Česky KrumLOVIN' it

So two weekends ago (that would be the 24th and 25th of Septembet...I know...I'm way behind), I went to Česky Krumlov, which is a town about three hours south of Prague. It's a really beautiful place with a gorgeous castle and the Vltava river running right through it.

View of the town from the Castle

We had time to explore and eat lunch before we had to meet for the castle tour. Lecia, Fahima and I wondered around Česky Krumlov taking pictures of the castle and the town. Then we ate lunch at a quaint little cafe next to the Schiele art museum. We all got cheese sandwiches that were really good and Lecia and I both got Turkish Coffee because it was the cheapest coffee on the menu. Ummm...it's really strong. Like really really strong. And there's also the grounds at the bottom of the cup as well, which was...interesting. I'm not complaining though--I was tired so the caffeine was much appreciated.


So after lunch, we met everyone including our tour guide at the hotel. Then walked over to the castle.

The castle!

So we got to tour the castle and learned so much about the families that resided in the castle, mainly the Schwarzenbergs and the Eggenbergs. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures (typical), but believe me it was really pretty inside. But! We were allowed to take pictures in the theatre! It was baroque theatre and we got to see the backstage and the contraptions that changed the scenes--a total of 13 possible scenes. While we were there it was set to the forest scene.

The Forest Scene

View from stage left

Where the Eggen/Schwarzenbergs sat

But! Did I mention that our tour guide was CUH-RAZY!!! And I think she was a little racist. There are always so many tourists from Japan in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic. And there was a tour that was right behind ours and she kept closing doors on them and at one point made us hide in a room so that they could pass us. She explained that "the Japs" (as she so sincerely put it) came to the castle, snap tons of pictures and then scurry off elsewhere. She then proceeded to hold up peace signs, squint her eyes and say "ching ching ching." If only there was a picture of everyone's face after she did this. Simultaneous looks of discomfort, offense, fear and then we all proceed to uncomfortably laugh--she was crazy!!! And she invited herself to the planned dinner of the trip. The food was decent--but even better was the nearby flow of the Vltava and good conversations with friends. That night the RAs took us to this cool little pub known for playing "gypsy" music. It was such an awesome experience though I'm not sure the people were actual Romanis--still great!


The next day, we got to tour the Eggenberg beer factory. It was interesting to learn the process of making beer and see the ingredients that make it up: malt and hops and more.

This is what steams the hops and the malt--more happens but I can't remember

Not the greatest pitcure--I like to think of it as an action shop
We got to smell the hops, which for those who have not had
that misfortune smells like a combination of feet and sweat

After the tour, they gave each of us a little sample of their dark beer which is a "smoked beer"--it was actually quite good but not so great at 10:00 in the morning. After that we had about two hours to get lunch and wonder around the town a little more, which was great. We wondered around the back streets and went into all these little shops and then proceeded to take more pictures. Overall, wonderful little town!