Intrepid Day 7: Cesky Krumlov

16 August 2013

Day 7: Prague to Cesky
We had an early start in Prague where we caught the metro to the bus terminal. The bus (or coach) that we caught was amazing, it had big comfy chairs, interactive screens in the back of the chairs and a toilet on the bus although I hear it was pretty tiny. I managed to watch two movies on the trip; Project X and Cop Out but other than that, it was uneventful.

Walking tour
We only had one day to see and do everything so we were straight into a walking tour of the old town. As it normally goes, we were shown around and told some of the history of the town. We saw some of the markets, the bears in the castle moat (I feel sorry of these guys), a church and some of the strange painting techniques they use of the buildings.

Castle
The walking tour finished right in front of the castle tower so my beer buddy and I climbed the precariously steep stairs to the top and enjoyed the great views out over the city in all directions.

Lunch
As a first attempt we walked into one restaurant but no one payed us any attention so screw them! The second attempt was another restaurant right across the street where they were much nicer and I ordered a spicy chicken and mash potato dish. The chicken wasn't spicy but the mash potato was really good, I think it contained cabbage, onions and some other magical ingredients. It doesn't sound like much but after living off ham and cheese sandwiches for a while, it becomes a lot better.

Bike ride
The next activity in our busy day was a downhill bike ride. It's not the extreme downhill you might be thinking, just the lazy drive-you-to-the-top-and-you-roll-down type of downhill. Apparently they expected us to take 2hrs but we did it in just over half that and we didn't even realise we were being timed (give me another go :P). We had some nice views from the top of the hill and the rest was cruising through a forest. We all made it to the bottom in one piece, which is better than another person they told us about who only a few days previously was stung by a bee on the way down and went off the road into the trees.

Rafting
The last activity in the day was a raft trip from up in the hills back into the town. It certainly wasn't extreme or white water but the water was still moving enough that you could sit back and just take in the sights as you quietly drifted downstream. I may or may not have started a water fight, which didn't impress some people in the other boat but hey, I'm like the big brother they never wanted I guess. We saw some cool things on the way down like a small dog riding on the front of a canoe, a crazy guy who jumped into the cold water, some big camp settlements on the river banks and we even had some locals give us some rum. They have a cool trick for keeping the rum (or any drink) cold where they tie the bottle to the back of the canoe and drag it in the river, I liked it.

Trdelnik
Yes I spelled it correctly and this funny sounding thing was our reward for a hard day's work. It's a piece of dough cooked in a spiral shape, coated with sugar and covered with Nutella on the inside; in short, amazing! They're a bit interesting to eat without getting it everywhere but it's worth the effort.

Dinner
We went to a restaurant down by the river for dinner where they claim to serve traditional Czech food. We started off with drinks where ordered a dark Eggenberg beer, that actually turned out to be a dark beer and not just something with a stronger alcohol content, and a warm Bohemian mead that smelled strange but tasted better than it smelled. It wasn't a taste that I'm used to so I couldn't finish it but it was good to try. On the food side we ordered a feast plate that was basically a plate full of various animals. Again, there were some interesting flavours in there but it was a great feed.

Thoughts on Cesky Krumlov

• It's a nice little town but I probably won't come back because I feel like I've seen all it has to offer
• The bear moat sounded cool before I got there but once I saw it, I'd rather they didn't have it. The bears don't look that happy or well looked after.
• It's quite touristy but I don't mind that sort of thing

The dog in charge of the canoe

One example of the cool painting technique, the wall is actually flat.

Another decorative wall

Yet another cool wall. This one is also flat and apparently they do it by painting it and ripping part of the paint off to expose the darker under layer.

A bench from a local artist who loves fingers and feet

One of the bears in the moat

In the castle tower looking out over part of the old town

Enjoying the lazy river ride. I even put that paddle in the water some of the time too

At the top of the hill before starting the decent back to town

Straight off the bus and already enjoying nice views of the city

Panorama of the old town and castle

The infamous Trdelnik

The feast plate

Intrepid Day 5-6: Prague

14-15 August 2013

Day 5: Krakow to Prague
We had an early start to catch a private transport into Czech Republic where we then jumped on a train headed for Prague. I haven't really listened to any radio since I've been in Europe but it was going in the car and it sounds exactly the same as any English radio station except you can't understand the words; the announcers speak the same, there's the same sound effects, it's the same.

Train to Prague
The train ride was quite pleasant and as a bonus, we had our first exposure to the Czech beer drinking culture. It was still before midday but a bunch of Czechs were on the train enjoying beer for the whole trip and a few of our group even found themselves in the bar car getting drinks shouted for them.

Arrival in Prague
My first impressions of Prague were good. Really good in fact. I loved the feel of the city because all the buildings look so ornate and even though a lot had construction going on, I finally understood what people were on about when they talk about a pretty city. We caught the tram from the train station to our apartments and you'd better hold on because these trams take off really quick. We had a few people take a dive the first time it took off.

Lunch
Our tour leader organised a restaurant for lunch where I ordered the goulash. It was fairly tasty and came with some peppers that weren't as hot as I expected (or my tolerance to spicy food is getting better). The most interesting dish at the table was the pork knuckle, which was 2kg of pig knee that was served on a wooden board shaped like a pig; quite the feast.

Exploring
After lunch we went for a walk around the city and also visited the Communism Museum, which contains photos and artifacts from the time that Prague spent under communist control. The museum is something I can definitely recommend but there is a lot of reading and because of this, and the fact I'm a slow reader, I lost the other people I was with.

House party
We were staying in apartments and my room mate and I scored a great one that looked out over the main square and had a huge lounge room; perfect for a house party! We raided the supermarket and stocked up and beers then went back to the apartment for a night of beer, cards and talking shit i.e. a great night. Near the end of the night we all went out for a walk to see the city and the Charles Bridge at night and it was just as busy as during the day. My beer buddy and I stopped for some roadies (beers to go) and we bought a cannabis beer and duff; the duff was ok but the cannabis one was terrible (and had no effect).

Day 6: Walking tour
After a nice sleep in I went out and found a walking tour of the city. The guy was a champ and told us a few things I feel are worth mentioning:

• The name Bohemia comes from the phrase home of the Boiis where Boii is the name of the people who lived there
• He said after he'd told us about the history of Prague that we'd be Czechxperts
• We learnt a cool word: Defenestration. It means to throw someone out the window and it happened on a few occasions in Prague's history
• We were told about a funny incident where the president stole a pen on international TV and thanks to YouTube, you can see it too

The rest of the tour took us past some Jewish Synagogues, which were very subtle and understated, a Jewish cemetery and finally to the riverside where we had a great view of the castle. One strange thing I saw was a giant metronome up on a hill but at first I though it was a really fast moving crane because honestly, who builds a giant metronome?

Hill climb
I wanted to get a good view over the city and the city park (complete with hill) seemed like the best place to do it. It was a pretty decent hill but the disappointing things was once you made it to the top, all the trees blocked any view you could get. This wasn't an accident because they had a fort and a mini Eiffel Tower with great views but of course you had to line up and pay. I opted for the cheapo and time friendly option of leaving the walking paths and finding a spot with a good view just before the treeline started, score!

Dinner
Our wise and fearless tour leader organised a Thai restaurant for dinner and it was amazing. One of the the girls and I shared a masaman curry and phad mi kai and the whole time I was thinking "I'm definitely going past Thailand on the way home".

Nightcap
The tour leader and I stopped off on the way home to try some more of the local fire water; Becherovka. It was fairly drinkable (it's not something you shot) but still extremely strong so it was hard to keep a straight face while sipping it.

Thoughts on Prague

• As I mentioned earlier, there's lots of construction
• Prague is a fairly tall (not much under 3 stories) and modern feeling city
• The city feels very rich, with all the nice houses and cars, but it's still quite cheap
• All the roads are cobblestone. Or at least once I started looking I didn't see any that weren't.
• I like Prague, it's somewhere I could definitely go back to.

Thoughts about Europe

• Europe stinges on traffic lights. Most intersections only have one light and it's impossible to see from the first few rows of cars. Barcelona is where I first noticed it but it's everywhere.

Panorama of the main square

Panorama out over the city

Charles bridge

Charles Bridge and the castle at night

Trying some of the local beers

Trying some other beers. The Cannabis one was terrible, even when we added Absinthe

The padlock thing is everywhere in Europe

Intrepid Day 3-4: Krakow

12-13 August 2013

Day 3: Arrival
The first goal of the day was to find the hotel and dump our bags. After lightening our loads we went for a walk around the old town with our leader for a brief orientation and to see some of the sights like the Barbican and the main market square.

Lunch
We picked a restaurant on the main market square that looked good and sat down for lunch. The local beer is Zywiec, it's amazing, and the local specialty is pierogi, which is similar to ravioli with pasta pillows stuffed with...well...stuff. There's quite a few choices with the pierogi but this time I had them steamed with meat and cabbage stuffing and although it wasn't a flavour explosion, it was still quite nice.

Salt mine
In the afternoon we jumped on a bus for a day trip to one of the popular tourist destinations, the salt mines. The tour starts with a walk down 40 flights of stairs (or a lot at least) to about 100m underground. From there you walk, with your guide, through various tunnels and rooms of the mine where you see salt statues, churches carved into the walls, a giant function room and all sorts of other amazing creations from people who clearly love to carve salt. I really enjoyed the tour and it was the first one I've done where they give you headphones and the guide talks into a microphone so you can be looking around at things but still hear the talk; such a great idea. Before you ask, yes I licked the walls and they do taste salty. Also, the guide, a Polish woman, made us all laugh with a few jokes and the way that she'd whisper "come closer" to us all whenever we stopped.

Thoughts about the mine

• The walls of the mine looked more like rock than salt although you'd see big clumps of white every now and then.
• There was a lot of wooden logs used as supports, arches, railing, etc in the mine and it made it feel really cool
• There are a lot of stairs in the mine and we only explored 2% of it
• The sculptures are amazing. There's so much detail in them

Dinner
Once back in Krakow, we wandered the streets of the old town until we found a restaurant that looked ok. They stuck us all on our own at a fancy table inside and I want to say it's because outside was packed but maybe they were just hiding us. It was an Italian restaurant so I ordered the lasagna, which was pretty good but more importantly, I had more of the wonderful Zywiec beer. We finished the night at some sports bar watching the world athletics something or rather.

Day 4: Auschwitz
First thing in the morning we jumped on a bus to see the other major tourist attraction in Krakow, Auschwitz. On the bus they played a documentary about what happened at the camp so we'd all have a better idea of what we were seeing. The tour took us to Auschwitz I first, where we were shown cells, a gas chamber, a furnace and personal items from people who'd come to the camp.

Then we were back on the bus for a few minutes to go see Auschwitz II-Birkenau, another camp of the complex. Here we saw the railway and rail car that the people would've come in on, the remains of the destroyed gas chambers and furnaces, the remains of hundreds of prisoner buildings and went inside a few of the remaining prisoner buildings.

It was a very sobering experience that I'm glad I saw. Let's hope we can learn from this so it never happens again.

Some facts and observations from the day:

• The Auschwitz II camp is massive
• The Nazis recycled everything; clothes were sent back to German cities, hair was turned into material, gold teeth were melted down and ashes were used as fertilizer
• The people being sent to Auschwitz really had no idea. They even had to buy a ticket for the train to get there
• The weather was appropriately crappy with lots of cloud cover and almost raining a few times

At this point it feels wrong to jump back into something as light hearted as food but the blog must go on, so...

Exploring
Once back in Krakow, we went in search of food and ended up at a Mexican restaurant where I had the biggest and tastiest burrito I've ever had. I also had more Zywiec beer; gotta love it when the local beer is good because it's so easy to get. After we went for a walk to the castle and the Jewish quarter as well as just generally wandering around any street that looked interesting.

Dinner
Dinner was at a Polish restaurant where almost everyone ordered pierogi. This time I shared with my New Zealander friend and we had a mixture of fried and boiled as well as meat and cabbage. The surprise came when our food came out because all the fried pierogi are served on a plate made of bread. I wasn't sure what the etiquette on eating the plate was but I was so stuffed after all the pierogi that I didn't have to worry.

Thoughts about Krakow

• Quite clean and built up
• Lots of cool old buildings
• Good weather
• Cheap food and beer
• Not at all the stereotypical grey, concrete eastern bloc feel that a lesser educated man might've expected

Just outside Auschwitz I

In Auschwitz II-Birkenau

At the entrance to the castle in Krakow. Bender looks angry too

Panorama of the main market square

The most decorative room in the salt mine with a lot of religious carvings

One of the many tunnels we walked through in the salt mine

The front of Auschwitz I

The giant burrito (and the amazing beer)!

The bread plate for the fried pierogi

A panorama of inside the castle walls in Krakow

A fact board from Auschwitz I

The railway from the checkpoint into Auschwitz II-Birkenau

The remains of prisoner buildings in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. All that's left are the chimneys

One of the destroyed gas chamber and furnace buildings at Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Intrepid Day 1-2: Berlin

10 - 11 August 2013

Day 1: Meet and greet
The meet and greet was meant to be in the common room but because I was expecting a big group, like a Topdeck or Contiki, I didn't notice the 5 people sitting in the corner. After running around like a headless chook for a few more minutes, I finally figured it out and found them.

New friends
The group was 10 people plus the leader with 7 Aussies and 3 kiwis and an English leader; a good mix. I'm writing this after the trip so I know this to be true now but at the time, everyone seemed nice. This was great because the main reason I signed up for the trip was to spend more than 1 or 2 days with the same group of (hopefully nice) people.

Pool
After the meeting we had some time to kill before going out for a group dinner and a few of us played a couple games of pool with a conclusive result; most of us aren't that good at pool. It gave us a good chance to start the "where have you been and where are you going" conversation though.

Dinner
Dinner was a good chance to have a chat with everyone and the restaurant was pretty good too. I ordered a schnitzel and it was good but you seriously just get a plain schnitzel and fries whereas Australia has taken the schnitzel and made it so much better. I can't wait for a parmy when I get home (anyone from the eastern states who's thinking "it's a parma" is clearly wrong by the way). A few of us went for a drink at the hostel bar after and made some cool sounding plans for the next day; bunkers and spy stations.

Day 2: Free brekky
Free and good breakfasts are a rare thing in hostel life but when you're in a flashpackers (hostel in a hotel) then things are much fancier. Naturally we all made sure to eat as much as we could. It wasn't as good as the one in Dubai but it was close.

Bunker tour
The first goal for the day was to explore an air raid bunker that was built in one of the S-bahn stations. We knew which station it was in but once at the station, we had a hard time finding the place to get the tour. We were lucky enough to walk past the tour group just entering the bunker so after a sprint up the stairs to the tourist office and some sweet talking, we were allowed to join that tour group (otherwise we'd miss out). The tour was really good; we were shown through a bunch of rooms in the bunker, told stories about the era it was used and shown artifacts from the war. One of the coolest things was the room for the firefighters that was completely painted with glow in the dark paint so they could still prepare without lights.

Rubble mountain
In the bunker we were shown a photo of a mountain made from a blown up flak tower and rubble from the city which was really close so we decided to go climb this rubble mountain. The photo was from the end of the war and it depicted a bare mountain where you could still see the part of the tower protruding but in the present day, it was surrounded by a garden and covered in trees. At the top you can walk out on the remains of the tower and get a view of the city that's definitely worth the short climb.

Teufelsberg - the abandoned spy station
Berlin has two popular abandoned areas; a theme park and a spy station. As a member of our group had already seen the theme park we decided to check out the spy station, which none of us had seen yet. We knew that there were fences around the place along with people in there who are apparently squatters but pretend to be officials and charge for tours. However, we'd also heard that it was possible to sneak in but after a walk around the whole perimeter and noticing that every hole was patched and that there are up to three layers of fences in places, we conceded and asked the people at the gate. There was a tour running but it went for too long and we wouldn't have made it home in time so we had to miss out on exploring. We did go over to a nearby hill and take some photos of the elusive spy station on the way home though.

Finding food
As we had a whole night of train travel coming up we were told to organise some food for the trip. Sounds like a solid plan until you realise that it's a Sunday and Europe shuts down on Sundays so food is hard to find. I ended up with a trusty old doner box although in hindsight, it wasn't really a problem because there was a kebab shop at a Polish train station and they served massive, tasty kebabs; definitely worthy of the top 5 kebab list.

Sleeper train
I wasn't sure what the expect with a sleeper train because we were meant to have beds but we couldn't be certain until we were on the train plus there's the whole movement and noise thing. It turns out that it was fine and after a beer and playing some cards, I had one of the best nights sleep I'd had in a while.

Me cursing Teufelsberg from a nearby hill

The beds in the sleeper train

Looking out over part of Berlin from the hill near Teufelsberg