i have walked 1,000 miles..

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...and i will walk OVER 9,000 moar!!!!

I haven't actually walked 1,000 miles, that is the biggest lie in the history of modern society, however, this time yesterday I was completing a journey probably about 1,000 miles long overland, which was not what I planned to do, but screw it, the worst thing that can happen is if everything goes to plan. And why this happened is a rather deep story which unfortunately is going to make my travelblog more resemblant to livejournal.

So I left you last on wednesday night, and the less said about my night in Tábor on here the better quite frankly, but I have to say I loved the town to bits, it was very small and picturesque, once central to the hussite movement, who built about 20 little streets coming off the town square to confuse the enemy, and the modern day tourist. At night they had an open air jazz recital in the square which I listened to while drinking becherovka mixed with kofola - a type of organic cola made in the Czech Republic, which made the best mixer for becher i've had so far. Also met a nice couple from Karlovy Vary called Veronika and "George" (presumably Jiří) who I spoke to for a bit, which was a nice welcome surprise since I hadn't really said anything to anyone the past few days, save telling people I don't speak czech, don't understand and am sorry.

From Tábor I went straight (or as straight as was possible) to Brno, which involved catching a train to a small railway town called Veselí nad Luznicí*, where there didn't really seem to be much to see, so waited there for one and half hours, firing off a short phonecall to my czech friend Veronika back in England, then caught another 4 hour train journey to Brno. This was the one city I had really been anticipating, being the nearest (and in most cases home) city of all my great czech friends back home. And sure enough, as we got closer to the actual centre and the Brnese (is that a word? it is now!) skyline came into view, everything started to feel good, climaxing as we caught sight of the cathedral, a massive gothic complex sitting atop the hill surrounded by the rest of the city.

After arriving I crossed the road from the station and got some KFC, then walked up one of the main shopping streets, then up a little side road and some steps which led to the huge cathedral - this was the most magical moment of the whole holiday. There was something ever so slightly spooky about the whole thing, you walk 100 metres towards the building and the noise of the city just dies down so spectacularly as if someone's pulling a fader. Then, once I found my way in to the building, I climbed the tower - which is not recommended for those with fears of heights, or loud noises - as at the top, the views are amazing, but the wall separating you from the outside world is rather low, and the bells and other loud metal things were prone to erupting randomly in the cavernous steeple.

Climbed down the stairs, and then after walking around a bit more, got a phonecall from Veronika's sister, Kateřina, who was expecting to meet me that evening. We did so, and she showed me around some bars which sold 2 different types of beer pretty much exclusive to Moravia, both of which were really nice - the brand name of one was Starobrno but I can't remember for the life of me what the other was called - only thing I do remember seeing was that it was brewed in the bar in massive great urns, which somehow made it a little more special.

Afterwards we went for a night-walk around the castle Špilberk, which was just as, if not even more energetically satisfying as my experience at the cathedral before, rather like the Brnese equivalent of Primrose Hill - a tiring climb up many labyrinthine staircases and hills rewarded with an absolutely stunning view of the entire city skyline. When we recovered she took me to a club called Fleda, which I'd heard lots about from Veronika since she used to work there, except the club was closed, so we sat in the bar in the basement and had one more drink before we realised we were both practically falling asleep. She headed off home and I walked back to the hlavní nádrazí* grinning like the cheshire cat on MDMA - any energy I might have been feeling was at least quintupled, as an intense one-on-one social evening like this, which is of course one of my favourite pastimes at the most normal of times, was so, so welcome when I had hardly had a conversation with anyone for the past few days.

It was this, perhaps, that set me off with such gusto on the longest haul trip of my plan - initially supposed to be from Brno to Zagreb, leaving Brno at 3.30am, that it ended up doing the full stretch to Novalja. Perhaps after such a lovely social experience as the one in Brno, I just felt my time travelling alone was over this time round, so I just wasn't interested in seeing Zagreb or Rijeka by myself, I now just wanted to be where people were, and my family were waiting for me there. So, I left Brno at 3.30am on the zombie train to Budapest as planned, only taking it as far as Břeclav (the hometown of another great czech friend of mine in London). On the way I was amused by some hilariously drunk hungarian bloke who managed to hold some sort of conversation with me in czech, culminating in him calling me a "kurva" (bitch) because I wasn't aware the train we were on was not a "europský vlak" (european train) but a "sedlakský vlak" (a train for peasants).

My last view and farewell of the Czech Republic was a sunrise over Břeclav, as my second train of the haul (the most serious business zombie train yet) sled out towards Vienna, comprising carriages from Warsaw, Prague, Moscow and basically all over the place full of people passed out pretty much in stacks. 5 hours and one delicious, home-grown red bull later, we were leaving austria for the beautiful, natural scenery of slovenia, and a further 2 hours on, i was leaving the train at the middle-of-nowhere railway junction at Zidani Most, a station next to a river running through some mountains, where I waited for 2 hours, chatting to some more English backpackers and watching deer graze on the hills while waiting for our connection to Zagreb. It came, both the slovenian and croatian police came on as we crossed the border and stamped our passports.

At Zagreb, I took one look at the city and knew I wasn't in the mood. I walked down to the bus station, bought a coach ticket to Novalja which would get me there at half 10 in the evening, and sat in the waiting room drinking red bull reflecting proudly on something Kateřina had told me in Brno - that she liked to partake in tough exercises such as mountain climbing and triathlons, just for the feeling of deep satisfaction once you've finished them. Having travelled about 1,000 miles, been to 4 different countries, and completed what was supposed to be 2 days travel in the space of a day without really sleeping properly, I rather felt like that myself as we arrived in Stara Novalja.

*missing hacheks.

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Photos

Tábor square
Jazz and becherovka.

Tábor's narrow streets
Designed by the hussites to confuse their enemies, and tourists.

The cathedral in Brno
Wasn't really up to taking pictures at this point

Brnese skyline
not the one we saw, but its the best picture I've got

a picture of me and katka should go here
but i forgot to take one, i fail.

Břeclav at 5am
nashledanou!

me on the way to novalja
mission accomplished.

Comments

[inspector sands]

i am watching, just so's you know epic epic epic talk soon xx

[Lucy]

better and better...
Your trip is sounding amazing! x