To the Czech Republic!

Tuesday 31.8.2010

Woke up early, as we had to be out of the apartments by I think 9 a.m. My apartment mate accidentally dropped and shattered a bottle of wine, which slowed us down. In any case we managed to get out without incurring late fees. I found I had a problem: I had packed light with the expectation of travelling a lot after Vienna. Now I had everything shoved into my bulging school backpack and a plastic bag. Before I left I looked up some places that might sell camping backpacks in Vienna. I made my way to one using the U-Bahn and a kind of sketched map I had scrawled out before I left. I found the place and found a suitable backpack, which set me back €200. And it was one of the less expensive packs there. In any case, I figured I'd be travelling with for fifteen days, I'd get to keep it afterwards, and in any case I needed it pretty badly. After repacking everything, I managed to get everything in the large camping backpack, which I wore on my back and which distributed the weight pretty nicely, and my smaller school backpack on my front. It was pretty awkward, I looked like a turtle, and I drew the attention of every single person I came across, but I was able to walk and hold all my stuff. My first stop was the grocery store to get some food (The U-Bahn ride was pretty awkward - it was difficult for me to move without bumping into someone with my bulky packs), then I went to the train station to meet Martha. Did I mention it was raining that day and I when packing back in the U.S. I had decided I wouldn't need a jacket? In summary, my journey didn't begin in comfort.

I found Martha without any difficulty. She was amused with my two-backpacks-turtle look, but adopted it herself later, in Prague. We waited for and boarded our train to the Czech Republic. As before, it was easy to see the difference between western and eastern Europe as soon as we crossed the border out of Austria. The buildings were more dilapidated, and there were other signs that we were somewhere with substantially less money. The second train we boarded was pretty sketchy. I'm pretty sure the toilet didn't really flush, it was just a hole above the tracks. In any case, the train was eventually taken over by a Polish crew, which delighted Martha, who is fluent in Polish.

In Olomouc, we reached the Poet's Corner hostel, which Martha had looked up before we left, and were immediately delighted. It is run by an Australian couple (Francie and Greg) who were backpacking through the town years before and loved it so much they decided to open a youth hostel there. It was without question the most authentic hostel experience I had on my journey. It's difficult to find real hostels these days. Most of them operate like really cheap hotels - the owners' goal is to move people in and out and collect their money. But at the Poet's Corner, it was pretty small, and the owners were interested in getting people to really experience the town. They required a two night minimum stay - they didn't want people simply rushing through the place and stopping at their hostel for the night. The owners invited us to attend a local hockey game with them, and later dinner. There was a common room where the guests kind of hung out together when they weren't doing anything. They also had a bin full of extra clothing, and lent me a jacket to wear while I was there. There was a common kitchen where you could cook stuff from the grocery store, and a lot of the plates and cups and things were pottery made by a local potter. It was definitely the way hostels should be. It might have helped that it was run by native English speakers. They had maps and everything in English. They also had a review of lots of shops and restaurants and cafés and things in Olomouc. All of the reviews were written by the owners, based on their experiences in the town.

I forgot to mention that the current Czech Republic used to (before it was Czechoslovakia, of course) two independent countries called Bohemia and Moravia. Prague was the capital of Bohemia and Olomouc was the capital of Moravia. Today Olomouc is a college town, though when we went there all the students were off for summer break. The Australian owners of the hostel had an employee who was a Czech student at the university. Her name was Yana, and she was sweet. She spoke English with a kind of Australian accent from spending time around the hostel-owners, I guess, though when I mentioned this to the Australians they didn’t agree. There was also an Australian guy named Tom about my age staying there, who was spending a year abroad. He had some pretty amazing travel stories. The only other hostel guest we met was this older Italian guy, who apparently had been staying at the Poet’s Corner every summer for quite a few years.

The charming nature of the hostel was immediately apparent because Francie (the hostel owneress) was the first person we met and helped us check into our room. Her accent was so sweet, it was really delightful to hear her speak, and as I said she was really friendly. Her husband Greg was leaving to attend a hockey game as we arrived, and invited us to join him. He said he’d save us a couple seats should we decide to come. After we got settled, we went to find the hockey stadium, which was within easy walking distance of the hostel. We had taken our sweet time, so by the time we arrived at the stadium it was going into the last half or third or however the hell hockey works. They let us in for free because we got there so late. All the Czechs we met that day were really nice. For instance I couldn’t figure out how to get in, and this Czech kid watching me from inside kind of mimed instructions to me. We entered successfully and watched the game. We didn’t see the Australian, but settled down to watch the game. Czechs take their hockey damned seriously. Greg later told us it was just an off-season practice game and less impressive than usual, but it looked pretty hardcore to me. Guys were getting slammed against walls left and right, all that sort of stuff. I think the team was called the Roosters. Also I got to see a zamboni smooth the ice! That was pretty cool. After the game we returned to the hostel and the owners invited us dinner. We joined Francie and Greg, their Australian guest Tom, their Italian guest, and Yana. On the way there we saw these cats in this store window. I’m not sure what they were doing there. Greg put his umbrella tip against the window and the kitty batted at it with its paw. Definitely the most adorable thing I experienced all day, except perhaps Francie’s accent. They took us to some traditional Czech place they liked. It was kind of late and we were the only ones there; I think the waitress was kind of annoyed with us and would have preferred to just close the place up. Anyway, we had a nice dinner. I had a dark beer, of course, and it was pretty good. Czech stuff; they make a decent brew. I had something they called a dinosaur steak, which was really good but wasn’t too expensive. Like I said, as I write this it’s been a few months, but based on the picture I took it looks like some sort of beef wrapped in chicken and filled with cooked spinach and spices, and covered with sauce and things. Anyway, I remember it was damned good.

Greg v. Kitty (2010)

Delicious dinosaur steak with chips!

On the way back, we passed by this church which contained the second largest pipe organ in the world (they said they thought the largest was in a church in Hamburg). It had over 10,000 pipes! Which I guess is a lot. If you were to look through my photos of the trip, you’d see that I was pretty fascinated with the pipe organs in European churches, and photographed them in almost every church I entered. Anyway, I was giddy with delight. As we passed the church, we heard the organ playing! An organ festival was coming up and someone was practicing, or possibly the organ’s caretaker was tuning it or something. Anyway Greg and I tried to find a way in, but to no avail.