Churches, and Castles, and Stairs, Oh My!

****WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST****
GRAB A SNACK AND SIT BACK AND ENJOY!

Day One

"So much to see, plenty of time to do it" that is my new motto. I spent the weekend in a few beautiful towns in Southern Bohemia, and definitely took my time, and enjoyed myself. Lucky number thirteen is what our group ended up being, consisting of ten Czech students, a French student, a Scottish student (Varie my roomie!), and me. We took a train on Friday afternoon for 2 1/2 hours to Ceske Budejovice, where Varie's Czech Buddy, Michal, parents live. His parents were out on holiday, but were very kind in letting up us their apartment as our accomidations for the weekend.

Waiting for the train to pass.

Along the way.

Train Station in Ceske Budejovice.

We arrived at the apartment complex (or should say complexes, I'm not used to so many tall apartment buildings all clustered together!) and dropped off our bags and walked to a resturance for dinner.

Apartment Complexes aka Concrete Heaven.

We had arrangements for a private room to have our meal in (which was delicous Czech food!) After dinner we headed to a pub right next to Michal's apartment building and had a few drinks, ended the night fairly early since we had a long day in front of us for the next day.

Yummy...Czech dinner.

At the pub.

Day Two
Saturday we had a fairly early start (ok so I think getting up at half past eight is early, sorry!). I acutally woke up earlier then that, with the sun shining on my face waking me up. We ate a quick breakfast and headed to the bus depot.

Time for breakfast!

We took a bus to Cesky Krumlov, which is a beautiful small town in Southern Bohemia. We meandered throught the labyrinth of lanes and squares visiting St. Vitus Cathedral on the way. We ended up stopping for lunch at a very Italian Resturance that had a patio outside right by the Vltava river, which wraps the town in it's tight curves. This causes the town to feel semi-Venician, not that it has cannels, but enough water to make you feel like the city sits on the water, since you cross the river several times as you wander through it.

Cesky Krumlov

The red roofs of Cesky Krumlov.

Part of the many waterways of the Vltava.

Czech style Architecture.

Group picture!

Stairs that lead up to...

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral Interior

Magnificant sunlight!

Behind St. Vitus Cathedral.

Going down?

Looking up (ok so I have this weird habit of taking
pictures of stairs...you've been warned!)

That's quite lovely ("Quite Lovely" has been the
phrase of the week, according to Varie :)

Another great view!

Crossing a pedestrian bridge.

A little square.

Watermill on the side of a random resturance.

A bridge for the castle.

Everyone that was taking pictures took pictures of
the ducks in this one :) don't know why

Looking at the ducks!?!

Enjoying the nice weather.

Varie and Lucas

Stairs to nowhere.

Mathieu took this picture of me taking a picture.

The tower of the castle.

I didn't know it at the time, but the
place we ate at is in this picture :)

Fountain outside of the resturance.

Umbrellas (I should have been under one!)

Lunchtime!

View from the Resturance.

We headed out after lunch and made our way up to the castle that overlooks the sleepy town. Even with all the tourist, the city does feel more relaxed then Praha, it maybe the lack of car traffic in the old part of the city, and the peaceful setting that wraps the city in it's grasp. We made it up to the castle and was surprised to see that bears are a main attraction there. Below the entry of the castle, there lived two brown bears (I'm not for sure, but overheard another tourist talking about a symbolism to the heritage there), but I still enjoyed yet another Czech Surprise! We decided that we would climb the high tower to the top, to enjoy the fantastic view of the sleepy town of Cesky Krumlov as well as enjoy their red roofs (I've come to love red roofs!). After the long climb up the tower, we meandered our way through the rest of the public areas of the castle, including their goregous gardens! We found our way to an area that seems to have a rotating stage (yes in the middle of nowhere) that seemed to have it's view up to an old looking building that was roped off. I decided it must be some sort of theatre, and thought it would be interesting to see such a thing, and hoped I maybe able to experience something such as that while I'm still here. Afterwards, we decided it would be a nice time to lay in the green grass and relax a bit and enjoy the sunshine and the beauty around us. I have not layed in the grass in so long! I felt like a little kid again, seeing the world from a bug's eye view. While some of us chatted, some almost took a short nap, while I decided to remember this moment by taking some pictures (I know I am totally a photo freak!), but I did enjoy it as well :) We then made our way down towards the fountain and back out of the castle.

Brown Bear resting after his lunch as well

Statue on the bridge where the bears were.

Quite Lovely :)

Inside the First Courtyard.

Yes we did climb this tower.

And don't say I didn't warn you!

Here we go!

More stairs!

And more!

I did warn you :)

Look how deep these walls are!

Not stairs, but a great shot!
Stairs are that way -->

Ok this is it (for now) I swear!

A random black roof amoung the red roofs.

Worth the view huh?

The inbetween.

The Vltava.

The path that leads towards the castle gardens.

Group photo after the climbing back down from the tower.

Amazing grace.

Tunnels to different courtyards.

Looking back towards the courtyards.

This is what you call "framing" the view.

I love the red roofs in this country!

I just had to take a picture of this, don't you agree!?!

Castle Gardens

What I believe to be rotation seating.

Group picture in the rotation seating.

What we were looking at.

Relaxing in the grass.

Sky!

What the bugs see :)

More of being a bug.

Yellow wild flowers.

No, this picture is not upside down, I am.

Fountain...make a wish!

This reminds me of a Mickey Mouse comic book I had as a kid.

We wandered through some more of the cozy little squares and maze of streets, and ended up stopping for a scoop of icecream and sat in a square next to the Plague Column. After our icecream we decided to head back to the bus stop to head back to Ceske Budejovice, we wandered out way through a residential area that had a small pond with ducks quaking it up. The Czechs asked an older lady how to get back to the bus stop (opps! we got lost) and made our way back to it. We waited for the bus and made our journey back to Ceske Budejovice.

Town entry gate.

Tower along the way.

Plague Column.

When we arrived we decided to find a resturance to have dinner, and ended up wandering into the main attraction of Ceske Budejovice, their beautiful old town square. In the middle there was this old fountain with the strangest creaturs dispursing water to the basin below. After a few shots of the square (the sun was starting to set and it was beautiful!) we headed to a resturance. We entered the building, climbed up the narrow stairs, and arrived in a cozy little resturance with a lot of Czech charm. We had yet another yummy Czech meal and enjoyed the company of new friends. Afterwards, the boys (boys will be boys) decided they wanted to have a couple of beers in what looked like a men's only Czech pub, well that's ok with us girls, we didn't want any beer anyways. We ended up heading to a cozy little cafe (since it started raining and were a bit cold) and had hot tea and espresso (yes I did drink espresso they didn't have hot wine or hot chocolate) and I finally got to "meet" the Czech girls. Unfortuantly since there were three non-Czechs on this trip, we felt a bit like outsiders, since the Czechs spoke Czech between eachother. It was a bit hard over the weekend, but I didn't let it get me down and decided to just enjoy myself. The three girls were really nice, and one, Monica, even said I had a beautiful name :) I thought it was so sweet of her! We girl chatted and got a text from the guys saying they were almost done, we headed back towards the pub and met up with the boys.

Ceske Budejovice

Sunset!

The first town square that is actually square (no I am not trying to be corney).

More of the town square.

Fountain with the rain clouds brewing.

We decided we were to beat to go to a club, but that some card games and casual drinking would be just right. We took the bus back to the apartment complexes and split up, half of us went back, while the other went to the 24 hour TESCO (yes I said 24 hour TESCO). We had a good time, being typical kids in a store in the middle of the night and bought some drinks and snacks along with a deck of UNO. We headed back to the apartment comples and served up snacks and drinks and started playing UNO, well was I in for a surprise. Not only do they play it a little differently (or maybe I just did growing up) but I was confused for the first couple go throughs. After that I caught on what was going on, I did start to learn the Czech colors of red, green, blue and yellow. They were all amazed at my party trick of shuffling cards, which they called "mixing" the cards, that mom taught me one day when I was younger and she was with me at home when I was sick (thanks mom for teaching me the bridge shuffle!). Monica would always hand me the cards after a game, for me to shuffle, really excited in Czech, which was very sweet. After several games of UNO we called it a night, since were were going to another Czech Castle the next morning (this time we were leaving at 8, so I'd be getting up much earlier!).

Playing Uno

Day Three
I awoke to a start by my alarm and sleepily got around for the day. After my shower, I noticed no one was stirring, it was a half past seven, and no one was awake! So I put my hair up in bunches (pigtails, but I think Varie's way of saying it is much cuter!) and laid back down, ready for the day to start. I awoke to someone knocking on the door, it was half past eight, we were running late, but needed to catch the half past nine bus to Hluboka Nad Vltavou, which has the enchanting white castle of Hluboka Castle. Now when I think of a castle in fairy-tales, I think of castle gardens, battlements, towers, spires, buttresses, and huge windows and arches, and this castle was in everyway the castle of my imagination. We arrived in the town and there sat above the quiet town of Hluboka Nad Vltavou and the Vltava River, the Hluboka Castle. We made our climb up to the top of the hill and enjoyed the view of a far off lake and of course the mountains (did I mention we were pratically in the middle of a valley with mountains all around us?). The castle that stands there today dates to the 19th century, but the early history of the romantic Gothic structure is veiled in mystery. The original Architect is unknown (too bad for me, I would love to know who did such an amazing job!). We bought tickets for the interior tour, not everyone wanted to go, and we decided on a Czech tour since it was cheaper, and Lucas would translate for us. As we waited for our tour to begin, we wandered the castle gardens and enjoyed the sunshine.

A church in front of a lake in the distance in Hluboka Nad Vltavou.

Castle gardens and one of the castle towers.

Castle gardens.

A fairy-tale Castle.

Towers and battlements.

A very modern glass and steel greenhouse area, compared to the castle.

Greenhouse made of glass and steel.

Going up?



A different view of the castle.

Statue in the garden.

Gallery connected to the greenhouse.

Amazing (how many times am I allowed to say,
as many times as I see something like this!)

Looking back towards the entrance of the castle.

Blue sky behind the tower.

End of the interior tour.

Last group photo op!

When it was time, we headed back to the castle entrance and joined the tour group. The interior was amazing, too bad photography was forbidden (I did buy a booklet about the castle, so you'll just have to wait till I get back!). We followed the tour guide through many rooms, and had a quick translation of what he said after each room from Lucas. I adored the intricate wood work in each room and the beautifully painted leather ceiling panels ornated in gold and flowers. I also adored the various chandilers in each room, done in a different medium. After the tour, we met up with the others and headed back to Ceske Budejovice, by bus. We cleaned up the apartment and packed up our gear and headed out to grab lunch to go at a local McDonalds (yes they are everywhere!) and went and bought our train ticket back to Praha. We boarded the train and ate our greasy McDs, afterward most of us napped off and on, tired from the last few days. It has to be one of my most favorite memories of being abroad so far, hope you all enjoy the pictures and the next two posts I am going to do! Ahoj!