So, after another weekend away from Prague, we are officially back in our hostel, safe and sound.

On Friday morning, our friend Ken, our teacher Melissa and the two of us left for a nice weekend in Cesky Krumlov. After a miraculously short bus ride (the four of us slept almost all the way there) we arrived at around eleven. We made the short walk into town and found our hotel after a bit of searching.


(Hotel Arcadie)

Zach's superior tour guide skills allowed him to get us a sweet room complete with CNN and a jacuzzi tub for pretty cheap. Because it was so early, we couldn't check in, so we ate at Pizzeria Uno, located inside the hotel lobby. After a short time, we were able to check in, and Melissa and Ken took a nap while we walked around town, finding the nooks and crannies we missed the first time around. After a few hours, Ken and Melissa woke up and we all got some Cola Lights from the Pizzeria (we kept the restaurant in business this weekend). We then walked around town looking for a place to eat and found a restaurant featuring rustic Czech cuisine. It was pretty delicious and from what we can tell, very authentic. Zach's fish dish was a fish, fried, whole from which he had to strip the fish from the bone. The eye was staring at him the whole time.


(Pizzeria Uno menu - nice to find an American restaurant here and there)


(Our lovely window and curtains)


(A bit of Engrish inside the window - what does that mean?)


(Rustic Czech restaurant)

After dinner we went to a small bar on the river with a working waterwheel and extremely loud rockabilly music playing. After a drink, we all moved to a small cocktail bar in a 15th century house with arched brick ceilings - extremely good surroundings. Finally, wanting a bit of food late at night, we ended up at the only place still serving at 1am, an odd, pirate-themed piano bar. All they had was grilled toast with cheese (something like an underdone grilled cheese). Not long after, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

We woke early Saturday to the ringing of church bells from the ancient cathedral across the street (they'd woken us every hour before that, as well) and ate light breakfast in the attic of our hotel. We then made reservations to go white water rafting later in the afternoon. Still hungry from the night before, we were all craving some American food, and just happened to find a great place called Papa's Living Restaurant. We all splurged - Jess got chicken wings and Zach got pork ribs, mmmmmmm.... The restaurant was right along the Vltava river that we'd be rafting down in short time, so we got to see the rafters out doing their thing while we were eating lunch, and preview uor afternoon plans. After lunch, we all went back to the hotel and hung out in Pizzeria Uno for a bit, just killing time 'til we left for rafting. We explored the cathedral a bit, and Jess almost broke her back, tripping while walking down the stairs. She caught herself on the rail and saved us all a trip to the emergency room.


(The cathedral)


(The cathedral and the scary stairs)

Finally, 4:00 rolled around and it was time for rafting. We got all ready and had a van drive us out to the start point, 5km from Cesky Krumlov. The first thing we realized upon getting in the water was that it wasn't going to be the most crazy of "white water" rafting trips. There were a few rapids, though, and we got to snake our way around the outside of the city - a wonderful view that we hadn't yet seen. Upon getting out of the water, we were greeted by a group of tux-and-evening-dress-clad British teens. They were apparently in the area playing a part in the Cesky Krumlov music festival, and were a youth orchestra from Britain. We watched their performance, a mix of classical pieces and some movie themes - a very good show.


(The fearless adventurers)


(The brave captain)


(The open waters ahead)

After the concert we got cleaned up and headed to Hotel Ruze, the classiest hotel in town, for drinks. Nobody was there yet, so it was kind of a bummer. We headed back to Papa's for dinner, as it had been so good for lunch, but unfortunately it didn't live up to its lunchtime promise. A bit disappointed and very tired, we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep. We woke up this morning, ate breakfast, and checked out. We were given a nice green bus for our trip home. 20 minutes in, the trip turned sour, though. Apparently our bus driver wanted a few extra bucks and decided to stop in every little town between Prague and Cesky Krumlov, filling the bus full of people so that the aisles were full of people standing. It was hot and the trip lasted an hour longer than it was supposed to (we think he stayed off the highway so as not to get pulled over and fined for having an unsafe number of people on the bus). Finally we reached our station and got off, took the metro home, and unpacked. When we reached our street, there were riot police everywhere and even a city tank-like vehicle had been deployed. There was a soccer match going on at the stadium at one end of our street. After getting to the hostel a small riot broke out with tons of chanting, but was broken up by the police quickly. We went to our favorite place - Fraktal Pub - for dinner with Ken and now we're going to sleep early to prepare for our last week here.


(Scary green bus)

All in all, it was a very relaxing weekend, and a great time with two of our friends.

We miss you lots and will see you soon!

Love,

Jess and Zach