Walkabout 2013 Day 18: One Last Day in Prague

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No more beer fests or absinthe binges.  Just a day of walking around and soaking in the sites – the rainy rainy sites.  Today’s highlights include a trip to the National Museum and the Communism Museum which, ironically, is located in the same building as a casino.

And so ends my postings for Walkabout 2013.  I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed providing them.  But that seems doubtful since this was the greatest vacation/walkabout I’ve ever experienced.

Drinking Prague: Absinthe Time

We like to call it “Saturday Night in Prague”
-- JT

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A bar so nice, we went their twice.
So here’s my theory about how absinthe makes you crazy.  I’m not buying it.  Not because it didn’t make me crazy, but because I genuinely think you have to already be crazy to like this shit.  Van Gogh would have cut off his ear if he had been drinking Mike’s Hard Lemonade.  So stop blaming the absinthe.
But thanks to our fine Bartendrix, Natalie (aka The Fake Arya Stark), I did grow to appreciate absinthe to a limited extent.
On our second trip to Absinthe Time, three of us ordered unusual drinks.  JT accidently ordered a drink that had a bug chaser.  So that’s the bug in the pictures people are playing with.
I ordered a Witches Brew that was easily the most horrible drink I’ve ever had.  But the presentation was spectacular and I wanted to video it.  So I ordered one.

Before drinking, you’re supposed to inhale the vapors produced by the fire for an added buzz.  But by this time, I was sufficiently buzzed to not register a difference.
It turned out The Fake Mila Kunis, who made it the night before and not our beloved Natalie, didn’t know what she was doing.  This night, the Witches Brew was lovely.
And Jason ordered some shot where you have to snort a line of fine sugar first.

Absinthe Time == Good Times

Eating Prague: U Fleků

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Oh, U Fleků, what’s happened to you?  Or maybe it’s what’s happened to me.  Four years after my first visit you seem so touristy and brightly lit.  And please believe us when we say we don’t want any shots.  And what are those other shots?  In the good old days four years ago there was just one shot, Becherovka.  Oh well,  the pork knuckle was still great and the beer flowing.

Walkabout 2013 Day 17: Prague Beer Fest Part Dva

Day 17 was so epic it’s going to take at least three blog postings.  So stay tuned.

The first posting will consist of more beer fest hijinks followed by a tram ride back to the hotel where we encountered a band of locals heading to a football game and who led us in cheer.  “Let’s go Praha” or some such.  Many liters of beer had been poured down my face at this point.  So specifics are cloudy to mostly cloudy.

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Eating Prague: U Pravdu

Yuuuupppp,  more beer.

It’s been a long day of drinking.

Garlic soup in a bread bowl

Sausage with fresh grated horseradish.

Duck

Goose

Walkabout 2013 Day 15: Prague and the Czech Beer Fest

This was the first of many rainy days in the Czech Republic.  On our way to the fest, we stopped off at Bavarian Bagels for a ridiculous bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwich.

I’m not sure how much beer I drink this day, but it has to have been around five liters, maybe more.

And that thing that looks like a cinnamon roll is really a smoked cheese spiral.

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Walkabout 2009: Prague

I hate to even admit this, but by the time I got to Prague, I was just about vacationed out. There are only so many centuries old buildings, bridges and statues you can see before you become numb to the splendor. Prague is a beautiful city with an amazing history. Having been virtually untouched by the two World Wars, it is a unique living museum of European architecture.

But I did become numb to it all.

That is until I discovered U Flecku.

Situated literally right around the corner from our hotel, U Fleku is a 500 year old beer house that offers up as genuine Czech experience as I could have dreamed of. Long tables make this place a gathering of people participating in a grand communal ****** rather than just a couple of people at four top talking about that asshole at work.

Oh, and beer -- what kind would you like? Miller Lite? maybe a Pale Ale? how about a strong Belgian ? Too bad!!! They serve one beer -- the same delicious Schwarzbier they've been brewing/serving for 500 hundred years. Oh, they also served a Czech drink called Becherovka. It's a strong spicy drink. While supplies last, I was able to bring home a bottle, so please feel free to ask for a sip.

And on top of all this greatness, there is the food. It is here that I first fell in love with tenderness of the pork knuckle. It was suggested by the Turkish couple sitting next to us out our table. Upon my first bite, I gleefully gave our new Turk friends an enthusiastic thumbs-up.




Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning -- my stomach yearning for another chance at a pork knuckle.