Thursday, May 10, 2012

Cesky Krumlov Day 2

We woke up to sun in Cesky Krumlov. So far the weather has been treating us so well! Our hostel was great the night before. We were in a six bed dorm, but the only other person there was this really nice 20 year old Brazilian guy named Arthur. He was from Rio and is in Europe for 2 months. Johannah said he looked like a life size Mario but he was so friendly, I wanted to ditch my crew and head to Bratislava with him. Just kidding, but he was really nice. He left before we all woke up to catch a train. His English was great because apparently he had lived in Las Vegas for a year, two years earlier. 

Anyway, we woke up, still pumped! We're in Cesky! Brandon is a big animal guy and wanted to go horseback riding. The weather was nice so of course Johannah and I were on board.

Our hostel, Crumlov House, is like fancy hippie. I think I may have said that earlier. It's all wood, you have to take your shoes off when you come in, it's very artsy fartsy, communal, but nice. We met the owner and chatted with her for while. She set us up to go riding at 11 and gave us directions. 

We jumped into our breakfast of.... Cornflakes.... which were actually pretty good and while we were eating she stopped to talk to us. I am glad that we talked to her, but it completely changed my opinion of the Czech Republic. The country itself is stunning, as you will see, the people are really really nice, as you will see, but to me, there is just this air of oddity. And she nailed it when she was  talking to us. 

Religion here is basically non-existent. For fun, kids do drugs and drink. Seriously that is what she was telling us. Her kids apparently don't, "they're straight, but it's weird, kids here, they like to hang out with their parents all the time." This is where I started to get annoyed. She then continued to complain that kids hang out with their parents to much here and that they need to do stuff on their own. And then she said that her kids listen to Radiohead like her and her husband and that that was weird. I thought it was more weird that she listens to Radiohead but whatever, so good insight and I feel bad for her kids. 

By the way, this lady is from Maine, her husband is Canadian, and she has lived in Cesky Krumlov for 20 years. Here's a link

I digress. I finished my breakfast and communal tea, not really hungry anymore, we all got our shoes and headed out. One problem though. We had spent so long talking to this woman that I was not almost 10:45, our reservation was at 11 and it was a 30 minute walk uphill.

So we started to run.

And then I got tired.

So did Johannah.

So we started to walk.

Then a car drove by and the idea of hitchhiking came about. So we tried it jokingly on the next car.

AND HE PULLED OVER!

He was all ready to let us into his car but Johannah signaled to him to roll his window down. She asked him, "English?" He shook his head no. So Johannah began to ride a horse in the air. Well, he understood and we piled in. Three minutes later, we were at the stables, which conveniently, we right next door to where he was going. 

We stood around for a while, took some pictures, we were clearly at the stables but all we saw were two men and no horses. 






Finally after about 10 minutes we asked them...

"English?" The answer was a head shake of no. So Johannah, in all of her Czech glory chimed in with, "Nbeo (where is)....(followed by her horse riding routine)."

It worked, we were on the wrong side! They pointed us to the back and we were off. We thanked them in Czech and headed to the horses.

Seriously, if you can saw "please", "thank you", "hello", and "where is", and "i'm a vegetarian" in any language, you are set!

That's our dude in the red shirt!



We go into the stables, there are two ladies and a large dog. The only English these ladies speak is 300, left, and right. The cost and direction to pull the reigns. The hand us helmets, put our bags in a locker, give us each a horse, and we're off!






So just as we are heading out, we wave to our friend, red shirt man. He, of course, waves back, and now our guides are confused. How do we know a Czech guy?! They call out to him and he explains it. Now they just think that we are funny.

So a bunch of these pictures are of Johannah, because she was directly behind me. Brandon's horse was really taking it's time, so he was kinda far back.



The view! So nice!



And one I took of myself. Not great but what can I say!

More Johannah!

This was the second group shot. The lady who took this cut me out of the first one. I guess she didn't like me as much as she liked the other two!

My horse

This horse is alive... I think! I hope! Why do we keep finding animals lying down!


So we had to walk back... red shirt man was long gone by the time that we got back. But it was a nice walk!


We made it back to the hostel, grabbed our jackets and head out to check out the town a bit.

Okay, this artist is apparently really popular here.. so bizarre, he makes this weird art and it is always involving finger in a weird way. Look! We had seen thumb candles the day before on our way to dinner! Now this!


I drizzles a little bit, which was perfect because we were starving. We asked at the tourist office and the lady told us these were the best sandwiches in town. And they were! Really tasty and really cheap! This would begin my vegetarian day!

It's beets, tomatoes, and cheese, all toasted together.

Then my dessert partner and I split this cake thing. Oh yeah!

After lunch, we wandered around the castle. There are bears in its moat!


View of the town from the bottom of the castle. FYI, you will be seeing a lot of this town from many different angles. Get ready!


Interesting?

Behind the castle is a park. This is a revolving theatre where they hold plays every summer. It can face a house or a garden scene. What a cool idea. This whole thing can spin around!

And then we found this pretty lake.

And a weird bug!

Johannah had a to catch a bus back to Prague at 7 so we opted for an early dinner. We heard that the vegetarian restarant was good, and she is a vegetarian, and so was I today, so we went!

But not before spoiling our dinner with some ice cream. It was quite tangy!

I ordered something called "Bohemian Specialty." Literally, that was the description. But I thought, heck i'll try it, It was really good. It was like gnocchi with lost of cheese, covered with bits of fried cheese.


Johannah had couscous and Brandon had chili. Our waitor, David, turned out to be the owner. We talked to him for a bit and then he brought us free dessert. Yes! Two nights in a row, the Americans are loved in Cesky Krumlov. Actually, on that note, when we check in, the lady was really surprised, she said that they don't get many Americans here. I thought that was bizarre. So Americans! Go!



We walked Johannah to the bus stop, said goodbye... so sad! She is and was so fun. Johannah we miss you!




Brandon and I headed back to the hostel and chilled for a bit, it go late really quickly! I blogged for while and then we got to talking to our new roommate whose name I didn't understand when she said so I don't know it now. But she is from Chicago.



Didn't spell check this one either... sorry. Trying to catch up!

Until tomorrow!

1 comment:

  1. Amazing views...Great story about the hostel lady. We will miss Johanna!!

    M

    ReplyDelete