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Published: October 4th 2007
Palace
Decin, Czech Republic When most people think of the Czech Republic they immediately think of the wonderful majestic castles of the capital Prague. However, there is much more to this country then this tourist mad city. Decin is a small town about 30 kilometers from the German border which has the beautiful Labe ( Elbe ) river running through it. The northern area of the Czech Republic is much more rugged than the southern side with grand cliffs and great national parks filled with pristine fresh rivers and tall pine forests. The summer has not been the best I have been told but most of the days that I have spent here have been sunny with fresh cool breezes. The city itself is rather small and can easily be seen in a few hours but if you are not in a hurry it is definitely worth visiting the palace that sits atop a cliff across from the river. Having being so used to seeing dark skinned, dark haired people after recently returning from South America its a stark difference here with the majority of the people being white, blond haired and blue eyed. About 12km from Decin is the small country town of
Ruzova. My reason for coming is purely due to family reasons as I have relatives living here. The area surrounding is very scenic with various kinds of insects, butterflies and beautiful flora also. There is a river nearby where you can get small boats that will take you along the river whilst the tour guide will give unbelievable personifications to the various cliff formations. Besides that, there is not much around. It is nice to sit back, relax and go mushroom and berry picking in the surrounding fields. Many of the people here still live a very traditional life growing vegetables and keeping animals such as rabbits, pigs and cows. Life here is simple and revolves around good hearty meals of bread, soups, big hunks of freshly cooked meat and of course do not forget the beer! Beer is one of the Czech republics most famous exports and the majority of people drink it on such a regular basis that in other places they would be considered alcoholics. Even in the supermarkets there is at least 3 large aisles devoted to the glorious golden syrup! I travelled south to visit my friend Jiri whom I haven’t met in almost 2
Jiri and Micha
Boleradice, Moravia, Czech Republic years and it’s good to catch up and remember old times. Boleradice in Southern Czech is in the heart of Moravia. Boleradice is another small town of a few hundred people about 40km from the main centre of Brno. There is a completely different feel in the south with the people more open and friendlier than their northern counterparts. Almost everyone in the village owns a wine cellar with large barrels of red and white wine and if anyone has heard of Moravian wine they would tell you it is damn good. I have been in this country many times now and I have been wondering why it have become so difficult to write about this great country. Perhaps it’s because I have been here many times before and after traveling for quite some time is starting to get very difficult to get blown away from the vast array of beautiful churches and castles that litter the green European landscapes. More so it is due to the fact that most of Europe is starting to look and feel remarkably similar. In 1989, Czechoslovakia, together with other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, ended a period dominated by the Communist regime
Countryside
Ruzova, Czech Republic from Russia and started looking for a way toward democracy, civic society, a market economy and the new economic arrangement of Europe. Now in 2007, just 18 years later, the country has gone under many drastic changes that included becoming part of the European Union giving the people the ability to travel and work in any of the other EU states without any real problems apart from linguistic ones. The price and cost of living has increased dramatically even in just the past few years especially with beer and cigarettes. Starting next year it will be possible to travel from France to as far north as Estonia without seeing any border patrols. It seems that divisions are collapsing and the identity of the people falling with it. Several years ago the television was always showing traditional Czech "pohadky" or fairy tales rich in cultural significance now being exchanged for typical American dramas such as CSI Miami. No longer is there a distinct vibration that gives this country a uniqueness that cannot be found elsewhere. The classic lawnmower engine "trabants" cars are being replaced with cheap, characterless asian counterparts. This particular area due to its significant national parks finds many tourists
My Cousin Petruska
Mouth full of blackberries
near Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic coming from nearby Germany and it is still impossible for them to buy property here but this will soon be abolished bring with it many foreigners buying land and creating a further dissolution to any identity that is still trying desperately to be held on to. People who used to be able to associate themselves with a state or country are now feeling confused as to what to belong to. On the other side of the coin this change has brought more jobs and better living standards with all the fringe benefits a unified capitalist Europe can offer. This change supported by the big economies of Europe such as Germany and France have made big sacrifices to their own economies to bring together the countries of most of Europe. This uniting operation has allowed the people to have much more equality and lessened the problems of today’s unfair society whereby someone sitting on one side of the fence had much less than the person on the other merely because of an invisible line history had once drawn. This mode of thinking will hopefully continue slowly until one day every country will belong to a unified nation where all have access
Sunflower
Ruzova, Czech Republic to the same level of health, education and decent life free from of poverty. Sounds unlikely for the time being but at least there has been movement forward to distribute wealth to nations that were once not so long ago at war.
Personally, I feel very similar losing my own idea of belonging. Born to English and Czech parents in Australia now four years on the road living in a completely different environment in Central and South America has left me feel like an alien. No longer is there a common association for me here or in Australia or other countries in particular. This is and will be a more common theme as the travel community expands and more people are born in countries with different heritage. I am back in Europe to fund my addiction of travel to see sites and learn from this amazing globe. Getting to the Czech Republic was a journey in itself, first leaving Colombia for Venezuela on a 20hr bus followed by 6 planes that included stopovers in Aruba, New York, Dublin and Frankfurt simply because the tickets were the cheapest I could get.
New York is a fantastic city, my 2 day
Butterfly
Ruzova, Czech Republic stopover was hardly enough to get a real feel for the place but it has a interesting liberal vibe. The Central Park is the largest city park I have every seen, 843 acres of lakes, waterfalls and little trails that made it almost feel like a forest. The city can be expensive if you let it but it’s not difficult to find some classic cheap New York pizza and the subway system is good value at $2 a ride. The Guggenheim museum is great to see with amazing art both modern and classical and even the building itself is a piece of artwork and an architectural masterpiece. I guess the most interesting part is seeing how the diverse the people and scenery is as you move from Harlem on 127th where the majority of the community is black, smoking weed on the street and playing play stations they have hooked up outside the house. This changes as you head towards the glittering lights and chaos of Times Square to further down where the World Trade center once stood and now is still just a big hole in the ground. The free Staten Island ferry takes you across from Manhattan where
you can get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Overall, the people are very friendly for such an immense metropolis and it has a lot to offer with loads of galleries, museums and places to go out.
The next stop for me is London, the most exciting aspect of the 22hr bus journey was the moment the bus went inside an enormous train that in less than half and hour crosses the English Channel. I arrive almost exactly to the day that I first arrived 4 years ago. My perspective has changed immensely as initially I came to make a bit of money to buy a boat but having my ideas change completely because of the amazing travelers I have met along the way. Now I feel as though England has nothing to really offer me. On a random Saturday night me and my good friend Peter look for a one simple beer late on a saturday night. Of course this is found to be impossible, all the pubs have shut and stores now longer are allowed to sell liquor, only night clubs with high priced entry fees are open and it doesn’t seem worth it. Amongst the
people on the street there is sheer chaos, drunken half-dressed girls spewing all over the sidewalk, people injured from fights and police being called to sort out the mess. Its hard to believe that this is one of the top economies of the world leading the people in this material world. Alcoholism and binge drinking is becoming a real bad problem here but perhaps it was always one as the BBC quotes.
“Looking back only 700 years, London had over 1,300 alehouses - one for every 50 people living in the city." "Most people, including children, drank ale made from malted barley without hops. "They even drank ale for breakfast, and got through up to a gallon, or four-and-a-half litres, a day each. "At a price of a penny per gallon, only the poorest had to make do with water."
The timing in London has been very good, the Notting Hill Carnival was gearing up. At the roots of Notting Hill are the Caribbean carnivals of the early 19th century - a particularly strong tradition in Trinidad - which were all about celebrating the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. Carnival parades kicked off on Sunday with
Church
New York Children's Day, which used a shorter route tailored to children, families and young people. This year was the largest every carnival with around 2 million people attending this great festival making it the biggest street carnival in Europe and second only to the Carnival in Brazil.
The carnival was not without problems, there was some mob and gang violence and a few shootings but it only added to the excitment and as long as you werent part of the rival gangs involved there was not much to be worried about.
One night I ended up being stuck out on the streets and as most people know London has alot of homeless people. Its a funny state of affairs as there are plenty of jobs around, most of the people on the streets are there voluntarily albeit from serious alcoholic problems ( more serious than those of the general population ). Upon jokingly asking a man for change he shouts back that I should get a job. In all honesty, all the money a job could get me in this mad city isnt going to make me any more content or happy than being completely free with nothing to
lock up with a key to worry about. For a moment I had a certain amount of respect for those who choose to rage against the machine that is London, those that realise that working just to buy needless possessions and to throw it all up on the sidewalk on the weekends is not the best way to live. Its still slightly hypocritical however that these people still have to live off those working folk that do spare a little change to keep them alive.
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