December 26, 1997

Xmas Dinner Update:

We had a good time at Mike’s yesterday.  We had assumed Hanka’s parents would be there also, but Hanka felt it would be too crowded and they only have four chairs for their table.  Hanka’s parents were over briefly Christmas Eve.

We had Carp Soup.  It was good.  I’m not just saying it to be nice.  It really was tasty, but I’m sure high in cholesterol.  The broth had lots of butter and of carp.  I had thought the carp would be a darker meat, but it was lighter colored.  We looked it up in the Czech cook book that we bought and now that we know how it’s made, we’re glad we read it after not before.  They boil the head and tail of the carp.  Remove the head and tail and strain the water it was boiled in.  This water is then used as the broth for the soup, not before the carp meat is picked from the stuff left from straining it.  So, how do you tell what is meat and what is say, ohhhh the tongue.  Does fish have a tongue?  Okay, what if it’s a little part of their tiny little brain floating around in the broth.  I mean, you just cooked a head and tail.  How much meat could be left on it in the first place?

The main meal was potato salad (they put small pieces of carrot in it), pork shoulder, dumplings and spinach.  Excellent meal. 

I wasn’t sure if I was going to take along my strawberry dessert.  This dessert is angel food cake broken into pieces and covered with a mixture made from strawberry jello, strawberries, and Cool Whip.  I could not find any type of cake mix except for the bundt cake type.  I’ve already tossed the package otherwise I would have given you the Czech name for it.  Anyway, I figured that would be close enough and I had found frozen strawberries and frozen whipped cream.

Two things weren’t what I expected.  The cake and the whipped cream.

When I poured out the cake mix .  It was a course looking flour.  After mixing it with water it gave the appearance of a thick pancake mix.  After baking it, the closest thing I can think of that it reminded me of is corn bread.  Very thick, dense, heavy, crumbly.  Not the light, airy, moist of angle food cake.  Ehhh-close enough. 

The whipped cream came in a clear plastic container and the entire top of it was decorative little peaks of whipped cream.  It was frozen solid so I put it in the frig to thaw.  However, it separated quite a bit.  I don’t have a blender so I whipped it the best I could, to no avail.  It wouldn’t get thick that little peaks could be made in it like can be made with Cool Whip.  Ehhh-close enough.  I put it all together anyway.  It resembled more of strawberries with biscuits. 

Spinach dip wasn’t as it normally comes out.  Yogurt here is soupier, so it wasn’t as thick as it should have been either.    At least the peanut butter cookies were okay.  Of course that came from a mix so the only thing I could screw up was over or under baking.  Of which I did a little of each on a few of them. 

We had dinner around 2pm so afterwards we went across the street to an extremely large park.  It goes for miles.  There are high cliffs of jagged rock that reminded me of the area along the Mississippi River or around Baraboo, Wisc.  Trails go everywhere.  We took the black topped one that runs down into a valley, along a creek, and then between the jagged rock formations.  Best guess was we walked for about a more than a mile before turning back.  We went to the point of where they have two in ground pools.  Hanka went swimming there as a child.  They have a children’s pool and play area with picnic tables.  They will really enjoy that area in the summer.  We want to go back there again to walk in the other directions towards and around a large reservoir. 

It was quite warm yesterday, 45 to 50 degrees.  Very pleasant walking.  Today is perhaps a little warmer, but, a whole lot windier.

There is a zero tolerance for drinking and driving in the Czech Republic.  On the way back from the park we checked the bus schedule for the times that it leaves.  That way we all were able to partake in a toast or two to the holiday season.  We left their house around 7:30.  The bus back was easier than I thought.  From my map it looked as though we would have to walk all the way to the place we pick up the tram to catch the bus #108.  But there is a stop straight north of us.  However, the streets don’t go straight in any direction for what seems to be more than a few blocks at any given time.  So now we know how to get to Mike’s by bus.  There is a bus route that is even closer to our apartment that goes to the same bus stop near their place, but it runs only during the week and only for a couple hours early in the morning and a couple hours late afternoon.  It’s more of a rush hour bus.

Old Apartment Update:

Mike also got good news from the Softball Assoc. about renting their apartment.  The guy staying there likes it and especially the satellite dish, plus it is cheaper rent than what they were paying for the other unfurnished apartment that another coach currently is in.  So barring any unforseen problem Mike has the apartment rented until September.  Since the softball association had to buy some furniture for the other apartment they might work out something to purchase that furniture instead of finding new.  Otherwise, Hanka said she will start looking the second week of January for a couch and chair.   They have the single bed that they bought set up in the living room for him for now.  The guy said it works just fine for him.  So that was one less headache for them.  Actually two, since he’s happy, they aren’t going to bother painting it until fall.

Roses

There is some serious rose gardening in this neighborhood.  There must be at least 20 rose bushes that the uncle has cut back and put lime on for the winter in our yard alone.  There are more on the far side of the house.  This doesn’t include the creeping roses that go across the trellis at the gate entrance.  We are on a corner and two of the other three houses on the corner also have just as many rose bushes. 

It will be interesting to see what all he has growing here.  I have seen a few iris plants.  A narrow space along part of the fence has been dug up so they may have planted annuals there.  I thought about doing a small garden.  Just a tomato and pepper plant  but I may be a little intimidated by all this.  He has two areas for gardening and they said I could use part of it.  Hmmmmmm.  We’ll have to think that one over.  Wish he spoke English or I spoke Czech.   This reminds me, we still have to call about Czech language courses. 

When we first started coming to the Czech Rep. six or seven years ago it was very noticeable how most yards were just left to their own.  Or at the most there would be some flowers planted with some perennials, but the grass was left un-mowed.  Each year more homes were remodeled, or just given a simple coat of paint.  Of course, here it isn’t really a simple coat of paint.  It’s like re-spackling or re-stuccoing the outside.  It lasts for 20 years.  Yards are mowed now.  Some yards look almost manicured.  In fact, there are a couple of houses that have been completely remodeled that are sitting empty that both Hanka and I have found to be interesting.  But, prices of houses have gone way up in the last year.  Maybe not as much as we would pay for comparables in the States, but, they are getting up there.

Under the Russians you really didn’t own your house.  If you pissed them off they could easily have you evicted.  So you really felt like a renter.  This is really the same as public housing.  You don’t have the incentive to take care of it.  Now they do. 

All yards are fenced front and back.  Usually it is cement or brick with a stucco/plaster over it up to about two feet and then rail fencing.  They don’t have the ugly chain link fences as in the States.  They are generally quite decorative.  I still have to get the video camera from Mike, or at the very least take some pictures.  Today would be good since the sun peaks out every now and then.  Maybe later.