Cesky Krumlov, the cute little town from your fairytale books

I keep writing about past things and I know I have a bit of catch up to do but just know that I'm really enjoying my trip! I will stick a few catch up pieces here and there in the mix but really what I think most people want to hear about it what I'm doing right now. I'll go back to Prague later - the city deserves a proper entry! It can be overwhelming because when I think about what I want to write about I usually have tons of pictures that I want to post with it. Uploading, editing and posting those takes time. I'm glad I'm able to work but it does take up a lot of my "free time".

Right now I'm in Cesky Krumlov, a small town a few hours South of Prague in Bohemia. It's very much like a mini-Prague. The streets are all cobblestone and the road is narrow. You have to have a special permit to drive here so cars are rare to see. There is really only one main road that leads to the City Center and I haven't made it there yet because I was rightfully exhausted when I arrived. My last day in Prague was filled with an amazing person I met! (more on that later though!)

I found a really inexpensive pension here which is pretty much a B&B that serves you breakfast to your room. I woke up today with this huge vegetarian breakfast!



They gave you a choice of what you wanted for breakfast so I had requested no meat because I just can't keep eating it. It feels really unhealthy to eat as much meat as Europeans do. The breakfast was huge! 2 mini-baguette breads (they are extremely popular here and only 2.5 czk koruna's, which is about 12 cents a piece), a glass of orange juice, green tea, 3 types of cheese (edam, munster and an impostor Brie), jam, butter, yogurt and a banana. Yum!

Anyways, today I am going to walk around and explore the town and the castle. There are only about 14,000 residents here so it's very small. The town is essentially nestled in a pocket of the Vltava River (the same one in Prague) so it's very cozy and friendly. Last night I walked down the street to find the vegetarian restaurant and took a few pictures. Here is a view of the street:



Most of the town looks like this. I came to the bridge and took a few pictures of the river and part of the castle.



A view to the main part of the town (where I'm heading today):



A view of river and castle:



Next to Prague, Cesky has the biggest Castle in the Czech Republic. Pretty much so far that I've seen there is a town, some places to stay, restaurants, a few shops a beautiful river and a castle.

I found a yummy vegetarian restaurant and stopped in to get a bite to eat, read and relax. The menu was really awesome and inexpensive. 200 koruna's = $10 USD. Most of the food there was much less.



They had seats by the river both covered and uncovered and I chose to sit here, with this pretty view.



After living in a city it's so peaceful and nice to just sit by a river and watch the time go by. The sun came out at one point and I snapped this gorgeous view of the castle (on left). Did I mention where I was sitting I could see a full view of the castle and hear the clock chime? It felt pretty romantic.



The owner was really, really nice. We chatted about Portland, Montreal, Cesky Krumlov and tourism (which he loves as it's not too many people really, only in summer months), the book I was reading, food, and Upstate New York. He had heard that the Czech Landscape is similar to upstate NY and I had to agree, it really is for the most part. There aren't any huge mountains but compared to the Cascades no mountains really seem huge to me anymore. The countryside here has a lot of cute villages, lakes and rolling hills.

These are some pictures I took on the way into Prague:









It is very similar to upstate NY. Maybe that is why I feel really comfortable here.

After my roasted veggie chili he brought me a complimentary pot of tea. I asked for the bill after that as I had already been there about 1 1/2 hours and read a good 100 pages in my new book but he instead brought me a nice hot glass of mead and we chatted some more. He started to get busy as people came in and after the mead he brought me a glass of hot mulled wine. And then another. It was really sweet and I couldn't tell if maybe he was just really nice or slightly interested. He told me he really enjoyed talking to me and apologized that he was so busy. Around 9:45 and my 3rd glass of wine I thanked him again and told him I had to leave to get to bed. I had told him the night before I hadn't slept much. He added up the bill and it was 158 koruna's. That's like $6. He wouldn't take any tip or extra $ and told me everything was a gift. He wished me well and I stumbled back through the safe quiet streets to my room and fell asleep. What a night! I would like to go back because the food was excellent but I am worried he will think I am coming back for free drinks. I do know that he wanted to keep talking to me and it was great talking to someone who knew so much about the world.

There are many people I run into on this trip that stereotype America and haven't heard of Oregon. I understand why we have the stereotype but it's upsetting sometimes which is why I usually tell people I'm from Portland, Oregon... except about 70% of the people I run into look at me funny until I tell them United States. I suppose I don't know all of the countries in the world but I know of many and could probably place them in a fairly accurate spot on the map. 50 states is a lot though. Everyone knows New York but that has another stereotype attached so I don't say I'm from there either. Hell, I don't know where I'm really from. I've spent the longest in New York but this year is my 6th in Oregon so it's catching up.

I only have a day here and it's already 12:30 (where did the time go??) so I'm going to head out and explore the town and the castle. So far everyone I've met is really friendly and in some ways this town reminds me of Saranac Lake. Sometimes I miss living in a small town and other times I am really glad I don't know everyone where I live. It's sure great to go back and visit though.

And finally I'd like to comment on the weather. So far I've gotten really lucky with rain. There's only been a couple rainy days on my trip and those have already been the days I had planned to take it easy. I hope mentioning this isn't bad luck! The restaurant owner, David, told me that they hadn't had sun in weeks and last night when the sun shone through and the sky was a beautiful blue everyone was in awe. Today it's about 62F and it's sunny! I've been monitoring the weather in Vienna too because Monday I planned to go on a grape gazing tour. It's a day long trip for 49 euros and you bike through the Vienna countryside, drink wine and then have a nice BBQ by the river. Sounds amazing. The weather has been nasty in Vienna but this coming Monday? It is projected to be 74 and sunny. The gods are smiling down on me! :)

working abroad + prague architecture = easy to forget about work issues

I know I shouldn't complain about the troubles of working abroad because how many people are able to do this, right? But I've found it's taken a ton of patience on my end and flexibility because it always seems that when I plan a day of work there is something wrong. This time it's because someone messed around with my system, tried to make it better but really only messed things up because passwords were changed, connections were moved around and nothing was actually TOLD to me. I'm a bit of a control freak with my things at work - especially my computer because I use it so often. When something breaks why not just fix the initial problem, why fix everything else?? All my computer needed was a cord connecting it to the server and the dude created a new connection for me, changed a password to the server, and downloaded about 100 updates for my computer (which I didn't download because I found out a year ago I had a hacked copy of office and windows didn't like that.. I had to system restore). It's silly stuff but when you're thousands of miles away from the computer you're trying to log in messing with certain settings is probably the most annoying thing you can do. Not to mention, why would you not give someone the password??

Work rant aside Prague is really beautiful. The architecture is amazing and it really feels like you're in some fairytale when you walk around the narrow streets. Yesterday I went on the free walking tour and tomorrow I'm looking forward to the non-free walking tour of the castle grounds. Today it's a bit overcast and rainy which is okay since I haven't been feeling great. A girl on the bus sat next to me and coughed the whole time so I think she might have gotten me a little bit sick. I'm going to try and take it easy today, drink some tea, write out some postcards, edit some photos and make a massive blog post soon - haha. I uploaded about 200 pictures yesterday from Berlin, the Czech countryside, Terezin and Prague to my flickr. I have about 50 more to add from yesterday! I won't be a total jerk and post them all but I am going to post quite a few. I feel bad because I can't send as many postcards as I would have liked so I'll make up for it in photos!

Here are a few gorgeous pictures I took of the sunset the other night over the Vltava River.



Prague Castle in the distance:



A view of Stare Mesto (old town):



The castle at dusk:



And finally the river and a small view of Nove Mesto (new town):



Many more to come!

Arrived in Prague

I'm in Prague and all I really want to say is my apartment is fantastic. I will post pictures but really, it's all I wanted. There is even satellite TV. And closets! I can unpack for a few days.

I'll be taking a trip to the market in a few to get some food to cook for dinner and then I'm going to lie back and watch a movie on netflix, sleep without earplugs or interruption, wake up, work for a few hours and go off and explore Prague. Life is awesome!

Operation Volcano: potential trip plan destroyer's threat is lifted!

I wasn't going to post about it because I felt like maybe there would be some bad karma but I feel a little better now...so... YAY for all the flights that are finally being opened again in Europe's airspace!!

Airport Tracking

I've been following that link for the past few days watching slowly as all of the red squares slowly turned to green. Priority is being given to people who have tickets for future flights, which I can't help but feel a little guilty about since I may make it to Frankfurt before someone who has been waiting days will. Hopefully the backlog of passengers will get cleared up sooner than later.

The thing that has bothered me the most about this has been reading all of the comments from people who have been angry at Europe airlines or Europe for how they handled this event. Or pissed in general that there were not more options for them to get home or travel internationally. It's a freaking natural event people, we can't control it! Lost revenue is not ideal for the airlines but flying through volcanic ash and risking the lives of people who are pushy and need to get home is not worth it! I do feel a lot of sympathy though for people who have been stranded and don't have the money to afford staying anywhere and need to make the airport their home. If my trip is delayed a few days so some families can make it home I will understand but, of course, I'll be a little bit disappointed.

I can't believe I leave in a week. I'm excited beyond belief as many of you have noticed from reading all of my blog posts about silly packing lists. I've been trying to keep myself busy! There are only a few more things I need to get before leaving and one is a pair of comfortable open toed sandals. Target makes a cute, affordable pair that I've worn for hours that also looks great with a dress but I'm leaning towards more functional (Teva's) than cute. I also need to really go through my wardrobe and figure out what is the most useful to bring. A pair of pants that fit me last month is a little tight now but would be perfect for the trip... I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to bring since I'm pretty sure walking around all day and eating less will have me dropping some weight. Just more girly things to consider.

I posted on the busabout forums to see if anyone else wants to share the apartment I've booked in Prague for a couple nights. There's been talk about having my best friend Erin fly over and meet me in Dresden than head to Prague but I'm not going to bank too much on that til it's confirmed. I'd love for her to be able to go though and she can fly free on the military flights - it's just a matter of how feasible it will be for her to fly in 2 weeks using their service.

I haven't made any reservations for things to do in any of the cities I'm staying at (besides accommodations) except for in Prague. I'd like to wait for locals to suggest places and go with other travelers, plus where is the fun talking about it all now before I'm even there?

I suppose Prague is the city I'm most excited about visiting. I'll be two blocks from the National Theater in Prague which I'm already enamored with. It's so gorgeous!







I reserved a ticket for Dvorak's Rusalka Opera which was a bit pricey (900 czech crowns = ~$50 USD). The opera is a Slavic mythological fairytale.

Prague is also known for its black-light shows so I found a theater that has a show called "Aspects of Alice" which is based off of Alice in Wonderland and has some great reviews.

So these are some fun things to look forward to! I read that the busabout tour also hands out Lonely Planet guidebooks for the cities we're going to, which is pretty sweet. At this point I'm just busting with energy and I'm feeling impatient. I need to make a list so I don't forget anything and also print out all of my travel plans/confirmation info for hostels, bus and train tickets!

Also, before I forget I'd like to announce that I got a camera so there will be some quality pictures :)
This past weekend I got to use it for a nice rock climbing adventure with some friends. We went to Broughton's Bluff which is really close to Portland. The rock is pretty greasy basalt and there are a lot of hard routes and not much sport climbing (which means you need to have trad gear to clip into the rock wall as there aren't many anchors for the routes). There aren't any pictures of me in this set but some great pictures of friends climbing.
Here is a link to my set on Flickr

Hopefully my next post I'll be on my way to Europe!

And PS, in case anyone was wondering, I got my $80 parking ticket reduced to $6! Yay!