Český Krumlov, Czech Republic

Another work trip to Prague meant another trip of goulash and beer. But this time I also wanted to try something different. Instead of flying in early to sightsee within Prague, I wanted to take a trip outside of the city. I already made plans to stay with Calley (friend who used to live in Warsaw) in her great apartment with Ela (Warsaw friend who was also visiting Calley), and Calley also cooked for a few of us on another night. I also had a big week of training with a lot of networking to do, and visiting with some old friends. I was really looking forward to the week, but I also wanted to do something else in Prague that I had never done before. Leave it to Pavla and Martin to come up with a great idea.

Charles Bridge at night

I met Pavla and Martin back in April when Sherry and Jessica visited, and Pavla invited us to their party. It was a great party on their street, and ever since then they have always met me when I visited Prague for dinner or drinks. If you ever go to Prague, they will take care of you! They've already taken care of Meg and Robyn when they visited Prague, even when I wasn't there. And by "taken care of" I mean "got them really drunk on Czech beer and shots".

Anyway, Pavla had the idea of going to Cesky Krumlov for a day. She had never been, and Martin had been there a couple weeks before and had an entire itinerary planned out...and he had a car, which was the only reason we invited him great. He didn't party the night before (which is more rare than a stranger in Moscow actually helping me) so he would be able to drive us early in the morning. I have to really thank him for this because the trip was great, and as usual, I fell asleep in the car (I always fall asleep if I am in the car for more than 20 minutes...I blame my parents for that). Their friend Olinka was also with us, so there were plenty of people to keep up the conversation (I only slept for 20 minutes or so, I think) :). Olinka told Pavla she was nervous about meeting me because she isn't so confident in her English, but she was super friendly and nice, and she understood most everything I said. This was obvious because she always laughed at my jokes when nobody else would (clearly she was the only one who understood). 

On the way, we stopped by Hluboka, home to a recently renovated English castle. You can tell the design is pretty recent because there wasn't really any fortification there.  But it was really nice, clean and great for taking jumping pictures. It was a gorgeous day, and combined with the changing leaves, it might have been the perfect day for this trip.

Getting hit in the face by a pile of leaves during a jumping picture

Martin attempting a death-defying jumping picture

  

Don't ask me why Olinka is laying on the ground

  

Since we were following Martin's itinerary, we stopped at the Czech restaurant that he found on his last trip...and it had great local food, and of course, shots of Becherovka (an herbal liquor that goes down pretty nice). Martin chugged 2 non-alcoholic Czech beers faster than I could finish my one shot.

My roast pork and dumplings

Finally we arrived in Cesky Krumlov in the early afternoon, where we were able to spend a few hours walking around, shopping, and taking lots of pictures. If you ever have a few days in Prague, you should check this place out. It took about 2.5 hours to get there, and it was well worth it. We didn't spend the night (but could have), as it was possible to do it all in a day trip. If you go in the Summer, apparently a lot of people raft/canoe down the river so you could take a couple days.

The "Cesky" in Cesky Krumlov is to differentiate it from a different town also called "Krumlov" in another region (this one is in Bohemia as opposed to Moravia). At least that's what Martin told me. He could be lying. Actually, I just checked, he's not lying. Or I should say "I just Czeched". 

Kids these days take pictures with their iPads

This is the old moat, where instead of water, they had bears (look closely!)

The city is very small, made up of a beautiful Old Town and a nice castle across the river. The views are stunning...I didn't know which way to take pictures because in every direction the view was amazing; from high, from low, from the tower, from the hill, from the riverbed, from the bridges, from the women's bathroom (oh no, that's in the Hancock Tower in Chicago). Again, it was a combination of the beauty of the city, the blue skies and the colorful leaves.

Could this be the best view?

Or maybe this?

Or this?

 

Moon rising over the river

Heading out of the city under the bridge structure thingy (that's the official name)

In the end, the day was great, and it was nice to spend time with friends. The week of training was also great, I saw a lot of old friends and met a lot of great people from all over CEE. I don't know what it is about Prague, but every time I go, I always come back a very happy guy.

Some of my class at our celebration dinner