You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Czech Republic' tag.
While sharing our enthusiasm for the roadside fruit trees littering the Czech Republic’s rural road system, our friend Ludwik began to speak of hungry soldiers. He spoke of governments and money and villagers with seeds. The government didn’t want to spend any and the villagers could share in the feast. While at the same time the soldiers marching home had something to eat.
When Confronted with a friendly kitten in the woods, we had yet another language to decipher. Was this kitten trying to tell us that she wanted to join us on our journey? To ride on top of our panniers in search of new land and fresh milk from goats? To cuddle with us in our tent at night and awake in the morning to breakfast at sunrise? Or was this kitten playing our heart strings like the a panhandler, just in search of or money or at least some food? We still can’t decide and we fought back the tears as we left the kitten near the white washed folly in the forest.
When faced with what sounds like gauntlet of gunfire or maybe the musket gun civil war, you have two options; duck and take cover or pedal faster. We choose the later. The gun fire came from all sides near and far. Someone had told us that the hunting season starts soon, but this couldn’t be from hunters. The hunting season conjured images of thousands of deer or maybe pheasants running about in a field with ten drunk men firing single shots at random intervals, ultimately seemed false. But it was these images that began to help us devise an explanation and comfort our minds; indeed we were not entering a war zone. However, still unconfirmed, we are quite certain that this is the celebratory tradition of announcing the ripening of the grapes and to keep the pesky critters out of the vineyards.
After a spectacular dinner of wild mushrooms with eggs and soup, we were led down the street to 217 Orechov to meet Cyril Stodulka and to meet his wine. He led us downstairs into his cool, brick cellar, lined with wooden barrels and stainless steel presses. He handed each of us a glass and promptly filled it. We sipped and smiled and tried our best to keep up with the conversation. We knew we were in for trouble, however, when Cyril announced, ‘Drink faster, there are still thirty more wines to taste.’ He wasn’t joking. The night ended with lots of laughter five 1.5L plastic water bottles full of different varieties of Cyril’s wine, Klobasa by the fire, mineral water to calm the stomach, and brief spinning as our eyes closed in bed.
Ludwik found us lost, looking at our maps, looking confused, in front of his house with our Alien lights lighting up an otherwise dark and starlit night. Ludwik, His sister and new brother-in-law, treated us like kings in his new old home. Ludwik has just moved back to Czech Republic after twelve years of living in Chicago. He has come back to move into his grandparents home to take care of his grandmother and to live a life of fresh plums, peaches, apples, and grapes. Ludwik is a very good man in a very good home with a great heart. We can’t wait to see his yard full of chickens and the 400kg of peaches.
8km straight up deep in a forest with a pissed off IT Band makes you thankful for a waiting friend, klobasa over a fire, and a rest day
