Back In The Czech Republic: Decin to Karlovy Vary

On the train
see all photos »

Monday 15th May

Early up today to get our train back to the Czech Republic. Nicole kindly dropped us at the station and we were on our way again. From now on, the expensive Western Europe part of our travels are over. Our budget costs [hopefully] will drop a bit. We've already experienced Czech for 1 week and things are definitely half the price here.

Dingy Rooms, Health Spas, James Bond and Broken Beer Bottles

BACK IN CZECH REPUBLIC

Amazing architecture
see all photos »

We hopped onto our 'penny ferry' for the 3rd time but this time made our way to the smallish town of Decin. It's not actually that small, much larger than we'd anticipated. The bus dropped us at the bus station then we had the mission of trying to find the tourist info office so we could find a place to stay for the night. Everything in sight was written in Czech and if we were lucky a bit of German! After about half an hour searching, we found it. The girl there had a smattering of English. Via sign language and lots of gesticulating we managed to establish where the 'youth hostel' was. We went to search for it - couldn't find it - so went back to the info office. The girl said it was right across the road, but we just couldn't see it. She got someone to come and fetch us!! Turned out it was literally 50m from where we were!! but the Czech word for youth hostel was just so un-obvious - at least to us!! Also ti was hidden away behind a little blue gate, in an alleyway! Anyway, up the dingy stairs we went, booked in for 1 night and found a pretty decent and clean room, albeit very stark and grim. Hey, I think you'd do a double flip out if you had to see this place. A bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, bumpy white washed walls, a novolon floor and crimpelene curtains!!! But, no mozzies, no cockroaches, no flies or other beasties and a couple of really comfortable beds. What more does one need except a good nights sleep at the end of a weary day? To make the place more cheerful, we plugged in our ipods and played some chilled out sounds on the small travelling speakers that David had with him, unpacked the cards, uncapped the beers and made the most of what we had. With a bit of creativity anything can be passable.

see all photos »

Tuesday 16th May

Strange, last night we were saying that what this hostel needs is as coat of paint and what do you know - an leaving, they were putting up the scaffolding to do just that! Now we move onto Karlovy Vary. Another train trip. Once again, on arriving we found the info office, always our first port of call. We walked into the town to search out our next hostel. I was battling with my heavy pack on all these transit 'hikes' from the stations to the hostels. This one was no different. When we reached the street where the hostel was, an incredibly steep cobbled road, I just plodded up it, one step at a time. Boy was it steep! I was sweating like crazy. David flew up it!! When I got to the top, he said to me that was no hostel up here with the name we were looking for - the Buena Vista. So now what?? He then announced that he's found a different one tucked around a little corner at the top called the "Titty Twister"!!! A really cool place. It turned out to be an actual Hostelling International Youth Hostel [not in the guide books] and luckily they had space for us. The 'room' we'd just booked into turned out to be an apartment!! The place is a converted flat, with lounge, full-on kitchen with everything, including built in oven, bathroom, loos, passageway and even an intercom system for front door!! An apartment turned hostel. Excellent place. As we walked in we met a Kiwi guy, Mark! Such a relief to hear something other than German or Czech for a change. We got on great with him, went to the supermarket and bought some beers and then went for a bite to eat with him.

An expensive wedding
see all photos »

Wed 17th May

We had a HUGE thunderstorm last night. Pretty awesome. Haven't seen anything like it for years Didn't' look good for our walk around in the morning, but the day dawned bright and fresh. What a relief to walk DOWN that steep cobbled road without a pack!! First impressions of this place are opulence and extravagance. Karlovy Vary is a Bohemian spa town. As Lonely Planet puts it .."it's filled with wealthy hypochondriacs with oversized sunglasses, yappy dogs and heavy golden jewelley - mostly Germans...". They take to the waters and sign up the courses in all manner of strange sounding health treatments. How true this all is. On our wanderings we were constantly amused to see these rather snooty and fashionable people walzing around. One old dear even had her little pooch packed away in a 'suitcase on wheels' - it's little head poking out one end while it's glamorous granny owner pulled it along the cobbled street. The scent of expensive perfumes is also evident on just about everyone who walked by. A truly interesting town indeed. The spa life aside, Karlovy Vary is rich in wonderful architecture, on a grand scale. The mountain side is covered in elegant colonnades and baroque mansions. In days gone by this used to be the place to visit for a dose excessive pampering, relaxation and culture. Greats such as Beethoven, Chopin, Tolstoy, Freud, Karl Marx and many more, frequented this place of bodily and mental healing.

see all photos »

We spend 2 night here, soaking it all up - it's a must see on anyones itinerary. We were also exceptionally fortunate to be witness to the filming of the new James Bond movie!!!!! Complete with Daniel Craig [I think that's his name], the new 007! No-one was allowed to get too close tho'. The town of Karlovy Vary has been chosen as one of the main places for numerous scenes plus the nearby town of Loket, which is home to an awesome hilltop castle. I can just see 007 swinging up and down the castle walls in some or other crazy Bond stunt!!

see all photos »

After our exciting day in the town, we plodded back up the very steep streets to our hostel and spent most of it playing cards and drinking Czech beer with our Kiwi 'flatmate"

Thursday 18th May

Today we move onto Plzen - home of Pilsner Urquell Lager and also the capital of West Bohemia. It also turned out to be the worst day so far [at least for me]. Things started off OK, except for the rain. We'd chosen to do this trip by bus as it was half the price of the train. Glad we did 'cos the bus route took us via some very tiny Czech villages which we would not have seen by train. Al Plzen bus station the heavens opened, so we sat under the bus shelters eating our pre-purchased spit chicken! We looked like a couple of bedraggled hobos. The rain wasn't going to let up, so we donned raincoats and went out in it - towards the centre of town - and on to the accommodation we'd chosen to say at. Well, from here on there were sense of humour failures one after the other. We took a few wrong turns, retraced many steps and walked seemingly to nowhere. We had been following map directions but the place just couldn't be found! We stopped to ask someone the way and he surprisingly invited us into his office, where his secretary looked up our address on her computer map program! We tracked the place down, walked towards it, found it and were told "sorry, we are full"!!They sent us across the road to another spot. Same story. Up to this point we'd walked for about an hour and a half with frustratingly heavy packs, in the pouring rain. Now what to do? Firstly a rest and a drink. Then David asked what was dripping from my small daypack? On checking, the bottle of beer I'd had in there, had broken! All over my camera, ipod and diary!! My heart fell out of my feet at that point, imagining the worst - no photos!! Thankfully, with Davids patience, we salvaged everything and did a quick clean up. Of course everything stank of beer and when we continued to walk back to town, we really were like a couple of boozy down-and-outs!! It was still raining but we made our way back to the centre of town and found the info place, to find another place to stay. After a lot of searching through a file, we found something, altho' somewhat pricey. Anyway, this place, the Slovan Hotel, is something out of an historical novel. Huge and grand with a magnificent central stairway which dates back to the 1890's!! The cheaper room we had was enormous! I'd love to have seen the luxury rooms! Makes you wonder just how people used to live in Victorian times. The passage ways in this place are incredibly wide. I can imagine all the Victorian ladies shuffling along with their enormously wide evening gowns, and gracefully floating down the grand staircase to the hall below!! Amazing place.