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Published: July 10th 2006
Brno, Czech Republic
June 14, 2006
Shannon: Leaving Poland behind, we’ve now crossed into the Czech Republic, where we plan to spend the next two weeks soaking up the European ambiance before scooting into Asia for a change of scenery. As many people have told us, the Czech Republic is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe. So perhaps this will be a fitting bookend to our trip: having entered Europe via one of the least-touristed enclaves (Sofia, Bulgaria) we will be departing out of one of the most popular (Prague). It’s interesting to look back over the last few months (by the time we depart it will have been almost 3 months exactly since we landed in Sofia back in March) and to think of all we’ve seen on this leg of the trip. It’s also a study in contrasts between how widely divergent the paths of some countries have been. Bulgaria and the Czech Republic - both having spent the post-WWII period under the Soviet thumb only to regain their independence in 1989 - are now a world apart. One is emerging (slowly) to throw off the shackles of communism and build a stable economy. The other
They Only Settled Down for a Nap
This is how the Capuchin Friars of Brno were laid to rest. The low humidity and cool air passing through the basement of the church naturally preserved their bodies.is perhaps one the greatest success stories of Eastern Europe. This segment of the trip has been interesting because it’s given us a good perspective on either ends of the spectrum as well as some points in between.
Brno is a lovely city with a few very interesting sights to see. The most famous, it seems, is the Capuchin Monastery, established in 1604. What brings the tourists out in droves has little to do with the religious beliefs of the Capuchin Friars or the age of the monastery, however. Due to a fluke of the cosmos, the crypt in which members of the order were buried had just the right combination of ground composition and natural ventilation so that the deceased never decomposed, but were instead mummified. (If only someone had told the Egyptian pharaohs - “No need, Sir, to cut out your organs, pull your brain matter out through your nose and swaddle you in cloth after your death. We’ll just lay you to rest in Brno…”) For well over a hundred years people from all walks of life were “buried” here (more like air-dried) until 1787 when Emperor Joseph II issued a proclamation prohibiting burials within the
Hmmm...What was I supposed to be doing?
Undoubtedly, the architecture in Europe is fabulous. I love these statues, err...columns and how much personality they have. city-limits. The corpses of long-departed monks, abbots and local townspeople are now on display and it is quite fascinating. Little care was given to social status or money: aside from one rogue baron who managed to buy a room all to himself, the crypt was open to all. Hence, today you see the Orelli family, who were chimney sweepers before their eventual demise, laid to rest next to a town chancellor, an architect and several high ranking officials. A special room is reserved for deceased monks, their bodies laid out directly on the ground with a few bricks as pillows. Far from gruesome or gory, I found it all very natural: people die. That is part of life - death is inevitable for all of us. Why not embrace it? I’m sure that some would find the crypt, now a tourist attraction, a bit distasteful. But after visiting the horrors of Auschwitz/Birkenau, where so many died by the hands of others, I had no qualms about viewing those that had died of natural causes and wished to be mummified. That their bodies ended up as a tourist attraction is interesting, but not offensive, to me at least. Displayed in their
Cheeky Mason
Legend tells of a somewhat disgruntled mason who chisled his own image over a window of this church. Apparently this was a statement about how he felt about church policies. coffins, undisturbed, many were looking quite good, all things considered. It was very remarkable to me to see that many of the clothes they were buried in had passed the passage of time quite well: on well-heeled gentlemen still had his knee-high boots on!
A bit of trivia for fans out there: the much beloved coffee drink known as a cappuccino is supposedly named for the Capuchin friars, who may have invented it. Others say it was named after the color of the habits they wore, or because it resembled their characteristic hairstyle (the foamy white center represents the top of their shaved heads, the outer brown ring is their hair that surrounds it). Choose the explanation that suits you…
After leaving Capuchin Monastery, we headed off in search of a more obscure attraction. Recently, Sean and I had both read an excellent book,
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. A little known Czech monk named Mendel featured quite prominently in the chapter on genetics, so we ambled off to learn more about him in the city where he did his research.
Sean: Gregor Mendel is oft considered the father of modern genetics because
Starobrno - locally brewed...
... And a darn good beer for under a buck. Really. of his meticulously annotated work cross-breeding different varieties of pea plants. Probably not the life of the party, but as a monk I guess that wouldn’t be the most pressing issue on his mind. In those days (1822-1884), religious institutions were actually the major repositories of education and at the forefront of modern thinking.
So on the humble grounds of the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno, we whiled away a couple hours learning about Mendel’s accomplishments and his contributions to modern genetic thinking. He spent his days painstakingly studying the different characteristics of peas and bred them according to a few characteristics to see if he could breed for that particular trait. It took two years alone just to make sure he had a couple of quality and pure lines to work with. Then he spent the next 7 years breeding and crossbreeding to come to any conclusions he could make about how living things pass on particular attributes. From his work, the world learned about ‘dominant’ and ‘recessive’ genes. Coupled with Darwin’s work at around the same time, this knowledge is where genetics all began.
I can’t say that the museum was the most gripping, but
hey, it can’t be all Nazis and Communists.
Brno was our first stop after walking across the border from Poland and is the second largest city (after Prague) in the Czech Republic. It has the requisite large town square and pedestrian streets filled with hip shops and beautiful people meandering throughout. But while our time in eastern and central Europe has been beautiful, it has also been almost a little
too effortless and not entirely “foreign”. Between Foot Locker, Timberland, TGI Fridays, and Mickey D’s, walking through the streets hasn’t been a real eye-opener when it comes to unfamiliar cultures. Don’t get me wrong, we are having a great time and are not complaining about the endlessly cheap, cheap excellent ales at our disposal and the idyllic town square settings, but we have to admit that the exotic-ness of this region ranks fairly low.
Telc, Czech Republic
June 16, 2006
Shannon: From Brno, we traveled on to a small little town called Telc (pronounced “teltch”). Apart from a very nice castle and main square, its biggest draw is just that it’s a quiet, peaceful place to chill out. The weather is beautiful, the scenery is fantastic,
the beer is amazingly cheap and life is very, very good for us right now.
Telc is quintessentially cute. The town is ringed by what they describe as “ponds” but seem to me to be rather good size lakes. The town square, currently under construction, is very pleasant, though it could do with a hair more excitement. We found accommodation in a pension run by an extremely pleasant Czech man and his family, who gave us a spacious attic apartment in a separate building attached to their house. Complete with satellite TV and a breakfast more appropriately sized for a small crowd, we’re living the high life, hanging out watching World Cup games, moseying into town to sit at the occasional café and rousing ourselves for brief bouts of sightseeing. It’s certainly not much of a taxing life.
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
June 17, 2006
Shannon: Arriving in Cesky Krumlov, we were certainly grateful that we had made a hostel reservation before we left Telc: unbeknownst to us, the city was in the middle of a festival. (This had happened to us when we first arrived in Telc, too - and since we had shown up
without a reservation, we had a bit of a hard time finding a room. Luckily, the nice folks at the information center called around to find us a room with the above mentioned family).
While I’m thinking of it, I should mention that festivals are really sort of a pain for long term travelers. You think, when you first start out, that showing up in a random town somewhere and finding out that they are having a festival would be a bonus, a bit of traveling
lagniappe as they say in New Orleans. On the contrary, it’s usually more of a hassle: rooms are hard to come by, but even if you have a reservation, everything is more expensive, crowded, and there is even
less chance of experiencing anything remotely “local”, as the tourists now outnumber the natives in even greater numbers than usual. Having lived in New Orleans, where it seems like there is some sort of festival going on every weekend between Thanksgiving and July 4th, I can tell you: it’s more fun for the locals than the tourists. Locals know where to go for the “authentic” experience: tourists are stuck in the crowds fighting other tourists
A River Runs Through It
This was the view from our room in Cesky Krumlov. for crappy Mardi Gras beads or wandering Bourbon Street watching other tourists make fools of themselves. Given the choice, I’d rather show up on some random Wednesday with nothing going on, have the place to myself and sit in a café or bar watching the normal pace of life go on before me.
June 19, 2006
Shannon: Today we had a great day, enjoying the town now that the festival-goers have all left. Are you tired of us describing these towns with words such as “picture-postcard” or “quintessentially beautiful”? Well, this one is too, maybe even more so than the others. The narrow, cobblestone streets are sprinkled with a smattering of lazy pedestrians wandering about while café patrons sit watching the world go by. Other, more energetic souls are in canoes and inner tubes, floating and paddling down the river that cuts through the center of town, floating by the 13th century buildings and adding to the atmosphere. It’s a good day to be in Cesky Krumlov.
As for us, we spent an amusing hour or so today on a tour at the local brewery that has been mixing up their hoppy concoctions since 1560. The
Eggenberg brewery is very proud of the fact that at least one of their beers (Kvasnicove or Yeasty Lager) is still made by hand, the old fashioned way (as opposed to the computer-controlled mass-produced stuff, of which they also brew). The tour was very interesting and our guide for it, a local man who normally worked in the city archives, was very enthusiastic. He started off by giving us a short history lesson and enunciating so spectacularly that for the rest of the day we amused ourselves by repeating “Egg-ennn-berrrrggg” with dramatic flair. He led us through the different rooms, showing us the huge copper vats where the process begins, then down to the cold storage cellars and also to a few points in between. I didn’t learn an awful lot about the brewing process (his English, while WAY better than my Czech, was still not the best) but I’ve been on other brewery tours before so I already had the gist of it down anyway. I did surmise that the Czech cleanliness standards are perhaps a bit looser than those in the U.S.: at one point, to illustrate that there was beer being stored in the huge tanks in
the cellar, he actually opened the tap, wrapped his lips around the spigot and slurped down some of the frothy concoction as it spilled out. That would never happen at the Coors brewery. Never. And in showing us how they let the yeast drain out of the vats in another room, he pointed out a channel in the floor and explained how it leads directly to the river outside. He further explained that the fish love this carbohydrate buffet, and eagerly await their next meal. Unfortunately for them, the local fishermen also know of this phenomenon, and have a great time catching the resultingly drunk fish. I suppose a good time is had by all, but again, this is not something that the EPA would ever allow.
After the tour, he led us to the brewery’s pub, where we had the chance to try their handmade brew (very tasty). The tour included two free drinks for each person, but as each of those drinks is a full half-liter and we still had not eaten lunch, we saved one coupon and only had a drink each. We’ll go back to claim our other two drinks, though, because we thought the
home brew was pretty tasty.
Sean: The vats we saw are located directly under the brewery’s restaurant and are pumped up for the thirsty patrons. The beer we tasted - and the one we saw being made directly under our feet - has been brewed the same way since 1526 (the Eggenbergs took over the brewery in 1560 after the prior owners - the Rosenbergs - sold it). We enjoyed our pints over some conversation with the three other people on the tour with us - a nice couple with their teenaged son from Portland (damn, it’s a small world). This beer is now my new favorite, but since the only place you can get it is by special order in kegs or at the brewery’s restaurant (they bottle their other recipes, but not this particular one), I don’t suspect I’ll ever have it again after we leave Cesky Krumlov.
Now is a good place to tell you a little more about another beer that is widely sold in the Czech Republic: Budweiser. I’m sure you know that I’m not speaking of the Anheuser-Busch product, but of the one that is actually brewed in the town of Budweis
(though that’s the name in German, the Czech’s call it Budvar). So I am here to tell you that despite the legal wranglings between the two companies over who gets to call their particular ale “Budweiser”, they are both crap beers. The Czech’s make some astonishingly excellent beer, but this isn’t one of them. So don’t let anyone get all hoity-toity when it comes to a Pepsi Challenge between the two.
My new thought these days is that the majority of the world’s population actually drinks crap beer. Most people reach for whatever’s cheapest (yours truly included) and most readily available. This is not purely an American phenomenon - although we’re famously negative about what is mass brewed within our borders. The next time you’re out tossing a few back with a foreigner, no matter what they’re actually drinking, grill them on what’s the most widely available beer in their country. Not what they think is best, but what is sold most ubiquitously and you’ll find that it’s probably the worst that the country has to offer. I must caveat this past statement and excuse the Irish from my blanket stereotype. Guinness is on EVERY TAP in their country
The View from the Water
The canoe rental company dropped us off just above this quaint little town. and it is the best beer on the planet…in my valid opinion.
Our first day in Cesky Krumlov was very disappointing. The place was
wicked crowded because of the Renaissance Festival (those people are a little weird) and you had to fork over some pesos to get into the old town. So any sightseeing was out of the question unless we wanted to pay for a privilege that was free every other day of the year. One of the great things about this trip is that we have the time to wait out these kinds of things. Had we only been able to be here for a day or two, our only exposure to this - the Czech Republic’s second most popular tourist city - wouldn’t have been nearly as positive of an experience.
So we waited until the next day and I have to say that this one town you need to visit. It is the characteristically small and beautiful European village that everyone seeks. Everything is a just around the corner on a short cobblestoned street with plenty of cafes and pubs serving fairly inexpensive (by our standards) coffee, beer and food. As my lovely wife
stated earlier, it is cliché to call it “picture postcard”, but if the shoe fits…
June 20, 2006
Shannon: Note to selves: pay more attention to the flow of the river. If it ain’t a flowin’ very much, that means a lot o’ paddling.
The best laid plans sometimes go awry. We had envisioned a full day spent joyfully riding down the rapids in our rented canoe, paddling our way through the spillways at the wiers, careening around corners and grinding to a halt in the heart of Cesky Krumlov, tired but exhilarated. At least that’s what it looked like as we stood on one of the bridges watching other people do it. The reality of the situation is that (for the route we chose at least) it’s really more like 23 kilometers of a painfully slow-moving river and 4 ½ hours of paddling followed by 2 kilometers of excitement as the river snakes through town. Still, it’s hard to complain (after all, the worst day of canoeing is still better than many alternatives). We relaxed, took turns paddling, pulled over to eat a small picnic lunch and splashed in the river (very refreshing as it
The View from Canoe
This was about as "rapid" as most of the journey got. was a hot day). And we disregarded the advice of the clerk at the canoe rental company, who told us to take the boat out of the water and walk around a few of the wiers - it didn’t look like anyone else was doing it and the few she suggested it for turned out to be the best part of the day. For those that don’t know what a wier is, it’s sort of like a small spillway. These had a long sloped section next to them for boats to go down, which is great fun as you need to paddle like crazy while descending to avoid tipping over in the churning water at the end. We took on a bit of water racing down a few of them, but always managed to remain upright. (Note to Mom: the river was very shallow, don’t worry).
After turning in the boats, we showered back at the hostel and then headed down to the Eggenberg (“Egg-ennn-berrrrggg” ) Brewery again to finish off our remaining beer coupons from the tour the other day. Europe is in the throes of watching World Cup soccer matches, so we’ve done our part to cheer
What We Didn't Want to Happen
Thanks to our MAD paddling skills, we avoided this fate. on our favorite teams (another note to selves: when rooting for Brazil against the Australians, check first that the bar is not full of Aussies). And with beer being about the cheapest thing on the menu, Sean and I have been living on a steady diet of football and lager.
Sean: We were having a grand old time at the pub, but when we cheered for the first Brazilian goal, the tension in the room became palpable. Of course, no offense was intended and we have no ill will toward our mates from Down Under, but in the pecking order, my enthusiasm always extends to the Americas first.
Prague, Czech Republic
June 23, 2006
Shannon: We left Cesky Krumlov yesterday, having spent 5 days there instead of the two that we had planned. It’s a great little town with enough there to keep you occupied if you want, but relaxing enough to make you feel that you truly took a vacation. I’m going to put it somewhere on our “Top 20” list.
Having moved on to Prague, though, we were expecting to be “wowed”. This is the city everyone speaks of, the city many compare
others against, and yet somehow we’re just not getting it. Today, our first full day, we wandered around the Old Town and came back with the thought “well, maybe it will be better tomorrow.”
Sean: What’s truly disappointing is that I really wanted to like Prague. It’s the perfect example of an old European city rivaled only by Vienna or Paris. It’s where Mozart said he felt more at home than in Austria, where Einstein was a full professor and it’s the benchmark for any next, great undiscovered city - as in: “It’s the new Prague”. So it is with great remorse that I honestly state that I just don’t care for it (and it’s definitely not the “new” place to go).
We’ve been through so many excellent cities and towns in Eastern Europe that Prague is a bit of a let down. The hordes here rival Disney World on an off day and the prices are much higher without any increase in value. So with all the gorgeous, under-touristed places we’ve been and all the stunning cities we’ve visited, I have to say that Prague is a bit over done.
Having said that, I must admit
that when we visited New Orleans about six months before moving down there, I thought the same thing - it just wasn’t for me. But after living in the pre-Katrina, City That Care Forgot for five years, I fell in love with it. So, in my opinion, that’s probably how I’d be better served with Prague. Living here in this international city complete with its vibrant arts scene, beautiful architecture, and excellent restaurants (much like New Orleans, but on a bigger and older scale) would be excellent. I’m sure I’d grow to feel the same about this town. But if you are looking for a place to spend a week or so on vacation, I’d recommend other cities that are just as beautiful, are cheaper, are less crowded and are equally as easy to maneuver around.
June 26, 2006
Sean: Recounting and displaying the cool and crazy things that the world has to offer is the reason why we have a travel blog. Today’s trip out to the pretty little town of Kutna Hora falls well into both of the previous two categories. In 1278 the Abbot of Sedlec returned from Jerusalem with a little bit of
Close up of the Chandelier
At least one of every type of bone found in the human body is represented in the chandelier. dirt to sprinkle in the cemetery of the church and since then people have been dying to get in (OK, that was bad). It was such a popular place to be buried that with the plague that hit in the 14th century and then the Hussite wars just a 100 years later, tens of thousands found their mortal coil cast here in this relatively small plot of land. Fast forward to 1870 when finally something had to be done about all the bones that have, by this time, been stacked up around the monastery like cordwood.
A local woodcarver was the one hired to do the “something” and with a little imagination he fashioned all the remains into the most macabre decorating scheme this side of the Addams Family’s home.
Strung about, hung, and piled up are the bones of over 40,000 people forming decorations that are possibly a little eerie. We all end up “biting the old dirt sandwich” eventually anyway, so there shouldn’t be much to fear here and besides: How many people will actually travel to some small town and pay to see
my bones arranged in a chandelier?
Maybe more gruesome than that
is the Museum of Communism that we went to the other day. Czechoslovakia (as many of you will remember its former name), was a communist country, but in the late sixties they started to loosen the reigns a bit and were heading toward a more open society. This was too much for Brezhnev and his government to handle, so the Soviet Army arrived in 1968 and proceeded to pull this scrappy central European country back down into the gutter. Sad times really, but the museum itself has an interesting sense of humor about the whole thing because even though the history contained within is a bit dour, they have managed to poke fun at their former oppressors.
Shannon: It’s an interesting museum, with all sorts of tongue-in-cheek prints you can buy in the giftshop (the artwork is lifted straight off old Communism propaganda posters, but the slogans have all been changed). Some of my favorites:
- “Sometimes there was no toilet paper in the shops. Luckily there was not much food either.”
- “You couldn’t get laundry detergent, but you could get your brainwashed”
- “It was a time of happy, shiny people (the shiniest were in the uranium
Da Da Dum Snap Snap Da Da Dum Snap Snap
They're creepy and their kooky
Mysterious and spooky mines)”
- “We’re above McDonald’s, across from Bennetton. Viva la Imperialism!”
Not that all of it was light-hearted fun. The museum itself is fairly serious, covering many of the same aspects of life under Communist rule that we have seen elsewhere. But I do think it might appeal to a wide audience: get them in with a sense of humor and maybe they’ll devote some time away from other pursuits to learn about something they might not ordinarily be drawn to. Hey, Sean and I are all about learning: if this draws people in, why not?
Prague also has a very good museum devoted to Alphonse Mucha, a renown art-nouveau artist who was famous for creating stage posters for the actress Sarah Bernhardt in Paris around the turn of the last century. As his fame grew, so did his commissions. By the end of his life, his body of work had grown to include not only graphic design work but also furniture and jewelry, not to mention that ‘Le Style Mucha’ was all the rage.
Sean: If you like Art Nouveau, his stuff was very good and he became one of the most famous creators of the
There are Four of These Pyramids
Obviously no shortage of material to work with style. The fact that he was a local boy who “done good” on the World stage means that every town we’ve been to has had a museum devoted to his stuff (not to mention that every gift shop has a reprint to sell you). If you’re ever in Prague with a few hours on your hands, I’d recommend this museum.
June 27, 2006
Shannon: Later this afternoon Sean and I will be leaving Prague and traveling on to London, where we will catch our flight to Seoul, South Korea tomorrow. While I’ve enjoyed our time in Europe, I have to admit that I’m ready to move on to something different. Travel in Eastern Europe has been pretty painless, all things considered. Part of that is the fact that the tourist trail has been pretty well trampled before us (certainly not as much as Western Europe, but let’s face it, even the “undiscovered” places here have been pretty well discovered). This is not to say that it is necessarily a bad thing. The bus schedules are decipherable. Prices - gasp! - are clearly marked. And there are these little things called “information centers” - with actual travel information
posted. These are all good things.
So I don’t want to be misunderstood when I say that I’ve been feeling a little listless these past few weeks. I like the places we’ve been - we’ve seen some amazing little picture-postcard towns with medieval castles and beautiful town squares. It was great to see them and I know that when we hit a more “chaotic” country again, I’ll probably look back on these days with longing. I suppose it’s just that I’ve been feeling like it’s not all that much work or that different from life in the good ‘ole USA. I’m ready for something different, which I’m sure the remaining 6 months of our trip will provide.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
June 28, 2006
Sean: This is not an official post from the UAE as we are only just sitting here in their
huge airport waiting for our connecting flight to Seoul. From Prague we had to wing it to London and layover for a night until catching our Air Emirates flight to the Far East. It put us off balance a little to be in an English speaking country, even if it was for less
St. Barbara
Found on the cathedral named in her honor which is also in Kutna Hora. She is the patron saint of construction workers, mariners and artillery men (among other things) and our personal favorite. than 24 hours. When we landed in Ireland and England for our prior time with family, we were prepared and excited for everything that was going to happen. But this time, England wasn’t on the itinerary, so it was a little thrilling after arriving in London to hear our native tongue sprinkled about. We understood everything! (Well mostly). As nice as that was, we were only on a mission to lay low for the night and take off early in the a.m. for the trip across Asia.
With that said, I also have to put in a plug for Air Emirates by saying that it is the nicest airline I’ve ever flown on. The service in coach was excellent. The meals were tasty and there was a mind boggling amount of entertainment options on the seat back, 10 inch monitors - a couple
hundred fairly recent movies, multiple episodes of dozens of TV shows and many, many
whole albums of music; all of it “on-demand”, exactly when you’d like it, no waiting. The nose-cone camera channel was an especially interesting option on take-offs, although in the case of an “unscheduled” landing, it might prove to be far too exciting.
Meat, meat, meat
Czech's can grill up a darn good hunk 'o meat when they put their mind to it. Dubai’s airport is
the hub for this airline and it seems to be a bit like Rick’s Café Americain with all the different nationalities waiting…waiting…waiting (bonus with no Nazis!). The entire terminal is crammed full even at 2 am and all the shops are opened, doing a booming business. I stepped outside for a minute and probably can see why it’s so lively at such an early hour: it’s damn hot outside. At probably the “coldest” time of the day, it was still well into the nineties. I’ll bet not a lot gets done in this country between sun-up and sun-down.
Shannon: Kudos to Air Emirates - where we Americans have gotten quite accustomed to the service on airlines being “downsized” for cost cutting measures, this one is certainly a cut above. Sean isn’t kidding when he says they’re service is excellent and the entertainment options are astounding. Most of you have probably flown on a Boeing 777 with the screens in the back of the seat in front of you - they’re pretty nice and a good way of passing the time on long flights. What made this system different is the sheer selection - over 500 channels! - filled with anything you could want - movies, television shows, music, music videos, games…all on demand. No waiting for a movie to cycle through on its pre-fed “loop” - you could pause, rewind, fast forward, or just switch to something else. And the seats, while not exactly luxurious, at least allowed you to sleep comfortably (if you could sleep with all that entertainment options before you). It’s the best flight we’ve had in a long, long time. And it should be a good beginning to the Asia chapter of our travels.
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures…
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D.O.D.
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dEM bONES, dEM bONES
Great Blog, as usual. You are spoiling us with your fantastic writing and interesting photography. And now you are adding camara tricks! Are you saying my son is becoming transparent? (Hopefully, he will lose the "trans" soon after your return!) Found a website that sells pics of the Church of Bones: http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm Love and kisses, Dear Old Dad