New Prague Pub Celebrates Czech Beers

 What's on tap at the Prague Beer Museum?

Here's a story that could prompt every reader to think, "Gee, I wish I'd thought of that."  It's so deceptively, brilliantly simple an idea that there is no way it could not possibly succeed.  Someone has started a Prague Beer Museum with the idea of collecting some of the nation's' best brews in one place for beer aficionados to sample. Brilliant! Click on my title to read the whole article.

Are Guidebooks Facing Extinction?

 Travel writer Benji Lanyado in Vienna

Should he be looking at his phone instead?

My goodness, I never expected to be away from my blog for so long. This week I expect to begin blogging again, so I invite you back.  In the meantime, I was fascinated by this article and wondered if other people are using suggestions specific to the moment as you travel?  Is a newly-printed guidebook too out-of-date for you the minute it is printed? Are you turning to locals real-time via Twitter for suggestions? Click on my title to read how one traveler does it.

Thanks for following!

I feel like I've been on vacation from my blog - gee, I didn't even need one! I was having fun posting almost daily.  So while I can't really do my regular blog posts until I get internet access installed, I would like to celebrate reaching a count of 40 followers of my blog! Thank you so much for following, I love hearing your feedback and hearing about your adventures too.  If you're not a follower yet, why not sign up today?  It's an easy way to know when I'm "back at it" and posting to my blog.

"Empty Nest Expat" Just Named Among Top 50 Blogs for Expatriates

Yea! I may not be able to post right now without steady Internet access but I still have plenty of readers coming to my site.  Thank you everyone for reading.

I just learned that 'Empty Nest Expat' was handpicked as one of the "Top 50 Expatriate Blogs" by Business Degree Online. I'm #32.  I recognize quite a few other blogs I enjoy on the list.  Thanks for the honor. You can click on my title to see the full list of blogs.

Thanks for caring!

One of my loyal readers contacted me and said, ''Are you alrıght? You haven't posted since the 14th of June.'' Thank you, Karin, for caring!

I just moved into a new place and don't have internet access yet.  New posts should start soon when I'm wıred.  I have so much to tell.

Bye for now!

Karen

Little Corruptions

The Czechs had a phrase during communism times: "If you're not stealing, you're stealing from your family."  Since the government back then felt oppressive, and wealth created through industry often felt like it was shipped off to the Soviet state, and no one was really "the owner" of property, this felt like a victimless crime to an entire society.

This attitude is slowly dying out, but I learned to always make sure when buying something that the price was clearly displayed ahead of time because if I had to ask, as a foreigner, I was going to be charged a higher price.

I had been told by Bulgarians that "wealth by any means, no matter how you get it" was a continuing problem in Bulgarian society.  This attitude, far from dying out, is continually glamorized in Bulgarian pop culture, and infecting the young.  It reminded me of of the gangsta culture of a lot of American hip-hop music.  To me, it seemed in both places, Bulgaria and America's urban projects, that new freedoms brought a confusion of how to use them and a slow build-up to wealth through hard work and investment didn't have much attraction. Where's the drama in that?

You have to constantly watch and make sure that you are not getting ripped off in formerly Eastern Europe.  For example, when I left the Czech Republic, the luggage storage attendant told me that my cost was going to be twice what I had expected.  The sign said the stated price was for 24-hour storage. "But you brought it in one day, and left the next." said the attendant. Hmmmm, I guess I should have confirmed beforehand the price was for 24 hours in a row.

"How much is it for extra bags on the bus?" My Czech bus ticket attendant told me 200 kc extra for each bag.  I decided to wait to pay this because I wasn't sure what my final bag count would be. When it came time to get on the bus, no one made me pay for extra bags.  The question was viewed as a money-making opportunity according for the staff.

Leaving Bulgaria, I rolled my suitcase onto the tram and an inspector insisted I pay her 10 lev on the spot for not buying a ticket for my suitcase.  I knew if I was supposed to buy a ticket for my suitcase the Bulgarians who first helped me when I rode the tram would have told me I needed to do so.

"Nope, sorry, not paying it."  I started to write down her badge number and name.

She got more and more insistent.  I just kept writing.  "I'm calling the police because you're writing down my name and number." 

"Okay, go ahead. Call them." This stance had the potential to make me miss my bus to Istanbul and possibly have to repurchase a $50 ticket, but I wasn't going to be bullied into this shakedown. Surely, writing down an inspector's name and number could not be a crime in Sofia.  Indeed, she probably had to wear the badge for precisely this occasion.  After lots of shouting in Bulgarian, she finally let me off the bus when I put another one lev into the tram box for my suitcase.  All talk of the 10-lev "fine" was forgotten.

Upon arriving at the bus stop, the lady in the bus office wanted to charge me 2 lev on the spot as the official cost for having my luggage stored for five minutes in the office while I ran back to the luggage storage spot to get my additional bags.

"Could I have your name please, I would like to confirm this policy with your management." I asked politely about seven times.  She slowly slid the two lev back over the counter to me with a glare.

The shakedowns in Bulgaria are so obvious they were hard to miss.  Giving in would mean I had helped contribute to dysfunctional culture rather than help healing dysfunctional culture.

These examples made me think of a famous book called "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity" by Frances Fukuyama where the author compares two cultures on two aspects: their trust in each other and their relative wealth. Societies with high wealth have enormous degrees of trust in each other.  The author used the example of Jewish diamond merchants who did million dollar deals on a handshake.  Their word is their bond and should they ever break it, they would be finished as a diamond dealer.  He then compared young men living in an urban culture with no trust in each other.  No wealth either.  Bulgaria's poverty is profound, it felt cruel to photograph it, so I didn't.

There are other examples out in the word though for all of us to see. The Scandinavian countries are known for both their wealth and their lack of corruption.  African nations are getting bled by leaders who are using their countries for their own wealth creation through bribery rather than working on behalf of the people.

The United States has gone through a period of constant erosion of public trust.  Is the wealth of the United States increasing or decreasing? The evidence provides more proof of Fukuyama's theory.

I wish the author of "Trust" would create a pop version of the title for regular people. The book is recommended more for academic circles and frankly, at 480 pages, it's too damn long. But the central premise of his title needs to move out of the academy and into the living rooms of the world! Wouldn't it make a great "One Book, We All Read It" selection because it's all about changing public culture for greater prosperity?

Eating My Way Through Sofia

Some friends of mine in Iowa, the Hamiltons, had told me years ago about how much they had enjoyed Bulgarian food when they had visited. I wanted to make sure that in my short two days in Sofia, I too made a point of experiencing great Bulgarian food.

A local hotel recommended a wonderful restaurant with authentic Bulgarian cuisine. It was but a short walk away (everything in Sofia seems very easy to find and get to on foot).  I loved the family story on the menu which I've linked to here. It kind of let me know "you're not in Kansas, anymore!" figuratively speaking.

Here's the restaurant name in

our alphabet.

And then again in Cyrillic.

The inside of the restaurant

had a wonderful rustic feel.

Very comfortable.

Bulgarian gypsies

  played for each table.

They could instantly come up

with a song

for any nationality

dining there

no matter where people were from.

I would love to load my video

of their music

but I'm writing this from Turkey

where YouTube is censored.

As a feminist, I have no problem

dining alone anywhere in the world.

I like my company!

But I struggle when tipping the musicians.

I do it, but it just seems like it's 

"a man's job."

Hopelessly out-of-date thinking, isn't that?

I noticed that I tipped, but the

table of six businessmen

from various nations

next to me didn't.

They sure made a point

of complaining loudly about gypsies

after the musicians had left the room.

 Yet, these artists were doing a lot

to enhance the cultural reputation of

Bulgaria while earning an honest living to boot.

They deserve to be honored for it,

don't you think?

This gorgeous plate of food

is called Chicken Shashlik.

It's a marinated grilled chicken kebab

with grilled lemons.

It would bring out the inner carnivore in anyone!

I paired it with Bulgarian wine

called Logodoj.

For desert, I had this

extraordinary concotion

called:

Grandmother's Cream

with Carmalized Pineapple.

To die for!

My waiter Konstantin

was very funny.

When I told him

I was from America

he said,

"America, that's a small country

close to Canada, right?"

He teases his British customers

the same way:

"England, that's a small island

near Ireland, right?"

I finished my evening at

Pri Yafata

with Black Sea Gold,

a regionally-produced cognac.

What a great time and

what a great meal!

Shopska salad on the left (fabulous),

A stuffed pepper and stuffed cabbage roll

on the middle plate, and

does anyone know what that

mystery salad is on the right?

I also wanted to make sure I tried a stuffed green pepper while I was in Bulgaria.  I had made stuffed green peppers as a young cook, but I had given them up, because they always seemed a bit bland to me.  I wondered if Bulgarian stuffed peppers would be any spicer?  They weren't.  I was glad to know it wasn't me.  They're good, just without a kick. This represented my first taste of a stuffed cabbage roll too because I would never have had the guts to try wilted green leaves as a kid.  My thought back then would have been "eeew."  Cabbage rolls were also tasty, but standing tall rather than kicking hard.  The chef threw in the salad on the right.  I don't know what it is, I only know it had some sort of Balkan cheese in it.  Anybody out there know? This meal was from the Bulgarian Kitchen Cafe, inside one of the local mall food courts.

My last great meal in Sophia

was at a restaurant called 43,

named after the street it was on.

At my sidewalk table,

I enjoyed a Bulgarian brew

called Zagorka.

This delicious stew of chicken meat and other good stuff

was called pileshka kavarma.

Wow, was it tasty comfort food.

I especially enjoyed the chance to savor it

in this traditional Bulgarian pottery.

After this meal,

it was time to catch my night bus

to Turkey.

I loved doing that on a full, satisfied stomach.