into Czech on a Friday afternoon, having left New York on Swiss airlines (highly recommend them) the previous evening and spent 4 or 5 hours in Geneva on layover. The short flight from Geneva to Prague is very pleasant, and the approach to Ruzyne, Pragues international, reminds me of how much I love Czech, flying over the lush, green fields punctuated by orderly, quaint towns of small, red roofed houses. It is remarkably beautiful.

Hana, Pavlas mother, picked us up from the airport and when we got back to her house Pavla was waiting for us. Hana had made dinner, delicious of course as Hana is a tremendous cook, and we just sat around the kitchen table and talked long into the night, about literally everything under the sun. Aviva made it to 9 pm, quite good considering the serious jetlag, and I was so excited I managed to stay up until around midnight. We decided that we would spend the next day at Kutna Hora and And after I said dobro noc and walked down the stairs to the guestroom (guest floor really as the whole bottom floor of the house was turned over to us), I was struck by how unlikely this whole situation was.

I mean, here I was, with my fiance, spending the night at my Czech ex-girlfriends mother house, in my ex's old room, having traveled halfway around the world to attend my ex's wedding with said fiance. Pavla and her whole family treated Aviva and I wonderfully the whole time, like we were distant family. Aviva and I both spent the entire trip feeling remarkably fortunate, I especially, as I my relationship with Pavla and her family has become something more wonderful than I could have ever imagined.

Anyway, I went to sleep, exhausted from travel but still a bit wired, excited for Kutna Hora and thrilled to be among such friends.

Seattle Fireworks

Having just gotten out of the Quinault Rain Forest, Dave, Matt, Neal and I descended on Taco Bell in Aberdeen like starving refugees, practically incinerating our grilled stuft burritos as well as an odd assortment of other semi-Mexican food found on Taco Bells menu. After dinner, which was tremendously satisfying, we sped back to Seattle, making it from Graves creek to Matt's apartment in a little under 4 hours. The plan was to go out for some beers in West Seattle, the hip neighborhood where Matt lives, but that plan took a dive relatively quickly as the exhaustion of a 15 mile day set in.

The next day we got up and spent the day touring the city, getting an excellent breakfast at Easy Street Records (apparently Pearl Jam played here before they were big) exploring West Seattle a bit, taking in incredible views of Mt. Rainier, then heading downtown to visit Pike Place Market, which is notable for the fish throwing antics of the fish mongers, the original Starbucks (for all you coffee addicts out there), get a good look at the Space Needle and generally see the city. And we had to go to Niketown and get me new flip-flops, as the ones I bought only hours before at a drug store had already given me blisters. We got some lunch in Fremont and walked up to see the Fremont Troll, a massive stone sculpture at the top of Troll street, obviously. Dave and Neal left for California around 5. Matt and I hung out with Matt's brother Jason for a bit, then picked up some steaks and crab legs and met Bonnie back at Matt's for Surf n' Turf ... delicious but dinner basically wiped us all out and we crashed pretty early.

The 4th started well, with avocado and steak breakfast burritos followed by a leisurely stroll around Lincoln park and some time hanging with Bonnie's family down in Alki. Then on to the main event, fireworks at Matt's parents place, whose incredible house overlooks the sound. And, conveniently on the 4th, a dock from which they launch fireworks. We hung out, drank some beer and feasted on steak and and salmon. When the fireworks finally came around 1030, half an hour late, they were awesome, as they were basically going off at eye level about 200 feet in front of us. We could also see fireworks displays going off around the sound, down in Tacoma and across at Quartermaster harbor on Vashon Island. Actually, the display on Vashon was probably the most impressive display of fireworks I have ever seen, even from across the bay it looked like nuclear explosions (this picture, from Finchhaven shows what it looked like up close).

After the fireworks I said goodbye to Bonnie and Matt's family, who are just awesome, they make me feel really comfortable whenever I am there, and we got back to Matt's, played a couple games of cribbage (Matt wins 2-1) and then went to bed. The next day I got up and flew down to the Bay Area to check out my Dad and Pegs newly remodeled house ...