Cesky Krumlov, and beyond!

Our train to Cesky Krumlov was nice at first, then we changed at Ceske Budejovice to a tiny shuttle train packed to the gills with backpackers. That was ok - we were quickly there, and made our way down the hill towards the town. Not having a map, and the directions to the hostel assuming we had arrived at the bus station, we were quickly lost. Luckily, we discovered some people speaking english (not, as we found out soon enough, a very uncommon thing), and they helped direct us. Margot was very keen to get there and check in, but my mind was exploding as we walked through the town, and I was trying to photograph everything at once. Cesky Krumlov is more awesome than any town has a right to be. It is obscenely pretty, and it is not fair that I don't live there. Not that anyone else does either - every building that isn't a shop is a hotel or pension. Our hostel was very nice and quirky, in a 250 year old building that used to be a bakery. The managers there were a couple of Australians, who'd gone travelling a couple of years ago and never gone home again. It had a very nice relaxed atmosphere. However, we just dumped our bags and went out to explore the town. I think I took about three or four hundred photos in Cesky Krumlov. We had dinner at a restaurant with tables right down at the water level of the dangerously swollen and terrifically fast-flowing Vlatava. The dinner was fantastic - a feast of potato related bohemian things, as well as smoked meat and rabbit (chicken for Margot). After dinner we had a hot spiced mead. Delicious. Then a walk around the town in the dark, including up to the castle (the second biggest in CZ, after Prague), where we discovered that they keep bears in the moat.

In the morning we had breakfast at a nice cafe, which was seemingly full of Australians, then went up to the Castle and did a tour with about 15 thousand other people. You can't learn much in a group that size, but the tourguide was lovely. The castle is just amazing - built as a continuation of a cliff above the Vlatava, started in the 14th century and added to and changed over the years. The few days we were there I just never got over it. After the tour we went back to the hostel for some lunch, then went out to go on a trail ride, which was one of the activities suggested in the guidebook. I was looking forward to it, and it was kind of fun, but very boring as we never went above a walk, although I held my horse back a couple of times then made her trot to catch up. After the ride we went back into town and wandered around in awe for a while, then had dinner at the Two Mary's, the same place as the night before, only I had the pheasant rather than the rabbit this time. Awesome. Then we spent the evening wandering around town, including going for another stickybeak at the bears. I could walk around this town forever. It has been so beautifully restored, and every building is newly rendered and painted, making it feel much as it must have done in its heyday (only with way more hotels and tourists).

On Sunday morning (only yesterday!) we had one last long explore, walking around the other side of the old town, and seeing some lovely parts we hadn't previously, as well as getting different views of the castle and the cathedral. There is a huge mansion for sale on a hillside on the other side of the town from the castle, and we both agreed that that is the house we will buy. We said our goodbyes, hoping we'd be back, then almost didn't leave when our taxi inexplicably didn't show up. Eventually the manager of the hostel called a different company, so we just made it to our train back to Prague. We arrived latish, checked into the hostel that we'd accidentally gone to the first time we'd arrived in Prague, then spent a quiet evening with some takeaway chinese food and a cutthroat game of Gin played with our Mucha cards.

After an uncomfortable sleep (they really don't know how to do pillows in hostels), we awoke early this morning, packed, and went to the train station to head east. Waving goodbye to Prague, we spent the next 8 hours on the train, broken only by a stop in a frankly horrible train station in Katowice, where we had to change trains. The train for the remainder of the journey had no WC, so at the end of the two hour leg, we were in no position to have no local money, no idea how to get anywhere, and to be late to check in to our hostel. However, it worked itself out, with the help of a man working behind a hostel-booking desk, and we found our way here. So here we are. We have seen only as much of Krakow as we could see from the rickety old tram. Our hostel is lovely - a private room with a balcony overlooking a park, lots of space, nice kitchen, and most importantly free internet, which is why I have spent the evening getting this blog up to date rather that wandering around outside.