Month: July 2009

  • Mushrooms, sushi and vikings

    Leigh negotiating with the weather gods

    The title refers to the activities in my last weekend 🙂 Don’t say I’m not trying to diversifying. But more on that later, first let me catch up.

    Since I got back from Denmark I’ve been quite busy with work but have also had time for some other activities.

    Mikkel and Prague

    First Mikkel, one of my thesis buddies from Aalborg, came to visit. It was a long time since I had had time to catch up with Mikkel so it was great to have him in Prague. Mikkel is an avid cook and took over the kitchen a number of times to great delight for me and some friends.

    While Mikkel was here I finally got around to go on a city tour of Prague with Helge who I have know for most of my time here. I should have done it a long time ago because the tour covers a lot of Prague history and the central areas and buildings. I’d recommend it for any Dane going to Prague and for English speaking people they do private tours.

    In front of the Prague castle

    After Mikkel left I took it easy for a weekend and only got out to go to Bohemian Jazz Festival on Old Town Square. To my surprise the first band playing was Magnus fra Gaarden, a danish band dressed in cow and 80s costumes playing jazz mixed with electric guitar. Interesting combination. The next act, Josefine Lindstrand was also really cool.

    Josefine Lindstrand in Prague

    on to the last weekend which started out Friday night at a friends place. He had just gotten back from a visit to his native Hungary and had brought some homemade wine and grappa, which kept us entertained for the night.

    Saturday I went to another friends place were we had a sushi party spending all night rolling and eating sushi till we were rolling ourselves.

    Ready to try our creations

    Sunday I tried to combat the overeating from the night before by watching other people sweet it out as they were engaged in real combat.

    Camp

    An hours drive south of Prague a 9th century festival called Rogar – Blood of the North was taking place. They had set up camp and was living in tents making food over open fire and creating weapons and jewelery in the styles and methods of the era.

    Face off
    Approaching

    The highlight of the festival was the battle. Around 40 guys were suited out in body armor, helmets and weaponry and went at it in full force for about an hour. They fought until everyone was “killed”, then got up again and started over. (here’s a short video)

    Spear vs sword

    After the battling we went on a hike by the nearby Slapy Reservoir. The picture at the top of this post is Leigh holding up some of the mushrooms we found. Simona is Czech and she knew what was edible and here is some of the stuff we found.

    Simona and Leigh with mushrooms

    I have never seen mushrooms as big as a plate before and I would have never dared to touch them if it hadn’t been for Simona. It seems to be a national sport in Czech Republic to go mushroom hunting. Yesterday Simona cooked they ones we found and I must say it was very delicious and I see why its fun collecting mushrooms.

    That was sort of a brief overview of what I’ve been up to.

    I haven’t mentioned it on my blog before but I will be leaving Prague in mid-September to move to London. And last week Ann and I signed the contract for a place near Willesden Green where we are going to live 😀 So with less than two months to go I will enjoy Prague and surroundings as much as I can.