The Czech Republic is Getting Foxy

I always heard that there was a tradition of fox hunting in the Czech Republic, but during the three years that I lived here, I only sighted one fox while traveling on a train. In the past two and a half months, I've seen four foxes running across open fields. Perhaps they're fans of the frigid weather we've been having recently, but it's been a real surprise to me. I've always enjoyed staring out of train or car windows trying to spot wild life. Typically, there are lots of deer to be seen, and a wide variety of birds, but the wilder sorts are few and far between, so I've greatly enjoyed my little glimpses into the animal underworld so to speak. Now I just need to spot a wild boar, and I'll really feel like I'm behind the scenes. Thus ends the portion of my post about the foxy-ness of the Czech Republic.

I will now proceed to the part of the show where I come out and share some photos or where I've been traipsing lately. On Wednesday, I had the chance to go to Cheb and visit with an former colleague and a couple former students. I had great times during these meetings, and laughed harder than I have in a long time. It was really great to reconnect and to feel like the time I spent here mattered to people.

I arrived in Cheb early so I would have a chance to do a little shopping, as well as wandering around with my camera in hand. There are plenty of times when I wish that I had taken photography classes, or was well enough off to purchase some sort of fancy pants camera, but my little old Olympus fits so nicely in my pocket, and ultimately it gets the job done. I'm trying to focus more on details this time around. I have countless photos documenting my years living in this city, and now I'm coming back and examining things on a closer level. It's amazing what you can find.

I headed down to the magnificent cathedral, Sv. Mikolas, and did a study on steeples and doors. This is just a small sampling.

Next I made my way over to Chebsky Hrad (Cheb Castle) where I focused on the big picture, angles, and shadows.

Walking by the river has always been one of my favorite things to do in Cheb. The cold weather has provided a number of new views thanks to the interplay of water and freezing temperatures. The result: ice in a of styles and designs.

I love this house and have taken pictures of it from various angles, and in multiple seasons, so it only seemed appropriate to add it here.

I headed back into town and enjoyed the buildings and walkways along the way.

That concludes the Cheb tour for today. It's time to watch the new singing talent show on TV Nova :)

Weekend Wanderings

I've been saving up some photos from weekend trips, and thought I'd just lay them out here now and be done with them :) Yesterday I was privileged enough to go to Cheb and visit with some old friends. I came early and took a bunch of new photos, so I wanted to get these older ones taken care of so I could move on and put up the next section. I really feel like one of those college students who can't chose a major. Should I be a writer? Should I be a photographer? Should I be a tour guide? Clearly my brain was designed for drifting.

Since my husband is quite disinterested in the art of shopping, my mom-in-law has enjoyed having a girl to travel around with. A couple weeks ago she and I took a trip to Plzen on our own. She told me it was the first time she had been on a train in ten years! Craziness! She didn't seem to think they had improved much in the time she had been boycotting them :) Despite large gaps in language ability, we had a great time, and were able to communicate. Even I brought up topics for "conversation," and she seemed able to follow along for the most part.

One of the great things is when she just talks whether I understand or not. It helps me to pick up on more, and to feel like my attention is valued even if my vocabulary is limited. I still love picturing my parents and my in laws sitting around a table with maps, each set talking on and on in their own separate unidentifiable languages. Priceless :)

Anyhow, as a result of a couple shopping trips I contribute pictures of Plzen as well as the "haul."

Also in that weekend I went to Germany again and had another shot at ice skating. My mom-in-law was along this time, and showed me how easy it is to go fast and to skate backwards. She has had great fun since telling people how she held my hand for a couple rounds and I kept saying how we were going so fast and how there were so many people. Always good to know I can supply entertainment.

Let it be known that on that trip I skated for about two hours and didn't fall down at all. The wall is still my neighbor, but it's getting more distant.

Last weekend we took a trip to visit Marek's grandmother. It was so nice to see her again. She's just precious, and she loved our wedding photo book. I need to make more copies when I get back home and send them over for the family. Why didn't I think of that before? Not always the brightest.

Going both directions we saw all sorts of beautiful countryside, quaint villages, and fabulous castles. Many of them were places we visited when Julie came for a visit. This time we had more important things to do than sight seeing, but we did take one little break along the way and I took some back side photos of Horsovsky Tyn.

Be sure to come back soon for more of my attempts at adding travel photography to my resume of accolades ;)

Pisek, the Final Chapter

So at the end of our very lovely day of castle touring, Kelly and I caught a bus that took us to the very old city of Pisek. Kelly, being the great Czech expert that she is, had worked out all the bus times, and figured that we could take one leaving almost immediately upon our arrival, or stick around a couple hours, have dinner, and see some of the sights. Pisek is home to the oldest bridge in all of central Europe, so we agreed that taking the 8:30 bus home would work out just fine. Besides, the weather was still so perfect that it just made sense to enjoy it as long as possible.
After reconfirming bus times on the schedule in the window, and finding the right place to catch our bus, just so everything would go smoothly, we headed up to the center. Pisek is, indeed, a really lovely town. The sun was falling, and in centers that often means it's a bit difficult to get good lighting, but I did my best to capture some of the views that we were blessed to see.



Not wanting to worry about missing our bus, we didn't wander long before choosing a restaurant. After a relaxing dinner (we were both pretty happy to sit a bit after all our running about) we still had enough time to wander a bit more. Kelly had been to Pisek once before, and wanted to find the park she'd been in, so we set out in search of it, and did, indeed, find the place, as well as finding a folk festival in progress. So we watched the folk dancers for a while, then headed back for the station. I was a bit sad not to have seen the ancient bridge, but figured it would give me a reason to try coming back again some day in the future.
Now let me tell you a bit about the Czech transportation system so that you can hopefully appreciate the next bit of my story. The trains are all owned by one company. This is not exactly a good thing. It means there is no competition, so, basically, they can do what they want. The prices aren't always the greatest, and when they have delays there is nothing to do but wait, and wait, and wait. I've experienced this plenty of times, and it's definitely not the best thing. The bus system, however, is a bit more varied. You have your city buses of course, which are run by their individual cities. Then there are the CSAD buses that go all over the country. These are like the basic cheap, not very nice buses that are also connected to the train system. Then there are the Student Agency buses. These buses are...Nice! You can ride in style sitting on stuffed leather seats. They give you a free hot beverage and the option to watch a movie. They also are sometimes cheaper, but you really need to book a ticket in advance if you want to ride on one of these.
So Kelly and I arrived all tired and sweaty at the bus station only to make a rather frightening discovery. The last bus of the evening was a Student Agency bus. There were about ten or fifteen other people waiting for this bus to arrive. And on these buses, they don't allow as many people as possible to crowd in. Either you have a seat, or you don't get on the bus.
The bus was coming from a large touristy city as well, which meant, on a Saturday evening, that it was very full. As soon as the conductor got off the bus he shouted out something cheerily in Czech to the effect of, "if you have a ticket, please get on. If not, unfortunately, you have to wait and see if we have space."
The people pushed right up to the doors, depositing their luggage into the open compartment and accepting their seat numbers happily. Kelly and I waited, along with one young girl, up near the front to see if there was any possibility that we might yet squeeze on.
When the time came, the conductor looked around and after checking the seating arrangement inside came out with a smile again and said "Bohuzel..." That was definitely NOT the word we'd been hoping for. It means, "unfortunately." I must admit, I felt he was far too cheerful when using this most distressing word.
And so the big beautiful yellow bus pulled away, and Kelly and I were left with nothing. We searched for information about possible buses to other cities that might still have connections taking us back to Prague, but there was a great big NOTHING.
This was one of those times I was definitely thankful that I wasn't traveling alone. I was also thankful to be with someone else who is level headed, and also who can speak a fair amount of Czech. We turned with disappointment back toward the town, and made our way to the center once more. The good thing was that I was going to be able to see the bridge after all. There was a international folk tale festival going on, and this meant that there wasn't as much room in hotels and pensions as we had been hoping for, but after some serious walking around town, we ended up at the white rose. The man at the counter was friendly, and spoke English. It was literally the first English we'd heard from anyone besides each other since leaving Prague in the morning, and it was a relief not to have to fight to communicate. We paid more than we would have liked, but by that point we were pretty desperate, and I've definitely been living super cheaply as far as accommodations are concerned, so it probably wasn't as bad as it felt to me. Typically I stay in hostels, and don't like to pay more than $10 or $15 for a night, but this place cost about $35 each which seemed pretty steep to my way of thinking. At least there was a bed involved. And even separate beds for us both, but not in a room with strangers, which made it quite different from hostels. We were also able to take showers, even though we had only one set of clothes and no tooth brushes. (sigh) Gives a new definition to "packing light" for sure.
And so that was that. We stayed the night and got at least a bit of sleep. Not the greatest, thanks to a very hard bed, but better than wandering the streets all night. Come morning, I got up around 6:30, took a really quick refresh shower, and then headed out to take a few more photos. Okay, so for the first one I just stuck my head out the window, but it worked :)

I was really impressed with the bridge. It was really incredible to know I was standing on something so ancient. According to Wikipedia it was built sometime in the 3rd quarter of the 13th century. Yes, that's old!
I took several pictures there before heading back to a few of the places I'd enjoyed the evening before. It had been too dark to get good photos then, so I wanted to go back and try once more when there was better lighting.



I made it back to the hotel in plenty of time to enjoy the "free" breakfast. Basically, we figured since we'd already paid for it we should eat as much as we could manage :) Plus that was a good way to start the day.
We made it easily to the station for the 8:30 AM train. Not quite so many people are crowding on so early on a Sunday morning. Even though we had a Student Agency bus to contend with once again, we were able to get on, and we were soon riding on style and I had a little hot chocolate to warm me up since I still only had shorts to wear. Fortunately I didn't freeze, and by the time we got back to Prague it was actually appropriate attire.
We had a nice hike back up to Kelly's palce, where we were both thankful for real showers and a fresh change of clothes. Then I headed off to enjoy a bit of the city for the day. I'd really been looking forward to going to church, but with the bus issue, that sadly didn't happen. I did, however, get some shopping in (not that this is really any sort of church replacement mind you) and was able to sit for a couple of hours in Starbucks enjoying an ice cold Caramel Frappaccino before catching the train back to Marianske Lazne at about 4. In all, a very satisfying weekend.

Sunny Summer Holiday Weekend Continued...

The boat ride really was just the thing for this day. It made it feel all the more summery, even though I couldn't tell you the last summer boat ride I went on. Well, maybe I can, it was in Alaska, but a very different place for sure. We managed to get a spot out in the sun, which was okay for one direction only. It was sweaty hot, but personally I rather love that. As you can see, Kelly and I were both quite pleased with our choice.
The views were super nice for the most part as well. I was so impressed with the castles and the natural scenery. It was strange to imagine how different it all must have looked when the water was 40 meters lower. But it's definitely spectacular as it is now.




So as you can see I started with Orlik and then ended with Zvikov which is the next castle we went to. Along with all these breathtaking views, we also saw a rather startling amount of nudity. You know, just so we would remember that we're in Europe and that things are just a bit different around here. Craziness.
Anyhow, Zvikov castle is more of a ruin, but it has undergone some repairs and was really incredibly beautiful. According to legend, this is where the Czech Crown Jewels originally resided before Karlstejn castle was built. So it has a rather important history. However, later on it was largely destroyed, especially when a large portion of the castle fell into the water. It was cool to wander around in the partial rooms that are not just openly outdoors and to imagine that these were once the royal chambers.
The castle was a self tour and they allowed photo taking inside so I have a lot of pictures. There was even a wedding photo shoot going on inside. Very magical sort of place to be certain.




As you can see, I was particularly taken with the arches. They were so beautiful. The last photo in this group is of the outdoor area that used to be inside the castle. It must have been incredible when it was complete and in use.
I was definitely a bit snap happy at this place :)

This next set of pictures are from the inside. They are trying to preserve the original artwork. A lot of it is just in fragments, but in some rooms they have done really amazing work.



Then we moved outside and checked out the towers and views. There are two towers that are still standing. One is a whopping 3 1/2 meters thick! That's a lot of rock. The other one was quite short and they aren't quite certain of the purpose because it's mostly just hidden amongst the trees.


We wandered around a bit more, both inside and out before heading to the boat for the return ride to Orlik where we planned to catch the bus to Pisek.


That last picture was taken by a very dirty slimy lake, but the trees were so pretty that I just couldn't resist the picture in the early evening light.
Well, I'm afraid that's all I have time for today, so I'm just going to have to wrap this up another day. And so the weekend continues almost a week after the fact :) It's a weekend that just keeps on giving, which is a good thing because the cooler temperatures and gray skies have thoroughly sunk in once again.