Travel Weekends: Český Krumlov & Mikulov

Weekends have without a doubt been the busiest times for me, but the most exciting because I’m seeing sooo many beautiful places I don't think I'd ever have the chance to see. It’s these little towns you’d probably never read about if you don’t live in the Czech but they’re all so unique. I kind of felt this way with South Africa when I studied there because we only had a couple week trips outside the country, and weekends were spent around Cape Town. It’s a really surreal feeling to know I’ll come out of this knowing Czech Republic so well and hopefully seeing most of the country, even the tiny little spots. So here’s a bit of a (long) recap on my past couple weekends :)

The weekend of September 17th a small group of ETAs decided to meet up in the literal fairytale land of Český Krumlov. It’s the 2nd most visited city in the Czech Republic behind Prague so I definitely got a fair taste of tourism and…wait for it…English <3

While I’ve somehow managed to keep myself pretty busy during the weeks, having a reunion with the other Americans during the weekends really helps to get through the long days, especially when there isn’t much going on in your own town anymore since summer is coming to a close. So Friday right after school ended I took a train from Tábor with another ETA who lives in the town next to me, and we started our ~2hours to Český Krumlov! The first transfer was in České Budejovice which is a university town, so lots of shopping and restaurants we’d all recognize. That was truly the first time I felt a bit of American culture, seeing the H&M, of course buying unnecessary sweaters, and we even went to McDonald’s just to feel something. Can I just say McDonalds is so nice here, the veggie wrap was like…surprisingly fresh and the fact that I could see and taste the carrots was like oddly refreshing considering the lack of produce here sooo McDonalds for the win

After a bus ride to Český Krumlov from there we reunited with the other 8 or so ETAs and checked in to our hostel which was so unique haha. We had to go through a full on restaurant and use the back door to a staircase which leads to a bunch of rooms upstairs. Not sure why they trusted us with keys to the entire restaurant but glad they did haha. We were the only ones at the hostel so it felt like we were all sharing a house for the weekend, just hanging out in the kitchen til late and catching up on everything we’ve been experiencing together.

Český Krumlov is the cutest little town I maybe have ever seen. It has your typical European cobblestone streets and castles of course. We took a raft down the river and had our guide sing us songs :’) I finally got to take my camera out and try to capture everything, even taking some new profile pics for the other girls here because it’s been a month without any pictures of ourselves haha.

This weekend was also the first time I think I felt a bit of culture shock maybe? I don’t know if that’s the right word but to be surrounded by other native English speakers was honestly such a weird feeling. Usually in my town if I hear English being spoken in a store or on the street, it catches my attention completely and I may even go introduce myself because native English speakers aren’t just walking around and using it. If people know English it definitely isn’t their first language, so I really never ever hear it unprovoked. But here, we’d go into a little tourist shop and hear some British guy or maybe even a family. It was the first time I realized how long it’s been since hearing English was a normal thing haha. I’d want to go run over to them and be like “Hi I'm American too lets be friends” but I had to stop myself because it’s a pretty touristy town haha. And because of that I had moments of feeling like a tourist myself because I could resort to English instead of my few words of broken Czech, but at the same time was like…but im not a tourist haha. I don’t know - just some weird feelings for the first time where I was reminded I haven’t heard native English in so long but also wanting to identify with the Czech side vs. just being another tourist if that makes sense??

Anyways, this weekend was so lovely and I had the best time seeing the ETAs and wandering around these unbelievable castles that just exist right next to you. One night we all just put on sweatshirts and walked to the castle, sat by the river, played some music and stared in awe at where we were. Kinda made me sad to think about leaving already because I don’t know if I’ll ever get to live in a place as beautiful as this!!

Enjoy swiping through these pics and put Český Krumlov on your list if you ever visit :)

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The weekend of September 25th brought our first “holiday” which meant 5 free days to travel a bit further than a normal weekend. So a group of 5 of us decided to meet up in South Moravia (Mikulov & Valtice) for a bit, which just so happens to be wine country!! But with that came a daunting 6+ hour travel journey for me since I was the farthest away and didn’t overlap with anyone else’s plans to get there. Sooo queue the anxiety of 3+ bus/train/metro connections all by myself when I simply don’t speak Czech :)

I looked up some routes on the Czech train/bus app and it looked like I had at least 3 transfers with <10 minutes in between which literally gave me heart pains sooo I asked my mentor and other English teacher if they had any recommendations for best routes and they thank god helped me find a more manageable one. It was an easy train to České Budejovice (which I took the weekend before) and then a transfer to a bus that I’d be on for 3.5 hours. Got a nice coffee beforehand, found the bus, hopped on, and suddenly realized there’s no bathroom. And no breaks. So. I panicked. I luckily didn’t have to go but like…what if I did? I started thinking of my emergency plans but the bus driver didn’t speak any English so like I was kinda screwed. Thank god I didn’t have to go but I had to intentionally preoccupy myself with podcasts and music so I didn’t convince myself I needed to haha. Also this bus had no wifi so rip. It was also running about 30+ minutes late and not sure why we were going so slow, haha but at least my next connection in Brno had a bus every hour in case I missed it.

So made it to Brno, sprinted to the bathroom, and took my time finding the next connection since I had to take the later one anyway. This was a local bus for an hour with 17+ stops. Still have yet to figure out how to request a stop and I promise you there weren’t any buttons on the rails or anything yet somehow the bus driver knew when to stop…He skipped some stops too which just confused me but oh well I made it!

Met up with the other girls at dinner, took a sigh of relief after many hours, and could finally relax! Time in wine country felt pretty different than Tábor - not better or worse just different. People were carrying wine glasses everywhere, like hiking up hills with them haha. Burčák is also in high demand which is a seasonal type of wine that has a shelf life of like 2 days so every 5 ft we’d see a Burčák stand and of course tried just about every one. It was such a lovely town, also felt a bit more touristy to me but just because of the nice looking restaurants and lack of brand name stores that mine has a bit more of. We went out to a place our friend frequents, hung out with her students (who spoke such great English), met some Czech bartenders who also spoke great English, and found ourselves out until 4am which is like, normal here? I simply can’t function that way but the Czechs are a different breed haha. One of the bartenders put on Green Day lol and we all were scream singing it which was kinda fun. We went on little hike in the morning up the iconic hill in the town and saw the most stunning view of the town. Overall, a great time in Mikulov seeing some ETAs we haven’t seen since orientation and would LOVE to come back. It’s another little fairytale land 10/10 recommend :)

On the way back another ETA Rachel had to stop in Brno as well so we decided to make a day out of it, explore the major city, spend the night and continue our travels the next day. Brno is like a mini Prague I’ve been told. Immediately I felt the English. Like immediately. It was so refreshing haha. I thought Český Krumlov had English but nope. THIS was English. Rachel and I practically sprinted to a recommended Mexican restaurant once we got off the bus and inhaled burritos because we’ve been deprived of Mexican food let alone spice and like, flavor haha. The actual spice was so refreshing you have no idea haha. After we came down from that high we just wandered around a bit but with our massive backpacks because we couldn’t check in to the Penzion yet (in between a hostel and b&b I think?). We stumbled across the cutest performance ever:

Got into our room, refreshed a bit, and ventured to the most important place in the entire city: Starbucks. Let me just tell you. This refueled me, it gave me reason to live, it was like I could breathe again. And the best part is that Czech coffee is arguably so much better BUT it tasted just like home and I felt back in the US for a second haha. We just kept walking around, sat in the square for a bit, explored the castle, and of course visited the beloved H&M where I couldn’t resist another sweater. Got some much needed sushi from an all you can eat place and then went out for a drink or two and a fun bar named “This Bar Does Not Exist” but in Czech. We were debating between that and a place called “Low Cost Bar” also in Czech lol. Overall a lot of cool unique places and great vibes all around!

My travel home the next day was pretty uneventful but I guess thats a good thing haha so I had another ~4hour bus back to České Budejovice again without a bathroom and wifi grrr but I slept for a while and found my connecting train back to Tábor easily! So 10/10 great weekend, much needed refresher with some great people!! It’ll only be about 2 weeks before we meet up again with a bit of a reunion in Prague marking our half way point in between Day 1 and Thanksgiving official reunion with Fulbright!!