Konopište Castle, Czech Repub

Took it fairly easy the lst couple of days in Prague. Have met some great people at the youth hostel we are staying in and spent some time with them :) Is actually a brilliant youth hostel and if anyone finds themselves in Prague then Sir Tobys is a great place to stay!

Took a train out to Benešov one day and walked to Konopište Castle. It is a beautiful castle but more importantly has one of the best armouries in Europe! We had a tour through it and other parts of the castle but unfortunately weren’t allowed to take any photos inside so you’ll just have to take our word that it was cool ;) The castle also had the requisite bear in the moat. I must say all the stories and movies i’ve seen or read had water in the moat but round here they definitely prefer to have bears – guess that would make sneaking into the castle a rather more exciting venture :P Anyway the pic here is of one of the statues in the gardens

Prague (again)

Well back in Praha again... Um yes still not entirely sure why but we had to go somewhere for Easter and it seemed like a good plan – after all it has ... MARKETS! Hey don’t laugh – we like markets ;D Managed to see a ‘birds of prey’ show yesterday (at the markets of course lol) which was awesome as the crowd wasn’t that big and Ve got right up the front. We also got some photos afterwards of one of the large eagles. Well we think it was an eagle – the only words i was understanding from the guy speaking about them was things like ‘big’ and ‘small’ :P

Planning to see some castles and towns that are day trips from here in the next few days but our plans are somewhat subject to change, as evidenced by the fact we spent an hour at a local playground today on the way to the city centre. At least i am prepared these days so i had my journal to write in, while Ve pretended to be a monkey on a huge climbing thingy :) BTW the photo here is of a blacksmith who was demonstrating at the easter markets.

České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Went to the Zoo Ohrada which is only a short train ride away (and a long walk if you catch the wrong train ... um yes, not that we have ever done that of course!) and saw their amazing collection of owls (among other animals). Vera was very excited since she loves owls, not to mention the zoo also had wolves – her other animal love at the moment. The cages for the big animals were not that huge which was pretty sad but they at least had a reasonable environment and things to keep them from getting too bored.

Realised after a little while at the zoo that the temperature had got to somewhere around “really bl#$dy cold” so we power-walked in what we hoped was the right direction (my czech is great for asking questions – it is just a shame i don’t understand most of the replies :P ) and luckily found the correct station where the train we needed was just leaving so jumped straight on with a many sighs of relief. Have decided we loooove the heating on trains :D

Sumava, Czech Republic

Some pics of the beautiful South Bohemian forest, the Sumava.

First is Me when we decided to forge our own path through the wilderness ... ok so the track we were following was closed, so then we followed the train line (like in a movie! only with more mud, only leaping one river ... ok stream, and the only wildlife was one terrified snake ... um actually all of that could probably be in a movie too!!), then we thought what the heck and got on a track that went roughly the right direction (and away from the train line) and wandered through the forest until we hit the town we were aiming for :) Er mum and dad if you are reading this then i’m just kidding about everything i just wrote ... really!

Second pic is when i’d had enough of travelling with Ve so i left her in the forest at night like Hansel and Gretel! Or it was possibly when i discovered the colour filters on my camera ;) Filters are fuuuuuun plus Ve is absolutely awesome to travel with and we are having a great time and haven’t tried to kill each other once!

Third is Vera with her new pet rock

Fourth is the Sumava forest we walked through.

I should note that every word i write in Czech is missing all its doovy whatsits on top of half the letters cos i am too lazy to find them on my laptop. So the forest should really be pronounced “Shoomarvar” just in a case you ever say it to a Czech person and they look at you like you’re an idiot ... and yes we certainly do know that look first hand ;)

travelling...

I remember sitting round when i was in highschool, wondering what i might do in the future, but i’m pretty sure i never came up with, “drinking pistachio hot choc in little town in Czech Republic, memorising czech words and reading harry potter fanfic with my 9yr old daughter” ... guess sometimes its difficult to predict the future ;)

Volary, Czech Republic

We ended up staying for 8 days in Volary. This unassuming little town was the friendliest we have been to. I think we were the only tourists there at the time tho lol. We stayed in a great little apartment for a lot less than it usually costs for a hostel and it even had a ladder/stairs which Ve loved of course ;) The town itself didn’t have much to see but we met a whole heap of really lovely people and had a great time chatting to people, visiting the local schools (for their English classes), improving our Czech (thanks Lucy!) and even visiting a friend’s home (thanks Jana!). We also did some great hikes into the Sumava (the forest near Volary). So BIG thankyou to all our new friends in Volary and if you’re ever in Australia then we’d love to see you :)

Horní Planá, Czech Republic

Pic of Vera on her "white" beach at Horni Plana. She wasn't too keen for a swim tho lol

Spent the next day vegging (we having found the Czech translation of that yet!) and the day after went for a REALLY long walk/hike for 16+km. Saw the river, some towns, lovely pine forest, farms, strange mutant cow we thought was a rhino/bear (well we had been walking for ages at this point!), lots of sludgy, snowy mud and eventually traipsed back into our penzion to collapse :P

Left Horni Plana for Volary this morning on a very cute little 1 wagon train :) Also spent 1&1/2 hrs wandering around town with our packs searching for a penzion (or pretty much anywhere that would have us!!) that was open. Most towns around here are summer tourism only :( We figured all the walking yesterday was probably good training! Eventually found an apartment which we can go to this evening so we are ignoring the probably price and just being thankful we have a bed!