More on the Czech Republic

I have been here five days now. Here are some highlights:

After Diana got into town, we wandered around the new town (new only compared to the old town) and admired all of the art deco architecture and a crazy sculpture of a horse. Then we managed to find an amazing vegetarian restaurant called Clear Head, where we lucked into a private room and ate gourmet dishes (I had a burrito) for less than 10 euros a piece, including drinks and after dinner coffee.

Day two, Tuesday, we got up to go on a free tour of Prague, which was good, except it was cold and our guide's English was not amazing. But we saw a lot of the city, got some more history, etc, etc. After leaving the castle, we stumbled upon a cute coffe shop (Cafe Ebel) that I had seen recommended but didn't realize was also at that location, so I was a little confused. In any case, we got good coffee and apple cake and then went to try to go to a Cubist museum, which failed because it was under construction. Instead we shopped (or rather, looked in stores) and then went back to the hostel to change to go to a concert, as we had heard the opera house was beautiful. After some confusion/ misdirection, mostly due to my mistakes, we ended up in the correct place and managed to see the second half of the show, which was a French opera about Helen of Troy, except they were just singing it, not performing (I actually think I would have gotten bored if we had seen the whole thing). Then dinner, which was nothing too exciting, due to various things not be open to us.

Day three we did the Castle, which involved more cold and impressive baroque architecture. Also some very awesome stained glass windows. Our favorite part in the old palace was this door handle shapped like a little bird man. After a traditional Czech lunch, we ventured into the Jewish quarter, but ended up just going to the decorative arts museum, which had an interesting exhibit on fashion from the 1970s and some great typography/ graphic design stuff. Then dinner at Country Life, and old-school vegan buffet (all kinds of whole grains and lentils), traditional Czech drinks at a tiny pub, and then checking out a little more of the nightlife.

Day four Diana and Anja got up early to go to the Jewish cemetery, but Sahar and I slept in a little bit, bought a picnic lunch and got caught in the snow, and then we all caught a bus to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour away which has some Italian architecture and another very large cathedral. There is also the Ossuary, an old church with tons of sculpture made out of human bones. There was supposed to be some sort of message, but mostly it was creepy. When we got back to Prague, we decided to find a nice place for Anja and Diana's last dinner, and ended up at another Czech restaurant. My food wasn't too exciting, as we got "beer cheese" as an apetizer, so my main dish involved more vegetables, but everyone elses' was great. Then we went to a good, non-touristy dance club that played some really random music, and stayed out too late.

This morning we slept in a little and then Sahar and I said goodbye, investigated bus options, and went to a contemporary American art exhibit at the concert hall that overall was really good, especially one video that involved a weird dough-making process. We got lunch at a bio-cafe (bio means organic in most of Europe... I really wish the cafe chain existed in France because it was delicious) and then made our way to the bus station, which was way out in the middle of nowhere. After a cold three hour trip, we ended up in Cesky Krumlov, a small town in the south of the country. Its dark now, so we haven't seen a lot, but it seems really beautiful. Our hostel is cheap and cute, but our room barely fits our beds (luckily we are both short). We went out to a midiveal restaurant for dinner, which didn't do stupid stuff with knights and jousting, but instead focused on diet and spices and it was really good. I had a lot of interesting grains and some old time beer.

Tomorrow we will explore the town and then Tuesday morning we go back to the Netherlands.