Me with the Novak's parrot Sophie!
We arrived at the Novak's cabin the day after Christmas. There was a bit of melting snow on the ground, but we were excited to see any snow at all! We got up early the next morning ready for whatever snowy activity was on the schedule for the day. Vaclav's mother suggested a little hike to start our day. We left the house at 10 a.m. bundled up and excited. Alyssa had on two jackets. The hike turned out to be a little further than expected, though. We walked up a snowy mountain for three hours. Alyssa had to take off one of the coats and tie it around her waist. She was so hot and thirsty that she drank from several streams of melted snow along the way. Everyone had to stop and wait for Alyssa who just wanted to take a short leisurely stroll and take a few pictures. I was happy to get in a post Christmas workout! As we neared the top, we couldn't see the path or the streams beneath the snow. Poor Lyss fell into the stream several times and was wet up to her knees. However, we pressed on determined and eventually made it to the top! Two hours later we returned to the cabin exhausted. The whole hike ended up taking five hours! Vaclav's Mom began preparing our lunch of Bramborak which is the Czech version of the potato pancake.
The main cabin room with a very old stove. We threw logs in the black door to heat the entire room.
"Hurry Lyss. We're falling behind!" "Good. Let's just wait here until they come back!"
At the top! Now that wasn't so bad was it?
Alyssa may have fallen behind on our hike, but she left the Novak's and myself in the dust when it came to eating Bramborak. Each potato pancake was about the size of a dinner plate and as greasy as a Cracker Barrel sausage. I hadn't eaten all day and was starving, but I could not eat more than 2 1/2. Lyss put away six without a problem and spent the rest of the evening happily reading National Geographic.
Vaclav's mother is making Bramborak! Yum!
Evenings in the cabin were very peaceful. We watched Harry Potter and snacked on cookies. The Novaks also like to read a lot, but most of their reading material is in Czech. Therefore, I read the only English book available, "Hound of the Baskervilles," and Alyssa read every word of that one National Geographic magazine. We also played a board game called Funkenschlag. It was similar to Monopoly but was all about providing electricity to regions of Germany. Since we had never played before Alyssa and I played as a pair. I bought windmills, power plants, etc. and Alyssa counted our money. What great teamwork! Lyss wasn't a big fan of the game though and kept drifting off but she still kept an accurate total of how much money we made. Despite our valiant effort and efficient devision of labor, we still finished in last place. Go figure.
On our last night in the cabin we went Sledgebobbing which is what they call sledding. In America we usually use cheap plastic sleds or inflatable tubes. The Novaks had sledges with heavy metal bottoms, steering wheels, and brakes. These sledges go about three times as fast and despite the brakes are much harder to stop. We had a great time and it was a great last adventure in Prague. We're in Toledo now and just visited the windmills made famous by Don Quijote.
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