The Republic that is Czech

I took a shuttle from Vienna to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic on Friday. The hostel I was in was so great, very relaxed and friendly like the other ones in small towns I’ve been enjoying. I was tired and since I got there late in the day I joined the group that was settled in the living room to watch the end of Edward Scissorhands and then do a few things for school. Some of the kids went out to dinner but there were a few of us who stayed behind to eat at the hostel and relax in the living room. By the time everyone was back we had a large group of aussie and kiwis sitting around chatting, eventually we took on a large game of Uno which was fun.

Saturday I got up and wandered into town. It’s not a very big town but it is a very old one so that made it interesting to figure out how to get around. After getting lost once I finally managed to find my way up to the castle complex. I wandered all the way to the other side, through the castle gardens and on to the castle pond, which was so smooth that it reflected everything around it.

I went to a place called Deli 99 for lunch because going there is the main reason I went to Cesky Krumlov. Andrew went there while he was backpacking and kept talking about how amazing the sandwiches are and how I had to try them. They were quiet tasty indeed and totally worth it.

The rest of my day was spent wandering, watching the bears at the castle, watching the people who were rafting and kayaking fall coming off this one little waterfall. The rafting and such looked like so much fun, I wish I had more people with me so I could have gone too. There were lots of people congregating on the bridge near the one waterfall and around the sides and cheers would go up whenever someone made it down the waterfall without falling out, although a lot of times a groan would be heard soon after because if the kayak didn’t tip it would generally sink or turn over soon after the waterfall. It was an amazingly entertaining way to spend some time.

I found this great old Lomo 35mm camera in an antique store, it was only 8# and seems to be in working condition so I’m going to play with it more when I get home, I love new cameras. I picked up a book in the local English bookstore, apparently the largest one in the Czech Republic. The shop girl was tried to direct me to a set of ruins outside the town but I got a bit confused I think unless this was it.

She referred to it as “the castle for birds” because it was all ruins. I walked down several country roads in the area she told me to look and that was all I found, even after speaking to a very nice little old Czech woman gathering dried hay, crazy times.