Prague & Vienna: Bread & Sausage

The only time I had been to Europe was when my oldest sister Kelsey was a flight attendant. She had a few days off in December and said, “Hey, ya wanna go to Paris?” I bought a warm coat and two days later, we were off.

In similar fashion, this is how I made it to Europe again. Trav, the responsible planner, had this trip in mind for a year or more. For me, I knew I wasn’t going to go for one reason or another…until he woke me up one morning, two weeks before take off and said, “Do you have a passport? I’m booking your trip to Europe today.” How could a gal object?

So when the day came to leave, I was excited of course, but didn’t really think too hard about what was in store. Trav had the general itinerary, but I knew it would be a bit of a leisure trip for me. Nearly 26 hours in an airport/flying, we made it to our first destination: Prague, Czech Republic.

So by now, about a week into the trip, I can look back and characterize each place. Czech was the Land of (PLENTY of) Bread. The whole trip thus far can be called “Up: The Sequel,” because that’s the direction we always seemed to travel. Uphill, both ways, all day, everyday.

The weather was cloudy and chilly in Praha (roll your “r” and made a throaty “h”). We walked up, obviously, through a park where we passed a gypsy magician and then it started hailing on us! I guess the voo-doo lady hexed us. It eventually stopped once we went up this tower, which resembled the Eiffel Tower, only 1/3 the height. We paid to walk the spiral staircase up (up, up), which, when we arrived at the top, we were amazed at the views. Where were we? It was nothing like the flatlands of Florida. We saw the largest outdoor arena in the world. Our skyscrapers may be bigger in the States, but the architecture of Europe cannot be rivaled.

After our trip up the tower, our tour guide took us through the city and to a castle. We were able to see the changing of the guards, which happens every hour, and heard some local stories, myths and traditions, many of which end in a figurative “F-You” to another person or country.

We had some free time, so Trav and I went in the castle area, inside a cathedral, and then wandered through the gardens. Walking through gardens is one of my favorite things. Our guide may have gotten tired of me asking to stop to look at random gardens- the country is so green! “Not important,” he’d say in his Czech accent.

There were police everywhere. There are the police in their general blue and black garb, and then there are, whom I call the “Green Hat Militia.” We saw it as soon as we landed in Czech, and everywhere we went- they wore camo fatigues with combat boots, bright green berets, and the most important accessory- their machine gun. A little terrifying, in my humble opinion.

As we meandered through the garden, we found ourselves in a line… for what, we didn’t know. We waited… and waited. Eventually we found out we were going to see the largest sapphire in the world- in the Crown

Jewels. Legend said that whomever wore it unrightfully, would die. This happened when someone overthrew the current president, and actually did get shot and died. Tough luck, I’d say.

After we saw the Crown Jewels and pretended to wear it in a pose in front of it, we found some street food to eat: beer (most places ask “light or dark” as their choices), kebab, huge sausage on a roll, another roll, and mushrooms, for about 300 crown (equivalent to about $12).

The USF team (oh, did I mention, this is how I got to go on this amazing trip?) was playing a Czech club team that day, so we went to their gym. Volleyball in Europe feels more casual, and more serious at the same time. They are so focused on their serving and passing, and with only six substitutions (versus the U.S. 15), so everyone plays everything- very well, too.

After the match, we took the tram back and ate at a restaurant for a traditional Prague meal. I love this part of traveling- learning about cultures through food and traditions. We started with soup in a bread bowl- delicious. Then we had goulash (picture below), which is like a stewed beef with bread dumplings… not my favorite, but now I know. Then more bread for dessert- kind of a doughy bread with a sweet glaze sauce. How did I feel about this? Full and heavy. For the team, they never get to eat bread or dessert while traveling during season, so they were wondering what was going on! I’m not sure if this is an everyday meal or not, but the people are not very large, so maybe all the city walking “outweighs” the heavy meals.

Our main guide for the trip was feeling a little sick, so he left us with two other men from the volleyball club the team had played earlier. Our guide said, “Take care of them,” which directly translates to “Buy them a lot of alcohol.” While the girls were around, there was zero alcohol… except for when they’d come up to me, lean in and say, “You have a phone call at the bar.” Which meant, I’ll buy you a shot that will burn your esophagus if you get up now. Their local shot of choice was a cinnamon liquor, similar to Fireball, but less Big Red, and more pepper and fire.

We played a dice game at the table until everyone was silly and then left for our hotel.

The next day, our under-the-weather guide didn’t come, so our shot-giving guide arrived to take us around instead. We walked through a really cool artsy area of town by the water, which I loved, over the bridges, and more in the town hall area. Again- amazing. The views on the bridge were unreal and I could hardly take in all the history. Much of Prague was built in the 1300’s, and it was untouched in WWII, unlike other parts of Europe. The cobbles and old stone and gold detail in the city was just astounding. We watched the clock tower change the hour and went to the street vendors around the city.

Trav and I found a café where I finally was able to have some vegetables, by way of a salad. “You want bread?” No, thank you. When it came out, there were pieces of bread chopped up as croutons. I told you- Land of Bread.

The team had another match in the afternoon, but had a mini-adventure on the way to the gym. The street cars run on tracks on the street (duh) next to the cars, and a van didn’t merge and ran into the autobus… so we walked.

At the match, I was assigned score keeper both days. On the second day, shot-giving guide said, “Will you score keep for us? I buy you shot tonight.” Okay, sure. Not two minutes later, he said, “Come. I show you something.” I wasn’t entirely sure what this referred to in the Czech culture, but I went anyway (naïve American girl). He took me into his office, where he pulled out two glasses from his cabinet and a cold bottle with no label from his office mini-fridge. “Is homemade brandy wine. It burns when it goes down- is good!” I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but I said “Nazdravi” (cheers!) anyway and had some fun watching the game.

After the match we went to a restaurant, where we were served a beef soup and chicken schnitzel and potatoes (and bread… do I even need to clarify at this point?). Schnitzel, to me, sounds like it’s the “leftover” parts of the animal pounded together to make an acceptable piece of meat. While I can’t be certain what type of meat it was, it is traditionally pounded meat, fried. It basically tastes like a giant chicken nugget. As Americans do, we poured ketchup on it. Dessert was a banana split, more alcohol, and dice. Our hotel was next door so stumbling home meant three steps and you land in bed- not a big risk.

Our chilly trip to Prague was up, as we left for Vienna, Austria in the morning. We met our new guide for the rest of the trip- a Greek man who coaches volleyball for a team in Germany.

The bus rides are quiet, but that doesn’t mean you should sleep through them. Looking out any of the windows, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with inspiration. The mountains and outdoor life do this to me, and I would look at the tiny houses at the base of the massive mountains and consider living there myself.

Once we arrived in Austria, it was much sunnier and warmer than in Prague. We were told it was a similar city to Prague, but much bigger. I did get that feeling, though everything was a little higher end, and people dressed up more than in Prague. We saw many of their historic buildings, but it was such a large city, and we only had a day trip to see it all. Once we had free time, three of us got lunch and walked through the embassies, to Belvedere Palace, which, of course, had a garden.

We only had enough time to walk there, snap some pictures, and book it back to make it on time to our group meeting spot (which happened to be the St. Stephen’s Cathedral… wow). We did save two minutes to spare, which were gratefully used to grab a gelato.

​SLXLM

Onward to Slovenia!