Day 1 and Day 2 - September 5 and 6

Day 1:
Maciej wrote about our adventures to Chodov. Now, Maciej was in no mood for shopping. I, on the other hand, thought - there is an upside to not having the luggage - we get to buy new clothes! And, even though we have an H&M in the US (yeah - downtown crossing!) they have different clothes in the H&M in Europe. Even funnier is that they have the labels "Euro" then the size.

Dinner: after much discussion, we decided to go to one of two places that were a few blocks from each other. I must say, we (especially Maciej) take our food outings seriously. Alas, he has done even more research on places to eat in the area than I have. Along our journey, we find out that one of the places is no longer in business (or if it is, it's not where it used to be). We ended up at a place called Ambiente. Interestingly, it was the first restaurant to become a "chain" - it has 2 locations, and this was a new concept in the area (started in the 1990's). I have one word for this restaurant - phenomenal! Supposedly it is known for 2 things: Mexican and Steak. Their steak menu was detailed and they have beef from multiple places and some that are grass fed for at least 20-23 months, etc. (one page of the menu was dedicated to the descriptions of where the meat is from, and another on preparations of the meat). Of course we chose non-American beef - who in their right mind would get the "North American" aged to like 10 months, good thing they didn't mention the cows are corn-fed in the US. Yuck! Maciej had a steak from an Irish cow with the signature Ambiente sauce (although it seemed like it was more of a rub). I had a steak from a cow from South Bohemia aka southern Czech Republic (a grass fed one of course) with a mushroom sauce.
The steak was perfectly done. I had grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes to go with it - not like American mashed potatoes, but they were still tasty.
We had a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice and dry, lots of tannins - it accented the meat extremely well. For dessert: the dark chocolate fondue with fresh fruit! yum-o.


Day 2: September 6
It's damn hot! The sun was beating down and no wind to help cool us down.
Still no luggage and we didn't know when and if at all we would get it. So, off to Prague-land for some exploring and shopping.
Since I can go shopping during the week (woohoo for vacation!) we focused on Maciej getting clothes.
Maciej tried one of the red sausages that are said to be one of the only food items that aren't a rip off in the touristy Prague Land area (and won't get you really sick). From the descriptions I read, they have a "crunch" to them. Maciej got his sausage that was smothered (practically drowned) in mustard. He also got a pickle, but after looking at it, even Maciej decided to throw it out (this is a big deal - he doesn't throw food out, so it was really bad). The sausage did have a "crunch" to it (yes, of course I tried it, but I went the safer route and got a baguette sandwich from a cafe for lunch). Not only was there crunch, but lots of fatty pieces and it also had some "bite" to it - definitely pepper chunks and I'm not sure what else. Of interest, Maciej didn't finish it. (he finished about 3/4 of the foot long sausage) Even for him it was too much. The crunch came from the well cooked skin but it was tough to chew and he had to spit out most of it.