Czech Republic

We woke up on our first morning feeling extra groggy. The exhaustion of traveling 4 countries in 4 days, late nights and walking about 40 miles a day had caught up to us and our bodies were feeling the effects - throbbing feet and heavy eyes. We could hardly believe one day we were in Holland and the next in the Czech Republic. That is one of the amazing things about Europe - so many completely different countries and cultures all so close together. The prospect of missing the free breakfast at our hotel got us out of bed quickly. We were the last people in the breakfast room along with the staff anxiously waiting for us to leave. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the buffet to replenish our strength for the day. After slowly getting ready, we headed out into the drizzly, cold, grey day. Prague is an incredibly beautiful city, despite the chilly weather. We yet again walked and walked and literally saw everything this city has to offer - starting with a farmer’s market in the middle of a busy side street in the center of town. The market had everything from fruits and veggies, to little wooden hand-carved toys which we had fun winding up or bouncing and playing with for a while. I loved the simplicity and authenticity of each little hand crafted toy. We continued on to a huge plaza which was unfortunately packed with tourists, and the worst kind at that...big, huge tour groups one after another packed in front of the grand mediaval structures. After working our way between the crowds to take in the lovely sites, we walked to the famous bridge that lead to a huge castle sitting high above the city, allowing for incredible views and scenery. The buildings are all very mediaval looking, and some a little gothic looking, which is different than anything we have seen in Europe yet. After sight-seeing for a while more, I was determined to have an authentic Czech dinner, although I wasn’t sure what that entailed yet. We went into a restaurant that we couldn’t pronounce the name to and figured that was a good place to start. It turns out goulash and these dumplings (also couldn’t pronounce the actual name) is a very popular Czech dish, so that is what I ordered and Sean ordered the fried cheese, another local favorite. You really can’t go wrong with fried cheese, but my dish was...interesting. Goulash is basically a soup which is more like gravy over really fatty meat, and the "dumplings" reminded me of just regular old white bread. Lets just say, I think I offended the waiter by not eating my whole plate. After dinner we walked around the city center again. We strolled along the neat, clean cobble stone roads with colorful, story-book homes and little shops selling a variety of adorable eastern europe marrionets or little Russian dolls. The city is a perfect combination of the old mixed in with the new. Although Prague is beautiful and interesting, and Czech is by far the most foreign language we have heard or seen yet, there are far too many tourists here to really get a feel for the culture. It’s a shame that spending 2 days in a place you can only begin to scratch the surface of what the people and history are all about. After a full day of walking and sightseeing with few breaks, we ended the night by relaxing on a bench dowtown watching the locals having weiners and beers on the streets shouting at one another, although we have no idea if they were really mad or really happy or just asking, "how are you?" to an old friend.


In an effort to get away from all the touristy business here in Prague, we decided to spend another day in the Czech Republic but go to a smaller city out in the countryside for a day trip. We went to a place called Cesky Krumlov. This place has been described as a "hidden gem", which Sean quoted to me several times. We were also under the impression it was an hour train ride out of Prague and we could easily go for the day and come back in the evening to spend another night. This was so not how it happened. First of all no one spoke English at the train station. So we blindly bought tickets with no idea of time tables to or from or how long the journey would be. We struggled to figure out which train to take, missing one in the process. Finally, we got onto a rickety old train that moved like molasses and stopped every mile or so. Then, because there was something wrong with the train track, we had to get out, take a bus for a few miles, then get back on another train, then at the final stop, we had to get out and get on another train! We had no idea what was going on this whole time either, a really nice (or bossy, I couldn’t tell) lady just shouted directions in Czech, and we just kind of followed her sign language. All together, it took us about 4 hours to get there, and after looking at a map, we realized we were half way to Vienna. If we had known we would have just packed our bags and gone all the way. We were so relieved when we finally arrived, that we started to relax and get excited to see this "gem". It really was a gem too, but really not hidden at all unfortunately. Upon arriving we ran into about 40 more big tour groups. We just laughed about it. In reality we are all just tourists looking for something interesting, or different, I just don’t think big huge groups should be allowed. It taints the cultural experience for everyone else. Cesky Krumlov had a very old, country feel - a tiny city tucked in the middle of all this beautiful lush greenery, with more cobble stone roads, an enchanting stream running down the middle with rough looking fishermen along the bank. There was a castle sitting high above it all, and a pretty church in the middle of a little plaza. It almost didn’t even look real. In fact, some of it wasn’t real, as a lot of the buildings had the tiles or bricks painted on. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if the windows were illusions too. We could literally walk the whole city in a half hour, but we took our time enjoying the views and sites and the small-town feel. We had a nice dinner, where I tried some more Czech food, but this time I played it safe with a vegetable salad and potato pancakes. It was really good too! Sean got a pizza, which was not surprising. The 4 hour train ride back wasn’t as bad since we knew what to expect (except the 40 minute delay at one station). We were exhausted from spending most of the day traveling and are now ready to head to our next destination! There may have been a change in plans...