Capital of Culture, Capital of Beer

Plzen, or Pilsen, as you may know, is the town where I live. And last week the news were great for this town of 170.000 people: Plzen has won the contest to become European Capital of Culture in 2015. The title is to be shared with the Belgian town of Mons. Congratulations to the team behind this success: they defeated the excellent candidature of Ostrava and this was no easy task as the North Eastern town has worked hard to rebuilt itself from it's mining past into a fun place. But Plzen's passion and the effort put into creating it's future, paid off.

Ever since I first came to Plzen I felt the town prepare itself for the big party that took place on Thursday last week, the day the winner was announced. All year long there were cultural activities such as several national and international film festivals, the international festival of folklore (with a decade of history behind it), historical festivities, open air theater and so on.

Plzen had projects that go beyond this candidature as it prides itself in being a place for good food, good music, quality entertainment, a stage for modern and classical. It's all about bon vivre a la Czech.

The plans for the following year include a new museum and cultural center in an old Brewery, exhibitions, and more activities. Besides being the capital of beer, Plzen is also a fun town to leave in. And it's not afraid of controversies: the Techmania museum will host David Cerny's very peculiar art work on the European Union: Entropa.

There are a lot of things to look forward to in the next period, so come have a beer in the big square in Plzen, or have a goulash for lunch at one of the big Hospoda or Czech style restaurants. You can enjoy a  concert in the Sinagogue or see the new additions of the Zoo. There is really something for everyone in this town.

The Wine Country

We've spent this week in the Czeh Republic's wine country, Moravia. I know, I know, Czechs and beer and all that, but Moravians, well they love wine. This is for another story, because this weekend reminded me of another one, in a place generally acknoledged as the Wine Country: France. And more specifically Colmar, the Alsatian Wine Capital. Or is the Wine capital of Alsace, or the Capital of Alsatian wine? Oh I'm confused, but you get the point, right?

About Colmar. It's the 3rd largest city in Alsace and trust me, you'll love it. Timber framed houses with flowers at their windows, cobble-stoned streets and the canals of little Venice are enough to make you want to spend a day here. You'll find plenty of things to do. When we were there there was a cheese market and some festivities. Also worth mentioning is the quaint Christmas market that takes place in the streets of down town Colmar: it's one of the best in the Region.

But wait, there's more. Colmar is the home town of a certain Mr Bartholdi, of the Statue of Liberty fame. In fact, when you enter the town you are greeted by his famous statue. The town remembers it's famous offspring with a Museum and several dedicated landmarks.

One of my favorite places in Colmar is La maison des têtes an ancient guild house that bears the heads of five important figures in the town's history. I especially like the interior court yard with trompe l'oeil decorations and chairs under the vine.

Once you've taken a stroll on the nice pedestrian streets admiring the gingerbread houses and of course after you've taken a boat ride on the canals, you must, I repeat, you must go to visit the nearby vineyards. Alsace is the home to some of the best wines in France. They are still mostly unknown so it can be a chance for you to impress your friends with some special wines. Check here for a list of wines from the region. There are some special ones such as the late harvest wines, very sweet and perfumed, a real delight.

In July we went to visit the Stentz family in Wettolsheim, close to Colmar, on the wine route. Oh yes, the names of places here will make you forget you are in France. The vineyard region is just so beautiful with hills on all sides and pretty villages nested between the endless rows of grapevines. You can walk around the villages or take a bike ride in the hills, or you can attend the wine festivals, you'll get to meet lots of interesting people, and taste the delicious wines and cheeses of the region.

The Stentz, as most of the Vignerons Independants, independant winemakers, have a family business that stretches back a few generations. You can imagine the passion and knowledge they put in their wines. Madame Stentz took us inside, showed us the wines we were going to taste and explained a little bit about each one with a vivid passion in her eyes that made me wonder about what it was like to be a winemaker's wife. Here the bottles are arranged in order to give a better tasting experience. The ones in front are the special collections of late harvest and Grand Cru, the best of the best.

We also visited the cellar where they make and preserve the wine. You can see the way the technology evolved, yet the process stayed pretty much the same.Three generations at work here, making the best wines.

We left from Madame Stentz's with some of our favorite bottles, some Gewurztraminer and some Pinot, a bottle of the most surprisingly sweet Riesling and continued our evening in Alsace, in another town with ginger bread houses and colorful window panes.

This past weekend we visited the wine region of the Czech republic, around the town of Mikulov, close to the Austrian border. But this is a story for next time. I have to make a parallel between these two regions because I find there are quite interesting links between the two: people's passion, the love for wine, especially white and the troublesome history, it goes to show that good wine is not just a story of palate. Good wine is all about the heart you put into it.

French is the language of fine dining

So she loves to cook. As a new page of the cook book is turned over, your mouth is left watering, it says : Recette du jour : chanterelle et magret de canard. She also loves to invent and so the tender duck breast will have two sorts of mushrooms and mashed potatoes to accompany it on it's journey to the stomach.

Here's how it's done. You take some potatoes, you boil them in their nice shirt. After a while, you'll know when the time has come, your fork sinks easily in the potatoes, you take them out of the water and start peeling, being careful not to burn your delicate fingers. You mash the potatoes with a little bit of butter, milk and cream and add some salt, pepper and some nutmeg mace (or noix de muscade or nucsoara), for taste.

While the potatoes are boiling you can already start on the mushroom sauce. Or rather sauces because as I told you the girl likes to invent and so does her boy who prepared the sauces. First things first, chop some onions and cook them until they are almost translucent and then add the ingredients of the first sauce : the pleurotus mushroom. Prepare a sauce out of some cream and some moutarde a l'ancienne, which is mustard with grains and pour it over the mushrooms and onions. Then prepare the second sauce by putting chanterelles on the hot pan, adding cream and stirring. Pepper and salt for the taste. These mushrooms are from the agaricus family so quite common, even in Romania.

Now for the "magret de canard". This is a duck's file, cut from a fat duck's chest, more info here (don't you just love Wikipedia?) Just take the tender pieces of meat, put them on a hot frying pan, turn them on the other side when the first one is slightly cooked, you don't want to overcook these babies. And that's it! Add a nice red wine, full of tannins, arrange it all on a nice plate, light some candles and you have yourself a romantic dinner. Bon appetit!

PS. More of my culinary journeys will follow soon.

Tuesday, the 13th

Tuesday, the 13th is considered by Romanian superstitions to be a day of bad luck. But not today, because today is my Dad's b-day ! Happy Birthday Dad! He's spending it making BBQ, one of his favorite activities and I envy the people present.

Last month was my Mum's birthday, it made me realize that I'm not there for them, I'm not there for big events like her 50 year anniversary or Easter, or my cousin's wedding, or the dog's latest stunt.


I took the decision to live away from them and I stick to it: there are a lot of advantages to living in a foreign country and having a good salary. But there is also nostalgia. And so my parents get nice presents delivered by courier because I want to be there, in any way possible.

I like to make my presence felt on these occasions, even if I am aware that it's only a reminder of my absence. I planed special surprises for my Mum: she received a huge flower arrangement, which I made delivered to her work place. And just when she thought that was it, she also got a perfume, delivered by another courier later that same day. I think, I hope, it was a happy birthday. And now my Dad got a set of 6 games and a BBQ kit and my Mum and our friends helped me plot the whole thing. Because I'm involved, even from a distance, thank you internet.

So Happy Birthday Dad, see you in a couple of weeks, I'll drink a Pilsner for you!

The Remarkable Rocket

My eyes were on the sky, my breath was almost still, I was standing there, transfixed. The cracking sounds that made their way to me felt like thousands of champagne bottles popping and letting the bubbly fluid out. And the skies were burning, the air was green. Yes, fireworks!

The people of Plzen seem really set on chasing daemons away, almost every week there is a firework some where in town. This time there was a really big one to celebrate the liberation of the city by American troupes on May 6th 1945, the only city in the Eastern blocks to have seen the freedom bringing American tanks.

The festivities usually last for a week : you see tanks, army trucks, veterans, fighter jets scene reenactments, and at the end, fireworks, maybe a reminder of the guns and cannons heard during the war, but this time, friendly fire only.

I was really sorry I couldn't take pictures, we were out for pizzas only so I had no camera. As pretty as a picture is and even thought it holds a thousand words, my glee is not encompassed in it. I am a kid looking at the fireworks. I love the sound and even the smell they sometimes leave behind. Lucky me, I live in a town with a huge firework budget. If they also had Auroras, I'd be in heaven (maybe literally; the Eskimos thought that Auroras where the time when the dead came back to communicate with the living).

While watching the fireworks I had in mind the discussions between the fireworks in the story by Oscar Wilde I read when I was a kid. But these fireworks were not as vain as the one in the story and ignited to make a whole town happy to be alive and for an instant maybe, feeling like they are living good times.

PS. This year I plan to go here.

A Blast from the Past

Do you remember how much joy your old toys brought you? Wouldn't you want to feel that again? Today I went back in time to 1986, the year my Dad made his famous first trip to Czechoslovakia and came back with lots of goodies that were hard to find in Socialist Romania.

Among them, the famous Red Buffalo, the Yellow Honey Eater - a huge teddy bear in red overalls, my first gold earrings, my Mum's favorite bra and lots more. I was two but that moment is still stuck in my memory : the complete, honest joy of the whole family at the sight of those objects that were so common for Westerners yet so sparse for us.

The teddy bear was taller than I was at the time but even if I outgrew it in size, I still continued to sleep with it cuddled in my arms until much later. I'm afraid the Buffalo had a sadder fate, one that is linked to my first memories : the big boom of the rubber toy bursting under me. It resonated loudly with my childish joy of trying to tame the red buffalo.

Today I read this article about a toy exhibition and realized the treasure I didn't know I had as a child. Kids don't really care about the value of things; they just play in the sand, careless of the mess they make, careless of the toys they break but utterly, truly, carefree and happy. For a moment I felt the same way again, looking at this image :

Maybe the toys haven't survived past my childhood but I still feel the texture of the materials they were made of and the happiness they brought me is something I yearn for.

So, dear reader, what were your favorite childhood toys?

I Hugged a Tree

One morning in March, last week to be precise, the weather was not quite perfect: sunny on the outside but frosty and snowy allover. And that is when it happened, on my way to work: crash boom bang and I hit a tree by the side of the highway.

I've been told it's a miracle to even be here and tell you this awful story. I was lucky: I had a new car that protected me with air bag and other security systems and I was wearing my seat belt. I have scraps and nasty bruises and injured knees and you can see marks of where the airbag hit my face and where the seat belt kept me from being thrown off the window. But I am alive and kicking.

I'm sorry I gave my Mum such an awful Mother's Day. I am thankful for everything she's done for the and for wanting to get on the first flight here. I hope she will stop smoking, as she promised. My guy was worried sick. Now we make fun of my amnesia but at the time, I don't think it was funny for him, having to tell me every 5 minutes what had happened.

I've had calls from a lot of people, friends, colleagues, former colleagues. My friends helped inform my parents. I'm overwhelmed by this outburst of love from people far away, when I was the one supposed to call people on that day. So I say thank you for your care and I'm sorry I caused all this trouble around myself.

Martisor

I wish you all a warm and sunny spring. I know in France it's still Winter (and considering the latest storm, a very bleak one), Romanians are celebrating the start of Spring, the warming of the air and already looking forward to barbecues (my Dad has already grilled the first steaks outdoors).

Eastern European girls are all wearing a red and white bracelet around their wrists. And so are some of the boys. Usually it's boys who offer the little charm, but sometimes, the girl puts it around her boy's wrist (that's what I did) as a symbol of the end of Winter, the triumph of good over bad (and other lame things).

This image is one that all Romanians will recognize: you see it everywhere around this time, these two little lovebirds have become Spring itself.

The black and red strings are most often accompanied by a flower that boys and men offer their mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers... This is my favorite is a freesia that I would like to offer, symbolically, to whomever reads these pages.

Have a nice spring! Krasne Jaro! O primavara frumoasa

Brno - A City That Rock and Rolls

I'm still recuperating after last weekend, so please bear with me while I tell you this story. This was supposed to be a story about my wonderful, fairy-tale like evening at a ball in Hradec Kralove. At least that is what all my friends are waiting for. Instead, you'll read about my (long) weekend of boozing, dancing and general debauchery in Brno.

First things first, I did go to the prom (or gala for the French or bal for the Romanians). And it was Awesome. I had a nice low cut fringe dress, perfect for pirouettes, high heels and the best dance partner one could wish for. I felt like a princess and the other girls that were with us, were among the prettiest at the ball. So my boy was spoiled.

The next day, after some troubles with a lost/stolen wallet, we took to the road and went to the Moravian capital, Czech Republic's second city and major university center : Brno.

If you plan a trip to the Czech Republic, visit Prague, of course, but go to Brno as well. The people are different there, more cool, relaxed, not in such a hurry as in Prague. Yet you will find all nationalities in Brno, in part thanks to it's Erasmus students but also to the throng of IT companies in the area.

We had beers with friends and former teachers, in a medieval cellar, the kind that Czechs like so much. We also visited the towns many pedestrian streets and had hot chocolate in a cozy cafe, chatting away. By evening we were so tired we had to crash at a friend's place before picking up a friend (The Ben) at the bus station.

The places to see in Brno : The cathedral, the Spilberk castle (actually the town is built around these two hills), The Old Town Hall, Charlie's Hat and Livingstone. Interesting are also the Villa Tugendhat, unfortunetly closed for renovation, the Masaryk University and the Brno University of Technology, the VUT. For the girls, you go to Masaryk, for the boys to VUT. In June Brno is the home of the Ignis Brunensis festival of fireworks and also in summer there is a MotoGP event not far from the city.

Brno is full of legends. Like the one about the dragon and the wheel. Or why the Town Hall has a crooked column. And also legendary places such as the pubs and clubs of Brno. We spent our evenings in two of these. First off was Charlie's. Bad toilets and smoke, but still a nice place to have drinks and talk.

There I found out a little bit more about the town and about the Romanians living in Brno, from a friend living and working there. All around you could hear every language possible and it made me happy to have a pleasant conversation Romanian. I have to say we didn't drink that much, but the 50 crown coupon was well spent on a vodka and pineapple. The following evening we went back to Charlie's but this time with gadz'arts. We ate the awful pizza they sell in front of the bar for 25czk (it's a tradition reminding me of Clatita Uriasa in Regie or that Shaorma place near the metro station).

Charlie's is a chick magnet. If you choose the right place in the bar you'll spot very fast what ever you want to pick up: boy or girl. After you woe him or her over a pint of beer or a cocktail, you can impress with your moves on the dance floor. It's almost guaranteed you won't spend the night alone.

My night continued in an exotic place the atmosphere of which reminded me of P24. *Sigh* Livingstone was full of people and the music was louder then Charlie's so we danced more and talked less. At least on Saturday we danced a lot, had some drinks, chatted a bit in some quiet corners. There were lots of Erasmus students showing off the dance skills while the French team waited for rock and roll rhythms. it was great fun. We didn't want to leave but we were too tired to stay.

The city is about as big as Bucharest for almost half of the population and the city transport system is very well organized with trams, or Šalina, how they call them here, going to every corner of the town. I can tell you they are also very used at night and useful too, when you're going to "the friend you're going to sleep at tonight", after a few drinks in the bars.

Before I forget, if you go to Brno, dear reader, you must absolutely eat at StaroBrno. They make very good beer and they also made the best ribs in honey, 1 kilo of them on a wooden platter with a delicious garlic bread and a great pint of beer for 300czk, or only 11.5 euros. A delight. And just next to the Pivovar Restaurant is a Pivnica (Pivnita for the Romanians) where they make the best goulash : wild boar meat, dumplings and gingerbread. My mouth is watering already.

Unfortunately we had to leave Brno, this Ibiza of Central Europe, this Nantes of the East, but we will be back, that's for sure, because this place really rocks. And because Brno is to my boy what Nantes is to me.

Gimme, Gimme...- The Best Abba since Abba

Last night we went back in time with an ABBA show. At first it was cold. The show took place in a skating rink and we had to wait more than 45 minutes for the show to start (we were early and they were late) I went to the toilet before the show started (way before) and on my way (the place is a maze) I saw the lines for klobasa, or hotdogs and hot wine, I'm still salivating. We had brought our own sandwiches and drinks (we didn't know about the local treats) and really felt like on some sort of picnic. The people coming to the concert were all prepared with blankets to keep warm : a nation of hockey lovers. There were people of all ages and all walks of life. There were parents with kids and grand parents and young couples.

We had some of the best seats in the skating rink but we decided to go down, in front of the scene because we didn't have room to dance (and we had grand kids and grannies in the neighborhood). Besides the atmosphere, it was also warmer and we still had a great view (ok, he had to carry me on his shoulders so I could see the girl's shoes).

The show was nice, very colorful, very professional, a lot more than what I had expected; they had Abba band members and good band and they sang the songs really well. I must say that I half expected your neighborhood revival act/drag queen show. But I had none of that : it was really a show I recommend. It helps knowing the lyrics. We sang and danced all the evening. And my boy seemed to really enjoy the present (for his birthday/Christmas).

We were making guesses on what song will be next. They sang all the big ones: Mamma mia, Gimme, Gimme, Supertrooper. Of course Dancing Queen. But also some unknown ones. We were a bit disappointed, no Waterloo? Well they left the Eurovision winning song for the end :)

We went to see the show in Plzen, but I could only find this poster for the Brno event. They are touring allover Europe and apparently they are one of the best Abba revival acts.