On the Road Around the Czech Republic

Two weeks ago, Jan, Karolina, Jedrek, Florence and I, a total of three poles and a half and a Belgian, did a road trip around the East and south of the Czech Republic. It was a fantastic way to discover the beauties of the Czech Republic, get a feel of what the country side is like, explore several Czech castles, cathedrals and towns, get away of Prague for the week-end and get a better understanding of the country. It was culturally quite an enriching experience as we visited a lot: The cathedral of Kutna Hora, the city of Brno where we discovered the Czech's passion for ice hockey, the city of Ceske Budejovice where the famous Budweiser brewery is located, the beautiful town of Cesky Krumlov with its magnificent castle, the Castle of Hluboka nad Vltavou and its art exhibition, the Renaissance castle of Kratochvile, the castle of Vimperk, the castle of Blatna and the town of Tabor, all of this in the space of only 3 days. This made me realize the richness of the Czech Republic and the sceneries it has to offer. And it was a fun trip, I got to know 3 new friends better, we stayed in 2 cheap hostels called "Horni 19" and "Hostel Havana" (I think that the names sums it all), discovered the local specialties, we will all quite a lasting memory of dancing and singing to the song played on the radio, we just had a really good time. 

I did the pretty hipster thing of taking pictures with a disposable camera, a technology that I have not used for the last 10 years and it was challenging compared to the easiness of use of numerical cameras. Very unfortunately, at this time of the year and in this part of the world, it gets dark at about 4 pm, and as we did a number of our visits after sunset, a number of pictures did not come out as I had hoped for. Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of our trip. 

The Kutna Hora Cathedral

The town of Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora in November

Brno Cathedral

Ice Hockey Match in Brno

Ceske Budejovice

Looking for food in Ceske Budejovice

Hluboka nad Vltavou Castle

Kratochvile, a Renaissance palace

Vimperk Castle

Yes, the Czech Republic does have some pretty remarkable castles. The one I preferred was Cesky Krumlov which I think is prettier than Prague Castle. I hope that these few pictures give a rather positive image of the Czech Republic. 

Until later! 

Helena