Friday, June 14, 2024

Day 6 - Český Krumlov

would you make it alright?
or maybe that much better?
if you wanted you could make it all
worth it, worth it, worth it, worth it
Worth It. - Raye

Day 6 was a Saturday and I took a day trip to Český Krumlov. Surprisingly not many people in the group but there were quite a number of tourists in town that day. I got quite sleepy on the drive there that I dozed off and missed many explanations from the guide. I did hear the part that the majority of the people in the Czech Republic are atheists which would be the polar opposite of the people in Indonesia because the majority of us are God believers. Anyways, I do regret that I missed the guide explanation on the area and this town that we're visiting. I didn't have much expectation about my visit, because I've been fortunate enough to go to many different little towns in Europe that they don't really excite me much anymore. I chose this day trip just to fill time. It turned out to be quite a pleasant day with lovely weather. The first thing we saw on arriving was the castle. The castle has bears in its moat. I caught a glimpse of one bear, it's brown. Later in the day when I went to the toilet, someowe carved "free the bear" on the back of the cubicle door. I do have to say that the bears and their living space did not actually make me feel like they're living their best lives, but what do I know. Anyways, the guide gave some info on the castle (which I have forgotten) and after passing the red gate, the guide started our walking tour all the way to the town square. Oh I learn that Bata (the shoes) started out in the Czech Republic.

Arriving in the square the guide said now we had time to explore on our own, but if we wanted to have lunch in a restaurant she's going to then we could go as well because she had made reservation. The rest of the group all said yes, so I felt weird not to so I joined them. Obviously I felt a slight anxiety if it's going to be awkward, but I managed. I had trout for lunch and it was quite big. I finished it all and I thought it was a good lunch. After lunch, we all went our separate ways. Český Krumlov is quite charming with the Vltava river running through it. There were people canoing in the river.

I can't remember any specific place I went into and looking at my pictures I guess I just walked around town. I also didn't have a plan on what it was that I wanted to do in Český Krumlov. A specific thing that was on my mind after I saw the shops was that I wanted to try trdelník. I don't know how I would describe trdelník, the english word they use is chimney cake, but I think it's more like bread? Anyways after lunch I was like, have I walked enough that I could have trdelník now? Like I was so excited to try this. It's hollow inside. The plain one would only be dusted with cinnamon on the outside. You could choose to have filling in it and I chose to have ice cream and some banana and I like it. Well the doughy bread could be quite tough but I would say I love this kinda thing :D After my trdelník curiosity satisified, I made my way to the castle. I didn't plan to visit the castle because come on, we have seen a lot in Germany. The castle also has a tower and I was definitely not going up on that. So I just walked through the different courtyards of the castle culminating in the garden. The view of Český Krumlov from here is quite beautiful.

The garden is quite big and I walked in it a bit and then I went back down to the castle. Stopping at the bear enclosure, now I could see that there were two bears. One of them was smaller. I don't know if the bears are related.

Our meeting place, the Cloak Bridge, was actually by the castle, but I still had time so I made the longer walk by the town again to get to the bridge. Sat by the river looking at people while waiting for the rest. All and all it was a great day. For pictures from Český Krumlov, you can go here.

Arriving back in Prague, I decided to walk a bit to Wenceslas Square. The square is long and I was too tired to stroll the length it. It's also crowded so I didn't linger. The building below is the Národní Muzeum at one end of the square.

For dinner, I decided on Wokin. If you live in Singapore you know of Wok Hey and Wokin is exactly the same concept, but with some differences. Wokin has a bigger place that you could eat on the spot. The space for the cooks to work is definitely much better in Wokin. I do have some sympathy for the Wok Hey's cooks here who have to work in such a small space. Another big difference is that you can customize more things in Wokin, like the sauce and topping. They also have more things like soba noodles and the meat includes calamari which I chose. Obviously I had studied this place hence I knew where it was and I thought I was gonna go for the soba but realizing I had been eating a lot of noodles, I settled on fried rice - the only rice I ate in this trip. Then I wasn't sure what the different sauces would render, so I chose oyster sauce. I didn't choose any topping because even in Wok Hey I exclude spring onion. I ordered in the machine but when I wanted to pay the card didn't get through. I didn't understand what's going on, the message was in Czech and I had to ask the guy behind me and he said something about the card not working. That was hella embarrassing and also what fresh hell is this?!?! I went to the counter then and ordered and paid with cash. The young guy at the counter was very cute. He called out the number in Czech though which I obviously didn't understand then after a few times he said it in English. When I went to collect it I told him I didn't understand and he said, sorry my bad :D Getting back in my room, I quickly logged in to DBS and found out there's maintenance going on which affected the cards. Gosh! Maintenance was dead in the night in Singapore but not where I was. I thought seriously things could be worse. If this had happened that day I needed to book a flight to Prague, then I would have been definitely stranded. So I do need to be more grateful, afterall all was okay. Fried rice was okay too, salty. I start to think perhaps it's what I have been eating in Singapore where things are perhaps not as salty as the rest of the world that when I go outside of Singapore, things taste saltier or stronger? The problem might really be me, not them.

:) eKa @ 8:48:00 PM •