One Night in a Wine Cellar

The Czech Republic is famous for its beer and, well, not so much for its wine. YET, the eastern part of the country does produce a lot of wine and the Czechs are proud of it. The last night of our excursion was spent in a historic wine cellar in Southern Moravia. We had been forewarned by students past that it was a "fun" evening- and it was certainly turned out to be memorable. Before dinner, we toured the freezing, mold-covered cellar.

While the mold wasn't very appealing, it means that the cellar is healthy, and things are able to grow there. Stuck on the cellar wall in the mold, were numerous Czech coins. When we asked why they were there, the owner responded that it was just like the Trevi fountain in Rome- if we added a coin, we would return again someday. Chuckling, he said that there may be a few more coins at the end of the night. Unfortunately, by the time we were leaving, I completely forgot to add my coin, so it looks like I'm doomed to never return. It's okay though, we had a good enough time to not need to...

After touring the cellars, we sat down for the wine tasting- working our way through the whites, the rose, the reds, and finishing up with the desert wine that is 17% alcohol. Yes, all before dinner. It was fun as the owner came around and poured our samples because our professors made us guess the flavors before we tasted- so I learned a lot as we went. My parents aren't wine drinkers so I don't have a sophisticated taste... but I worked on it. Some of the grapes are grown right in the Czech Republic, but others were imported, along with some of the fruits. Since it was our friend Ayisha's birthday, we were trying to find the best "birthday flavor", and I'm pretty sure all of us agreed on the desert wine. And then it was dinner time! So we happily walked next door to have our light, but delicious dinner, consisting of bread, cheese, and meat platters.

While it felt like our stay was short by the time we boarded our bus to go home, our adventure continued on the bus.We proceeded to sing every Dartmouth and American patriotic song we knew.... I don't even want to know what the bus driver thinks of us. But we are not embarrassed- it was a great night and fun to bond with all the professors while enjoying a little Czech culture!

Now, we are having a VERY class-intensive week back in Prague (7 hours of class yesterday, yikes!), and going to visit a brown-coal mine tomorrow on the Northwest border. We are staying home this weekend and are looking forward to exploring our home city a little more. And potentially thinking about the fact that we have a paper due next week...