All the hostels were fully booked in Prague so I wound up in Cesky Krumlov instead. It’s about 180km south of Prague replete with the moat like river around the city and a castle. I’m struggling a bit here (9am) as I’ve procured my first hangover of the trip. So where to begin…
For once I didn’t get lost on the road yesterday. Admittedly it was a pretty straightforward 250km up the highway from Salzburg, but it was nice to make good time for once. The forecast rain never eventuated, and once I arrived the clouds dispersed and it would have been pushing 30 degrees. Sweeet.
So after quite a search to locate the hostel – all the streets are narrow cobblestones and not really supposed to be used by cars / bikes – I settled in and went wandering. The thing that really struck me about this place is that all the features on the ancient buildings (circa 1600s I think) are painted on!
By that I mean the ornate brickwork and trimmings are merely painted there on what looks like the equivalent of stucco. I imagine this won’t be readily apparent in any of the photos, so it’s an interesting approach to take and no doubt occurred because of the comparative lack of funds these guys had compared with, say, the Romans.
This place does feel quite similar to Venice in terms of the street layout and, of course, the legions of tourists. I felt rather lucky to have come in by road for some authentic Eastern European flavor. The border with Austria was the first one I’ve so far had to stop at and show my passport/papers. The change in scenery is quite dramatic once you get to Czech. Surprisingly the roads weren’t much worse (though that’s more a reflection on Austria’s poor roads) but the people are vastly different.
Not long after entering the country you spot prostitutes lined up on the side of the road pedalling their services. And I’m not talking a city street, this is a highway north from Austria, so they’re obviously very much targeted at the tourists. As were the pokie machines in the petrol station I expect.
I did feel a little uneasy at this point, I had visions of Russian mafia types holding me up with kalashnikovs and pinching my bike and passports. Of course I was fully aware this was merely a product of my overactive imagination (which comes into its own after a few hours on the road) but was nonetheless nervous. And keeping very much to the speed limit.
So it was with some relief that I found the town and slipped into my role as camera toting tourist. It’s a very insulated way to be and gives easy peace of mind. We (myself and a couple of boys from Melbourne I met here) went out for dinner and had this fantastic platter of meats. Brilliant stuff, and all of about 9 euros. Beers are, as widely reported, very cheap. Although I didn’t like them nearly as much as the Austrian wares.
I had left my bike in a carpark on the outskirts of the town, which I would apparently have had to pay 20 euros to get it out today if I left it there. Or I could (as I eventually did) just ride around the barrier ;-) Yeah so I wasn’t very keen on leaving it there for fear of theft from aforementioned Russian mafia types, so I grabbed it early evening and after riding around in circles for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to penetrate the city, parked it out the front of the hostel. It’s still there now so I’m happy.
Back on the road today, probably another 300km or so up to Chemnitz, the town near the track for Sunday’s race. Two nights there then Berlin. Sun’s out today so it should be OK, although the hangover might be a pain.