Eats and Treats: Prague

I've made it back safe and sound. What an AMAZING trip with Kara! We went to 5 countries in 14 days. It was a whirlwind tour of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria. We saw some fabulous cities filled with castles, cathedrals, museums, ancient architecture and we found some good food along the way as well. I tried posting many times, but the computers were very slow at our hostels. It would have taken me forever. But I'm back now....so let the posting begin!

We started off in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. We were VERY spoiled because a friend of mine who has lived in Prague for about 10 years was our tour guide. What a blessing to have Barb take us around! 

The moment I stepped off the plane, I jumped right in to find some good food. I was waiting for Kara to fly in from Ireland, so I had a few hours to adventure around. I found a cozy place called the Slagr cafe. They had a multitude of pastries and I chose the Kremrole. WOW! It was delicious. The whole pastry was filled with whipped cream. Sweet and fluffy whipped cream.

After Kara arrived we settled in our hostel and headed out for dinner. We found this little cafe called Dobra Trafika. At first, our waiter handed us menu's in Czech. Hmmmm. Not sure what it said, but we were trying our best to figure it out. He finally came back with menu's in English. Much better! We decided to have dessert first. I saw hot chocolate on the menu and hoped it would be like the drinking chocolate Phily and I had found at a chocolate shop in Portland called Cacao. I was in luck - it was! Drinking chocolate is nothing like regular hot chocolate. It's rich and thick and you feel like you are drinking a melted chocolate bar. Kara had never had it before and we were making a real fuss. We kept going on and on about how good it was. I actually heard the people working there laughing at us. :)

We did order real food - a dish called Gruzian Aubergine. Although we didn't know entirely what it was, it turned out to be great! The tomato, cucumber and melted cheese were on top and a whole load of cooked vegetables in soy sauce were hiding underneath. As you can see, it's not the most beautiful dish, but it was surprisingly delicious!

We had breakfast at our hostel, the Czech Inn, each morning. They always had homemade bread and granola, eggs, cheese, fruit, coffee, tea, juice, etc. It was a real treat!

Barb took us to a place called the Bakeshop for lunch. It's a snazzy bakery owned by an American.
 

I ordered a ham and cheese quiche and a cupcake. Both were yummy. Yes, I ate the cupcake first.

After walking around a bit, we went to the Hotel U Prince for some hot chocolate (yes, the oh-so-delicious drinking chocolate) and a great rooftop view....which was gorgeous!

There was a street fair happening in the Old Town Square, so Barb took us around to the different vendor's to get dinner.  The vendor's were selling cheese, crepes, sausages, fries, candy, etc. A few of the vendor's caught my eye. One was a cheese vendor who had all sorts of unique flavors. Being a LOVER of cheese I was excited to see all they had to offer. There was one flavor that I had to try - wasabi. It was even green! It was good too - had some serious spice!

The other vendor who caught my eye was selling Langose (aka "Poor Man's Pizza"). It's fried dough smothered in butter, garlic, ketchup and cheese. Barb had told us about these and I just had to try it. Anything with the words fried and cheese have always caught my attention. It was heavenly.

Believe it or not, they have Starbucks in Prague. Being a NW girl, I had to at least go in and get something. I got myself a cute mug. When I was waiting in line, I just so happened to see they were selling cake pops. For the love! My baking self was thrilled. They have been on my "To Bake List" for awhile. Now that I'm back I'll have to make them soon!

On our way back to the hostel that night, we had to stop by the train station to get our tickets to Krakow. As we were taking one of the main roads, Barb pointed out some places that sold fried cheese. Again, the words fried and cheese - I had to try it! So I did. It was fried greasy goodness!

The next day we got up bright and early to take pictures of the sunrise from the Charles Bridge. It was worth dragging ourselves out of bed.

After enjoying our glorious sunrise we had breakfast at the hostel and lunch at a bagel shop called Bohemia Bagel.

I needed to wake up a bit, so I ordered a cappuccino. It came with loads of foam. Yum. I enjoyed the coffee too - very strong the way I like it.

I ordered the caprese salad and loved it! The fun part was that they used buffalo mozzarella. I ordered the tomato soup as well. Kara and I were impressed with the soup - it tasted homemade - very chunky and full of flavor.

We had dinner at the street fair again (I had sausage) and for dessert I had some WONDERFUL caramel gelato from Cream and Dream. It was a good way to end our time in Prague. That night we caught the train to our next destination - Krakow!