Irena Obermann: Our cottage becomes a social center in the summer

Summer is spent by writer Irena Obermann mainly in the cottage in Kytlice, in the former Sudetenland. She is looking for inspiration for writing and enjoying the time with daughters Berenika and Rooster’s Rozal. They cook, laugh, but also work.

The local cottages are said to be haunted by the spirits of the displaced Germans. And this dark side of our history is said to be known around Kytlice on every corner. More than spirits, however, the writer is more afraid of evil people. They are forbidden to her cottage, while good people are welcome here. And in the summer there are a lot of them here.

My family originally owned only part of the house, the rest belonged to the wider family. I didn’t know what to do next, the situation was unsustainable for a long time. When my aunt called me four years ago, if I didn’t want to buy the whole cottage, I immediately said yes, and only then wondered if I had it at all. But fortunately it worked out and began to rebuild.

By rebuilding, we managed to eradicate all the evil spirits. It used to be a lot of co -owners, nothing was repaired, no one wanted to invest in the cottage and it looked like it. Originally, life took place at its bottom, the top could not be heated. It was surrounded by boards, dark and cramped. There were also crazy steep stairs where someone was still “killing”. They went away too and there was a pretty scary cadibudka.

Today it is great when we meet all of them and watch the next generation of cycling children grow up. Sometimes we are three families at the same time, it’s a bit tight, but we’re close to each other. Of course, sometimes we argue when three energetic women meet in the house, so it is not possible.

We are lucky to our neighbors. Kytlice is not a common village, but rather a detached Prague café. At Christmas, the nativity scene is built, the neighbors meet, bring food, sing carols. At Easter, drunk groups of guys do not bother here, but little girls go to the carol. The center of the local life is the pub U Zlatokopa, which is a stand today, because the original pub burned. Our cottage is such another social center, we are open house, we like to grill and still someone is coming to us. At the same time, we work here all three quite a lot. There are screenplays, books, Berenika cutting videos on Instagram… We are three crazy working women.

For the first time I was in Kytlice in two months, our train brought me in my bag. Mr. Eisner, a German who did not move after the war because he was demonstrably antihitler, went to see what he was carrying in the bag, and then almost fainted when he saw that the child. As a kid, I spent a lot of time here. Ours were crazy because I asked for five kilometers behind Prague when we will finally be here. I loved it here. I was a complicated and neurotic child, and here I always felt like a dream. I was here with loving parents, cousins, cousins, aunt and grandmother, my memories of Kytlice are almost idyllic.

In Prague I was sometimes afraid of the housing estate, but never here. It is only in adulthood. Although it was not possible to live here all year, but I was crazy and I came here all the time. When I was pregnant with Rozárka, I did it here in winter, in the sixth month. It was flowing out of the walls, I was knocking in the cold, but it was beautiful.
When the Rozárka was two months old, I spent here with my friend who had a child, four months. Without a car and without a phone. There was only one shop where we went to shop with the stroller, otherwise nothing.

I came here for Covid at the end of February. There was snow. And I started reconstructing it for the pandemic – I guess I’m really crazy. The workers started in the morning, started working downstairs, and I heard what they were talking about from above. That Covid is a disease that is mainly about actors, politicians and Prague citizens, that everyone will die and that Czechs will only belong to them. It fascinated me, I put it in the book. At the beginning, the family was afraid that they would infect me, but soon retreated here. We pulled out the old furniture and modified it in various ways, the ladybug was born Lola and was here with a small baby.

I have come here lately when I have a so -called task ahead of me – when something needs to be invented. Then I do not come out for a few days, I work better here than in Prague, it can be created such a curse.

Writing is a way of life. I get up at nine at ten, make notes and three thoughts. I like a slow blow, climb out and look into the landscape. I work calmly until two into the night. Writing feeds me, I’m still writing something. Once a day I usually go for a walk, I also like to swim in the border pond. It’s not a classic swimming pool, there are very few people going there and I can swim there.

Now I have enough work. I work together on the series One familyI’m one of many co -authors. I am pleased and gives me regular livelihood. I also got an offer for a movie, we are just in the stage stage, which is the worst for me. I climb the ground, write on papers and sort them in various ways. Fortunately, I don’t have to think much about practical things now, I didn’t cook any meal for the whole holiday. The kitchen is mainly girls and their husbands. They are great when I am ashamed to cook in front of them. The kitchen is conceived as a place of common cooking. Berenič’s man makes cooking meetings for friends, cooks all day, it’s almost a ceremony. In my generation, it didn’t cook so much, it is beautiful to look at it, and especially eat it. But when I’m here with the kids, I cook too. Berenika bakes cakes and a fantastic cake. She promised me to hang the recipe to learn her too.

About the book

Do you want to know what cottages and cottages of well -known Czech personalities look like? Take a look at the log of actress Lucie Benešová and visit the garden office of screenwriter Petr Koleček. Take a look at the cottage of writer Irena Obermann, cardiologist Jan Pirka, cookbook Hana Michopula, painter Michael Rottstein and others. He publishes: Grada

She prepared: Štěpánka Bínová

You could find this article in the Recipe Magazine No. 09/25.