Mom comes to Prague

My mother finally came to visit me. While she was here I took her for my 3rd trip to Kutna Hora, Prague Castle, Vysehrad, Karlstejn, etc. I will update further when I can also upload the photos that she took while here.

Photos.

Cesky Raj

The next Pub trip was a hike through Cesky Raj (Bohemian Paradise). We boarded a very slow train to Turnov where we planned to have lunch before setting off on a 16km hike. The trip took about two hours and the we wandered around Turnov looking for the correct restaurant. Apparently we had planned to eat at a specific restaurant, but that restaurant was actually in a different town, so we stopped in at some random place that was simply not prepared to feed the group of us. We basically got soup and bread, which some of us didn't feel was enough, but that was all that was available. After that we headed off in to the hills on a red trail, as usual. As I understand it the trails are color coded for difficulty with red being the hardest and green and yellow being easier. We always take the red.
Our first stop was a little castle tucked away in the forested hills called Valdstejn. It was nice to have a rest, as I think this first part of the tour was possibly the most difficult. Unfortunately the cash desk wouldn't negotiate with George for a better price, so we didn't go inside. However, as far as I could tell the outside was the best part of the view anyway. Also, this gave us more time for exploring and taking pictures later, so we moved on.
Our next goal was Hruba Skala, but along the way we had some opportunity to view the rock towers famous in this region. The trail actually took us very close and as you can see from the photos I and several others took the opportunity to get very close. Still there were some climbers that we could see getting even closer.
We finally arrived at Hruba Skala and we all sat down for some much needed refreshment of beer and sausage, and a little conversation about the trip so far. Fortified by the food and beer, we began the journey back to Turnov. The beginning of the trip back took us down between some of the rock towers for a new perspective on what we had been looking down on before. The route back took us through the hills and forests away from the cliff edges but along the base of several of these rock towers.
We came upon a small natural spring that offered folks an opportunity to refill their water if they were running low, and shortly after that we reached a lookout tower that gave a final view over Cesky Raj before beginning our descent into Turnov.
We were running a bit late for the train, and what was worse is that we seemed to have gotten a bit confused coming back into Turnov as to exactly how to get to the train station. To top off this last bit of frustration, poor Megan was having trouble with her new hiking boots and was in a great deal of pain. However we made our train and got back safely to Prague.
Photos.

Hluboka Nad Vltavou

Megan and I had read about this castle in South Bohemia sitting on the Vltava that was supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the Czech Republic. Of course, we decided to take a day trip down there to see for ourselves. It was a bit of a long bus ride down, but we arrived in this quaint little town with a lovely little church on a beautiful spring day. We wandered briefly around the center of this little town, and then sat down for lunch at a local restaurant/hotel. The food was delicious and pretty cheap all in all. After lunch we started the climb to the castle. The view over the river and out into Bohemia was breathtaking and we took our time getting up the hill. As we approached the top I was fooled by what I thought was the castle, and was a little disappointed by its lack of grandiosity, but soon realized this was the attached hotel built to look like the castle. The castle itself is, in fact, one of the most spectacular we have yet seen. It's current configuration is actually quite new, but even still it has a long history. We walked around the outside taking it all in. We eventually made our way inside and took a tour of the interior, which was impressive. Generally the wonderful spring weather and the brilliant views of the castle and surrounding environs made for a very pleasant day out of Prague. The trip home was a little bit of a spoiler, as our bus was full and we had to stand for over an hour in a sweltering old bus. However we eventually managed to get seats, though not together, for the rest of the ride home.
Photos

The (Oval) Office

I saw this on a friends page and thought it was funny. Enjoy!

A Day at the Races

We got a long weekend for Easter and so Megan and I decided to have our first in house party since she moved in with me and in fact it's the first time I've had a party since I moved into this flat last June. We decided to have a little game night and invited only a few people, but Rob and Marta came out since Rob really wanted to play some Trivial Pursuit, though Marta was less enthusiastic. Also Anne was back in town and so she came and brought Jon, who we hadn't seen since Anne moved to Berlin right before our trip to Budapest. In any case the beer was cold, the game was fun, and Anne and Jon kicked all our asses. Around midnight Kelly, Scott (Curtis' new roommate), and Melissa arrived in time to play a second game. Everyone left around 2am.

On Sunday David in connection with the pub night crew organized a trip to Velka Chuchle for opening day at the races. Which mostly meant drinking beer, eating sausage, and watching horses run. The weather was a little cold, but the beer flowed, and the horses were fun to watch. I don't like to gamble as anyone who knows me will attest to, but the entry fee included a single 20kc bet, so I did bet on one race (which I of course lost). A few of our comrades had better luck including Andrea who I think must have been the big winner for the day, since whe won almost every race. After the 7th race we decided to hit the road before the crowds started heading for the buses, so Rob, Marta, Megan and I went back in to Andel with plans to go bowling. We hit a snag in that every bowling lane nearby seemed booked so we sat down for dinner. After dinner we all seemed a bit tired, and decided to call it a day. Photos

Monday was pretty quiet. Our shower broke, but I found a hardware store open and went to get supplies. While I was there I bought the stuff I've been needing in order to re-pot my plants. So basically, I repaired the shower and re-potted my plants.

Trnava

So our 90 days was up again and continuing our Central European tour we decided it was finally time to go to Slovakia. Most people had told us that Bratislava is generally unimpressive. The nightlife is ok, but generally that's not what I travel for, so Megan and I decided to go somewhere else. Looking through our guidebook we found Trnava. The oldest city in Slovakia, a large portion of the medieval walls still surrounds the historic old town. It was once dubbed the Slovakian Rome because of the many churches inside the walls, and also it is the seat of the Archbishop. Sounded perfect to us, so we got up early on Friday and headed South.

We had found a hotel online that was near the center and also had reasonable rates. It also included an "American Cocktail Bar" which we thought might be fun to try out. Once we arrived in the afternoon, we had a little trouble getting into the hotel. It seems that tourist season hasn't really begun, and they seemed entirely unprepared for guests (when we got to our room we realized the breakers hadn't even been turned on for our floor). Once they realized we were there however they got us checked in and into our room which was actually quite nice, certainly nicer than our previous hostel stays. So we threw down our stuff and headed into town for lunch.

Though our little guidebook made a couple of mistakes about some of the places listed we managed to find a good little lunch spot, though Megan ordered some pasta that turned out to be too spicy and so we swapped plates during the meal. After lunch we started our walking tour of Trnava which begins at the Western Wall and the Bernolak Gate, which is the only surviving tower gate. Outside the gate is a very nice park that stretches along the river the length of the old town. On the way back in we passed the Church of St. James (1640) and headed into the central square where they have the Renaissance Municipal Tower and the 17th Century Trinity Column which was removed by the communists in 1948, but replace in 1989 by popular demand. On our way to lunch we had passed the Old Town Hall and also the Old Theater without noticing so we took notice of them now. The town square also includes the ubiquitous House of Culture found in most former communist cities, which is generally the ugliest structure around.
From there we wandered past Trinity Church (1729) and the baroque Church of St. Anne on our way to the university district where we saw the university Church of St John the Baptist. The guidebook describes this as severe on the outside though I didn't find it to be severe at all. He also describes the inside as lush baroque and rococo, but unfortunately we were not able to go in.
Leaving the university district we headed for the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (1380) that was rebuilt in the 17th century after the Archbishop arrived. Next to it sits the Archbishops palace, though it's difficult to see as it sits well back from the street and is fronted by lots of thick trees. Walking south from here is possibly the loveliest part of Trnava. Kapitulska Street is lined on either side with Burgher's Houses with renaissance facades and there is a tree lined garden running down the center.
From here we also stopped in to see all that remains of Trnava's Jewish heritage. There are two synagogues sitting very close to one another. One of them has been turned into a museum, while the other sits behind heavy fencing and has been abandoned to the elements and birds.
Our last real stop was the West Slovakian museum, housed in a former Clarist convent (1239). The museum had some interesting collections of local minerals and animals, as well as collections of local ceramics crafts, clothing, and photography. The proprietors were very friendly and even spoke a little English to us. After this we headed back to the hotel, passing on the way the final sight, the Church of St. Helen, which has never been rebuilt and is a great representative of an early Gothic structure.

Back at the hotel we rested and tried to decide where we were going to eat. We settled on a place called Phoenix which we had passed earlier in the day and was also recommended in the guidebook. We walked back through the old town noticing the strange blending of post communist economic depression, and newer middle class growth. Trnava is very close to Bratislava and seems to be a place that people are moving to in order to commute to Bratislava. When we arrived at Phoenix we had a brief scare since the place looked very closed, but we finally realized that you had to walk though the back garden and come in the back door to get in (still not tourist season). Once we found our way in we sat down and had a very pleasant meal with some delicious Slovakian wine. After dinner we went back to our hotel to give the cocktail bar a try. Generally they were a complete failure in my opinion, as every drink I ordered came out with something just a bit off about it, but we soon discovered that what they seem to do best is blender drinks, since that was all that the Slovaks seemed to be ordering. But it had been a long day and we decided to call it a night early. Photos
The next morning we packed up and headed to the train station so that we could spend a few hours in Bratislava on the way home (just to say we had). By the time we arrived the weather was turning bad, but we hopped a tram and headed into the historic district for lunch. We stopped at a locals/tourist restaurant called Prasna Brana, and had some Bryndzové halušky, a traditional Slovakian dish made of small dumplings covered with cheese and bacon. After that we wandered pretty aimlessly through old town Bratislava waiting for our train time. We did see some of the main sites including the castle, St. Martin Cathedral, Mirbach Palace, etc. as well as two of the three now famous life size bronze statues, the Peeper and the Frenchman. Finally our train time arrived and we hopped the tram back to the station and headed home. Photos

Karlstejn 2-The Americas

After the success of the pub outing to Velke Pavlovice, George decided to take us to see The Americas at Karlstejn. This was to be a 15-20km hike through hilly terrain. We would see mines, mining pits, and lots of beautiful countryside. George warned us to bring wet weather clothing and flashlights. The pictures tell the story pretty well, but the trip was long and exhausting and a couple of times even dangerous. However, it was extremely fun and rewarding. The country was indeed very pretty and the old mining pits provide quite a spectacle. It reminded me how much I really enjoy hiking and the outdoors, and Megan (who acquitted herself quite well) even agreed that it would be nice to do more activities like this. At the end of the day we were all covered in mud and, for those less prepared, soaked through with rain. The sight of the little pub by the train station made us all very happy indeed. My pictures. George's Pictures.

Velke Pavlovice

The Konvikt Pub crew decided to take an overnight trip to a little wine town in Moravia. Our friend Monca arranged everything and really did a hell of a job. The main part of the trip was a private wine tasting dinner. basically we showed up en masse, ate dinner, and then were presented with almost 20 wines from the cellar. In the middle of the wine tasting we took a break to have some smoked meats, and on the tables were several cheeses and nuts, etc. After the wine tasting we sang songs, since someone was nice enough to type up the lyrics to some American and Czech songs. I must say the Czechs outperformed us in this. After that I had had way to much to drink and after buying a bottle of wine I stumbled back to the hostel and went to bed. Apparently I was the only one who continued drinking heavily of the wine that was available. Everyone else went and found a ball and continued drinking and dancing all night. I promised George I would publish his version of events, so her it is...



My impression from the party



It started two month ago, of course, how another, in a pub. We were
drinking and dreaming about something new. Everybody knows that the
best plans start during the drinking Czech beer. We finished the third
beer round and mood around our table was better and better. We returned
to our old idea to go to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. We would book
a compartment; one night would run very quickly and in the morning we
would be in Bratislava, see the Bratislava Castle and other sights. The
trip would be nice, but it would be only for a few people. We would
like to share our company for more pub-goers (excursion; we do not like
pub trip on Thursday because we would lose each other, so we are only
sitting and drinking).
What about to go to cellar! It was happy idea but there was huge
problem to find somebody who would be able to organize this trip,
someone young, nice, who has experience with a large company. And we
found a volunteer Monca. It was a good choice. We got nice invitation;
we knew how many crowns we would pay for an accommodation, railway
ticket, testing wine and breakfast. We could not say about our trip to
everybody during limitation of the cellar. Everybody wanted to go with
us. We paid 400 Kč for booking.
On Saturday we were ready to go. We met in front of a cash desk of the
railway station Holešovice. Before we had had left a shop we bought
coffee, baguette and mineral water because of our loudly laughing. It
was amazing - everybody come (only with one exception - Shoen). We knew
each other from the pub, only Eva was unknown for most participants.
But she had a guitar and it was a good ticket for a good entertainment.
The train from Hamburg to Budapest had not any delay, we found our
places and without problems we reached to Brno. Only I was surprised
with a narrow seat. I would have thought over diet, so I bought big
sausage, two slices of bread, mustard and cola. It was nice time. Until
I digested it we changed the train and than it was only short time to
Velké Pavlovice, we got off but this station was wrong so that a
conductor sent us to the train back. The second attempt was OK and we
went to a hostel. We had to ask for direction a native woman, Monca
spoke Czech, and so we did not have any problems. We saw a pig-sticking
in front of a pub so we knew that this village is full of surprising.
The hostel was good. Only the bunk bad was unusual but it was from
irons so anybody could not be afraid of breaking it. We had free time
so we walked around the village, took photos and had a pre-dinner. We
noticed that there was a big hop. The girls had garbs and they looked
very nice. But our target was to go to the cellar. It was relatively a
long way. We speculated about taxi for a back journey. The house we
ordered dinner was large. The inner equipment was new and environment
was friendly. The ritual was easy. First, we had to full our stomachs,
and then we got two glasses. One glass for mineral water, second one
for sample of wine. The waiter poured his liquated gold and we had
well-educated speech about life and wine. I think we drank about
one-liter samples and ate a lot of fruits - banana, tangerine, and
pineapple. There was big amount of ham and sandwiches. The rooms were
decorated with naughty pictures (naked girl) and evaluations. My
favorite place was in front of a fireplace. After second dinner I was
absolutely full. I had to go to yard to see the night sky. The topic
program for me, was drinking of champagne and singing partly Czech and
English songs. Then I bought five bottles of Frankovka (350,- Kč), we
told goodbye and went to the hostel. I felt that my eyes are very small
(but happy). I did not know that finale would come. We went to a
typical Czech hop. It was not problem to get to the assembly room (it
was about 2 a.m.), atmosphere was excellent and we promptly started to
dance. Polka and waltz are the typical Czech dance. We enjoy themselves
till 4 a.m. About a journey to the hostel I know only a little. The
night I would let without a commentary. When I wake up I realized that
the sun is shining so that I decided to go to the center of the village
to sightseeing. It was a nice walk. Breakfast was light, some
English-speaking people were pale, but everybody was attending. We
decided (Czech group) that we could pay this breakfast from money which
remained of canoe trip (June 2006). I do not write about the return
journey because I was sleeping. It was really the good test-wine party.
My wife commended me for good wine I brought. I have to thank Monca for
the invitation.

Thank

George



Pictures

Christmas

I finally made it home.



After nearly 15 months without seeing my friends and family I finally got on a plane and reentered the US. I spent two weeks mostly relaxing with family and being chauffeured about the state by my good friend Stacy. Unfortunately, it being Christmas time, I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, though I did get to meet Megan's family since we did sort of a family meet exchange. In any case I took almost no pictures, and except for just being there, nothing of great importance happened. It was lovely to see my beautiful nieces, and get to spend time with them. I love and miss you all. Happy New Years'

Thanksgiving

If you have been reading my blog for a long time (ha) then you have probably read about my adventures around thanksgiving last year. This year I wanted to do it up a little bigger, and hopefully with a years more experience have a little less trouble. I arranged for some friends of mine to host the party, since their house has more space, and thn basically invited everyone I know, and told them to invite everyone they know, etc. The party was to be potluck like last year, with me producing the Turkey and stuffing again. I didn't want to have the same trouble with the turkey again this year, and a British friend of mine named Allan told me about a special expat butcher that could probably get me a good one. I found their website and reserved a nice big turkey for the party, and then sat back and waited for the big day. As the day approached I made sure everyone was up to speed, that there would be plenty of food and booze, and warned our hosts that I would have to be at their house bright and early to prepare the turkey for the evening meal.

The problem was, I discovered, the friendly butcher had not reserved me a turkey. I went to the shop and was told there were no turkeys left, and that I was out of luck. In a state of near panic I called the mans cellphone. Understandably he doesn't answer that line, and only returns calls. Anyway he returned my call and I told him what had happened. He was very nice on the phone and certainly sympathetic. He promised there would be a turkey for me. The day before the party I went to pick it up, and sure enough there was a turkey waiting for me. A turkey weighing in at right around 20#!!! Unclear if it would even fit into a tiny czech oven, I warned my hosts, that I might be improvising in their kitchen.

Preparations actually went quite smoothly. I was up bright and early and trekking my 20# bird across Prague. I had to wash it in the bathtub, and we had to invent a special oven pan using large quantities of aluminum foil, but in the end it was possibly the best turkey I have ever eaten. (Also the freshest, as I am pretty sure my friendly butcher went out and killed it for me). It took pretty much all day to cook it and filled the oven to capacity, but it came out beautiful. My stuffing (thanks again Joan) came out perfect, and was often cited as the best anyone had ever had.

We had a pretty fine turn out with I think a maximum number around 20 at any time, and there was more food than we could possibly consume (some of Jason's Czech students prepared potato pancakes as well). Several people got to celebrate their first thanksgiving which pleased me greatly. Toward the end of the evening everything devolved into drunken chaos, but that was fun, too.

Finally the party ran out of booze and the remaining guests all tromped down to the nearest pub to play darts and finish getting completely hammered. God bless Thanksgiving. Megan took most of the pictures since I again forgot my camera, but I don't have them available. Perhaps I will post them later (update: Photos)

Halloween

Generally Halloween was pretty quiet. It's not really celebrated here, but we got invited to a party of a friend of Curtis'. Megan was clever enough to have her costume shipped over from the states, but I had to throw something together. In the end I went as an 80's business man (very original), but Megan went as a flapper. Her costume was great but she felt a little self-conscious wearing it on the way to the party. I have basically stolen Curtis' picture since I forgot to bring my camera.

Budapest

In order to facilitate the posting of this blog, I have basically just copied Megan's letter home about our trip to Budapest. Her message was much more thorough than I could have hoped to write, so I will let her tell our story. So please enjoy...

Day 1: The night before we left, our friend and fellow Glossa teacher, Anne, left Prague forever. She’s moved to Berlin so that she can earn real money before heading back to the states. With any luck, we’ll get there at some point to visit her. Anyway, Mark and I didn’t stay long, one because it was an outdoor event and it started to rain; and two, because we did have a train to catch the next day. Anyway, our train left a little before 1pm. It’s about a six and a half hour trip, though the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic before arriving in Hungary. So, I now have two Slovak stamps in my passport, even though I never got off the train. Other than being crowded, the trip was alright. Our train arrived right on time, at 7:30 and we headed right to the hostel.

Unfortunately, our first encounter with a Hungarian was also our first encounter with a rude, unhelpful service-person. We wanted to buy a book of ten metro tickets, because every time you get on a train or a tram, you have to validate a new ticket. Of course, we only had big bills because we had just withdrawn money, and the minute the woman saw that, she “forgot” all of her English and absolutely refused to help us. Luckily, we found another ticket counter with a much nicer lady, and were soon on our way. A note about Hungarian money here, the basic unit of measure is called a forint. 10 forints are equal to 1 Czech crown; and thus, 200 forints make an American dollar. I withdrew approximately 20 000 forints, or 100 dollars for the weekend.

Anyway, we found our hostel without trouble; they gave very good directions. After dropping off our bags we headed to Ferenc ter, a large square covered end to end with restaurants. The one that we wanted to go to was packed, so we ended up at pretty good pizza place instead. Where the Czechs specialize in beer, the Hungarians may well have come up with the whole idea of wine. Needless to say, I was pleased; over the weekend, we tried at least five Hungarian wines, red and white, and enjoyed all of them.

After dinner, we decided to see one sight before calling it a night. We walked down Andrassy Boulevard, the main street of historic Pest (in case you don’t know, Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube), to Hero’s Square. In former times, the Communists staged State events there, complete with parading soldiers and tanks and such. The center of the square is a tower and statues commemorating the Magyar conquest of Hungary in the ninth century. The mounted horsemen along the bottom of the statue are the tribal chiefs who led the invasion, and believe me, they are a scary lot. One of the amusing things we noted was that the Hungarians have a much more militant history than the Czechs and they are quite proud of it. Around the outside of the square are statues of 16 historical leaders of the Hungarian people, such as King Stephan I, the first Christian king (I think the son of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, but I’m not sure) and the leader of the 1858 anti-Hapsburg rebellion (the Hapsburgs, of course, being the ruling dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until it was dissolved in World War I). After taking bunches of pictures, we headed back to the hostel, as I was cold and tired.

The hostel was pretty nice, much cleaner than the one in Cesky Krumlov. We had a bed in a large dorms, with something like 8 people in each. The beds were a bit hard, but nothing out of the common European way; the pillows, however, would be dwarfed by the average throw pillow in Mom’s house. In other words, they were small. I was asleep before my head hit mine, so not-to-worry too much.

Day 2: I was awoken Friday morning by singing! Our hostel was across the street from a music school, and every morning, there was singing and pianos and all kinds of lovely sounds. One of the lovely things about this hostel is that it provides breakfast, unlike our last one. It wasn’t much, just a bit of cereal and bread with butter, cheese, or jam. There was also the bitterest coffee I’ve ever tasted; apparently Hungarians like it that way [I liked it too]. Anyway, after a filling breakfast and a bit of getting ready, we headed out for our first full day in Budapest.

We started our day in an area of Pest called the Inner City. Our first stop was actually a peak at the Underground Railway Museum. Budapest is home to the oldest underground metro line still in operation in Europe. We used that particular line a lot, and you can feel the age of it; the trains are shorter and narrower than other lines and the stations have a decidedly Victorian era look to them. It took about five seconds for us to realize that Mark was not doing his usual impeccable job of navigating, so I commandeered the guidebook and did my best to keep control of it for the rest of the trip (every time Mark got his hands on it, we got lost!). From the museum, we headed out to see a plethora of churches, an 18^th century university, and a handsome park (I took flower pictures just for Mom). We also saw the Pest County Hall, which is now an EU government building at some point. I was a bit hesitant to go in, as there seemed to be guards and such. We started in but someone immediately asked us something in Hungarian (an impossible language, which I did not even attempt, beyond “ turn left on the street with the long name; then right on the street with the longer name”). I called to Mark to stop him, as he was a bit ahead of me. The man hesitated and then asked if we were tourists. We admitted as much, and then he said “Oh, please, please, go right ahead.” Can you believe it? That’s the nicest reaction I’ve ever gotten to being a tourist. Anyway, the inner courtyards, the purpose of our visit where lovely, brightly decorated walls and lovely statues.

Anyway, our midday stop was the Central Market Hall. The ground floor is a regular food market – so we got to watch some elderly Hungarians do their shopping – and the top floor is a tourist market. We wandered round there for a while, and I was sorely tempted to get Ben a Hungarian costume (I decided against it, since I thought his Daddy might object to puffy sleeves). We ate lunch in a cafeteria style restaurant on the second floor (which despite it’s casualness had a violinist). We both had peppers stuffed with sausage and rice, mine with rice and Mark with potatoes. They were quite tasty, not at all spicy and I believe quite Hungarian.

From there, we saw more churches and historic buildings, including a pharmacy with old fashioned wooden drawers and cabinets, a Serbian Orthodox Church, and the main pedestrian street, Vaci utca. The Orthodox church was quite interesting, as I have never been in one before. There isn’t as clear of an alter, and where we would have a crucifix, there is a wall covered in painting of different Biblical figures and scenes. We ended the Pest walk at the Chain Bridge, which was the first permanent span across the Danube, built in 1849. Like every other bridge in Budapest, it was dynamited by the retreating Nazis at the end of World War II. It was restored and reopened 100 years to the day of it’s original inauguration in 1949. At both ends of the bridge there are growling stone lions. Legend has it that the sculptor committed suicide on realizing that the lions’ tongues had been forgotten. So, across the bridge and beautiful Danube to Buda we went. We took the funicular (a peculiar train-sort-of-thing that takes one up steep hills) up the hill to the castle district, while enjoying the view of Pest across the river). At the exit, there is the statue of an eagle perched on a high tower; this is Turul, the mythical creature that lead the Magyars to Hungary. The palace has now been converted into museums, but is still quite lovely. From there, we headed up to Holy Trinity Square, which should be home to a plague column (cf Cesky Krumlov), but it has been taken down for repairs. It is also home to one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen, known as the Matthias Church. The Hilton Hotel of Budapest is also there; it is an award winning structure which incorporates two ruins. Now, what I don’t understand is why, if they are capable of building something so beautiful in Budapest, they built the monstrosity that passes for a hotel here in Prague. Behind the church and hotel is a hundred year old structure called the Fisherman’s Bastion, named such because if was built on the site of an old fish market. Mostly, it’s a viewing point from which to see Pest. It’s pretty enough in itself but decidedly new.

So at this point we were understandably foot sore and tired. So, we stopped at a little café-bookshop for a rest and a drink. I had more lovely Hungarian wine, while Mark sampled the local beer, no Pilsner but palatable enough. At the point the battery in my camera died, so Mark was responsible for pictures for the rest of the day; luckily, I brought my charger so I do have pictures from the next day. From there, we saw a Medieval Jewish Prayer House, which was turned into apartments after the Jews were driven out of Budapest after the Christians retook it from the Turks in 1686. Another highlight from the castle district is described by the guidebook thus: “This is one of the two streets in the Castle District that are best suited for viewing a mysterious Hungarian contribution to Gothic architecture: niches of unknown function that were build into the entryways of medieval buildings.”

Next came the Mary Magdalene tower, once part of a larger 13^th century church that was destroyed in World War II. After this we tried to go to the medieval tunnel network that runs underneath the entire castle district (it’s 15Km long!), but they were having a private event and it is a lot of walking, so we decided to wait until the next day to tour it. Our final stop was the Museum of Military History, since Mark likes that sort of thing and it was free. On the way, we passed large groups of children playing the most inexplicable game. They had numbers tied around their foreheads, and it seemed that any time groups with different colored numbers encountered one another, everyone had to press their number against a tree. Crazy Hungarians! Anyway, we weren’t in the museum long, as it closed at 5 and we got there around 4:40.

We headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. I was looking forward to a bit of sitting, on the funicular and then on the metro. Unfortunately, the funicular was broken, so while we got a full refund (even for our ride up!), we had to walk all the way down the hill. We did eventually find our way back to the hostel and after a couple of minutes of sitting and complaining about our feet (well, I was complaining anyway), we went to dinner. Following the recommendations of the guidebook, we went in search of a traditional Hungarian restaurant. Unfortunately, when we found the recommended place, there was a sign on the door thanking people for their patronage but explaining that after 25 years in business, the owner was retiring. Fancy that. Luckily, we had picked a backup restaurant, which was not closed. It actually turned out to be wonderful. We ended up sharing a couple of dishes – Paprika chicken (so entirely different from Mom’s that we need to change the name of one of them!) and stuffed cabbage (a cabbage leaf wrapped around multiple types of meat and cooked cabbage) – along with red wine this time. The waiter was excellent. He’s been at the restaurant for over 30 years and is a wonderful, old-world, proper sort of man. It was all terribly tasty and filling. After dinner, we found a lovely little pub near the hostel and had a couple more glasses of wine while chatting and local-watching. We ended up having another early night; I’m sure I was asleep before midnight.

Day 3: Saturday was our last full day in Budapest, so mostly we knew that we needed to see everything that we had missed Friday: St. Stephan’s Basilica, Parliament, the Labyrinth, the Terror House, and a bathhouse.

After breakfast, we started out towards the Nyugati Railway Station. It was built by the Eiffel company (best known for the Parisian tower of the same name), but the Hungarians are not overly concerned with its upkeep. It’s a bit dirty and now home to a McDonald’s and a disco. From the station, we headed out to St. Stephan’s and Parliament. St. Stephan’s, named for Hungary’s first Christian king, is the largest church in the country. It is absolutely stunning, and apparently so sturdy that it was used to safeguard important documents and artwork during the bombardments of World War II. The decoration is stunning (gilding, gilding everywhere) and on such a scale that I can’t imagine the mind that conceived of it.

Parliament is equally impressive; “it mixes a predominant neo-Gothic style with a neo-Renaissance dome” and is the most identifiable landmark on the Pest side of the Danube. Unfortunately, do to an unruly protest the previous week (in which the state television station was temporarily overrun and 150 people, 102 of which were police officers, were injured) the building itself was heavily guarded, with barricades preventing anyone from getting too close. When we were there, the protests had turned into a cultural fair. Crazy Hungarians.

At about 11am, we arrived at the House of Terror, 60 Andrassy Boulevard. This seemingly innocuous residential building was home to political torture and murder under two separate, bloody regimes. Near the end of WWII, the Nazis set up a Hungarian puppet regime, know as ArrowCross. Under this government, Budapest’s Jewish population, which had thus far weathered the war relatively intact was set upon with an unmatched vehemence (including people being tied together and thrown alive into the freezing waters of the Danube). In addition, anyone considered politically dangerous was imprisoned and tortured and at times executed at 60 Andrassy. As the Soviet Army rolled through Hungary, which much difficultly, especially in moving from Buda to Pest, they brought with them the obligatory political officers, whose first task was to set up a political police (indeed, Orwell’s “thought police”), which immediately took over the Andrassy building, settling into nearly 50 years of uninterrupted savagery. Boys as young as 16 were imprisoned, tortured, and executed here. One famous case had to do with a priest and several Catholic schoolboys, accused to killing Soviet soldiers (a ridiculously invented charge), the priest and three of the boys (ages 16-17) were executed and the rest sentenced to hard labor. It was an incredibly moving, difficult tour. The history, the suffering of the place was incredible.

The final room of the tour was the “hall of victimizers” where the pictures of members of ArrowCross and Communists were hung. I was amazed as to how many of them were alive and seemingly unpunished. I really want to believe that at least some of those people were not truly “evil at heart” but instead maybe through coercion, confusion, or simply the need to protect those closest to them, ended up in a role they didn’t really want. But then, who really knows?

So, after the Terror House tour, it was about 1pm and it was lunch time. We actually ended up back at the same restaurant that we couldn’t get into on Thursday. It was maybe the best meal I had in Budapest – chicken with mozzarella and tomatoes and potatoes. It was lovely. Anyway, the Terror House had taken longer than we anticipated, so we were left with some choices to make. There were three time-consuming things left that we wanted to do: the caves, the bathhouse, and Statue Park (where all the old Communist statues are on display). After some discussion, we decided that we were Communisted-out so was nixed Statue Park and compromised on the other two – the caves we would do that evening and go to the bathhouse the next morning, since our train didn’t leave until 2:30.

The caves were quite interesting; they are a natural formation, though further excavated and fortified by generations of people. They are now decorated in a kind of “evolution of humanity” theme, starting with reproductions of cave drawings until you get to what’s called the Renaissance grotto, with a fountain that flows with red wine instead of water (a waste of perfectly good wine, I think). There’s also a sort of puzzle room, intended for kids, but I found I was almost too much of a wuss to do it myself. The game is that, while you were exploring the caves, someone has stolen the sun, and you have to find it again. You enter through a door and grab hold of a little cord along one wall. Once the door closes, you are plunged into absolute darkness, and you have to follow the cord around a maze to “find the sun.” It’s quite an experience if you’ve got a bit of claustrophobia or you’re just a big old scared-y-cat (like me), because at times, it feels as though the walls are closing in around you or that with your next step you’ll drop off the face of the earth. Neither happened, thankfully, and we eventually “found the sun” and our way out. The final section of the caves was the “caves of the future” which was a mock archeological dig from 40 million years in the future. They found things like shoe prints, cell-phones, and coke bottles embedded in the rock. Very amusing, though a bit silly.

The caves took us several hours to complete, so it was nearly dinner time before we got out. We wandered around the castle district and looked at some souvenir shops (I ended up buying myself something, I can never resist spending money) before heading on a tour that would take us towards our chosen restaurant in an area of Buda known as Watertown. We walked for a bit down a prettyish main street known as Fo Utca until we reached our dinner destination for the evening, which was a French restaurant. It was a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but the food was very good and the service excellent. In general, we were amazed by the level of English and general politeness that we encountered. Most places like Prague get a bit tired of us tourists, but we were made to feel very welcome in Budapest. Mark had some sort of sweetbread thing (which I think is not really bread, right?) and I had a turkey and curry dish. It wasn’t the least be spicy but still quite tasty. So, after dinner, we headed out around Watertown to see several churches, a Capuchin Church and two Catholic ones – St. Anne’s and St. Elizabeth’s. St. Anne’s was almost destroyed in the 1950s by the communist leader who thought that Stalin would be offended by seeing it from the Parliament windows across the river. Fortunately, that plan was never carried out. We ended our pleasant, if not spectacular walk at the Margaret Bridge (there’s also an Elizabeth bridge!) and headed back to the hostel. We were both so exhausted that we turned in almost immediately on getting there.

Day 4: We got up very early and pack everything we could, except our bathing suits, so that we could head to the Gellert Baths for our last morning in Budapest. Gellert is both a stunning, five star hotel and Budapest’s most famous bathhouse. The entry fees are a little confusing, but in the end we figured out that for 3000 forints each, we got up to four hours in the pool and thermal baths as well as private changing cabins (one for each of us, of course!). If we stayed less than four hours, we would get a bit of a refund. After changing, we headed into the main pool area. It’s absolutely beautiful. Our first stop was the mixed gender (thus fully clothed!) thermal bath area, where we sat and enjoyed the waters. It was just perfect after two days of hard walking. After relaxing, chatting, and people watching, we went into the pool for a while. The water was so cold, I almost couldn’t get in. To own the truth, Mark had to pull me in. We swam a couple of laps and enjoyed the jets and cool water for a while before heading back to the thermal bath again.

Unfortunately, we could only stay about 90 minutes and then had to leave so that we wouldn’t miss our train. After a good shower to get the sulfur water out of my hair, we left and headed back to the hostel for lunch and our bags. We went to a restaurant recommended by the hostel manager, which was quite good but turned out to be very expensive. In fact, we ran out of forints! Thankfully, we both had Euros on us and they let us pay the remainder in that. Unfortunately, the waitress did the math very wrong and charged us 20 Euro for what should have been 2 Euro. It was clearly an honest mistake which we didn’t catch until after we left. I was really upset, and Mark offered to go argue, but I figured it wasn’t worth it.

So all that was left was to go to the train station. The beginning of the ride was nice and quite comfortable, until we reached Bratislava. I think the entire population of Slovakia got on the train. There were people and bags completely filling the hall. I was getting hungry, but we decided to wait until Brno, hoping people would get off. Enough did to let us squeeze up to the dining car. Unfortunately, however, it was full, mostly with people not interested in eating, who just wanted a place to sit. I can’t blame them entirely, in retrospect, but at the time I was so hungry and exhausted that I just lost it and started crying. We stood at the door to the dining car for about 30 minutes when finally somebody from first class got up and left and we took their table. The food was passable, if not great, and mostly it was food! After eating, we went back to our seats for the end of the journey. I got home around 10, I think. Exhausted but pleased. Pictures.

Cesky Krumlov

Megan and I finally decided to do a longer trip. There are several very picturesque locations around the CZ, and we landed on Cesky Krumlov. This little city in South Bohemia is entirely protected as an Unesco Historical site. This of course means that the whole town in old, and mostly beautiful. While I'm sure this must sometimes be annoying to the residents, it makes for a wonderful weekend getaway. We woke up very early on Saturday to get to the bus and spent much of the early morning snoozing on the long ride there. When we arrived however we walked down the hill toward the town, marveling at its beauty as it came into site. We made it to our Hostel and dropped of our stuff, grabbed our guidebook and hit the town. The whole town is on a tight peninsula in the river, and so is actually quite small. After grabbing a light lunch we spent the entire afternoon wandering the streets taking photos, and reading about the history of this quaint little town. This is also where I learned about sgraffiti, which is a form of decoration on the outside of buildings. You will see many examples in my pictures.
We basically exhausted ourselves wandering the town, beginning with the castle, and then moving through every site we could find. By nightfall we were exhausted and hungry. A friend had recommended a little restaurant on the Vltava that prepares authentic medieval food. Though it was chilly, Megan and I managed to find a table sitting on the bank of the river (which we shared with several other tourists throughout the evening, though none of them spoke English). The food was excellent, though I did gorge myself a little much.
After dinner we wandered about the town looking for a reasonably quiet pub, and accidentally found ourselves in a residential part of town. We turned around to go back, when we heard music coming from the river along a little alley. We followed the sound (johnny Cash) to a little locals pub, where we ordered a beer and spent a couple hours talking, drinking and listening to music. After this we decided we had had a long enough day, and went to bed early.
The next morning we decided to go for a little horseback ride through the nearby hills. They insisted we wear helmets which was briefly a problem when they couldn't find one to fit my giant head. The ride was quite nice, but a little restrictive. Afterwards we basically had lunch and sampled one of the local beers and then headed back up the hill for our bus. Pictures.

Krivoklat

We made a short day trip to a castle called Krivoklat on Saturday. The town was tiny leaving little to do outside the castle, and while the castle was very interesting, it was also quite small. We had to hike up a little hill to get there providing a lovely view of the Czech countryside, and we got to play around on the walls a bit, and visit the Krivoklat dragon. Afterwards we had a very good traditional Czech meal at a little restaurant situated below the castle walls, but sitting on a cliff overlooking the river. Pictures

Scottish Festival

This weekend we made a trip with our friends Rob and Marta. Rob claims Scottish heritage and definitely enjoys their history and such, so we went to the Czech Scottish Festival. It was being held in North Bohemia at a relatively new castle. The grounds were beautiful and we spent a good portion of the day just wandering around enjoying the nature. There were a few problems like the overwhelming presence of yellow jackets everywhere and the lines for refreshments and food were ridiculous, but otherwise it was the weather was very nice and we got to see a lot of kilts. They had displays form several different Scottish eras, and we saw a little parade. In the end the most important event, the Tabor Toss, didn't start until after we had to leave to catch our train. I did get to see most of the birds of prey show, however, which really made my day. Check out the pictures

Kost

So we found a castle that has never been Baroqued. Dead in the center of a part of the Czech Republic called Bohemian Paradise. The castle is unique in that it was not built on a hill or mountain. The owner wanted it to be hard to find so he built it on a small stone outcropping in a valley. You hardly notice it until you are upon it. In fact we had to hike there from the nearest city in the rain, and we didn't even realize we had arrived until we were practically at the door. However the castle was really impressive and still maintains the impression that it was built for war or defense, not for rich people to hang out in. Also Kost is still privately owned which is where I got the idea that it would be really cool to own a castle. How cool would it be to wander out of your castle in a bathrobe and cup of coffee and chat with your tourists?
Anyway we took the castle tour and lots of pictures of the surrounding countryside. This part of Bohemia has dozens of castles in close proximity so you can even see several of them along the way. We had lunch at a little local place where I think I ate a sparrow, but am not quite sure. It was after this trip I think that Megans mom coined the term "castling" to describe our weekend jaunts. Pictures...

Konopiste

Going through the castle map we happened upon another nearby castle, that I noticed was right next to my friends Kate's home. We decided to give it a shot, and I texted Kate to tell her we were coming. We took the train, which took almost an hour, mainly because it's a communter train, and Kate met us at the station. The walk up to the castle is mostly through the castle grounds which are now a state park. The day was sunny and warm and a walk through the gardens was very relaxing and fun.
The castle is the first I've seen that has bears in residence in the former moat. So you see several pictures of that. We wandered the grouds for a while, includin gthe famous rose gardens. Eventually Kate had to leave, and Megan and I stopped for lunch at the Barrel Restaurant for some Klobasa. We went back up to the castle and did one of the tours which I think we both really enjoyed. The last owner of the castle was the guy whose assasination sparked WW1. Afterwards we walked back into teh nearby town of Benesov and got some pictures of their cathedral and what appears to be a single remaining Cathedral wall fragment. Someday I will translate all the explanatory sign I take pictures of. Speaking of which...

Dresden

My 90 days was up. I had to get out of the country, but I was also broke, so I decided on Dresden Megan had been there twice before and had had a reasonably bad trip each time. I was hoping to at least have a pleasant day. In fact I was very happy. We followed a walking tour out of Megan's guidbook which took us around the city to see all the beautiful and historic buildings. This year is a big anniversary for Dresden and they have been trying really hard for over a decade to get the place repaired from WW2 and 50 years of communism. They've done a great job. The only scaffolding was over the front of the royal palace. You can see from my photos that the skyline has been fully repaired. We had lots of time so we strolled for most of the day, and it was mostly not too hot. There are some really romantic spots and lots of fountains and parks in Dresden so it was nice to be strolling along. We managed to have some traditional german food in the shadow of a beautiful cathedral. I also had my first opportunity to compare authentic German beer to my beloved Czech beer, and while the German beer was good, I must say it doesnt compare favorably. In the end Megan finally had a nice visit to Dresden and I got my passport stamp. Pictures...

Stare-Boleslav

Aidrian informed us of a little town practically on the Prague public transit system that has a castle and such, so Megan and I got up Saturday and made our way to Stare Boleslav. This is actually two towns on either side of the Elbe (Czech Labem), that united as one town. One one side is a little "castle" that protected the river crossing and on the other are several very pretty churches. We went to the castle which is not fully renovated but very cute, and then crossed the river. The main church is very old and while the Romans were never in the town it's built in Romanesque style. Inside are some of the earliest frescoes in Europe. There was a wedding in the church so we moved on and explored the town a bit promising to return. When we got back the wedding was over so we went in. While we were looking about this young man came and said something in Czech I responded telling him that we didn't speak Czech. THen he fetched an older woman and said something to her. Finally in English he asked if we would like a tour. We said sure and we joined a group who was following the older woman and he basically translated for her to us. The church has a shrine that was an older church and is the place where Saint Winceslas was murdered. For many years his body was entombed here, but was later removed to Prague.
After the main tour, the young man took us out and showed us the fresoes, which had been locked up before. He offerred to take us to see the other church as well, but we declined, having accepted enough from the young man.
Afterwards we went to a late lunch in town, and then headed home. Pictures...

Karlstein

The nearest and most popular castle to Prague, besides Prague castle, is Karlstein. It's a fairy tale hilltop castle surrounded by woodlands and a quaint little town that has basically been renovated to serve the tourists. Curtis had been there before but had told me that he would want to return. So Megan and I grabed him for a daytrip out. The train trip is really quite short, and we were walking up the hill before we knew it. The castle is really everything everyone says it is, especially when you see it for the first time from afar. We toured around the castle, and then went for a trop on the wooded trails. I felt a little bad because we happened upon a mother deer in a clearing and scared her away form her baby, but we left the baby in peace, so hopefully all was well. What's worse is that on the way home I got hit with a huge allergy attack and was sick the rest of the weekend. Megan was very kind and took care of me, and even wandered around aimlessly trying to find a weekend pharmacy to buy drugs, but we failed. Pictures...