Michael Carøe Andersen

Category: Trips in Czech Republic

Mushrooms, sushi and vikings

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

July 21, 2009
Outdoor weekends in Czech Republic

The weather has been great the last couple of weeks which worked out perfect for the things I ended up doing.

Three weeks ago some friends had organized a canoe trip. So we were 10 people who took the train to a small village where you could rent canoes and set out for a relaxed day on the river. Glee had a diving case for a camera so we could take some pictures and video while we were on the water.

Along the route there was a couple of small cabins where you could get cold beer and a sausage. Here we are at our first stop.

This is one of the cool things about doing outdoor stuff in Czech Republic you come across these small beer and grill places in many of the areas where people go to do outdoor stuff. The next place we stopped for a beer Dominic ended up behind the counter selling t-shirts along with a pretty drunk Czech guy. Good fun 🙂

A few times we had to cross some tricky passages and we tipped over and had to get the water out of the canoes but most of the time it was pretty easy sailing.

The next weekend I went with Cyril and Patricia to Karlovy Vary a famous Czech spa town 2 hours from Prague. The legend tells that the hot springs in the area was discovered when Charles IV was hunting in the area and one of his dogs fell into a hole with the hot water and started howling. From then on the city became a place were people went to get healed by the mineral-rich water.

Today the 13 main hot springs have fountains scattered over the city. The water varies a bit in temperature, but I’m not really sure the mineral content is that different from the different springs. There were quite a lot of people in the town and many of them were walking around with these silly porcelain pots that looked like a nose bidet sipping from the hot water.

The health tourism to the area really took off in the 19th century so many of the buildings are from that era.

In James Bond’s Casino Royal the hotel used in the film for the casino scene was the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary so we of course had to go down and check it out.

After having walked around the city for half the day we decided to treat ourselves and spend some time in the outdoor pool with the best view I have seen. The water is 1/3 hot spring water and 2/3 regular sweet water. Here we are in front of the pool. (See it without us or as a panoramic view.)

Last weekend the good weather continued so Saturday I went on a bike trip on my own up along the the Vltava river that runs through Prague. There is a bike route right along the river. Sometimes a bit too close for comfort but I managed to stay on the path.

Here there also was little refreshment stalls for every few kilometer so no need to go hungry or thirsty. I went up the river about 20km and then took a boat across with my bike and rode back on the other side.

Sunday I went on a bike ride again, this time with two friends. We took a train two hours south east of Prague and biked on some small trail along a creek.

Here is one of the stretches in the open where I got my camera out. You can spot Aurel and Marcus as two tiny dots along the edge of the forest.

And of course there was a place in the middle of nowhere where we could get a beer and relax before heading off.

Once I managed to get ahead and get the camera out fast enough to get a shot of them before they rushed by me.

Around lunch time we came across some kind of sporting event that we first thought was a game of football. It turned out to be some sort of firemen competition where a team of 8 people would rush to a pump and set up tubes and try to hit some targets with water. Very good entertainment before we headed back to Prague.

I’m looking forward to spending the summer in and around Prague. Still so much to see and do. This weekend a couple from Cambridge and I’m a tour guide in Prague.

May 15, 2009
Spring is here!

Saturday 9 of us started out at 8am from the bus station in Prague. Our goal was a small town called Mseno where the hike would begin. Throughout the week leading up to the trip we had watch the forecast go from good to decent toÂ sketchy. But most people were still psyched for a hike so we set out anyways.Â

As we got in the bus and set out for the hour and a half bus ride it started to rain. It hadn’t stopped when we got out of the bus and as we started out for the walk everyone was in an overly cheerful mood as if the sun would come out if we just kept smiling.

We started out down the path through a small alley in Mseno and soon we found ourselves walking in splashing mud across fields. Luckily we later got on to paved road for parts of the trip.

The rain finally stopped as we made it to the first lookout point on our route. Further along we came to a part leading through something out of Lord Of The Rings with narrow passageways through the sandstones covered in bright green moss.Â

Staying in fairytale world we later came to the castle of the day Kokorin CastleÂ where we took a break.

After a late lunch we realized we still had 10km to go before we would get to Melnik so we tried to pick up the pace. At the same time the sun came out and we were walking along a beautiful path up and down hills past lakes on a river.

Leigh Anthony Dehaney one of the other guys on trip (and an artist and wizard with film) made two really cool films of our trip.Â The creepy flick below and the one with people here (you need a facebook login).

Â

We made it to Melnik at the other end of our route in time to catch the 18.40 bus back to Prague. It ended up being a trip of somewhere around 20km and the first time this year I experienced two digit temperatures, saw flowers, deers and heard bird song 🙂 Finally spring is here.

Thanks a bunch to Grace for organizing.

April 1, 2009
My first time on snowboard

Last weekend started off great with a dinner Friday night at one of my favourite eating places when we lived in Prague 6. TandoorÂ is a small restaurant at the bottom of a small alley almost hidden if you don’t know of it’sÂ existence. The interior is quite modest but the food is great and reasonably priced.Â There were seven of us there and some could not get it hot enough.Â

At the next table over I heard the people speaking Danish and I’m always a bit giddy when I hear Danish in Prague. It’s not that often I get to talk Danish and it’s nice and homey to hear it. This time I got the idea that one of them was a blogger I had read before so I went over and said Hi and it turned out that it actually wasÂ Nicolai fromÂ auramin.com. He’s been in Prague for almost two years but it’s only been about 4 month’s since I discovered his blog. He always has some great pictures of the food he makes or eats and it was cool to meet him.

After the meal Kathleen, Carljan and I decided to takeÂ a night walk across town through some of the prettiest parts of town in the cover of darkness with many of the streetsÂ abandoned of people. I forgot to take any pictures tho.

Saturday I spent with Hermann geeking around trying to rescue the lost blog posts. More about that in a later post but things look bright.Â

Sunday I was up early and then I went with a bunch of friends to the hills in HerlikoviceÂ . I haven’t really taken full advantage of having mountains 120 km from Prague but at least I got my second time in snow this weekend. Many of the others were on snowboard so I decided to give it a try and I really liked it.

I got some hard falls and sometimes the board was running way faster than I wanted it to, but controlling it wasn’t that different from skiing so I made some good progress. I never figured out how to make a a turn with the board facing downhill tho.
On the way home we stopped in a small village with a quaint square for a well deserved dinner 🙂

March 19, 2009
Ski trip to Spindleruv Mlyn

December and January was quite busy month with birthdays and house parties in Prague so instead of doing that for my birthday I decided to organize a trip out of town for my Prague friends. With the help of Helge and Pavel I found a small pension in Spinderuv Mlyn, the most popular destination for skiing and snowboarding in Czech Republic. We ended up being 14 people (from 10 countries). Here is part of the first group who took the bus ready to leave Prague.

The first day the weather was not the best but it snowed as well so we had pretty good slopes to work with.

About half the group went skiing and all of those had done it before. The other half went snowboarding with most of them being first-timers. This of course made the snowboarders drop on a regular basis for the enjoyment of the rest of us. Heres Grace after a less than graceful fall.

On the cool-scale Bjorn the German took the price skiing in his lederhosen with a regular coat. He was laid back as he went down the mountain and never hit the deck.

The nightlife in Spinderuv Mlyn turned out to be a lot of fun as well where we danced till we were completely done.

I dont really know what Mickey Mouse and Krteek was doing at the club but at that point we thought it was fun.

Here is a picture as we were ready to leave on Sunday with everybodys limps still intact, happy but bruised.

February 2, 2009
Bohemian Paradise

About an hour north of Prague is the area called Ceske Raj or Bohemian Paradise. The area is scattered with sandstone tables, forests and quaint castles. Together with the IAESTE interns in town we went there for a Sunday hike yesterday.

The weather was really nice and the trees were slowly starting to change into autumn costumes.

The last week we have also been hosting Ryan and Marisol, two American CouchSurfersÂ who are travelling Europe on their 8th months now. It is amazing how many places they have been and it makes me tick to go on big trip. SeeÂ Ryans great pictures at Flickr.

September 17, 2007
South Bohemian Weekend

Last weekend I joined the local chapter of IAESTE on a trip to Southern Bohemia. We were 50 people from about 20 different countries so there were a lot of different talks and a good atmosphere.

Friday we drove to a camp site on the Vltava River were we camped for the night while making Czech sausages and drinking pivo around the camp fire.

Next morning we got up and got suited for a canoe ride seven kilometers down the river.

It was a warm day with temperatures up to about 35 degrees so it was great day for cruising on the river. I think Dennis and I capsized 4 or 5 3 times during the sailing because we had to get through a couple of falls which we werent very good at.

I ended up getting my camera wet so no more pictures from me that day. Instead Im borrowing some from Dennis who was a bit more thoughtful with his camera.

We sailed until we reached Cesky Krumlov which is a really magical town with a huge castle overlooking the town. The centre of the town itself is also very beautiful. The city center is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Here is one of Dennis pictures overlooking the town from the castle.

Sunday we went to see the real Budweiser brewery in esk

July 19, 2007
Adventures in Ostrava

Thursday we jumped on a bus and drove 6 hours east of Prague to get to Ostrava. We are here to attend the Ostrava Rails Conference for the next two days. To those of you who dont know Rails it is a programming framework that is talked a lot about these days and it is one of our primary tools. So when we discovered that this event was on we decided to check it out.

The bus system here is amazing. We paid 1160czk for two return tickets on an air conditioned bus with leather seats, showing movies and Friends episodes and complimentary copy of the days newspaper or Maxim.

On our first venture in Ostrava we jumped on the tram to take it two stops and figured we could do that without buying a ticket. Bad idea. As soon as the tram started roling a ticket officer busted us and we had to pay a 400czk fine each – doh!

I contacted a couple of people on CouchSurfing to see if somebody had couches we could crash on and thats how we ended up meeting Petr. Or we havent actually met Petr yet. He wasnt home but he got Zeno – his flat mate and landlord – to let us in so that we could sleep on his floor.

Zeno is a photographer and cinomatographer and the flat were staying in is also his studio. The rest of the evening we spend with Zeno drinking whiskey – good times.

June 23, 2007