Castle time!

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Hey there! Today we, that being Gloria, Bethany, Christopher, and myself, went to Pernštejn castle. At 80 Kč it is a bit of a steep admission price. You have to pay 10 just to get into the area where you wait for the tour. Very bizarre. Thankfully Gloria asked for an English copy of what our tour guide was saying. We met a guy on the tour from Philly who was an interesting character. The castle had a fire in a storage area in April so some rebuilding is being done. The castle was begun around 1380's which is hard to imagine. What was interesting was to see the transitions from different periods, gothic to Roccoco. We weren't allowed to bring our cameras, or even our backpacks. Before the start of the tour we were asked to put them in a room afterwhich the guide locked the door. It was a little unsettling as several groups are going at the same time so many people in had access to my bag. Thankfully all was in order when I got my bag again. My favorite room was the chambermaids quarters. The story goes that there was a chambermaid who was very vain. She would spend many hours in front of the mirror and had a devil-may-care attitude. There was a monk who lived at the castle who often reprimanded her and tried to get her to change her ways. She responded that she didn't need to be good, she knew where her luck was. One Sunday the final church bell had rung and the girl had not come to church. The monk found her brushing her hair and said, 'You naughty irreligious girl. You will be damned for not listening to God's Word.' As the legend goes, at that moment the floor swallowed the girl up and she was never seen alive after that, although her ghost could be seen roaming the castle. We also learned a new word, "floorage," as in "The new owners increased the floorage of the castle."

After driving back to Gloria's (the advantage of having Gloria take you - she has a car, no bus!) Bethany and I dumped our big cameras and lightened our load and headed for downtown. Czech tradition states that if someone who is crippled, with a young child, or elderly gets on the tram or bus, you should give up your seat for them. When I lived here before I noticed that some of the younger people were not following that tradition and the elderly people I gave up my seat for rarely said thank you. But things have changed. Much fewer young people give up their seat as they should. A sad statement about their lack of respect for the older generation. Maybe because it isn't happening as often as it should, frequently I'm told thank you by the people who take my seat. It makes me concerned.

Once we were able to get off the hot stuffy overcrowded tram which had taken three times as long as it should have due to a car accident we headed for Tesco, a british Wal-Mart. It has everything you could need - including anti-perspirant. A necessary item with the hot muggy weather here. To also help us keep our cool we stopped for ice-cream which is sold all over the place. Somehow it is better here. It really is! I think they use milk fat instead of butter fat like we Americans do which makes for a lighter ice cream. Whatever the difference, it is good!

We also stopped at a bookstore and the Information center stocking up on Brno specific postcards. The best price for postcards in the city and a pretty good selection was at the information center at the gate for the old town hall. In the courtyard there were various music performances going on. We were bummed to have missed the one with people dressed in traditional outfits, we just saw them wandering afterwards.

Pretty easy day but I'm pooped! I'm running out of steam!

That brings us to the present. I'm sitting at an internet bar just across from the main train station. Thankfully I'm sitting beside the open window as the smoke would be getting to me otherwise. It is the cheapest and fastest connection in town (besides Milan's place) at 40kc an hour. Too bad I can't hook up my flash drive and add some more pictures. Maybe tomorrow!

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Photos

Kofola
I finally tasted my first Kofola, the communist version of Coca-Cola which is still the favorite drink around here. This had lemon added which I think is better then the regular (I've now tried both).

Comments

[Andrea]

Wow!
I'm so glad you're doing this blog thing so I can keep up with your travels. Your trip looks like it's so fun, and I'm glad you're having a great time!