We were adequately wined and beered and dined. We drank Pilsner Urquell (Czech beer which used to be a national beer; now since 1993 is no longer.) We were offered wine, and snacked on Kolače, cookies, and cakes. The women (Nicola who also appeared and took her fair share of pictures too) and Eva and Milana worked hard in the kitchen, and wouldn’t show their face to eat. They prepared for lunch a homemade soup of stock and noodles, fresh chicken baked -in the skin (which mom and I didn’t eat, but dad did – figuring it was the best part, as so felt bad leaving it for Peggy the dog) rice, and special like cheese-garlic mashed potatoes.
After all that, they brought out some special breads prepared with cheese, eggs and meat slices. Dad kept trying to get Nikola to eat, saying with sign language, “I saw you eating in the kitchen.”
At the Czech Cousins House
Sitting around the table, we listened to polkas (Czech), absorbing the moment, looking at old and new family photos, and translating each others thoughts. We were well-equipped. Dad had the “Say it in Czech” phrasebook, mom the Czech-English dictionary, me the German-Czech dictionary, Eva the Czech-German, and Nicola a huge Czech-English volume. So we pretty much had it covered.
After a while Stanislav, Vladimir’s brother, and his wife Laena stopped by from the neighboring town of Zajici. Stan and Lena have three children- Stanislav, Renata, and Ideneck – who all are incidentally in the USA 🇺🇸 at the moment, apparently working. There is a friend with them too, and it seems they were just back here in Czech, so we were able to look at their photo album. Looks like they are having a blast- taking all kinds of crazy, easily impressed pictures, like I do (or used to?)
They’re doing construction work, from what we could understand, and have a Polish boss, and work with all Spanish speaking people (ie. Mexican) so they really haven’t had to learn English. Apparently, they’re moving around from Chicago to Atlanta, etc…
Beautiful Czech Garden Tour
The cousins gave us a tour of their huge and gorgeous garden! Beautiful and green, not a single weed or brown leaf. They grow 300 grape 🍇 vines, apricots (which are delicious, we ate fresh in a compote!), parsley, tomatoes, peppers (which we also ate, preserved in a marinade yum!), among other veggies.
Then we got to tour the infamous wine cellar! It was me, mom and dad, Vladimir and Frantisek. I really can’t believe that mom and dad actually got to go there! It was a moment in history. They sang, albeit lightly; and we tasted Vladimir’s white wine; also he made a batch of ‘champagne’ by hooking it up to the C02 tank (reminiscent of Communist Days). Vladimir informed us that his brother Stanislav grows the red wine, so we had to taste both, once we were back above ground. Vladimir has 300 vines which produce 1,000 liters a year. Not bad.
Soon thereafter, it was time for us to get up from sitting and drinking and consuming Kolače, poppyseed giant tarts, and chocolates in the hot sun- and drive to Ledniče, to visit Lednice Castle. Vladimir hadn’t been drinking and drove Eva, me, mom and dad together.
May 1999
