Before you turn away from this post, allow me to explain: a cute boy was involved. I wouldn’t normally drive myself crazy in a foreign country looking for a fried cheese sandwich. During my study abroad in Germany, I developed some amazing friendships with my fellow classmates from Utah. We traveled together, did laundry together, grocery shopped together, laughed together. After my program, I wound up in Prague with one of my classmates. Let’s call him Mike.
Mike was always blowing me away with how…well, cool he was. While in a taxi in Berlin, he was able to converse in Arabic with our driver. He always was a dapper dresser and could have been an Abercrombie model if he wanted to. He was charming and funny and just a fun guy to be around. So when he asked me to go to Prague with him for a few days, how could I turn down such an offer?
(Of course I sound nonchalant now, but believe me, I was fan-girling inside like a Belieber at the height of his fame.)
After our last day in Kiel, we boarded an overnight train to Prague, and were fortunate enough to have the 6-bunk room to ourselves…which meant that I’d hopefully be able to get some sleep. Memories from a prior overnight train were still fresh in my mind. The whole ride we were just praying that the train didn’t have a sudden stop, otherwise we both would have gone flying!
One night while we were watching the “Let It Go” behind the music video from Frozen on loop, Mike leans over and mentions that he wanted to watch the Anthony Bourdain episode of No Reservations when he was in Prague. Sure, why not? After a quick internet scan, we stumbled upon this video (don’t be intimidated by the Czech title). Okay. Anthony Bourdain eats a fried cheese sandwich with mayo…and loves it.
Mike looked at me with wide eyes and said “we’re going to find this!”
He grabbed a piece of paper, just in case they told us where it was. No such luck. We watched it a few times, looking in the background for landmarks, street signs, store fronts…anything that would point us in the right direction. Trouble was, Prague is a huge city.
Like, divided into 10 districts, huge.
Based on the streets, and my limited knowledge from a prior visit, we determined that the stand was somewhere in Prague 1 – Waclavske Namesti (Wenceslas Square). However, anyone will tell you that Prague 1 is huge, filled with people, stores, cars, busses, and food stalls.
One aspect that I didn’t take into consideration when we were running around Prague 1, was that it looks completely different at night than it does during the day. The episode we were using as a loose guide was shot at night, while we were running around in the early afternoon.
After what seemed like hours of walking up and down streets, we finally happened upon the stand that we saw in the episode. I couldn’t believe how excited Mike got when we saw the picture for the fried cheese sandwich. No need to understand Czech – there it was in all it’s glory.
While I opted for a sausage, Mike ordered not only a fried cheese sandwich, but after a bite of my sausage, ordered one for himself. And then another fried cheese sandwich. Boys.
The verdict? Not bad. I’m happy to report that I’ve been there, tried that, and never have to try it again! Even though wandering around Prague looking for a sandwich wasn’t on my bucket list, I’ll never forget the look on Mike’s face when we found it. Nor will I forget the memories made. Oh, the things a girl will do…
PIN ME
