Time for another trip. We are now in the Czech Republic, staying mostly in Prague. Since this country is the birthplace of beer, this online journal will be centered around beer. So expect lots of entries about the beers we try and the breweries we visit.
But just to show you we’re doing some normal activities, here is a picture of us early in the morning on the famous Charles Bridge (6am, before it fills with people). It was very cold!
We took a choppy 3-hour bus ride to the city of Ceske Budejovice to visit the Budweiser Budvar brewery. The Czech Republic is most proud of this brewery as it was the country’s first beer — and if their name sounds familiar, it’s because of the American beer with the same name. The Czech Budweiser claims they were the first company, and the Americans claims theirs was first. The two companies are still locked up in trademark disputes (however, I suspect the Czechs were first…but what do I know.)
The brewery tour was great, since we got to see all parts of the factory. They produce 70,000 bottles per hour, which is a lot of beer. Here is one of their huge outdoor stacks of beer cases.
The best part of the tour was sampling some unpasteurized and unfiltered beer directly from their fermentation tanks…pretty special, since they don’t sell this stage of the beer anywhere!
Fooball (aka, soccer) — Europe’s favorite sport. We decided to experience the action of a match first-hand, so we went to see AC Sparta Praha play (AC Sparta Praha is usually the top-ranked team in the Czech Republic). A short metro ride took us to the Toyota Arena where, to our amazement, we found out the match wasn’t sold out. Two tickets cost us only $9 (American dollars)!
But first…time to get in the spirit. I went to the fan shop and bought an official Sparta Praha jersey.
The game was exciting, as expected, and in general the fans were tame. However, when the opposing team, FC Slovako (the bottom-ranked team), scored the first goal the fans went crazy, European style. They started yelling, booing, and throwing their drinks, pretzels, and other garbage on the field.
Luckily Sparta Praha came back and scored 3 goals in succesion to win 3-1. The team came out at the end to thank the fans, ending an exciting 90 minutes of authentic European culture.
Budapest — the capital of Hungary (in case you didn’t know). It is equally pretty as Prague but without the tourists and huge crowds. Most people don’t know that it is made up of two sections, Buda and Pest — each formerly independent cities on their own — separated by the Danube River. On our first day in Budapest, we took a boat ride on the Danube both to relax and see the best parts of the city.
The boat ride gave us great views of the beautiful Parliament Building (pictured below) and the Royal Palace. I’ve seen many amazing buildings, but these rank among the top. Stay tuned later for pictures of these same buildings at night, where they are even more impressive.
After a week of heavy beer drinking in Prague, we decided we would try to be dry in Budapest to cleanse our systems. We were very disciplined…for a few hours, at least. Midway through our first day we were craving beer and couldn’t resist ordering one. Oops.
Budapest is apparently the food capital of Central Europe, and with tasty dishes like veal stew it is easy to see why. Something else they are famous for is palinka, a traditional fruit brandy that is very flavorful and strong.
I only know this because our last night in Budapest we were taken to dinner by friends of friends, who live there. As a sort of appertif (pre-meal drink) our friends recommended we each drink palinka, and we did — one apricot and one plum. Even though the drink was very strong, neither of us tasted any alcohol. Here are some photos of the event.
Before (with an apricot in one glass and a plum in mine):
During:
After (that’s me describing how my nose is burning):
As our final hurrah in Prague, we wanted a beer at the Golden Tiger. That name is the translated version of its Czech name (U Zlateho Tygra), and this pub is well-known for being one of the few very traditional pubs still in Prague; in fact, then-President Havel (of Czech Republic) brought Bill Clinton here in 1994 to show him what a true Czech pub was like.
We went immediately after returning to Prague from Budapest, tired and angry due to several travel-related issues. Luckily we found a seat, which is unusual as this is a very small and popular place, and ordered our beers — done by merely looking at one of the circulating waiters. Whether it was due to our anger, thirst, exhaustion, or something else, we quickly found our beer mugs empty (our 0.5L beers mugs). We subtley signaled the waiter for the next round and immediately there were two more mugs in front of us. Down they went, too. The best liter of beer I’ve ever drank.
(My “artsy” photo)
Anyway, a great end to a great trip.
Here are some stats regarding my last few weeks of traveling.
Overall:
Czech Republic:
Not too bad…
The last post made me want to list all the different beers we drank on the trip, starting with the first beer in the San Francisco Airport — Sam Adams. Here is the full list: