Trdelnik: A History

There was a great disturbance in the Internets when the monster of pastries in the picture was released last year. Cyberspace exploded and the shockwaves passed through the comments section of many silly tourists thinking they know the true history of the thing. “Oh, that’s so common in Budapest and can only be found there!” said one. “You can only get those at Christmas in Vienna!” said another. Well, I’m here to set the record straight. Living here in Prague, I can tell you all about those amazing little spirals of sugar and thinly sliced walnut covered dough.

a bite-sized bit of awesome

A good dessert is impossible to pronounce

Here in Prague, the treat is interchangeably called trdelnik and trdlo, which are both equally impossible to pronounce. It has its modern roots in the Slovak town of Skalica, where in the 18th century the Hungarian general, Jozsef Gvadanyi, decided to retire. A poet and philosopher, he had a clear sweet tooth, which was reflected when he hired a Romanian chef from Transylvania who brought the dish with him – that's right, another story of immigrants and globalization!

a man and a chimney

In Skalica, the locals refined the treat and gave it its name. The name comes from the tool which is used to cook it – a metal chimney that the dough is wound around. It’s then placed and rotated over a coal pit until the dough is golden brown, after which they remove the pastry and dip it in sugar and sliced walnut mix. The treat is available year around in Prague and at every festival, as well as many other locales – especially in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – though in other places like Vienna it might be an only seasonal dish. It costs anywhere from 1 euro to 2 depending on what part of town you’re in. The two best trdelnik stands that I’ve found are on Na Prikope, near the Mustek metro station, run by some unfriendly Ukrainians, and at Malastranska Square in front of the tram stop. In most places they also cover it in Nutella for a few crowns more.

the Ukrainians serve the best Romanian treat in Czech Republic

A novelty is born

That was before last year. A new trend exploded onto the scene when a place started serving a new variation of trdlo. Seeing the sudden immense popularity of it, and as the trdlo was one of my and my wife’s favorite winter treats, we decided to go and investigate this Bohemian bounty of dulcitude. As we approached Charles Bridge walking down Karlova street, we saw many people with all sorts of delicious variations of it. Our excitement was growing. When we found the place that was serving this new version of it, Good Food Coffee & Bakery, at Karlova 160/8, we found a line that seemed to go on for some one hundred meters. We jumped in and got lucky, many people gave up and wandered off.

the source of all sin

We found that Good Food had modified the design of the trdelnik to make it into a cone so that various things can be put inside. They have the standard “chimney” option, which is filled with ice cream, and they also have a strudel option, with apples, walnuts, and raisins, as well as one with strawberries and cream. Most of the options are from 80 to 120 crowns.

too good to be true

Verdict To be honest though, after tasting it, I couldn’t figure out what the fervor was all about. The pastry itself was not the best I’ve had – which can be found at the above places – and the soft serve ice cream was pretty substandard. The popularity seemed to be based off the pure novelty of the product rather than the actual thing itself, and the fact that all these tourists probably didn’t realize that there were trdelniks everywhere for much cheaper and with far better flavor.

the making of a trdlo

Now every trdelnik stand does these crazy versions of the trdelnik. But even so, I stick to the "originalny". It's unpleasant to eat all that crazy amount of sugar and the simpler taste really is better.

#Prague #streetfood

The Narodni Divadlo and Laterna Magika

The Narodni Divadlo and Laterna Magika

When I was on my hiking trip the other week with my work, I was caught up in a discussion with one of my co-workers. Evidently he was a dancer, and enjoying the finer arts as I do, I asked if I could catch one of his shows. Naturally, I thought it would just be at some local theatre.

So when he invited me to his performance at the Narodni Divadlo, I was understandably surprised.

The Narodni Divadlo is one of the top performance halls in Prague. This was no small burrito. This was a massive Chipotle-sized bean-filled monster of dance and theatre.

the People's Theatre or National Theatre: an eternal struggle for translators

The Narodni Divadlo is divided into two parts. The original part and the “new stage”. They’re quite easy to tell apart, as one is perhaps one of the finest examples of neo-Renaissance architecture and art in all of Europe. It was built in the late 1800s as a national theatre, that is to say, as one that was dedicated to the Czech nation, where the Czech language would be the primary language of performance.

Nation and state weren’t the same things back then, as this was all under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nation was more of a concept regarding a people that were united by language, religion, and culture, but not necessarily state. In the nineteenth century, this became a very important idea, as many nations were beginning to feel under-represented by their imperial overlords and were pushing for independence. This was especially true of the Czechs.

Narodni Divadlo, looking down the street along the river

Having a theatre dedicated to performances in the Czech language was a rather huge thing back then, as for the thousand years under much of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, Czech language had been for the most part suppressed, in large favor of the German language. In the 1800s, the Czech language had been having something of a renaissance, with a series of phenomenal Czech artists and writers coming to the forefront of the European art scene.

the roof of the divadlo

The idea of the Narodni Divadlo wasn’t always kosher for the rulers of Prague and Bohemia though, as the expression of Czech nationalism oftentimes pushed them towards two very dangerous movements in regards to the Empire: independence and pan-Slavism. If you take a stroll around the Narodni Divadlo, you can see those pan-Slavic sentiments, as many of the Slavic tales are told through the paintings that decorate the palatial complex, many reminiscent of Alphonse Mucha’s own Slavic Epic. Which makes sense, as Mucha was very much part of this movement.

Narodni Divadlo next to its companion "New Stage"

My friend wasn’t playing in that epically beautiful building. His troupe was operating out of the New Stage. The troupe, called the Laterna Magika, had its beginnings in the 50s as the world’s first multimedia theatrical performance, using computers, projections, and so on to interact with the stage and the audience. The founder, Joseph Svoboda, brought the troupe to Brussels, wowed the world at a theatrical exposition, and soon became a staple of the Czech theatrical diet. His Laterna Magika was the first to experiment with various lighting effects, like black light, which has become a regular effect on the tourist theater scene, but it was originally done by Svoboda’s group.

the entry to the New Stage

In the 80s, Laterna Magika was able to push for its own building. They built the New Stage--a horrendously and profoundly ugly building--attached to the beautiful Narodni Divadlo. The New Stage is part of the National Theatre and operates under its auspices. It’s just incredibly curious how such an incredibly ugly building came into being. With such buildings, I’m always left to wonder if the architect ever stood back and was proud of his creation, or did he turn up his trench coat collar and try to sneak out the back of a room filled with angry and confused people.

O beauty! Thine form knowest many faces! Or not.

Today, Laterna Magika runs a mix of new modern and bizarre visual works, as well as one or two staples from Svoboda’s original repertoire. My friend invited us to watch him dance in the production of Wonderful Circus, which falls under the latter category.

Beautiful buildings everywhere! Except here.

He met us at Café Nona, which is a café/bar that serves as a regular event place for live music and exhibitions itself and is literally directly underneath the stage. Our friend brought us into the middle stairwell though, and then showed us throughout the backstage. We got to see the corridors, green rooms, and make up rooms, and then up the stairs that led to the backstage itself. Then we got to hang out on the stage, soaking in the view that the actors and dancers regularly took, sans the blinding light.

the player's view

We then left him so he could get ready. We had a quick beer in the bar and then made our way to our seats, the show was about to begin.

The Wonderful Circus involves four main characters, with a small stew of backups. The story follows a sad clown and happy clown as they look upon a nude Venus who seems to be under a weird control of a guy who’s kind of like a director, but is also a lion tamer and photographer. The clowns fall in love with Venus, but for the most part she’s under control of the possibly evil photographer guy. The clowns at times save her, but then the photographer guy saves her. It’s also possible that the photographer guy is the protagonist, and perhaps it’s the clowns that are evil, but its impossible to tell since Venus seems to like them all. I suppose she’s kind of a metaphor for the stereotypical Czech girl… woah!

the stage is set for the Wonderful Circus

The stage is bare, except for a white curtain that surrounds it. A projector is used with various images and motion pictures to set the scene, making way for a hot air balloon ride, swimming, running down roads, and first-person puppeteering. All around it’s an entirely novel and neat part of the production. It also allows for the clowns and lion taming photographer to be at once real, and then at another time going behind the curtain and “appearing” on the projector, where they can swim, or do any other number of things in pre-acted scenes.

the props wait backstage

The play is for kids, but does feature a bunch of nude paintings, so I’m guessing Americans might not appreciate the show in entirety for their children, as we come from a land where a past Secretary of Justice once covered up the boob of a statue of the Lady of Justice.

the curtain's up, get ready!

So if you’re in Prague, definitely check out the Wonderful Circus or one of the Laterna Magika productions. It’s really a unique event and are quite affordable. And if you’re not a prude, quite family friendly as well. Tickets and times, along with the other Laterna Magika shows, can be found at this site.

#Prague #touristicsites #theatre

The City of Rocks

As the season winds down, I thought it fitting to put one last episode of trekking up. It’s not quite too cold to go for some walks outside, and the leaves are still hanging on, all gold, yellow, and red. That means for the shorter and lighter day walks around Prague, it’s all still perfect, especially on any day like today, full of sunshine and blue skies.

Granted, when we went out, it wasn’t sunshine and blue skies, but bear with me. It was cloudy, gloomy, and on-and-off rain, weather a bit more typical for the Czech Republic. But it still made for a wonderful hike, with many a great vista and view. Which is not hard to do in Cesky Raj, or "Bohemian Paradise."

it's clear why this is a paradise

Cesky Raj is one of the best places to go for walks near Prague. It’s full of weird rock formations—what they call “Rock Town”, or Hruba Skala—great views, a massive underground lake at Bozkov, most excellent rock climbing, and half a dozen castles. You can literally hike from castle to castle, and with a full day’s hike, maybe get three castles, possibly even four, in.

leaves and rocks, what's not to like?

For our walk, again we based everything off of the (free) app, mapy.cz, which is an open source map where thousands of Czechs have kindly enough put up their favorite walks, hikes, and bikes, which means just about every bit of trail has a place on the GPS-powered app. I can’t stress it enough how useful it is (not just in the Czech Republic, but also in all of Europe).

Since we were hiking in the fall, our target was mainly to find vistas for admiring the foliage changes. This meant the park Hruboskalsko would be our destination. We drove to Hruba Skala Castle first and parked our car there. There’s some street food places around there as well, if you’re hungry for a quick bite or need a pre-hike beer.

Hruba Skala Castle

Hruba Skala Castle is also a hotel. So yes, you can stay in a castle for the night if you’re so inclined. There’s also a hostel next door, for the more budget conscience, but it’s not in an historic part of the complex.

Hruba Skala Castle

The original castle was built sometime in the 14th century, though most of the Gothic style construction dates to about the 17th century. The heavily fortified complex is perched high up on the rocks, with cliffs on three sides, and entry limited to two moats and bridges. I’m assuming at least one of those bridges was a draw bridge back in the day, making the castle nearly impenetrable.

The castle saw heavy action during the 30-Year War. When the resident duke was assassinated in another town, it was left under a lack of leadership. First the imperial Austrian troops sacked it, then the Swedes stationed their army there, and then it was taken back by the Austrians.

the inner courtyard of Hruba Skala

After the war and the collapse of the noble family that owned it, the Wallansteins, it was sold to the Aerenthals, who had a penchant for converting castles into beautiful chateaus, which is where the present style comes in. The chateau was one of the Aerenthal’s main residences, and was even the birthplace of the most famous member of their family, Alois Lexa, who was the mastermind behind the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzogovina. So well done for legacy, Hruba Skala, your beautiful and romantic setting is almost responsible for starting World War I.

easy to conceive with a view like that

After World War II, the Aerenthal’s, being Austrian, which is to say, German, were kicked out of Czechoslovakia as revenge for being German, and the Communist government took over the estate. These days, the castle is now a hotel, hostel, spa, restaurant, ropes course, and parking lot. You read that right, there’s a ropes course around the outer moat. Cool place to swing around in the trees.

The City of Rocks

The walk begins there. From there, we descended down these steep rock steps that went down a narrow passage between two massive stone columns, and at times this passage was more of a cave or tunnel.

into the City of Rocks

Down, down, down we went, and we emerged into what was like a forest of stone, giant sandstone pillars piercing into the sky all around us, as though they themselves served as the battlements of an even grander castle than Hruba Skala.

the giant rock houses of the city

The hike continued winding its way around and through the rock formations, and then finally emerged to a countryside walk alongside one or two remote pensions.

one of the rock tunnels in "the city"

Then finally for the views. The rock formations that we walked through, and others like it, were now visible, providing majestic autumnal views from nearly 360-degree vistas, themselves mounted on more of the weird and alien formations.

the view everyone comes for

Because of those rocks, the area is quite famous for rock climbing, and I imagine in the summer there must be swarms of climbers going up one pillar or another. As it was, the only evidence of this was one or two informational plaques about one famous climber or another.

views everywhere

The trail can continue on to Castle Valdstejn, which is another massive fortress overlooking the town of Turnov. But as we got a late start hiking, and the weather was looking to turn, we decided to take the bend rather than go on to the castle. If you’ve time, definitely go for the visit, as it’s a full on 14th century ruin, with part of it restored as a museum. We’ve had our share of castle museums though, so we weren't too dismayed about missing it. It does look pretty impressive, and it’s super close to Prague, so we might update you guys with a visit in the Spring.

looking back up

On the way back, we took a lower route, where we were looking up at the rock towers for the most part, rather than looking down from them. The route finally climbed up the rocks again, now with a view of the valley and the more distant Trosky Castle, which is a complete ruin and is mounted on a high hill in the distance. If you start early, and from either Trosky or Valdstejn, it is entirely manageable to do all three castles in one day. But we started quite late and the weather was bad, so that was that.

Trosky Castle

For more trekking ideas around Prague, check out my last blog and take in a few tips.

#Prague #hiking #nature #castles #traveltips #touristicsites #hotels