velky snih a pili jsme pro becher

What a weekend it has been. After two successful interviews v patek it was off to Prebuz, a former mining town near the German border (the German name is Frehbuss). It was a lengthy trip due to several car accidents that continuously rerouted traffic, but eventually we arrived. Aaaand...it was snowing. Following a dinner cooked by Dedecek, a toast with Fernet, and a blissfully peaceful sleep we awoke to blankets of pure white magic surrounding our chata. Snidane (that's breakfast) was filled with bread and honey and cheese and marmalade washed down with tea we shoveled some snow and put up a fence around the hedges out in front so the hares wouldn't eat them. Then it was time for a walk. We walked past the old school that hasn't been used in decades and a building where you could see the old German words peeling off of the front facade. Snow was glistening all over the evergreens and the fir trees and the air smelled so fresh as we walked past the old church, still used once a year by Germans who come back to the Czech Republic for a mass.

(I should probably stop and explain a quick history lesson. During World War II, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and made it into a "Protektorat." The Sudetenland became part of Germany, where most of the German minority had lived in Bohemia. After World War II, President Benes issued a special decree expelling Germans from Czechoslovakia and essentially stipulated in his decrees it was okay to kill Germans or take German property. During the years of Communism, many Czechs bought properties in the former German Sudetenland villages for their country homes, but most of the villages are much emptier and sometimes even abandoned than pre-World War II. There has been a lot of soul-searching done throughout the past decades by Czechs and Germans and now relations are fine, but you can't ever escape history, and it seeps throughout central Europe.)

We went into the Prebuz cemetary for a while and then walked into the forested area, part of the Czech-Bavarian geopark, to look for the old remnants of the mines. At the top of the hill the view was beautiful and we wandered through some of the former mineshafts and threw snowballs (and in my case, munched on some snow). Then we journeyed to the only business in Prebuz, the local hospoda, or pub if you will, where we met the biggest character in the area, a talkative alcoholic named Pepik. Back at the chata following lunch/dinner, uncle Michael and Dedecek ("Grandpa") played some tunes on the accordion and washboard. I tried my best to sing along in Czech to the few tunes that I knew ("John Brown's Body," "Drunken Sailor" and "Yellow Submarine"). Kaca, Stepan, Honza and I went back to the hospoda for some pivo and Fernet and had another wacky encounter with Pepik, who refused to believe I was an American and told me that the Czech police were very helpful.

The next morning after cleaning up Honza and I set off for Karlovy Vary ("Karlsbad" in German, the Californian city of Carlsbad is named for it). Karlovy Vary is full of opulent buildings, Russians, hot oplatky (yummy spa wafers), slightly kitschy cafes, and above all, the odd-tasting spa waters which you drink in a special cup called a becher. So naturally I had to try the waters with my new becher. I'm not going to lie, they're warm and funky-tasting, and do strange things to your digestive organs, but apparently they're extremely healthy and full of minerals, so who knows, maybe I am healed of all ills. We also got to see the Russian Orthodox church which was gorgeous. A rather amazing weekend and I'm sad it is over.

There are photos, too. They are here:

http://slc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014264&l=f929b&id=28601169