July 23, 2012



I woke up early on Monday morning and took the U-bahn, or subw ay (tip: the U stands for underground, the s -bahn is the above ground speed tram) to the Westbahnhof and caught the train that would take me from Vienna to Linz, Austria. The train was super crowded so unfortunately after the first stop in St. Polten I got kicked out of my seat due to everyone making last minute reservations but luckily found another after that stop. When the train gets all booked up with reservations and you don't have one you end up having to sit on the floor in the hallway or by the doors. Better than being left behind and being forced to take the next train but I still didn't want to have to shuffle around whenever someone walked past.



At the Linz hbf, I got picked up by the Lobo Shuttle bus, which I had pre-booked. Its a small mini-bus service that takes you door-to-door from the train station to your accomodation in Český (pronounced Chess-ky) Krumlov. It 's super convenient and with all the small winding roads we took it would have been super easy to get lost if you were driving yourself or trying to take little local busses, if those even exist. If you go this route, I would book the return shuttle back to Linz or wherever you are headed as soon as you book your first bus because as I found out on the day I wanted to leave, the shuttle bus companies don 't leave to each city every day and get filled up quickly. They can 't really use those mega-busses because the streets in town are just too small with too many winding corners. But more on that later!



When the shuttle first drove into town, I felt really so happy to be back in the Czech Republic. Remember my drooling over Prague ? It felt exactly like that again mixed with a bit of pride that I had made it to a beautiful place that is less touristy and internationally well-known, but like a little secret version of the city. I randomly discovered it one day when I was watching Rick Steves travel videos on Youtube and I knew I had to go there, even if it was slightly off my main train route. Well it was very much worth it.



When the driver got into down, we drove down narrow cobble streets, honking at tourists who were inches away and narrowly missing the corners of the preserved town buildings. I was so happy when we got to my accomodation, the Hostel Merlin, which is located in an adorable yellow medieval house that sits beside the Vltava River.



I checked in and was taken to an attic-like room with 5 beds, white walls and dark wooden beams running across the ceiling and floor, plus a window view of the river. Pretty soon I met two other travelers who I was going to share the room with. Dan was a university student from Vancouver and Romeo was a Austrialian living in London who worked as a business analyst in his 9-5 life but worked as a guitar-playing busker in his traveling life. We made plans to meet up later and I set out on my first exploration of the town. My photos speak for the beauty of the Český Krumlov and I slowly made my way through the town and up to the castle, which held a nice surprise in the moat.



Once I had walked up the steep hill to the entrance to the castle, I saw people peering over the edges of a small bridge. Hearing water trickling, I assumed I would see a moat underneath but when I only saw a little hose sprinkling with water I couldn 't understand what everyone was looking at until I saw the bear. A big jolly brown bear eating a mountain of apples. It's the first castle I've seen with animals in the moat and that was pretty cool. I also saw some stunning interior walls and picture-postcard perfect views of the town, encircled by the river. Heading back into town I ran into Romeo who was busking on the town's main bridge and had already made enough to pay for his day's meals and a little extra. Dan walked by then and we all sat down on the ground, troubadour style, all happy to take in the Bohemian music and surroundings. Afterwards we all went to a market near the hostel and bought some pasta together and made a feast in the hostel's kitchen. We then explored the town and grabbed a pint at a little riverside pub called the Art Club. The patio was filled with a few locals (yay) and crazy sculptures of feet and fingers. The patio's dog Lisa was the best trained dog I've ever seen as she would drop a piece of wood near your feet then bark until you played fetch with her, always ready, set, to go and leap after and bring the wood promptly back to your feet. She wasn't shy either as I saw her do this with every patron sitting on the patio.



After leaving, we were on the hunt for a dessert or something sweet but when we couldn 't find anything open by that hour we decided to buy some chocolate from the store, grab some warmer clothes from the hostel then head back to the river. When we got back to the dorm room we met some other travellers who had arrived earlier that afternoon. Clare is from Australia and Fergus is from the UK. Lisa was from South Korea but I didn't get to really meet her as she left the next morning. Clare and Fergus had met in Prague and were traveling together for a few stops until they get to Montenegro. We invited them out, bundled up and grabbed a blanket. Then we all walked to the river and sat on a bench, looking up at the dark sky and lit-up castle and it was a great way to spend the first night in town.



Dancing Bohemian Style



Fergus' Tips for Light Packing









July 24, 2012



On Tuesday, I woke up to beautiful weather outside. I said earlier to my roommates that Český Krumlov almost seems like a fake little town, like those that are re-created at some sort of fun park or at a Christmas market. The bright blue sky, green hills, red rooftops and rainbow of colours on the buildings really make the town so visually appealing. Something that I noticed earlier in Prague is how medieval Czech buildings have such intricate murals and paintings right on their walls so that it looks like you are walking through an oversized, outdoor art gallery. Often the tile work on the buildings is painted onto the original stone, giving it a great detail that isn't possible with regular carvings.



Early in the morning I said goodbye to Romeo and Dan who were off to their next adventures. Dan was part of a Busbout tour program, which let him get off an on at a bunch of different bus stops across the continent, which is good alternative to the train pass if you're looking for different options to structure your travels. After a leisurely breakfast, Clare, Fergus and I walked over to another hostel across town called Hostel 99 which offers river rafting pub crawls.



We were placed in a group with about 10 others from that hostel, and I think everyone of them were Australian except for one Kiwi from New Zealand. Loud and enthusiastic, they were like Aussies everywhere, fun and always up for more beer. We were driven about 15 km outside of the town and then we divided ourselves into two groups for the two rafts. I mentioned before how some "rules" that Canadians would perceive to be natural (you can't park on the sidewalk, patch of grass or facing any direction you like back home) just aren't in Europe. Althogh the river wasn't too deep at some points we were were going over rapids a few times and not once were the words lifejacket or "are you an able-bodied swimmer" mentioned, nor did you have to fill out any sort of waiver of the kind you would likely have to do in Canada. Here, it's basically like if you are an adult and you know you can't swim, why the fuck would you get on a raft? If something happens, well buddy you should have known better. To top it off, they gave each boat a bottle of homemade rum that tasted like cyanide but made us feel like pirates.



There were about 40 riverside bars we could have gone to along the way, with about 3 or 4 recommended ones that were located in the outskirts of town. We stopped at a few, tied up the boat and guzzled a few beers before moving onto the next. When our instructor had previously told us to go right over the rapids, we went left. One of the coolest bars was located in a little tiny fishing boat anchored in the middle of the river. One guy took the orders and a girl made the drinks, so everyone hopped in the river and swam up to the bar. I mentioned before how cheap things are, at one bar I order a plate of French fries and a popsicle and it was about $1.35. The beer is cheap too so don't come here on a diet.



After about 6 hours of drinking, floating and rowing past beautiful country houses we made it back to town and Clare and Fergus and I went back to the hotel to cook some food. The cooking process took about two hours because the stove top took about 1 hour to heat up, so we ended up eating at around 11 pm. By this point, a Slovakian family had arrived and were celebrating with multiple litres of vodka that they insisted we consume along with them. I could understand a little of what the family was saying and luckily Clare and I could politely refuse after our drinks kept being filled. Poor Fergus couldn't quite get away with it (I guess it was a macho guy thing... he understood it quite well though as he currently lives in Poland) and had to dump out his filled-to-the-brim cup when he could. I have never seen so much vodka consumed or so much barf on the bathroom floor the next day... yuck!



The next day I said goodbye to Clare and Fergus who were heading south and I got up early to book my shuttle bus to Linz, from where I would take a train to Salzburg. This was after allowing myself for the first time to buy a few souvenirs heavier than a postcard (it's past my halfway point so I figured I could afford to splurge a little on the extra weight). Unfortunately, half the bus companies weren't running to Linz that day and the others were already booked. So my only option out of town was a 6 hour (it would usually take 3-4) journey to Salzburg that included walking up a massive hill (the guidebooks really advise you to take a bus for this reason) with my bag in the POURING rain (like a movie, right?) to catch 4 local trains to Linz, then a normal OBB Austrian train to Linz. The only upside of this is that the entire cost would be covered by my Eurail pass since I would be traveling all in one day and it would save me about 20 euros.



So here is a tip for you, if you are taking a local commuter train between small towns, always sit in a seat in a car in the middle of the train. There are no electronic boards on these trains, and no conductor calling out the stops. There were 11 stops between Cesky Krumlov and my first transfer point and of course I got bored and lost count. I was sitting in the last car of the train which made the very small little train station building out of sight and I only realized I was at my stop after the train started moving again and we passed it.. oops! Luckily I got off at the next stop and hopped on a train that I hoped would take me back, and it did, and it turned out to be the train I had needed to take to my next transfer station anyways. Also, at each little transfer station it's a good idea to re-ask someone to confirm the details of your next train. When I got to one station, I asked the train station attendant and he said nine, nine, nine (I realized then I had crossed the border into Austria) and printed me off a whole new schedule which involved a new bus transfer which I wouldn't have known about. While my route was longer, it was also a nice way to see the countryside and small towns. It had been raining in Český Krumlov that day so I wouldn't have done much anyway so why not see the continent from the inside of a nice, dry train? I finally made to Salzburg and got to my CouchSurfer host's house after 10 pm and long after the sun had gone down. I was extremely happy to collapse into bed that night.





A pirate's hello from the Vltava River

