Mushroom Picking | 9.29.13 Sunday

Josh's professor has a huge passion for mushroom picking in the Czech Republic and it's what he does during the weekend when in season.  Today he invited the whole school for an excursion to the Karštejn Castle and then we would go mushroom picking in the surrounding forests.  We met at the main train station at 8am, thankfully we got there just a few minutes late and were able to meet up with the group to get counted for train tickets for the 40 minute ride out into the countryside of the Czech Republic.  Since he invited the whole school, I think that they made it into a field trip therefore we did have to pay for anything, only our food and souvenirs, which was nice.  The train ride was pleasant, very smooth and the scenery was beautiful.  We arrived at our stop and then from there had a 15 minute walk to the castle area.  The village was having their annual wine harvest festival which meant that there was lots of vendors out with food and souvenirs.  We walked through the village, made notes of where we wanted to go afterwards and made our way to the castle.  We split up in 2 groups, one to go and tour the castle and the other to go mushroom picking and then in the afternoon, Henry would take the rest of the group picking who visited the castle first.  So a group of about 20 went to tour the castle and the other 10 went picking (not too many people from the school came, there were a few students from another university that came along as well as friends of Josh's professor).  The tour of the castle was interesting, we learned that this large Gothic castle was founded in 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor-elect and King of Bohemia. The castle served as a place for safekeeping the Imperial Regalia as well as the Bohemian/Czech crown jewels, holy relics, and other royal treasures.  We toured a few rooms, mostly everything has been restored, only a few original pieces of the castle remained.
After the tour was over, we took a 30 minute lunch break and then planned to meet back up to go mushroom picking.  As we were walking through all the vendors, I wanted to shop more than eat so I had to focus and find something that appealed to me.  Josh got this Asian noodle dish that had vegetables in it and I decided on this "what we thought was pizza" thing that turned out to be a piece of flat crispy bread with ketchup, mozzarella cheese and garlic.  It tasted alright at first, but then the garlic started setting in and that was all I could taste (wish I would have taken a picture because it looked better than it tasted).  Anyways after that adventure, we all met up together with Henry and he told us that the first group was unable to find any mushrooms due to the wild boars in the forest but that we would go to a different area and hope we find some there. We hiked up this dirt path and walked through a large field of tall grass, and at the point, I was already out of my element and didn't want to go any farther (I should have just stayed in the village and shopped).  We walked a little ways into the forest and then he gave an explanation of what mushrooms are good and bad, how to pick them and how to find them hidden in the ground.  He passed around some papers with pictures and then passed around a few of the "good" mushrooms that he found yesterday.  We were to meet up in 30 minutes, and last thing that he said to us was that if we come in contact with a wild boar, find the closest tree and climb up 6 feet!  Ok, now that freaked me out!  I know that they are probably as scared of us as we are of them but seriously, now I have to worry about running into one of them?  So we start heading up the mountain, I'm following josh and trying not to get poked in the face with tree branches, watching out for wild boars and trying to keep in mind where we are so that we don't get lost in the woods.  As josh is "on mushroom picking mode", I just stand in one position that allows me to still see him and yell to him occasionally to make sure he is still alive ( just kidding).  No luck so far, so we move to a different area and I just stand and wait.  Finally josh found one big mushroom and a few smaller ones but he was so excited.  As he was still searching, he was wondering further and further from me and was unable to hear my calls which freaked me out that I was in a forest by myself (with wild boars) and sent me into possibly having a mini panic attack.  Thankfully he started responding and it was time to head back to civilization, only problem...we didn't really know where we were but at least knew what direction we needed to head.  We finally got out of the woods, and was able to catch up with the group, they were already heading back to the village so we got there just in time.  Everyone was impressed with Josh's mushroom finds because no one else was able to find anything!  Good job babe!

We headed back to the village and were on our own for the rest of the day.  So we walked around the shops, I got a cinnamon sugar bread roll and josh got some ice cream and we enjoyed the beautiful day.  We noticed there was a parade coming up the hill with lots of people dressed in medieval costumes, horses, children, and even King Charles IV attended the parade at the end, so we stood and watched this cheesy parade!  Before leaving josh got some more burčák, czech wine only sold during the early fall season, and we headed to the train station.  For some reason josh got stuck with all the mushrooms found from today's adventure and for some reason, it was his responsibility to wash them and cut them up so that the cooking class could use them.

Riding the tram back to the apartment from the train station, we had a funny interaction from an older czech lady that took Josh's basket out of his hands and was telling us which mushrooms were good and bad.  Not knowing what she was saying to us, she just shook her head and seemed like we found a good assortment. That positive interaction shocked us because everyone here is so cold and rude so we thought it was a nice gesture.

We got home, and while I was taking a nap, josh nicely cut up all the mushrooms and laid them out to dry.  He would take them to school tomorrow for the cooking class. And let's just say, I'm still not a fan of mushrooms and don't think I will ever be one!!

Walking into the village with the castle in the background

While waiting for our tour to begin, we watched some dancing in the courtyard

Such a beautiful day!

Do you know what that wooden area is that is sticking off the side of the castle at the top?
Well it was the toilet back then... so beware below!!

My view while in the forest

Look for mushrooms with sponge-like bottoms, mushrooms with fins are bad

Josh won the prize for the largest mushroom found for the day!  That thing was huge!

Parade heading towards the castle

Looking out at the countryside while waiting for the train to come

Josh did a great job cutting up the mushrooms and now they are laying out to dry...too bad we didn't have any mushroom eaters with us this week, they would have been in heaven!!