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Published: June 24th 2008
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Getting ready to leave
Agne, Pavel, me, Lenka To be honest, I’ve been trying very hard to sum up my five days in the Czech Republic for you in a somewhat concise way and having a terrible time of it - I think this one's just gonna be long.
Lenka (Czech), Pavel (Czech) and Agne (Lithuanian) were my travel companions on the nearly eight hour trip to
Brno on Thursday morning the 12th. Agne and I were invited by Pavel over the long Pentecost weekend to come to his home and see a bit of another side of Europe. I met nearly all of Pavel’s family, who are all the kind of people to say “it’s very nice to meet you! Can I feed you dinner?” And I met a few of Pavel’s friends, too. I say a few because he seems to know half of the Czech Republic, so I’m pretty sure we only touched the tip of the iceberg on that one.
I knew when we arrived that Pavel’s twin brother (Petr) would be picking us up, but that still didn’t soften the shock of exactly how much alike they really seemed at first glance. First thing we went to Pavel’s father’s home to drop off our
Marktredwitz
the border town on the German side. pretty desolate... backpacks, then headed out to the grocery store to get some grub for grilling later (Petr is a professional cook). On our ‘way’ back to Petr’s house for said grill, we stopped for a cocktail and a round of go-karting. But not at the same place. Children, don’t drink and drive, or you, too, may end up looking like moon men.
Bed time was way, way late, and we had a full day of sightseeing and visiting to do the next day. On Friday we woke up bright n early and went down to Pavel’s
University in Brno so he could take care of some paperwork. Later on, Agne and I explored the town a bit (to the best of our non-Czech-speaking abilities) while Pavel went to get a hip new hairdo. Always looking fabulous, that Pavel. After all, he is, himself, a professional fashion designer. Before I continue, I have to explain - all of Pavel’s family, except his sister, live within walking distance of one another on one of the hills on the outskirts of the city. So, back out to the ‘farmstead’ on the edge of town, to where Pavel’s mother lives, and we got cooked an
*awesome* meal of traditional knödel, sauerkraut and roast beef. We headed back into town, and briefly visited the church and plot of land where once a long long time ago an abbot named Gregor Mendel decided he could make a better pea plant. The evening was spent at Pavel’s brother’s (Jiři), where I met his too-cute-for-words niece Adélka. A true actress at age 2, and she’s the tiniest little thing ever. She kept us ‘big people’ entertained for most of the evening. Our night spot of choice was a really good club, Livingston, and we were joined by Lenka and one of her friends, Miloš (Mee-losh).
Saturday was another day of seeing the town, Lenka, Agne and I hiked up the spire of Cathedral St. Petra a Pavla (Peter and Paul - no coincidence in the naming of the boys, obviously), in time to be under the bell when it rang noon at 11am (
long story): it was loud. The 3 of us also went to see the
old town hall (no longer in use, but still a point of civic pride), where a big stuffed crocodile, gifted to the city in 1608, hangs from the entry ceiling - a little creepy. We
went to the
Hrad Spielberk(Spielberg Castle) for another bell display and song, ran by the Church of St. James where
this little guy hangs out, then stepped inside the entry foyer of the
theatre, where Pavel works as a costume designer when he’s home. We met back up with Pavel, who had been at home catching up on home-stuff all day, in time to shuffle off to another dinner invite, this time at Jiři’s home for meat rolls in some really good sauce and entertainment by Adélka (until bedtime). That night we got back and Pavel decided we needed Team Czech uniforms. We set to sketching our ideas for cool new t-shirts… then passed out.
First thing Sunday we tried to get in to see the
Villa Tugendhat, but our plans were foiled - we had no reservation. We continued on to our next appointment… another food invitation at mom’s for some mean cooking (an extremely scrumptious coffee cake, soup, cheese fondue), followed by a day at the lake. At the man-made lake, but the lake nonetheless...there was a boat ride involved, so it counted! Petr, Šàrka(his girlfriend), their dog Anug, Pavel, Petra (Pavel’s friend), Agne and I hoped the boat for a few stops,
Getting Ready to Go-Kart
Pavel, Petr, me, Agne.
Should I mention, Agne has never had a driver's license...? and hiked up to Pavel’s uncle and aunt’s to sit in the afternoon shade and talk. We walked all the way back to our original starting point and headed back to clean up in time for - you guessed it - more food. Aleš (Alesh), Pavel’s oldest brother, had a fish fry for the whole lot of us, and we ended up staying until fairly late. We returned home, where Pavel decided that, yeah, he had plenty of time to make 3 made-to-order t-shirts, but he only ended up in bed about 4am. We left the house the next morning at 8… to catch our bus to
Prague for a very, *very* quick tour.
We arrived on Monday at about 12:30, and headed immediately out to see some of the bigger Prague draws - the
Obecní dům (Municipal House), designed by Alfons Mucha and Frank Gehry’s
Fred and Ginger Building before meeting up with Lada, a former work cohort of Pavel’s, and her boyfriend Tomaš. We spent the early evening in a café and wandering the streets of the old town, seeing the west side of the city and
Karlův most (Charles Bridge). When we headed into old town square on our way back to Lada’s car, we found
the place simply hopping mad with Czech hockey fans. See, their hockey team had won the IIHF championship the day before, winning over Canada, and everyone was going absolutely crazy for the team who was freshly arrived for a victory appearance. We eventually made it back to the car, though, and after leaving our bags at Lada’s, we all went out, along with another friend of Lada’s (Lucka) for dinner, drinks and dancing the night away. Tuesday, when we rolled out of bed, Lada made a huge breakfast for us all and I got my bag and set out in a roundabout sort of way to the train station to see one last thing (the
Staromìstská radnice - old town hall) with Pavel and Agne in tow. I left a day earlier than they did because of a project due date on Wednesday. Back home by 10, I was exhausted.
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