January 27, 1998

January 27, 1998

Today our plan was to go to the post office to mail some letters and grab a quick lunch.  There is - get this - a McDonald’s near the Post Office.  We decided because it would be quick and convenient we would grab a quick lunch there.  We have McDonalds, Kentucky Fried, TGI Friday, Planet Hollywood, and one pizza chain that I forget where and it’s name.  We don’t lack “western culture” when we need it.  After the quick lunch we would go to Schwarzenbersky Palac (Schwartzberg Palace).  It’s not really a palace anymore, it houses the military museum.  The post office for us is to the south and the museum is back to the north and then east. 

We walked over to the bus that would take us to the post office and the traffic going the opposite direction of the post office was backed up for as far as we could see.  This highway is a connecting route between two major highways.  It’s only about 4 miles long.  Once we got on the bus and started heading south we could tell the traffic had to be backed up the whole length of the highway.  That put to rest any idea of catching that same bus back north.  We have become experts at changing plans at the spur of the moment.  We could have gone farther into town and then backtracked.  But Jack thought of a good place for lunch in the center of town that one of the three trams at this stop goes past.  It was after 12 noon (I have this thing about drinking before noon) and a beer instead of a McChicken sounded good.

Instead of visiting a museum, we stopped at a couple of travel agencies.  We wanted to check on pricing for the Canary Islands in February, Portugal in March, and Greece in March or April.  The intent is to go to the warmer climates.  They gave me literature and prices for Canary Islands, however, it was in Czech.  So I spent this evening translating.  Jack’s not too keen (no offense Kevin or Keith) on Canary Islands now that I had literature.  He’s concerned that there would not be a lot to do besides shopping and lying on the beach.  The pictures indicate it would be more like going to a Caribbean Island.  Many many hotels and not a lot of culture.  I was under the impression they are more in line with the Hawaiian Islands as far as beautiful country side to tour.  I’m still interested though and the price wasn’t bad at all.

Tomorrow we need to go to the main train station to inquire about departure times for Dresden, Germany.  We plan to go next weekend.  Train fare is only $60-$65 total for both of us, we couldn’t rent a car that cheap.  It takes about three hours.  Again, not much more than by car, plus we don’t have to worry about getting lost.  We had talked about this weekend but time got away on us.

January 29th

Change of plans.  Just on a whim we went to the American Express Office as they have a travel desk.  We figured you had to be a card holder to use the service.  We were wrong.  She gave me the same literature on the Canary Islands, but called and found which of the 20 or so hotels still are available for the second or third week of February.  While she was making the call, we were looking around and came across an ad for a “2 for 1” special to London.  So now we leave for London the Thursday the 5th and return Tuesday the 10th.  She also gave me a number for a mid range hotel that they recommend.  It is very convenient to the main tourist area as public transportation in London is expensive. 

We went to a book store and picked up a book on London so we can figure out in advance what all we want to see.  I prefer to have a basic plan for each day and then adjust as needed on that particular day.  It says temperatures should be in the mid 40’s and to always carry an umbrella.  Typical temps in the summer are the upper 60s with some days reaching 80.  Maybe it’s not the best time, but, the book recommended this time of the year to avoid heavy tourist season.  Dresden will be put on hold. 

Ballroom Dancing

I didn’t realize how popular ballroom dancing is.  The paper last week mentioned that the Ball Season would be in full swing in February and an article broke down the average cost of attending one.  This past week it gave the dates for the various events.  Once again, I tossed the article by mistake.  I need to just rip the page out and set it aside.  I start picking up and organizing and everything that doesn’t seem useful at the time gets tossed!  Anyway, it is expensive.  

It also discussed preparations to attending a ball for the woman.  Not only must she make hair and makeup arrangements for that evening she must discuss with her seamstress the design of the dress.  Then there are appointments for fittings.  One apparently does not buy off the rack for the ball season!  Top officials attend four to six balls.  You are expected to attend the ball of any organization that you belong to.  So if you are big in community stuff you would probably attend at least two, or so said the article.  I don’t know if the average person really makes makeup arrangements and has a gown designed for every ball they attend.

Mike and Hanka just attended a ball a week ago.  It was sponsored by a couple of pharmaceutical companies.  It is the evening of their country wide conference for pharmacists.  This year it was in Praha and at a facility on a small island on the Vltava River.  In a very large building that I would pay someone to let us see the inside of!  They had three orchestras in three different ballrooms.  This wasn’t one of the really fancy balls.  Hanka didn’t have a dress made and Mike wore a suit and not a tux.  However, they didn’t dance.  In the subway Hanka’s heel of her shoe came loose and she didn’t want to risk it coming completely off.   She said it did give here time to talk to old classmates that she had not seen in a long time. 

Super Bowl

We only read about the Super Bowl.  Best game in years and we didn’t see it.  All four American bars were going to have it live.  Here the pregame stuff started around midnight.  A couple bars had advance ticket sales for reserved seating that included beer and food.  Oscar’s didn’t have advance tickets or a cover charge.  We figured since we don’t work we could go to bed early.  Get up around 11pm and head down to Oscar’s.  That way if we decided we didn’t want to do this after all we wouldn’t be out the price of tickets.  They figured the game would last until 5am. Then we remembered we watch Marek on Monday’s!  It probably was just a pipe dream anyway. 

Mike had recorded it.  Maybe we’ll watch the highlights some weekend; especially considering the Packers didn’t win why be excited about watching it.  Jack was happy Denver did win just because Elway has been there three or four times without a win.  He claims to have been really torn about who he really wanted to win.  Yeah right, sounds like a politician talk to me.

Tripe Soup

One of the books we have on Praha mentioned a common soup to have with dinner was Tripe Soup.  Both Czech cook books I have mentioned Tripe Soup also, but it didn’t really mention what tripe was.  They just said to wash the tripe in boiling water and clean well.  Once it is rinsed to cook it in various spices for three hours and then strain and cut the tripe into narrow strips.  It also had a color picture and reminded me of clams in a broth. 

We stopped and checked out a popular cafe the other day (or was it last week?).  Knowing we would not be able to get a full lunch there we figured to check the menu for something light and eat an early dinner.  Tripe soup was listed.  Daring as we have become we ordered it.  It really was tasty, just like a clam or maybe squid or something similar.

Curious what our handy dandy CD dictionary said what type of fish a tripe was, we fired up the computer. 

Tripe:  Part of the stomach of an ox or other ruminant when used as food.

Ruminant:  Chewing the cud, of the cud.

This is one of those times I’m reeeeealy glad we didn’t know ahead what it was we were eating.  Having now tasted it, I would have it again.  It’s just if I had known ahead of time I would not have tried it.