2 Cafes & a Pivnice

Now that it's January, we are in the process of planning our great return to the US, to NY and the relocation to Massachusetts.

We are planning to buy our plane tickets tonight, and return Sunday, February 1st. That's 24 days away! Oh my god!

As much as we have had a great time here for our 7 month long trip, we are both excited to come back. I'll talk more about that another day.

For now, we are in the process of still enjoying ourselves...but we are also kind of saying a long sad farewell to Prague. Of course, we'll be back - Andy's family's here! - but we both have had such a great time, and I for one have become very at home here.

Because we see the end zooming toward us, we're trying to hit all our favorite spots before we go. This of course includes restaurants and cafes.

Today we went to a great Czech pub on Národní called Krušovická pivnice in Prague, where we have been many times. The just have good Czech food and it's not crazy expensive. We shared Hermelín (see picture) and Svíčková. Their Svíčková is pretty great.

After lunch we took a big tram ride on the 22 up past the castle and back down. I love riding the tram and think it's a great (warm) way to see the city. Afterwards we went to Kavárna Louvre (Cafe Louvre, also on Národní) for some hot chocolate. We'd never been there but had heard great things about the "Horká čokoláda 'Louvre'" and figured this cold day was a great opportunity to try it. It was sooo good... very rich, like pudding or chocolate fondue, as a drink. Yum! They also had these little blank note papers on each table that say "Cafe Louvre." I like to think those are there for big business deals where one person has an offer to big they must write it on a slip of paper and then pass it over. Very classy.

Last week we went to Cafe Savoy, another favorite, for our regulars: Salát s gratinovaným kozím sýrem (salad w/ baked tomatoes with goat cheese, carmlized walnuts and a kind of maple vinaigrette), and Tatarský biftek Savoy (Beef tartare with topinky - fried bread). Double Yum! This food is SO GOOD!

These cafes are so beautiful, I just love going somewhere where I can dine in style!

Oh, and here's some more recent pics, including Kolín, New Year's and some crazy Czech wine sausage, "vinná klobása".

This is NOT a Drunken Blog...

Well, not really. I did just come from the pub (Stodola, Crapper) and had 5 pivo (that's pět beers). Whatever.

Regardless, here's a couple things for today:

• Talked to Nana today for 45 minutes (I usually limit the calls to 30 minutes - it's expensive from Europe, hello!) and found out the names of her mother's sisters (she could only remember one Uncle - Robert): Stella (hello, name for my second daughter!), Myrtle (Nana's mom), Osa (or Osea - had a hard time translating this due to aphasia), Mildred, Helen (who was with Nana when she met PaPaw - another story altogether), and JUANITA. I love Juanita!!!
• That's awesome that I have (well, had) a great-aunt named Juanita.
• My best friend, whose anonymity I will protect and simply call Cheesecake leaves for Denver tomorrow from NYC to start a new life with her new man. I couldn't be happier for her, though I am so, so sad for her to leave. I will also say that although she is my best friend in the whole world the beyatch has never read this blog, despite the fact that I've been gone nearly 7 months. The only thing saving her is that she's the only friend I've talked to on the phone. If and when she reads this blog, she better feel bad!
• My brother (younger by 13 years) takes his road test tomorrow. He's another one who hasn't read this blog. You can all tell by now why I'm so depressed and lonely. Anyway, good luck, bro.
• About to watch the last episode of "The Wire" season 4. This is the school season, which I'd heard so much about. It's amazing how accurate it is. Seriously.
• Have to go eat 1/2 of the frozen pizza now.
  

That's it. Good night and good luck! (Especially those going back to work tomorrow!)

The Original Auntie

Mom just called and told me that Auntie died. Auntie is my great aunt, my grandmother's sister. Her real name was Naomi, and her husband was Red (Now that I read that I wonder if that wasn't his real name...amazing how we don't question things), but I always just called them "Auntie" and "Uncle", although I've had plenty of other aunts and uncles.

I guess they were the real-deal Aunt and Uncle.

I'm sad to think of Auntie gone. She had a long life, though... I'd like to say exactly how long, but because of the big flashing question mark next to Nana's age, it's hard to figure it.

Two prominent memories I have of Auntie (and yes, both involve food):

1) The second-to-last time I visited her, Andy and I hung out with her in her assisted-living apartment and she made us an AWESOME Marie Callender (who Nana always calls "Marie Callas" - funny) Razzleberry pie. In her toaster oven. That was and still is the best pie Andy and I have ever had. Sorry gourmet-foodie-baker friends.

2)Auntie made one of the best desserts EVER (this time not frozen) - 7-Up Salad. Ever hear of it? It rocks! It's all Dream Whip, 7-Up, crushed pineapple and lime Jello. You know it sounds good! I was maybe 10 or 12 when she made it, and I begged her for the recipe. She wrote it out for me. I still have it, at home. I'm totally going to make it when I return.

Here's to you, Auntie. We love you.

Saturday, thrilling Saturday

I did not watch "Pride and Prejudice" last night.
Though I might go upstairs after this and watch it now.

Instead we watched an old Czech film from 1966, "Closely Watched Trains." It won the best foreign film Academy Award in '68. It is based on the book by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, which I got for Christmas from Katka and Lukáš. It was a good book and kind of a weird movie.

Today I was in a super crappy mood when we got up, despite doing some of my A.M. Yoga with my boy Rodney Yee, and forced Andy to take me on a trip.

We went to a nearby city, Kolín, and walked around and then had coffee. It was pretty, and I took a few pictures which I'll post later.

Then we went to Tesco and bought groceries, including hair dye because although I did my roots just a few weeks ago, I found a gray hair. Phooey!

Not much else. I've been again reading numerous blogs about just regular people and what's going on with them, and realized this is because I don't have any "fluffy" books to read (chicklit, basically) and this is how I'm coping. I was reading one about a woman with kids and normal stuff and then read a post where she admits to being a swinger.

The plot thickens!

Happy Saturday night.

Bored

Do you ever have those nights (always Friday or Saturday, for me) where you are bored and it's late, and you are on the computer and just searching for ANYTHING to do??

That's me, tonight.

We didn't do ANYTHING today.

I finished Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was amazing - haunting and depressing and wonderful. I loved it. A great book to read while I'm Europe.

I started reading another book, Savannah by Eugenia Price. Don't know if that's well known or not. I got it at the library. It's good so far, a big fat historical novel. The second book this year I'll read about Savannah (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil the first, of course).

I also joined blogher and thirty-something bloggers and was just browsing through the community of blogs when I was faced once again with the need to have a real name for this blog. I know, I know: Allyn, WTF is your problem? Pick a name and be done with it! Stop crying!

You're right. So ignore my earlier "I'm allyn and that's okay" post. I must have a serious identity crisis with all this crap.

I blame Andy.

He would only watch one episode of "The Wire" with me, and now I've got nothing to do.

I even dreamed about Omar (from "The Wire") last night. According to Andy I was talking in my sleep. "Don't kill Omar! Omar lives!"

But now, I may just have to watch "Pride and Prejudice" again.

Mr. Darcy will make me happy.

Who Am I? Revisited

Despite some wonderful suggestions, I've decided I'm not changing my blog name. It will continue to be "allyn allyn allyn". I mean seriously, why not? And as the answer to the question, "Who Am I?" I don't think there's really a better answer.

Plus, I'd hate to confuse my 7 followers.

Helloooo 2009!

New Year's eve was fun - as I mentioned in my last post, we were with Andy's brothers, David and Lukáš, and their women, Hanka and Katka.

The ladies made yummy food - chlebíčka (little breads with spread and pieces of meat like ham or salami, with bits of pickles, eggs, veggies... whatever's around... taken from "chleb" which means bread, it's a cutesy way of saying little breads - "chlebíčka" - cute, right?), salted almonds, and pork with a horseradish/apple/pork fat mixture that was awesome.
We listened to music and played poker and drank wine.

As it neared midnight I insisted we find a radio station that would have a proper countdown - I need a proper countdown on New Year's. We figured the station we were listening to would have one - shouldn't all stations? We got our champagne (Bohemia Sekt, actually) ready, and when David's clock read 11:58pm, fireworks started going off in the town. Confusion. A minute later the song on the radio ended and the DJ said that midnight had just happened. No countdown! Sad. And David's clock was wrong.

Oh well, we drank our sekt and celebrated. We watched fireworks from the window. Because anyone can buy fireworks it was quite a scene - there were fireworks shooting up in at least eight different places we could see. We could even see them through the bare trees of a nearby woods, going off in the next town over. It was pretty cool.