Friday, November 24, 2006

Prague dreams



I hope everyone out there in blogland had a happy thanksgiving!

While visting family in Delaware I find myself telling everyone about our trip. It has me thinking about Prague, which is just the most beautiful city. It's a somber, elegant city that worms it's way into your heart and your psyche. At least it did for me. I find myself thinking about it and longing for it, even though I've only ever been a tourist there, and have never gotten down with it the way the locals do, the way we did in Roma.

Here are some fun pictures from our favorite restaurant, Restaruant Davide, which we went to on our very first night in Prague during our visit in 2005.

Let me set the scene...I had been dating the Mathematician for a month and a half when he invited me to accompany him to Prague, where he would be giving a lecture on cryptography. At first I said no, flatly, I cou;dn't possibly come along. I was still reeling from the break-up of my engagement, and I felt like I barely knew the Mathematician. But the more and more I thought about it the more a trip to Europe seemed like a viable option, an adventure, something brazen and impetuous that I, a not-so-brave, very cautious and careful person, was capable of doing. Deep down I think I knew it was the only way to separate myself from my current life, from Boston and all of the ghosts of relationships past. It would be the only way to co-exist with this new person, who I was quite sure I was falling in love with, against a neutral, exotic backdrop.

Our very first night in the city, jet-lagged and confused, we stumbled upon restaurant Davide, thanks to a listing in Rick Steves' Prague & the Czech Republic 2005. Here we were introduced to Czech cuisine done fine dining style, with all the elegance of formal French ettiquette and service. We ate the most delicious, exquisite cabbage soup I have ever eaten: it was salty and sour unforgettably rich and satisfying. We ate a trio of game, inclduing Wild Boar, rabbit, and the most decadent leg of duck confit I've tasted, before or since. It was lavish, and because the dollar is worth so much more than the Czech crown, it cost little more than a full meal with wine at the upscale bistro where I work.



But by far the most enchanting thing about Davide is the fact that they inexplicably serve all of their ice wine, port, cordials, and cognac in irregularly sized, enormous glasses. We saw on customer sipping a honey colored liquid from a glass that had the normal sized tulip shape of a pinot noir glass, but a stem as long as my forearm. We watched as the waiter liberated another glass from an elaborate Louis XIV style cupboard: it was a snifter that was literally as big as my head.

Returning to Davide was one part of my trip that I was so, so excited about. This time we brought my camera, we were sure to sample drinks from glasses of both sizes, and here are the pictures to prove it.



So here's to Prague...city of inexplicably big glasses, salty meats, and love...

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

most beautiful

Today, as I was walking down Tremont Street to Mass Ave. on my way to pick up some over-priced produce at Bread & Circus..er...Whole Foods, a guy walking by told me that I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, "like, ever."

Well, he didn't so much tell me this as he screamed it in the general vicinity of my ear as I was passing by, craning his neck and making an awful, slightly howling sound behind me as I walked on.

It was really an interesting compliment.