~ballad of the old bohemian pt. 3~

July 30th, 2008

Bohemia is the homeland of the subject of my book, and though she herself was never here (despite being quite the world traveler), her grandparents, when they immigrated, took much of their culture—dress, food, attitude–with them and passed it down to Agnes.

I did not find kolache ((koh-LAH-chee, literally “cake,” usually filled with poppy seeds or apricot), but we did get to try Beckerova, a Czech sort of cinnamon Schnapps I imagine she had. It was awful! Nothing at all as I had described in writing. Lesson learned…

For two Mediterranean food lovers, the snacking was a bit rough in general, but interesting. We had goulash and potato dumplings that were quite good, and Czech red wine that was decent. It’s really a beer culture, and this is delish.

We spent our last day wandering Stare Mestro (Old Town), and Nove Mestro (New Town), and Josefov (Jewish Quarter)–where we also lived. Here is a bit of what we saw:

In Old Town, here is the Gothic 1365 Church of Our Lady of Tyn.

The Old Town Hall Astronomical Clock.

Storch House (St. Wenceslas) aka At the Stone Madonna.

1905’s Hlahol Choir Building.

Municipal House with murals by Mucha (which once again we were uninvited to see firsthand, but nice tile all the same.)

The Narodni National Theater built 1868.

In New Town here is the Praha House, 1903.

The one dish I didn’t have in Praha–though I nearly felt obligated to–
was a traditional Bohemian meal (mis)translated on a restaurant menu as “OLD BOHEMIAN.”

click on image to expand

Who are you calling—oh, nevermind…