Stuck in a fairy tale

In one of my most recent posts, I mentioned that wandering around Prague made me feel like I was in a fairy tale. Yesterday, Alyssa and I discovered yet another fairy tale town: Český Krumlov. Český Krumlov is a small town in the southern part of the Czech Republic. It has the second largest castle in the Czech Republic (the first being Prague Castle) and colorful medieval architecture. Unlike Prague, the city was never destroyed by bombs during WWII meaning all of the architecture is the same as it was hundreds of years ago. There’s also a river that flows through the middle of the town. It’s such a beautiful place!

In order to reach this magical city, Alyssa and I first had to walk to the bus station. It was a 40 minute walk but in a part of Prague that we hadn’t explored yet which was exciting! We walked along the river and stumbled upon the Dancing House, a building designed to represent the transformation of the Czech Republic from a communist country to a democratic one.

After our long but pleasant walk, we arrived at the bus station and found our seats on the bus to Český Krumlov. We had booked our tickets separately but lucked out by getting seats next to each other… or so we thought.

Just minutes before the bus left, a man came up to us and asked to see our tickets. His ticket had also been for the seat Alyssa was sitting in, so we were all confused. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the bus wasn’t almost completely full, but of course there were only a couple of open seats. The three of us looked at every detail of our tickets and eventually discovered that Alyssa’s ticket had been booked for Saturday instead of Friday.

At first, we panicked. Should we get off the bus? If we did that, though, we wouldn’t make it to Český Krumlov until the afternoon. Since it’s a 3 hour bus ride one way, it wouldn’t be worth it to go and arrive in the afternoon.

Thankfully, the guy was nice and offered to take his chances and sit somewhere else instead. By that time, the bus had already left the station. We were committed to our trip to Český Krumlov whether Alyssa had a ticket or not. It was about 1.5 hours until our first stop, which was just enough time to think of a solution to our problem.

First, we made sure to book Alyssa the correct return ticket for later that evening so that we wouldn’t be stranded there. After that, we searched for a ticket on our bus. The app was saying that there were no tickets available for Prague-Český Krumlov on our bus. However, there were tickets for Písek-Český Krumlov. I calculated the times to make sure it would be our bus stopping there, and then we bought it. Since Písek was our first stop, this ticket would guarantee that Alyssa had a seat on our bus for the rest of the trip. Phew!

Although this mishap was stressful in the moment, we were able to laugh about it after the fact. It also felt oddly good to do some problem solving! The way I felt when frantically searching for a ticket was the same way I feel when I have five minutes left on a math exam and haven’t started the last question yet.

As we approached Český Krumlov, I started to wonder if we were really in the right place. We were only a few minutes from the bus station, and the surrounding area looked very industrial. When we arrived at the bus station, however, I immediately knew we were in the right place.

Just up from the station was a yellow gate that seemed to separate the fairy tale town from the rest of the world. Walking through it felt like walking through a portal!

There were WAY less people in Český Krumlov than I had imagined. Usually, the town is a popular tourist destination, but Alyssa and I practically had the whole place to ourselves! I think the fact that it’s December may have something to do with that… 😆

While the lack of people made walking around the town more enjoyable, it also made the town feel a bit spooky. Many of the stores were closed, which made the place look abandoned in some areas.

We were walking in a particularly quiet area when I saw a man walking with his hood up, blood dripping down his face. And I mean not just a bloody nose but streams of blood dripping from every part of his face. I turned to Alyssa and asked if she saw him too. She did, but she only noticed that his hood was up. I started looking around for some sort of an accident… maybe he crashed his bike? A car? There was no evidence. Maybe he was a ghost! I guess we’ll never know. If he was real, I hope he’s doing alright.

After eating chicken schnitzel for lunch, we made our way to the castle. Upon entering the castle grounds, we saw…

A bear!!! In the moat!!!

I felt bad for the bear because there wasn’t much space outside for him, and it looked like he was all alone. Maybe there was another bear inside, though. Anyway, seeing a bear at a castle in the Czech Republic was definitely a unique experience!

My favorite part of the castle was the incredible view of the town from the castle walls.

After visiting the castle, Alyssa and I went to a café for macrons and mint tea. There was a baby sitting at the table next to us that stared at Alyssa nearly the entire time we were there. When Alyssa started making faces at her, she pointed in our direction. The parents’ heads whipped around to look over at us, and suddenly the game was awkward 😂.

Later on in the evening, we saw a bunch of kids and even a few adults dressed up as angels. We were curious what they were up to, so we decided to follow them. The angels got up on bleachers and started to sing and play Christmas songs on recorders! As they did so, it started to snow. How magical! Some of the adults joined hands with the children and danced in circles in front of the musicians. Then, a woman gave a speech and gave her crown to a teenage girl. I didn’t understand anything she said because she was speaking in Czech, but it was fun to experience what seemed like a Christmas tradition for the town!

Alyssa and I returned to Prague just in time for a late dinner at an Italian restaurant. On our way back to the hostel after dinner, a guy about our age stopped in the street and just stood there staring and pointing in our direction. Naturally, I stopped and pointed right back at him. After what felt like the longest pause in my life, I said “hello”.

He responded with, “you speak English?!”. He then asked where I was from, so I told him. He started leaving to catch up with his friends, but I asked where he was from anyway. He yelled back “GERMANYYYY” and then ran away. What an odd way to end an odd day!

Well, I’d better get to sleep now. I have to be up in a few hours for my flight back to Scotland tomorrow!

Until next time,

Clara