On our way to Cesky Krumlov, we stopped at the Hluboka Castle. It was quite the fancy establishment. There were rooms where almost all of the woodwork was heavily carved. After the tour, we had about an hour to kill so Jenny and I found some views and awkward people. We had a picnic in a bizarre location. We weren't allowed to eat on the bus and we weren't allowed to eat on the tables beside the bus unless we bought food, so we ate around the corner of a building, facing the bathrooms. Romantic, I know.
We were waiting around for everyone to meet up on the bus when I noticed that the bus beside us was filled with older people and they were all drinking in the parking lot. On the other side of us were a bunch of creeper kids trying to mack on my roommate. I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to make some older friends. So I just bebopped off the bus and asked the closest woman what she was drinking. She didn't speak english well, but she offered me some. I couldn't say neh. That's just rude. So I drank what I believe was plum vodka. It took a hot second for the couple I was attempting to adopt as my pseudo parents abroad to warm to me, but when they did it was golden. They were raving about the most beautiful city in the world, Bled, where they are from in Slovania. I took their word for it and not only did they end up writing down directions on how to get there, but they gave me their number to visit them. I'm not going to, but I'm going to keep that sheet for the memory box. They were being rushed back onto the bus, and I heard my bus rev up a little, so we parted ways and I got back on the bus for another hour long journey.
The next place we went to was the Budvar (Czechvar in the states) Brewing Factory. It wasn't as exciting for me as the Castle, but we got beer halfway through! I enjoyed my delicious unpreserved cup of beer, and then I enjoyed Brian's delicious unpreserved cup of beer because he doesn't like it. I was practically drunk when I left that place and it was barely 3pm! I'm mostly kidding, but I was enjoying myself. I noticed the smells of the factory and honestly, I didn't really like it. Most of the people where raving about it, but I wasn't feeling it.
We went back to the bus and drove another 45 minutes to get to Cesky Krumlov. Cesky Krumlov is in the mountains of the Czech Republic and it is just as beautiful as Praha. The weather was weak sauce this weekend, but that's okay because I still managed to get some hot shots.
As soon as we got dropped off, we had to hike through the city to get to our hostel. Luckily, we decided to visit on the weekend of the St. Wenseslas Festival that celebrates the 700th anniversary of the day that Cesky Krumlov first appeared in literature (therefore, the oldest record of the city, since no one knows how old it is). So everyone was dressed in medieval clothing, performing folk dances and singing. It was AWESOME! We climbed through the crowds of dancing medieval locals and then ended up at the coolest hostel called Krumlov House. It's owned by Americans and the place is really quaint. There were 6 of us in one room beside a living room that was filled with board games, movies, and musical instruments. There was a kitchen beside that and then another room filled with 6 of the guys. There were another 8 people upstairs. The rest of the group stayed at a hostel up the hill.
We freshened up and then went to dinner at Satlava, a medieval restaurant that served giant slabs of meat. It was absurd the amount of food that everyone consumed. I ate a tuna steak and it came with a potato pancake (aka potato lakte) and then enjoyed 2 more beers. After dinner, everyone sort of split up unintentionally. I ended up with Becca, Douglass, and Matt and we skipped to the Music Bar. The beer was expensive by Czech's standard, 50 crowns, so we sat in cool airplane chairs, ordered one beer, and then dipsetted. When we left, we ran into a couple other people who were heading to the "Hrozen Dance Club." We were going to join them but it looked real sketchy and there was a 50 crown cover- not worth it. I'm glad we didn't end up going because the guys collecting the cover was a scam and it ended up being a strip club (we know this because two of the girls from our program went and got harassed.) Sketchy McSketcherson.
We grabbed beers in the main square where there were still booths up from the festival. While we were there, a couple Austrians started talking to us. We bonded with them for a bit but at one point, Matt and I went to the booth to get our beer and left Becca talking to them alone. When we turned around, one of the Austrians looked uncomfortably close to Becca. Before Matt could get a beer, we left in order to avoid our own harassment adventure. Two high fives for Matt.
We were meandering around a bit to find a new place to drink, but the town shut down. I mean it was maybe 10:30 and there was no one out. We took our beers back to a lookout place that we pass on our way to the hostel. We sat there on the ledge, looking out on the view, while having deep conversations about life, etc. It was really nice. As we sat there in heavy discussion, we heard other Americans. We shouted to them "where are you from?" and it ended up being the NYU Prague program. We met about 6 of those kids. It was ironic that we ran into them at Cesky Krumlov because we study and live right next to them in Prague. After getting to know them a bit, we decided to go back to the music bar and I am so glad we did. It was a lot of fun. We got two more beers there and the music was epic. I'm talking quality. Michael Jackson, Enrique, and the climax of the night was when the dj played "It's Raining Men." There were more men dancing to that song than women. It was mostly Becca, Matt and I, alongside the NYU kids on the dance floor... but then there was Carlos/Michael/Short Dancing Man. We don't know what his name was or where he was from because he told all of us something different. He also told me that he was 25. I salsa-danced with him- or something. I don't really know what kind of dancing we were doing, but I was having a great time doing it. He kept yelling "Nastravi!" which means "cheers" in Czech. So everyone would hit glasses. After the 2oth time, someone hit the top of my bottle and it exploded. I tried to drink it as it exploded, but instead, it went up my nose and all over my jacket. I was bummed, so I didn't join in the cheers anymore.
It was a great time. We ended it by sitting at a table and chatting some more with the NYU program. Becca and I went to the bathroom and attempted to bond with a Czech girl but she was embarrassed because there were people having sex in the bathroom stall hahah. It was funny. We left right after that and when Matt, Becca, and I got back to the hostel, Becca had the brilliant idea to mix up the shoes. I should preface that with every time we went into the hostel, we had to take our shoes off at the door. So, with the shoes that we left there, Becca rearranged them. Matt helped a little too, I guess.
The next day we had completely to ourselves- no itinerary. Most of us are in the drawing class and our homework for the weekend was to sketch something in Cesky Krumlov, so Becca and I went to the festival for a bit, ran into Art, and then the three of us found a cafe right on the river to sketch. I sketched a mean bridge with some intense perspective.
Afterwards, we ran into Beth and all 4 of us went to lunch at a restaurant right across from the river where we sketched. It was freezing this day and there wasn't any room inside so we ended up on the terrace. It was a bit chilled. I was wrapped in a blanket and enjoyed a salad and wine. When we finished, Beth went to go explore some more and we found Matt so the four of us decided to go up to the castle and look around.
We found a bear. Apparently, Cesky Krumlov is known for it's bears in moats. Yeah, I don't know. I think he might have died the next day because he wasn't moving.
We kept walking and we also found a huge garden. Oh geez, it was beautiful. There were flowers, and suggestive statues, and Harry Potter Hedge Mazes, and a pond complete with lilly pads! I almost believed in religion after walking through the park.
We walked back down through the town and stopped to get tea on the way. When we got back to the hostel, we relaxed for a little while, then headed out to dinner. There was a relatively large group of us about to go to one restaurant, so Jenny and I separated and found a pizzeria. While we were enjoying our meal, this homeless lady came up to the window and starting yelling at Jenny and I. She only spoke Czech so it made it scarier that I didn't know what she was yelling about. The next thing we know, she's beating up a street sign and crying. What the!?
Well, we finished our meals and went to the main square to enjoy some sweet Czech jazz. I tell you what, we found a gem with this band. The main singer was doing the robot to jazz music, and he whistled like a train. We enjoyed it until we ran into a group of us heading to a bar/art gallery/thumb museum/potential pot factory. I don't think this place has ever seen so much business before because the entire program ended up there and we were the only ones there.
Anyways, as the description suggests, there were wax thumbs everywhere. It was either really creepy or really cool- I haven't decided yet. Everyone was over-stimulated by the experience. We stayed there for awhile, then headed back to the hostel. Becca, Matt, BrianBrooks, Jenny, and I found this game called "What Were You Thinking?" and we had a hoot with it. I don't recall how long we played for, but it was the majority of my evening. It was nice that we took over the entire hostel because we weren't disturbing anyone with our mini-house party that took over when everyone got back from the creepy thumb place (I just decided it was creepier than cool). We ended the night with intellectual drunk conversations.
The next morning was roughhhh. We woke up around 8:30 to go on a tour of the Baroque theatre. I think I would have enjoyed it more if a. it was later in the morning or b. the tour guide didn't remind me of a corporate training video. I was either falling asleep while leaning against a wall, or giggling at the flux of the tour guide's voice in dramatic places even though she was showing minimal emotions. Underneath the stage was legit, though. I wish I could have appreciated it more. There were wheels and pullies used to change the set.
We had about 4 hours to kill before it was time to leave Cesky Krumlov, so I went around with Jenny. I had a perfectly nerdy day. We walked into a pottery store and I fell in love with the idea of living off of pottery dishes. I found the perfect Christmas present there for a certain brother and then we left. While we were walking around, I found a bookstore and wanted to peek in to find "The Alchemist." I FOUND IT. I wish you could have seen my excitement because I was ecstatic. I noticed that I knew about 45% of the books in the store, too. That made me feel so smart. Thank you English class.
Next, we found an art store and now that I have almost mastered perspective, I decided to buy 5B pencils (haha, I don't know what the 5B means, but that's the pencil that Art gave me to use and you should never question a man named Art when it comes to artistic matters.) I also bought an eraser and a pencil sharpener that had a skull and bones decoration and the word "Kumpirates" on it (hehe).
We went back to the square where there was a quality symphonic band. I started to dance enthusiastically and it caught on. We were swing dancing. It was silly. We also met Austrian's in square earlier that day. One of them told me I had beautiful eyes. I was flattered, but I was more flattered when we ran into them talking to a couple of people we knew and when we went up to them, they called me pretty eyes again. I didn't have a good nickname for them, so I called them pretty Austrian's. They were very drunk and very boisterous- made me feel like I was home. (Just kidding, family.)
I don't want to write anymore so I'll finish up by telling you that we obviously made it home safely on a DANK bus. It felt like an airplane with the kind of service we were getting. If anyone travels around Europe anytime soon, please take the student agency bus. That is all I have to say about that.
I will post pictures to add to the stories tomorrow.
