Charming

I had originally planned to stay in Prague at least a week. But after a few days of sight seeing, I was ready to see something else. Kristen and Mary were heading south toward Hungary to volunteer on their Habitat for Humanity project. They planned to stop in Cesky Krumlov a couple hours south of Prague. It sounded nice, so I went along for a couple of days.

I'm glad I went. The town is so cute and charming. It's tucked between some green hills and surrounded by the curve of a passing river which winds through part of the town. There are still tourists here, but they seem like more of the "Czechs getting away for the weekend" variety.... kind of like Tahoe City in California. It was quiet, but with plenty to do, and enough night life to keep us busy for a couple of evenings.

Traveling different continents this year, I have observed that there are those things in every town along the way that guide books point you toward for a day of sight seeing. In Asia, we used to joke that every town had a waterfall only a day hike away that was a must see. In Europe, the equivalent is castles. Every town has some ancient castle with a few centuries of history, and you simply must go. Krumlov was no exception.

We enjoyed walking the castle grounds in town, partly because the building, although grand, was fairly laid back, had mostly free admission, and provided a great view of the small town. They even had a couple of cute brown bears on the grounds.

It seemed like at every turn during our walking tour around town, Mary and Kristen in their best exaggerated East Coast accents would exclaim "Oh stop it!" or "Would you look at that" or "They have got some nerve", observing some new adorable view or building.

We met three jovial Irish lads who we spent both evenings with drinking Czech beer and generally disturbing the relative peace of Eastern Europe. If there is anything louder than an American, it's an Irishman with a few pints under his belt. Good fun.