kojetin, cesky krumlov and prague - czech republic

I can't believe it's been like a week already since my last entry! It's been an action packed week and I just haven't found the time.. get ready, I think this is gunna be a long one.. haha..

When we arrived in Kojetin, Kveta was soooo excited to see us! She didn't speak any English, but was going a mile a minute in Czech. It was so funny. Her son Martin spoke some broken English though, which helped get some main words and ideas across. We had lunch with them - another delicious meal.. soup, roasted chicken.. and ice cream! yummy.. After lunch we looked through some pictures and the family tree, then went over to Olina's house which was just around the corner. Kojetin was quite small (with the cutest little train station yet!) and everyhing was very close. There was more family waiting for us there, and Olina's granddaughter, Monika spoke English quite well which was sooooo great! She was a huge help. That evening, Radek (Monika's uncle) took us all to Kromeriz where there was a castle and nice gardens. We also went to the pub that Radek owns and had a pivo (beer!) We asked if we could take a couple of coasters as souvenirs; he laughed and gave us a couple of mugs instead..haha. We were talking about our travels, and how we were heading to Cesky Krumlov the next day, and it turned out that Svatka has a brother there! Our plans were kind of unstable with the trains and connections and a 3hr layover in Cesky Budejovice, plus we were also unable to find accommodation because there was no online availability for bookings. Svatka called her brother up and he phoned around and set something up for us. It wasn't right in the city but it was soo cheap.. Awesome! She also told us about a bus we could take from Cesky Budejovice so we wouldn't have to wait so long for a connection. And better yet, her nephew spoke English and was going to pick us up from the bus station once we got to Cesky Krumlov! It was such a relief to have it all work out for us like that! When we got back home, we had a fire in the backyard and roasted sausages over it. They were delicous. They weren't really hot dogs, but mike made his into one, lol. At the barbeque we were also introduced to a Czech specialty - Slivovice (aka plum brandy!) They poured us a shot and gave us a cup of water to chase it with. We were scared at first but it was realllly good! After dinner Monika took us to the bowling alley/pub that she used to work at and we played a few games. I kicked Mike's butt.. muahaha! When we were done our games we went over and sat with some of Monika's friends and boyfriend. A few of them spoke some English..they were sooo funny and we had a really good time.

The next morning was an early one. We had to be ready at 7 because Radek, Monika, and her cousin, who I think was named Lucy, were taking us to these caves (Treplice I think they were called?) We took the tour (which was in Czech!) and tried to follow along on our little English pamphlets. It was a really hot day and we had brought our swimming gear, so afterwards they took us to this beautiful lake and we went for a swim. It was grrreat! When we arrived back in Kojetin we had some more yummy Czech food - Goulash and Knedliky. Knedliky are these dumpling things filled with fruit (ours were peach) with melted butter and bread crumbs on top. We were a little worried about all the new things we were trying, and didn't want to be rude if we didn't like something, but everything was SOOO good, so thankfully that was never a problem!

After that it was time to catch our train to Cesky Krumlov, so we had to leave Kojetin behind. We probably could have stayed another night, but we already had things booked. It was late when we arrived, and it was nice to have someone pick us up. Martin was there waiting for us as planned and took us to our hotel right away. We made arrangements to meet him the next morning so he could show us all around. After he had dropped us off, we decided we were hungry so we went on a mission to find some food. It was so hot so we had opened all the windows in the room, but the problem was we left the light on too. When we came back the room was filllled with mosquitoes and other nasty flies. Mike went on a little rampage and took care of them all though so it was all good! Yick..we didn't make that mistake again.. hehe..

Martin was our age, and his English was pretty good, and he spent most of the next day showing us all around Cesky Krumlov. It was beautiful little medieval town, with a river winding all the way around it. It was a great orientation for the next day when we explored on our own. After Martin left us, we rented a couple bikes and tried to make our way up Mount Klet, the highest point in the area. The plan was to catch the sunset and get a great view of the town. I guess the memories of our last bike trip from hell had faded far enough from memory when we decided to do this. The memories all came flooding back as soon as we started the ascent though. Ugh it was soooo hard biking uphill in the sun! And, once again, the map we had was crap and we couldn’t follow it. The problem with bike maps is that they are too general and don’t take into account all of the minor turns and junctions where cyclists can get lost! Anyways, we made it probably half way up the mountain, stopped for a second, and got practically swarmed by bees and flies. It was awful. I’ve never heard bees buzz as loud as these Czech bees. It was like a monstrous HUM..and they were huuuge *shudder* One flew by Mike’s head, and he shook his head and his sunglasses went flying off into the bush. We had to try and find them with all these critters buzzing around and it was soo freaky! Mike had to plug his ears and kick around the bush with his feet. I couldn’t stand in one spot without getting swarmed, so I was running up and down the trail aimlessly trying to escape them. Mike finally found his sunglasses, and we continued on our way. If they had been mine, I would have just left them, it was that bad. Then again mine are cheap $5 sunglasses and Mike’s are RayBans =P Anyways, we got so frustrated that we ended up just turning back. It was disappointing, but it was starting to get dark and we didn’t even know where we were going; so it was probably for the best. We had the bikes for 24hrs which was cool, because it made the trips back and forth from our hotel into town a lot faster!

Our last day there we rented a canoe raft and did a cruise down the river. The company transported us up river, and we made our way back down to Cesky Krumlov. There were some parts with little rapids which was pretty cool. The trip took about 4 hours and my legs managed to get a little sunburned…the only place I didn’t put sunscreen! Afterwards we hung out in the castle gardens, had a nice dinner, and walked around the town a bit more.

In the morning, Martin met us at our hotel with his laptop and Mike burned a CD with some Czech music and some of Martin’s favorite songs. It’ll be neat to listen to that CD! Then he took us to the bus station where we caught our bus to Cesky Budejovice where we then caught our train to Prague (which was an hour late!)

Once we arrived in Prague we took it easy for a few hours because we had had a REALLY busy last couple of days. It also started raining reallllly hard which totally reminded me of Vancouver! Haha.. In the evening it cleared up and we went for a walk through the old square and to Charles Bridge. Prague is such a beautiful city, and the view of the castle across the river at night was gorgeous! When we got back to the hostel we hung out in the common room and had some more Slivovice. We met some people and ended up going out to this club with them. It was massive, with 5 floors of different kinds of music. It was pretty cool, but it was the first time I wore the dress shoes I brought, and I now have massive blisters on the backs of both my heels. I want to burn those shoes. I’m NOT taking them with me any further. The blisters are incredibly painful and I think I’ll be confined to flip flops for the next couple weeks at least. Dangit!

Our second day in Prague we explore the Castle area across the river. It was a day with A LOT of walking, and the dirt that got in my blisters felt really good. I thought I should let them air out, but bandaids would have been the better way to go. The walk across Charles Bridge was neat. Statues line each side, including a large crucifix that convicts would pause at on their way to executions back in the day. It’s also filled with street vendors and musicians, which made the walk seem shorter than it is!

Yesterday we explored the Jewish Quarter of Prague. There was a series of 4 Synogauges, the Jewish Cemetery, and Ceremonial Hall that were all included as part of one admission ticket. Each Synagogue around the district was set up as a museum of a different era of the history of the Jewish people. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about a religion I knew practically nothing about before. The cemetery was really neat as well. All of Prague’s Jewish people had to be buried in this one area, and because of the Jewish belief that the body should not be moved after burial, graves were piled on top of each other, and have really shifted over time. The graveyard is packed full of crooked and dilapidated headstones. Afterwards we walked to Wenceslas Square (as in King Wenceslas in the Christmas carol!) and went to the museum of Communism, which was also really cool. There was an interesting video of all the riots and protests that happened in that very square a mere what, 17 years ago? It’s hard to imagine all the oppression and unrest that would have been present here before the fall of Communism. It seems like a completely different city now. Watching that video and old news footage I could understand a little better why my parents might have been nervous about me coming to Eastern Europe, especially if those images that they undoubtedly would have seen on the news are all they remember or know of these countries. It really seems so different know, at least what I can see here in Prague. When we got back to the hostel we ate and just relaxed. There was this one guy who was incredibly drunk and carrying around a mini keg of beer and talking to it like it was his friend. We heard later that at some point that night he threw a chair out the window for some reason (and we’re not on the ground floor!) The police were called and he was thrown in jail for 48 hours. That would suck if he had a plane to catch or anything! LoL…

Today we planned on making a day trip to Kutna Hora, but ended up running some errands and getting tied up at the post office for a few hours..by the time we would have made it out there, it wouldn't have been worth it. Oh well, we'll be back one day I'm sure! Tomorrow morning we are catching a flight to Split, Croatia. I can't wait to lay on the beach alllll day =D

<3 shanon