Heading North with my Point of View

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So, 23 days since my last update? What have I been up to...? While a short question deserves a short answer, so does having to pay for internet. But I doubt that will happen.

I left Znojmo on October 10th and made a very long and tiring journey to the student town of Olomouc (ollo-moats) via Brno with the expectation to be staying only three or four nights and a plan inmind to head to Kraków in Poland, having heard heaps of great things about it, before heading back to Prague and the North. Nope. I ended up staying a whole week. Olomouc is great. So great that if I hadn't already been to Melbourne it would be in my top two favorite and most likely places to live. It has that big city feel without actually being a big city. It has the beautifulness of Prague without all the tourists that come along with it. Being a university town that are heaps of places that, I reckon, could only survive because of the students. There are two great bars in town, one with 20 crown beer that is themed by the Hitchcock film Vertigo and the other has a great artsy interior and karaoke. There are two rather famous cafés here, each for something different: Café 87 for chocolate pie and Piccolo for hot raspberries and ice cream. I'm sure there are other that I'm forgetting as well... So easily enough I feel in love only after a couple days and knew that one day I would return.....

My time in Prague wasn't for sightseeing but to meet up with an Australian cousin and a family I know that is over here for a five year church planting missions trip. Although sightseeing wasn't on the list of things to do I did go to the bone church in Kutná Hora with my cousin Claire and her friend. That was... interesting to say the least. Ask me in person about it, I have heaps to say about it.

After three nights in Prague I was finally able to head north and with the lyrics of a Sam Roberts song in my head. I stayed in the town Litoměřice so I could visit the concentration camp of Terezín, a thirty minture walk away. Suffice to say, it was quite moving. And depressing; along with being in an old concentration camp, the sky was so overcast it made Vancouver look bright.

They (who ever that might be) call Děčín the city of bridges. The city boasts nine but I counted more... so it makes me wonder what they call a bridge. The bridges were a real hassel, what could have been a ten minute walk from the train station to a hostel I found turned out to be closer to a half hour. My main intention, if only, was to visit the sandstone pillars and whatnot in a near by national park. But when the bus never showed up I counted that trip for lost, but it didn't bother me, I saw a photo of the park in my LonelyPlanet and it didn't look like I missed much.

Sunday the 26th I made plans. To travel back to Olomouc and spend my birthday in the company of the Aussie owners and staff. Trying to leave Děčín I came to the notion that they didn't want me to. I forgot it was daylight savings time and arrived at the station an hour early. The train I bought a ticket for never showed up though the time board annoucing the trains said it did. I got to the station at 7:30am and left 11:15am and finally got into Olomouc sometime around 5pm.

Since then I've been having another great time in Olomouc filled with chocolate pie, birthday parties and tea houses.

Friday morning I'll be heading back Prague to spend some time taking care of unclosed affairs before I fly home on Monday afternoon. Prehaps when I get back in Canada one last post will appear with my closing thoughts about the whole trip and what is to come for me in traveling.

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