We made the trip from Praha to Česky Krumlov yesterday which is about a 3 hour bus ride if you include all the stops. We started our day by sleeping in a little then going around the corner from our apartment to a delightful bagel shop! Brett got a BLT w/ cream cheese and I got the Sophia which was egg, tomato, and Balkan cheese. We also had real coffee which our apartment did not have. To say the least, it was an amazing breakfast!!
Due to rainy weather and a slightly long walk we decided to order an Uber to the bus station. Not my ideal scenario but Lyft does not operate here (get on it Lyft!). The bus ride itself was rather….interesting…..it was a fully loaded bus and the driver himself was very pleasant despite the trials and tribulations the passengers were trying to put him through. It’s astounding how people behave sometimes. Firstly, many did not read their tickets to know if they had assigned seat or not and subsequently were getting frustrated by being asked to move. Nor did many of them understand that it was a simple 3 hour ride that did not include breaks/sightseeing along the way. More than one tourist has the gall to ask the drive “when is the break?” and “can you please stop and wait for me to go to the bathroom” (there was a toilet on the bus BTW!!). Further to that, Brett and I had seats at the very front of the bus and an Asian couple was sitting next to us. They had a son with them as well whom they put in a seat at the back of the bus while they sat together. Well big surprise he kept calling for his parents from the back of the bus and getting up to come sit on their laps. Keep in mind this is a large fast moving bus and seat belts were required. The driver finally chastised them, and rightfully so, and had to make sure they knew that each person needed to be in a seat. This led to the father and son switching seat multiple times, knocking into Brett every time with out care or concern for those around them. Despite that we still enjoyed the ride. The scenery was really beautiful and we saw lots of farming and ranching land. There are many things about Czech that you can totally see how Brett’s family is from here. :)
When we made it to Česky Krumlov we followed the map provided by our host which was super easy and a short walk from the bus stop. We entered the apartment by going through a vintage store with some really fun things to see.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around this quaint little town. All the streets are cobblestone, the buildings are very colorful, there is a ton of greenery, and it truly feels like you are stepping back in time. Something super cool is how some of the buildings are painted, which I mostly noticed on the castle. From far away it looks like the walls are made up of large bricks or stone, and even have some statues sitting in conclaves high up on the wall. Well…..when you get up close you actually realize they are painted on! While that might seem silly I can guarantee it is not trivial to accomplish this “illusion”. I’d say the only downside is there seemed to be a lot of tourists, but such is life sometimes when you want to experience the historical and fascinating.
We found a lovely Italian place for dinner last night, and it was missing that touristy feel which we greatly appreciated. Brett had a salami pizza (surprise!) and I had spaghetti carbonara. It was amazing!! We also had some very delicious house wine which was surprising to me. We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality and price of the meal which was awesome! Not to mention that every great restaurant plays the Pretty Woman song!! We spent the rest of the night in our apartment relaxing (which has been very much needed after so many days of travel). We even enjoyed the giant soaking tub and champagne!
The apartment is beautiful beyond words!! You can tell the owner put a lot of thought into every single detail! It used to be an old mill so there is a lot of wood and old metal decor plus extravagant modern amenities such as a wine fridge, ginormous soaking tub, and rainfall shower head that was a about as big as the shower. It was a very luxurious place to spend the night in this fairytale town. (PS. Don’t worry the bed isn’t really hanging!)
Oct. 3rd
We slept in a bit which was easy to do because the bed was one of the most comfortable we have had thus far. It was nice waking up to the sound of the river rushing below us and the soft morning light. We packed our bags so we were prepared for our move later and set out to find a nice breakfast spot. We ended up finding a cute cafe where we go take-away hot prosciutto and mozzarella paninis and cappuccinos. It has actually been quite cold and rain so the hot coffee was very much needed! We booked it up too the castle so that we would not miss a tour and enjoyed our breakfast on the castle grounds. We had a ton of fun exploring the castle and learning of its history since the 15th century. It’s interesting to know more about the town, including the old mill in which our apartment is located. Being influenced by the baroque period the castle was very extravagant. The rooms were very ornate and there were giant paintings all over the place. Another cool feature of the castle is the bear moat. This was a tradition that was started early in the castle’s history and bears have been kept in the bear moat since 1707!! In fact, there are bears which live there to this day. Unfortunately, they were not willing to come out even though I tried to bribe them with money :( I’ve included a couple pictures nonetheless.
After our time at the castle we had a little time to spare so we stopped at a little cafe for a snack. It had some amazing hot chocolate to warm myself up and Brett had homemade raspberry lemonade which was also to die for! We then headed to the bus station to get on our way to Brno, about 4 hours drive with all the stops. The bus was even nicer than the first one we rode and we again scored seats in the very front. This afforded us wonderful views of the Czech countryside. We again saw many cute towns on our way and a ton of farm land. It seems their main crops are corn and potato.
When we made it to Brno the bus dropped us off right across the street from our hotel which was very convenient after the long ride. When we arrived there were Asians en-mass, it seems they followed us from Cesky Krumlov! It is a larger city than I think we expected with a ton of activity and life. There are a lot of young people, a lot of people speaking English, and even a lot of American accents. We spent time walking the area around our hotel which is a giant shopping complex. There was a super cute food truck/street fair going on. They had little bars set up, food from pretty much every nationality, and even little tents with pallet furniture to sit on. We ended up finding a Mexican place for dinner called Bastardo Bistro. It was akin to Chipotle with a slight twist and not as complex of a menu. Brett got a chorizo quesadilla which was a little different as they process it like sandwich meat rather than grind it up like we do. We both immensely enjoyed our meals!
We walked around a bit longer after dinner and ran into the Old Town Hall. There was a super interesting sculpture on the outside which caught our eye and we decided to inspect it closer. We tried to read the plaque however we don’t read Czech (and barely speak 5 words)! Fortunately, Brett has beta access to the new google translate app which has a super awesome feature! You can hold your camera up to a sign and it will translate it for you right on your screen!!
Its been a long but highly enjoyable day. We plan to sightsee a little more around Brno tomorrow morning before we take the train back to Prague for our last night in Czech Republic. Time is going by quickly but we are enjoying every second of it!
Devious Owl 