Life is truly beautiful. I am having the best time travelling around Germany, the Czech Republic and now in Austria. My favourite place so far has been a little southern Czech town called Cesky Krumlov.
Arriving at the train station, you walk over a bridge into the city walls and into another world, it is just magic. The town is set in the bend of a pretty winding river in the peaceful countryside and has the cutest cobblestone streets, renaissance frescos, great big castle with a beautiful huge weddingcake-like tower. Troy and I have concluded that small towns are by far the best, and this one was really special.
We stayed in a great room, the attic of a cool hostel with wooden floorboards, funky couch covers, communal kitchen, and nice staff. We spent the first afternoon wandering around the streets and the lovely castle, and said hello to the bear living under the bridge. The Krumlov aristocracy decided sometime in the nineteenth century that what the castle was missing was a bear pit, so he is living there amongst the trees and apparantly every Christmas the local kids go and sing to him.
In the evening we went to a tiny little gypsy bar near the town square and heard some excellent gypsy music. The band had a clarinet, double bass, accordion (or two when the barmans 5-year-old grandson joined in) and the most amazing violinist. In the bar was a great mix of locals and a few tourists being merry, clapping, whistling, singing and dancing along. We were talking to a friendly local and she said some nights it gets really rowdy and people start dancing on the tables. Add some great Czeck beer for 20 crowns (70 cents) and you have got the recipe for a fantastic night out! Needless to say we ended up staying in Cesky Krumlov longer than we had planned, and were sad to say goodbye this morning. Next stop Viennna and Salzburg!
0 comments:
Post a Comment