Prague Journal

Friday, January 14, 2005.

Rick’s walking shoes have fallen apart – beyond repair – so we made a quick trip to the Vietnamese market stalls near the Hradčanská metro station to look for a reasonably-priced replacement. We found some suede shoes with heavy soles that look like they’ll do – they seemed to fit well and were only about $16. Rick broke into a pseudo-Presley rendition of Blue Suede Shoes, dancing as we were waiting for the bus home. We’ll see how well they hold up – the last (bought in Denver) were barely a year old. We also stopped at the vinarna near the bus stop to buy wine to take to Ales and Jitka’s chata (cottage) in Červena (Jetĕtice), along with the marshmallows, chocolates and graham crackers and yams and cranberries (thanks to Vicki and Aditya) for our weekend outing.
The ride to Jetĕtice by train is only slightly more than 2 ½ hours from Prague, so we needed to leave our flat by 1:00 p.m. to make sure we could get our tickets without having to worry about long lines. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, including finding seats in a non-smoking compartment on the over-crowded train out of town. The train left the main train station in Prague at precisely 2:23 p.m. and Ales and Jitka were waiting at the station at Červena nad Vltavou at 5:02 p.m. when we arrived. The walk to their cottage is only about 10 minutes, very pleasant since the weather was so mild. Rick sees Ales every week, but I see him seldom and neither of us see Jitka very often, so we were both very happy to be able to spend the weekend with them.
The evening food and socializing evolved in a perfect way. It was nearly dark when we arrived, but we lit Shabbat candles and welcomed the start of our relaxing weekend before 5:30 p.m. Then, we had dessert and tea. An hour or so later, we sat down to dinner. First came beer, then soup, then a main course, then salad, then wine, followed by another dessert. I should elaborate on some of the food since it was so delicious. The first dessert was a chocolate-cheesecake brownie, very delicate yet rich at the same time. The soup had vegetables and aromatic boleto mushrooms that Jitka had picked and dried last fall. The soup could have been the entire meal. Amazingly, we also ate chicken breasts in a piquant cream sauce, and potatoes and salad as well. Ales brought out two wines, one a young Beaujolais and the other a full-bodied Syrah. Dessert and tea followed. All in all the dinner and conversation lasted until nearly midnight. Fortunately, we would have the next day and a half to continue the conversation.

posted by JWinn @ 10:46 PM