Days 5 - 8: September 9-12

Day 5: September 12
Another hot day. I decided to go see the Lapidarium today, which hosts sculptures and statues from the 11th - 19th centuries. It is located way over the river, off the beaten path as the tour book says. Since it was a nice day I thought I'd take my time and take a walk over there. So, I head on my journey, which takes me through parts of town that I have not been through, including past an ice cream store. I walk over a bridge (for cars and pedestrians), but it seems as though pedestrians don't use it as often, taking the smarter route and using the metro. The bridge takes me to an area that is definitely not tourist friendly and a bit challenging to navigate, but never-the-less, this is one museum I definitely want to see. I finally, after having to walk under streets using multiple sets of stairs, find my way to the metro station that is for the Lapidarium; this took about 45-60 minutes from the start. Great! I'm looking at my trusty map, which does not go out as far as this museum is. After walking around and looking for the museum in the area, I walk down into the Metro station and there is not an English speaker around. A map is nicely located on the wall, which from what I was reading was telling me I had to take a tram to the area where I needed to go (thanks Guide Book! failed to mention that little detail). So, I hop on the tram, which takes me to the location. It was a little odd when I got off the tram because there really weren't many (may 5 or 6 tops) people around near the museum. I walk over to find that the museum is closed today for "technical problems". It was annoying, but at least there was a cute park that I could walk around, near some gardens and the planetarium. The good thing is, now I know exactly how to get to the museum.
Maciej and I decided to try a restaurant, Vallenta, for dinner. The Guide book listed it as having their favorite meal in Prague. We set out on our journey and find the restaurant has either moved or is no longer in business. Yikes! It's getting late now and the sun is half set and Maciej wants to continue to walk around. We end up at a restaurant, Pizzeria Grosseto. This is a restaurant that we have passed numerous times, always is packed and appears to attract the locals. End up having a fantastic Italian meal. Maciej and I each got a pasta dish - they make their own pasta there! We tried a Moravian Chardonnay, which was dry at first taste, with a sweet aftertaste. Overall, after having a few set-backs, had a fantastic dinner!

Day 6: September 10
Maciej had a 5 pm (Prague time: 11 am EST) con call, so I met him down in Chodov for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Sphinx. The food was okay, nothing particularly worth mentioning. We tried Bernard beer, yet another Pilsner made in the Czech Republic. This one I am not a fan of..a little too light for my liking.

Day 7: September 11
I found the large Tesco, a local grocery chain, yesterday. This one is huge - it is 6 floors of goodness. Each floor is dedicated to a different set of goods (i.e. ladies department, home goods, sports department, liquor and obviously food). It was awesome. It's interesting to walk around and see the different types of food that can be purchased, and how similar foods can be. I didn't see a lot of canned goods, such as soups - in fact the only soups I found were in a pouch in which to add water. I'm not talking Campbell's type, these come in larger bags - I'll let you know how the one I bought is. I didn't find as many low fat versions of dairy products as in the US, but let's face it - the US is the queen of low fat products. Regardless if you look, there are some basic low fat dairy products like yogurt and some cheeses (it's pretty interesting to see Laughing Cow, but written all in Czech - thank goodness for pictures and brand names). They do have a "whole foods or organic" section as well. I spent longer than needed in the store checking out all sorts of neat products - now if only I could read the labels! There were super long lines, even though it was early afternoon. It was very interesting, the woman behind me started speaking to me in Czech. Of course I had absolutely no idea what the words coming out of her mouth meant, but I definitely got the gist of what she was saying. She was making comments about an older (had to be at least in her 70's) woman, who kept asking people in the line next to us if she could go ahead of them so she could buy their Lipton Yellow Label tea. The woman behind me (probably in her 60's) was definitely joking around, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't understand Czech, so I just smiled/laughed and nodded since I could at least get the idea of the conversation (hopefully that's what she was saying - if not then I totally mis-read the non-verbal signals).
Enough about the grocery store...I went to Meduzza cafe, which one of the Czech websites (written by an English speaking person who spent time in the Czech Republic) raved about and is conveniently located in our neighborhood. I ordered a cappuccino and chocolate cake. The cappuccino was okay, was laking a little in flavor (from the espresso) and froth, but definitely drinkable. The chocolate cake was a 3/4-inch high x 4 inch long x 3 inch wide slice of dry chocolate baked good, covered with a fudge-like frosting, with a massive pile of whipped cream on top. It was garnished with a small slice of orange on each side. It was nice to be outdoors, but some other cafes have definitely had better food.
Maciej and I met up with one of his co-workers for drinks (well, we had dinner as well). It landed us once again at Pivovarsky Dum. This place has great beer, but is so unbelievably warm inside - we think it's a conspiracy to make people want to drink more! Despite wanting to order the same meal as before, I resisted the urge and tried another meal. Maciej ordered a pork knuckle, which was HUGE! He enjoyed eating it, but I could barely look at it - yuck! You could definitely tell it was part of an animal, skin, fat, bone and all. Yikes! I'm glad Maciej's co-worker was there so I could focus on talking to him instead of on the poor pig. Interestingly, Maciej's co-worker is originally from Greece, but has extensively traveled and lived in different countries. He has been living in the Czech Republic for the past 2 years. We met up with his co-workers girlfriend after dinner, who is a native of the Czech Republic, a classical guitarist, speaks English well and is also super nice.

Day 8: September 12
Maciej took care of our adventure on the Vltava.