We arrived early this morning to a very wintry Vienna. There was a wind-chill factor that we hadn't really felt up until now but despite the broken sleep on the bus overnight and the 5:30am arrival, we were in good spirits. We had done the right thing and got a map of the city before we left, but the SMS telling us the address of the hostel never came so we still had no idea where to go! Fortunately, Vienna is a 21st Century city and there was a public internet kiosk next to the public payphone where we could get the address. We picked up an unlimited 48-hour U-Bahn (metro train) ticket and headed onward. The hostel is very modern, clean and has a decent kitchen, but it is a little out of the way. It is about 10 minutes walk to the nearest U-Bahn station and that is about another 5 minutes to the city centre (yep, that's "out of the way" compared to the good locations we've had so far). A three-hour nap got us re-energised for exploring, but the weather quickly sapped that. It snowed all day here and will continue to for the next few days, which in itself is quite nice (the snow here is much heavier than in Poland and with much larger flakes) but the breeze makes spending too much time outside unbearable. The 48-hour ticket has already been a good investment. We did go and visit Stephansdom, the massive Gothic cathedral in the centre of the city, which was very impressive. The interior was quite dark, and there were a lot of people inside praying amongst the tourists. We also went in search of a t-shirt and badge shop so that Keeley could add to her badge collection, but it was closed for winter holidays. Other than that we just went food shopping and planned our next two weeks. It was a frustrating process because a couple of the bus companies don't have fully functional websites, but we did it in the end and have accommodation almost fully booked for the next fortnight. It is a very organised state of affairs for us to be in considering we've been almost winging it up to now. In a snapshot, the plan is to go from here to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Innsbruck, Frankfurt (to watch hockey), Berlin and Munich.
We checked out of our hostel this morning, and were very pleased when they agreed to look after our big bags for a couple of days while we're in Cesky Krumlov. It has saved us a lot of effort to just be able to take our daypacks with food and a change of clothes in them. This morning we went, again, in search of the Prague City Museum. To my extreme disappointment, it proved elusive for the second time. I'm still pretty bitter about it, as I was really looking forward to seeing the city model and an architecture exhibition about Adolf Loos (a modernist architect). On the upside, the day improved dramatically when we went to the Prague City Zoo. It seems strange for a couple of 20-year-olds to spend time at the zoo, but the reviews on the internet told us that this is one of the best in Europe. We weren't disappointed. It is a massive park, and would require a whole day to see everything. As it was we only saw maybe 40% of it in the three or so hours we were there. Some highlights were the birds of prey (although some looked too big for any cage) and the squirrel monkeys that were very cute and extremely active as we saw them just after their food had been put out. They had very short attention spans and never finished a piece of food before moving on to the next – one monkey spat out some bread or something and another picked it up and started eating the half-chewed food. I naturally liked the big cats enclosure, although they seemed frustrated at their captivity, and the gorillas were very active as well and were wrestling with each other. The best exhibit was clearly the Indonesian jungle though, which was a large temperature- and humidity-controlled dome with, literally, a jungle recreated in it. A section of the dome was darkened (the twilight zone) and there were bats flying around our heads. It was amazing. Keeley was doubly impressed because it was Indonesian. We had a pretty decent lunch experience- Keeley had a potato pancake with a cabbage and sausage stuffing and I had a really nice Greek pita sandwich with marinated chicken, salad and yoghurt. Both meals were really nice and really filling.
The remainder of the day was pretty uneventful, as we caught a bus to Cesky Krumlov where we will spend tomorrow. The hostel is really well located within a couple of minutes walk of the bus stop, although we did head in the wrong direction initially as we had no map and no idea where we were. Hopefully the weather will be nice again tomorrow for some exploration.
KB's NB: Scott hasn't mentioned yet, but hasn't stopped talking about the perfect chilli that he made- only because the stove was ridiculously high. He reckons it was the perfect chilli to sauce ratio.
DAY 40 – CESKY KRUMLOV27/01/009
Cesky Krumlov isn't a very big town – there is one main road that runs through the middle of it, and it is surrounded by a river. It is a very pretty medieval town with cobblestone streets everywhere and a nice pedestrian feel to it. Unfortunately, we were faced with the prospect of filling a whole day because our bus didn't leave until 7pm, and there didn't really feel like much going on, After familiarising ourselves with the town, we bought a combined ticket to the torture museum and wax museum for €2.50 each. The torture museum was small but interesting, with various thumbscrews, nail chairs, shackles and other torture instruments. Most interesting and disturbing were the illustrations on the wall of the various ways they would kill people in the Middle Ages. One that stands out in my memory was stripping someone naked, hanging them upside down and cutting them with a saw vertically in half between the legs. We were glad, however, that we bought the combined ticket because the museum was short and left us wanting more. The wax museum was a completely different kettle of fish, though, and was quite large (a couple of storeys) and had an interesting range of generic medieval settings, famous Czechs and famous people in general (Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein, Pope John Paul II, etc). The wax figures were quite good, but obviously not quite up to Madame Tussaud's standards, and the costumes and settings were quite detailed and well done.
The biggest attraction in Cesky Krumlov is undoubtedly the castle. Set on a natural hill overlooking the town its size is imposing from the outside but quite charming on the inside. The rooms were all closed until April, although I'm not convinced we would have paid the entry price, but most devastating was the closure of the gardens. After seeing so many brilliant photos of when Grandma and Grandpa were here I was really looking forward to it, even though it wasn't going to be in bloom. It was really disappointing that we couldn't even experience the landscaping. The remainder of the afternoon was spent wandering around souvenir shops and generally not doing much. A couple of memorable incidents did occur though… Keeley found a frozen icy path down a hill and decided to walk on it, inevitably falling over. With our rule, she then had to re-enact it for the camera. We also went in search of Tesco (a supermarket chain) to buy snacks for the bus ride. Alas, we took a wrong turn and ended up circumnavigating the town, stopping in three other Czech supermarkets along the way. We did score some chocolate for Keeley on special and a cool lamington-type bar for me, except the cake part was orange and very dense. It was still really nice. We also waited a LONG time for tea at the hostel bar, but when it arrived it was very good – salmon grilled and then baked in foil with herb butter etc.
Impressions of the Czech Republic – very beautiful old buildings, and lots of them. Not my personal taste as most of them are Baroque but nonetheless nice to experience. Crap roads – the highways are bumpy, lumpy and worse than the Monash and the cobblestone streets would be tiresome to drive on. Lots and lots of wooden toys and marionettes, as it seems that they have a proud history of children's entertainment. Finally, almost all the people spoke excellent English and were very helpful and friendly.
Right now we're on an overnight bus to Vienna, where we will arrive at 6am. The bus company is called Student Agency, and for a very low cost you get free coffee or hot chocolate and a movie on the bus, which is better than we could expect from Eurolines. Also, distressingly, we laid eyes on the Prague City Museum that has eluded us twice before. One day I will return to see it…
