Ten Reasons Why to Bring a Sandwich to Prague

Inspired by my friends blog I have decided to make  "top ten's" of my own about living in Europe, and here specifically in the Czech Republic. 

One thing I enjoy about being here is the variety if food choices. You can find a rich array of all kinds of  ingredients for whatever suits your palate. I enjoy learning about new things to cook and try to incorporate the local flavor when I cook. But being a vegetarian or a pescaterian don't expect me to blog about meat dishes. However, I live in the land of Pork and Beer the Czech's have a huge selection of Pork and are the 2nd Largest consumers of it in the world**. Czech cuisine, not a synonym for healthy cooking by all means, it does have it's good. I however, find sauces containing boiled-beyond-recognition vegetables and heavy cream accompanied by some kind of meat and Potatoes (or cabbage) not to my liking. If you are on a diet, Czech recipes usually are high in calories, fat and sugar. I do like some dishes, but that's another list. Still you may find your "to die for" meal here especially if you are a meat and potatoes fan. I am sure some people out there will disagree with me 100% of course and do enjoy it all, the same who will probably make threatening comments about how insensitive I am to meat eaters, but be that as it may.

Attention: If you are a vegetarian, bring a sandwich if you visit... 

Because you know you are a vegetarian living in the Czech Republic when:

10. You only have 3 or 4 choices to choose from when ordering from the Vegetarian Menu (Bezmáslo Jídlo)

9. 2 of the 4 choices in the vegetarian list have meat in it.

8. Fried Bacon Fat "Crackling" or Lard are not considered "meat".

7. Somehow they still can get lard into Ice Cream.

6. With the countless array of hams, salami and sausage to choose from there are only 4 vegetables : Tomatoes, Cucumbers, cabbage and potatoes.

5. Carp is the fish of choice and usually a house pet in the bathtub for the month before Christmas.

4. The waiter will refuse to bring you Broccoli au Gratin because it's not a man's meal.

3. Beer (Pivo) and Bread are usually your safe options on the menu

2. Langoš, fried dough (in what, who knows?) covered with ketchup Gouda and garlic....but isn't that Hungarian?

1. Fried Cheese (Smažený sýr) on a bun, though tasty and fun makes you want to cry when you eat it for the 100th time.

The Ghost Town

Governor's Island, New York has historically had a hand in the history of the City. To some, it is just some inaccessible Island that has been there off the southern tip of Manhattan that one passed on the Staten Island Ferry on the way to the outer boroughs. To others, it was home. A small village in the middle of a mega-tropolis. Recently though with the change of hand from it's former Military post (which has belonged to the government almost since it was taken from the Indians in the 1700's), it is back again open to the public.

For me however, it is the twilight zone. It is a strange feeling to see you home town, the places where you once lived, had the keys, and played with your friends, turned into a National Museum. Suddenly my old room was off limits, a friend's house turned into a store, and the living room hangout for our Friday night ritual of listening to Depeche Mode and dreaming of having a new life in a place in the East Village, That very room was now just a fashion show. But somehow I felt like kicking everyone out ! Couldn't they see the ghosts?

Wandering around the Island, I heard people conversing over the map, "Which way is Nolan Park". I could only help thinking "Idiot's it's just down the Road!" I thought, How could they not know?

I was lucky enough that they gunmen putting on their costumes were in my old house and luckily got a chance to peek in my old home where we used to live. Lucky me, just at the right place at the right time.
Leaving that day, I felt strangely proud to know that I had a great opportunity to live on that tiny Island off the tip of Manhattan in a Fort with cannons pointing into the down town maze of concrete and glass. I felt oddly right at home, but brought back to reality as they herded us back on the ferry, whispers of the past in my ears, until the Boat sounded its horn at that same moment, it was gone.

Going to the movies? Did you see Harry Potter and the Film is on Fire?

I don’t usually write movie reviews, but then again this is not an ordinary movie review. It is more like a going-to-the-movies-in-Italy guide.

First I should explain that since the times of Mussolini, Italian cinemagoers have only seen movies dubbed in Italian. The Italian dubbing artists are legendary.
Even in capitol cities like Rome or Milan it is hard to find a cinema that plays what is known as VO (Versione originale) or Original Version. This was part of Mussolini’s fascist policies. VO here means that the film is played in the original language, and only in the original language; if you don’t speak the language of the film you won’t understand the film, there are no subtitles! VO is very hard to find in Italy. Or it is playing in a tiny theater. Even so, it is part of the Italian experience. Perhaps seeing Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger speaking in Italian is sexy, but watching Chicago dubbed in Italian can be awkward and will put you ill at ease. There is something very gauche about hearing Richard Gere sing half in a dubbed voice and half in his own voice. This should not be played to minors, they will most certainly have nightmare. Nevertheless, VO is usually reserved for the premiers of “big” films, run to see them. Otherwise it will play Monday Night in one theater and somewhere else on another night.
Another little quirk in Italian cinema going that may shock the non-Italian is the fact that every film has, what is know as, “intervallo” or intermission. Yes in 2005! The intermission is compulsory in Italian Cinema. No matter how short the film. I think it might be one of the strange laws like being required to hold a receipt for 50 meters after leaving a Café. The “intervello” usually happens at some random point in the middle of the film. And is not always done gracefully. This irks me.It irks me because it breaks the flow of the movie not to mention, very antiquated. But gives all the smokers a chance to try and inhale a cigarette.
The last quirk in Italian cinema, recent albeit, (at least in Milan) is that you are , if you don’t ask, assigned a certain row and seat. What's more is that you are almost sure to get stuck in the front row. This is something that Italians intuitively know when asking for their tickets at the Box Office. It took me weeks to finally figure out why I was always in the front row. Additionaly, it has happened when even if there are just 5 people to see the film, you will most likely be seated right next to each other. There are ushers that will monitor this and the film won’t be started until the seating arrangement is resolved. This sometimes culminates into pandemonium before everyone shuffles around into his or her assigned seats.

I saw the new Harry potter film last night. It was great. I enjoyed it. However, half way through the film, the film caught on fire! Yes, on fire! This had me question if I was in a scene from the film Cinema Paradiso, in which the whole movie theater caught a blaze, sending panic and maim into the streets. I wasn’t sure if I should make a b-line for the exit or wait for order to resume. “Besides”, I weighed, “What year is it, 1923?”. Not only did I see the film melt and catch ablaze it happened the last 10 minutes of the film! Should it have happened at the beginning, it would be more forgivable, but just at the climax of the film. Just as were are on the verge of discovering the answers to the film -the best part of the film! After about ten minutes of heckling and chaos, the filmed resumed, cutting out a major part of the plot, jumping ahead a few minutes in the film. The crowd, seemingly unperturbed just shrugs it off as - che roba! - and continues on. I guess it is just a lesson at hand, and part of the charm of Italy. Should you go to a movies in Italy. Here are the guidelines:

1. Expect the film to be dubbed in Italian
2. If you are lucky to see it in VO, you must know the language of the film
3. There will be assigned seats
4. There will be an intermission
5. Check for the emergency exits in case the film catches fire ;)

(originally posted November 27, 2005)

A casual traveler

The casual (accidental) traveler is I, and this is my blog of my fortuitous travels around the globe, they are random and in now real sequential order. Some entries are current happenings and others are distant travels from the past.

This is a way for me to write thoughts, short stories, travel logs with my impressions of places to visit outside of the “guide book”— A guidebook for the accidental traveler. After having seed the guide books version of sites to see, I will try to explain my experiences visiting our planet with my own highly subjective, highly biased to my likes and dislikes, review. Welcome and enjoy.