Cesky Crumlov --> Warsaw

Hey all,
Well i am happy to anounce that Cesky Crumlov is my favourite place so far on our trip. A truly beautiful and amazing little town. It was the only town in the region and most of europe that was not damaged during either world wars, or communist era, and most importantly never had a major fire (which for obvious reasons causes mass damage). For this reason it is a UNESCO heritage listed town, and truly worthy of it. THere is not a huge amount to do there, but it lovely just wandering the streets and taking in the views. We did an audio guide of the entire village which was great, as it explained some famous stories of people who lived in the village over the many years. In particular, the story of the kings son and the barbers daughter was a highlight. I summarise, THe emperers son, Don Julias who was known to be a little strange of sorts, wanted to marry the daughter of the barber. After some hestiation the barber agreed. Shortly after, in a fit of rage Don julius beat and stabbed the girl and threw her out the palace window. She apparently landed in a soft tree, returned home to her parents and survived. Many months later Don Julius, who assumed she was dead was suprised and elated to learn that she was still alive. He begged and pleaded with the father to give him back his wife, the father refused and was hence incarcerated and threated with hanging if he did not hand over his daughter. He relented and the girl returned to live with Don Julius. Unfortunatly, soon after in another fit of rage Don Julius stabbed and fatally killed the young girl and then cut her up into pieces, wrapped her in linen and placed her in a chest. The king and the towns people after learning of this atrocity had Don Julius commited and he was locked in his room until his death. You can still see the boarded up room in which he spent the rest of his days. Amazing story.

Cesky as a whole, was perfect. It snowed, the food and drink was amazing, and it is the most romantic place we have as yet visited. Our accomodation was awesome, but there was an interesting incounter with the freakiest man on the planet of the earth. He checked in late and then proceeded to start talking about his life mission to save the world by writing politically songs and playing them around the czech republic. His songs which were, really bad were not the strangest thing. He collected rubbish (his own words). He freely leaned over us in the lounge room to view the photos on the wall, and by lean i mean with no 'excuse me' he basically put his stomach in scotts face. The sirens were then wailing!!!!! Anyway his strange behaviour culminated in the morning, when he accused the people in the hostel of 'stealing' his expired bus tickets, then his wallet, and his shoes....all completely impossible. He was then basicaly asked to leave, and strange threats proceeded. It was all wierd and the hostel managers were completely freaked out. One of those guys where you wouldn't be surprise if he came out with a shot gun and mowed down everyone in the room. Unfortunately he was Australian.

After Cesky we headed to Warsaw, Poland, where we have been hanging out with Scott's cousin David and his very cute daughter Natalia. Our journey to Warswa was long and a bit frustrating. An overnight 10hour bus ride from prague, we got stuck sitting in front of a czech 'fat bastard' (Austin Powers pun intended). This guy decided to have a in depth debate from around 12am --> 2.30am. Not ideal, we moved seats around then, so it wasn't so bad, but him and his punk crroneys talked all night..Impressive, but i could have easily killed them. Warsaw is great, today we wanded the old town (which was levelled during WW2 and rebuilt afterwards in every detail), where Scotty and i bought some polish pottery which i have no idea how we will get home, but we will manage. Then to the department store for some more shopping. We are off tomorrow at lunch time for a mammoth journey to Lund, Sweden to see stu and em. An 8hour train and then a ferry to sweden and then a bus to lund, probably a 24hr total journey.

We are looking forward to Christmas, hopefully it has snowed in sweden, but we are not completely sure.

Hope everyone is well, and that it warms up over there, i have been hearing rumours of very cold temperatures.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all!

Love Ness and Scotty

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