Thanksgiving

We experienced our first Thanksgiving meal, with our Colorado friends(both Michele & Brians family and Paul & Chris' family), plates bursting at the seams with turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin, Cranberry chutney and cranberries, beans, carrots, normal stuffing and a cornmeal/blueberry stuffing, I can't remember what else; followed by a choice of pumpkin, mince or apple pie with ice cream. It was at an American owned restaurant in Old Town called Red Hot & Blue. The restaurant had 3 sittings for Thanksgiving, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm - we were at the 5pm.

It was interesting to find out what their families usually did for Thanksgiving and N was given a quick history lesson on it's significance. Which was great because N&I are reading Witch Child, which is the diary of a teenage girl, Mary, from the 1650's who travelled to America from England(near Warwick) with a group of Puritans after her grandmother was hung for being a witch (it is a real diary which was found sewn into a quilt).

After dinner we all decided to experience another American Thanksgiving tradition - watch an American Football (gridiron)game. So we went to Legends bar, where Brian gave me a quick rundown of the rules.
The kids all had milkshakes (kids can go just about anywhere in the CR including sports bars and pubs) and the girls made up a dance. It was very sad to say goodbye at the end of the night.

Colorado visitors

Our friends from Colorado - Michele, Brian, Isabel and Will - arrived on Friday night. N was buzzing around all Friday in anticipation, counting down the hours, and greatly disappointed when their flight was delayed 40 minutes, touching down at 6:18pm. After a traditional Czech gulas dinner the kids played upstairs; eventually falling asleep around 11pm.

Saturday night Laurie agreed to babysit the kids for us,
so the adults went out for dinner at Dahab,
which was fabulous. I had to get a picture of their new psychodelic Hubble-bubble,
which some Czech boys were happy to pose for.
We finished our meals with M's favourite, Fassbind (pear brandy) at the Kolkovana near Obecmi dum.
The boys then went home and the girls partied on, hitting the 80's-90's dance party at the Music Bar (Yes, the one I discovered last Thursday). There would have been close to a hundred people in the basement(terrible fire trap...would never be allowed in Oz). Three Australian songs....can you quess?




Kylie - Locomotion
Olivia - Hopelessly devoted to you


and the one that really rocked the house....c'mon Neil...one of your favourites....

Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning

Sushi and Brutus

I was allowed out again with the Housewives Club. Sushi at Andel, then on to dancing til dawn (home at 4:30...close enough!). Actually only Christine(my school Librarian friend) and I made it past 1:30.

Sushi was very spicy, spiciness is pretty much unheard of in CR. Newly opened Planet Sushi

Then 3 out of the 11 mums went dancing at our usual haunt. It wasn't really rocking so we went to the Music Bar in Lucerne
(upside-down Wencesles statue), and we had a blast...dancing to Brutus(Czech band)
They were great and we are planning to see them again before we leave.

Halloween Party #2

M has just taken N off for another Halloween Party. Again N has gone as Evanesence...she let me take a picture. Scarey!!!

First Snow

N woke up this morning to a nice dusting of snow and -2 deg temps.

Wasn't nice waiting for the school bus that was 30 minutes late due to traffic problems and snow !

We'll enjoy it while it lasts.

M

Mushroom Hunting

I went mushroom hunting with my friend Chris, and Chris' mushroom expert friend Zdenka. We drove to a UNESCO protected forest between Prague and Kutna Hora, not far from Mukarov.

I'll set the scene.....Absorlutely freezing day - first day of Winter after all and we were looking for a yellowy-brown mushroom amongst fallen yellowy-brown autumn beech leaves. Not an easy task, but after nearly 5 hours of searching we had filled a big basket. I also saw my first wild deer and we had an encounter with a very large boar(humungous is a more accurate description), which was stirred out of the bushes by one of Chris' dogs - Rosy. Luckily for us the boar lost interest in the chase and trundged back into the thicket. Zdenka then told me she usually carries a gun for such occasions...to shoot into the air. We then discussed Czech boars in depth, from the average amount of mushroom hunters injured each year...to whom could climb a tree the fastest.
The prized mushrooms are as big as your head. Our biggest was nearly as big as my hand.
We ran into a Czech man who had found a beauty and he let me photograph it after Zdenka told him that we have lots of sharks in Australia...but no mushroom hunting???
In the same forest you can fill up your water bottles from a natural spring.

The water was crystal clear and was very refreshing after 5 hours of hunting. As you can see by the path, it is a well used and respected spring all year round.