Ben and Alonna » 09.28 – Czech Republic

Photos from Cesky Krumlov

Alonna — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:32:18 +0000

We spent 3 nights in Cesky Krumlov, a really small town in the south of the Czech Republic. Since it’s small, there’s really not a ton to do there – which was perfect because we needed a little break. We pretty much spent a few hours each day out walking around the town, and the rest of the time just hanging out at the hostel. We stayed at a really cute & cozy little hostel called the Krumlov House. The managers were two girls from New Zealand who were traveling around Europe but stopped there for a few months to make some money. They were awesome, although a little tricky to understand sometimes (thick accents and goofy words – it’s harder than you’d think!). There were also some really cool American visitors there, so we had a good time just hanging out with everyone.

Anyway, here’s a few photos from our time there…

Cesky Krumlov

We ate dinner right next to this river

The cool painted castle tower

Old town streets

Alonna in Cesky Krumlov

Yummy cinnamon bread thing

Called a Trdelnik

These bricks are painted on

No idea what this story is

They keep a bear at the castle

This river loops around the old city

Ben

Cesky Krumlov castle on the left

Cesky Krumlov old town

View from the castle

Castle courtyard (Ben on the left)

Castle courtyard

Random communist propaganda carving

A cool medieval restaurant we ate at

Our cozy hostel - Krumlov House

Inside Krumlov House

Dorm room

A quick update from Austria

Alonna — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:19:05 +0000

I’ve been slowing down on the blog lately, I know. It takes a bit of time and usually I enjoy it… but the last couple of weeks I’ve been appreciating my time off and relaxing a little more (in other words, being lazy). So for those of you who are following along, here’s a quick update. I hope to post more about these places later.

FYI, even when I’m not posting I usually keep the “Where are we now?” box on the right side of the page up to date, and every once in a while I update the map on the “Travel Plans” page at the top menu. And if that’s not enough, join Facebook and add Ben and I to your friend list, we add things there occasionally too.

Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic) – 3 nights in a hostel in this small medieval town. We had a good time wandering the streets, and also hanging out with the hostel managers and guests.

Vienna (Austria) – 4 nights with our awesome couchsurfing host, Katy. We loved Vienna and had so much fun hanging out with Katy and her friends. Vienna is a really beautiful city, but it still has a live-able feel to it; like a perfect mixture of Paris and Prague.

Biking the Danube (Austria) – we just spent a day biking a nice paved trail along the Danube River in northern Austria (1 hour east of Vienna). The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery – rolling hills covered with vineyards and little towns with old castles and churches.

Next stop is Budapest, Hungary. We’ve heard such great things about Budapest, I can’t wait to get there. Also Ben has discovered that he loves goulash, so it’ll be fun to go there and try the ‘real’ thing.

The beautiful city of Prague

Alonna — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:04:37 +0000

Ben and I spent two nights in Prague, Czech Republic; just enough time to realize that it’s an amazing city, but hardly long enough to even scratch the surface. Prague has really cool architecture, something I’ve heard before but I couldn’t have imagined without seeing it in person. So far it rivals Paris on my list of beautiful cities in Europe. Paris is a little softer and prettier, and Prague is a little more striking and edgy.

Also, Ben told me before we arrived that Prague was an inspiration for the video game Gears of War, which we’ve both played a lot. So we couldn’t help but continuously spot buildings that looked straight out of the game. Also, if you’ve played it you know about the “krill” – the super scary birds that tear you to pieces if you venture into the dark. Well, I’m convinced they got this idea from Prague – there are birds just like them that fly around the top of buildings day and night. So cool!

Anyway, it was cloudy most of our time in Prague so the photos are a bit gloomy. Since the architecture is really the amazing part of this city, I’ll try to give you an idea by posting lots of photos of buildings.

City Views

Architecture

Various Sites in Prague

The Prague castle sits up on a hill near town, and inside is an impressive gothic church. There’s great stained glass and other decorations inside, and also a special temple for St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech people.

The photos below are in St. Wenceslas square and the National Theatre on the end. This is where the Czech people protested the communist government in 1989 and had a successful non-violent revolution (called the Velvet Revolution).

The following photos are from the old town square. There happened to be a bike race going on when we were there. The tall church with spooky Gear of War-ish towers is from the 14th century.

And who can resist a few night photos…

We’ve spent the last 3 nights in a small Czech town called Cesky Krumlov. It’s been nice and relaxing. Now we’re headed to Vienna, Austria for 3 nights of couchsurfing. Woohoo!