and a Happy New Year!!

Ah Cesky Krumlov, my heart of hearts. It’s no secret that Prague is my favourite city in the world, and thanks to Cesky Krumlov I can now safely say that the Czech Republic is one of my favourite countries. Cesky Krumlov is a wee little town about 2hrs east of Prague, about a 30 minute drive from the German Border. To me it’s where Moravia meets Bohemia with a perfect blend of Eastern and Western Europe. Enough English speakers to make it Angie friendly but not so many that it feels totally touristy. Amy and I chose Cesky Krumlov as our New Year destination after weeks of indecision. Every time I have been to Eastern Europe I have heard countless stories of how beautiful Cesky Krumlov is but I had never quite made it to that side of the Czech Republic. Oh man I’m so glad I finally did!!!

Our trip to Cesky Krumlov was not smooth sailing. Our departure from Vienna cut it VERY fine; I have never been so rushed for anything! Luckily we made it to the bus with 5 minutes to spare, but then when we got to Prague Amy fell victim to a severe case of Hangrrr which was worsened when I devoured more than my portion of our Pasta meal (to be fair I had been craving Pasta for 5 days!). Then one of the wheels on my suitcase broke and rolling my suitcase became practically impossible. Then once we actually got to Cesky Krumlov the service station assistant yelled and shoo’d me away when I asked him how to book a taxi, only minutes before I spotted a man getting into a taxi who then yelled NO at me when I asked for some assistance!! Not a good start! Everything was forgotten however when we arrived at our hostel and saw the big gorgeous hand carved wooden door. Krumlov House is an incredibly cute hostel, albeit with the shittest shower I have ever experienced! But the room from our view more than made up for it!

After our first walk into town I was hooked; the gorgeous buildings, stone cobbled roads and becherovka in every window made me feel right at home. It turns out CK is a bit of a host city for marionettes, they are everywhere!! Quite interesting but pretty damn creepy up close. Amy and I did a Eggenbbeg Brewery tour, the brewery itself was pretty underwhelming but the tour guide was absolutely amazing and gave us so much info about the town it was fantastic.

She told us about the great floods of ’92 and the very prominent presence of the mafia in wee Cesky Krumlov. There was a lovely Italian couple on the tour who we happened to run into very early in 2011! After the tour we went to the Eggenbbeg Brewery restaurant to test the beer and try some ‘Hausgemachter Eingelegter Hermelinkase’! A homemade pickled camembert which is famous for being served with beer. We also tried ‘Olomoucke Tvarausky’ stinky see through no fat cheese, very Dutch style.

Next stop was my favourite discovery of the trip, a great vegetarian restaurant called ‘Laibon’, owned and run by the extremely lovely David. He spends half his week in CK and half in Prague- sounds like the life to me!! The restaurant is more like a terracotta cave, the instant you walk you feel right at home and then David pops in with his Ginormous smile and the scene is set. The menu, all vegetarian, is absolutely delicious. I had a delish gnocchi style dish with light bacon and bryndza sheep cheese and OH MY GOD it was one of the best things I have ever eaten!! Definitely the food highlight of the trip, needless to say we went back a few times... Amy had Pakori – fried cheese and vegetables. Also yummy but not as memorable as mine, this was where Amy 1^st admitted to her food envy..

That afternoon I came down with a bad case of Peengrr... Very similar to Hangrr but potentially more embarrassing... We were saved from my Peengrr at the fantastic Egon Schiele Exhibition and a shot of Slivoche. Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter that spent a lot of his time in the Czech republic, and some of his more creative years in CK. Very interesting stuff.

Next thing we knew it was NYE and time to get our groove on. We bought a bottle of Lemon Becherovka (PERFECTION) and after a few sneaky ones took the bottle to drink on the streets. Not the first European NY spent sipping out of a bottle on the streets, and hopefully not the last. We went to dinner at a cute restaurant on the water, we somehow ended up in the ‘locals’ section which was a good laugh – they all cheered every time we drank! We had deer, finally (see Vienna Blog) and dumplings.. and almost got charged 1790ck instead of 500ck!!! Whoops!

We decided to do the countdown out on the streets which turned out to be the perfect option. We were lucky enough to be outside for a little NY dusting of snow!! Won’t be seeing that for a while L

Apparently the council had cancelled the annual Fireworks display to save $$$ but I think it was better that way because all of the locals and tourists had bought fire crackers themselves. At midnight they were cracking left right and centre and it was amazing. We had the perfect vantage point, on the river with a ripper view of the castle and the bridge. For about 40 minutes Amy and I watched as we were treated to a fantastic 360 degree fireworks show. Doesn’t get much better than that hey!

Once the light show was over Amy and I went to ‘La Boheme’ a club in town. They had ridiculously cheap cocktails, it was great! I was so impressed by the menu Amy stole one for me!!

We were enticed then repulsed by the red Absinthe cocktail and I wish I had had a ‘flying kangaroo’ – a vodka, white rum, coconut syrup, Galliano, orange juice, pineapple juice and cream concoction... Not particularly appetising. It was definitely an interesting evening!

On New Years Day we bravely (or stupidly) had booked ourselves in for a 2hr horsey ride through the snow. We didn’t really realise that to get there we had to walk 2km up hill, needless to say we were in pain before we even got there!! It was definitely worth it though. It was so gorgeous riding through the snow!! I was a tad upset because they wouldn’t let me take my camera...

Fast forward 2 hours and somehow we weren’t in pain – amazing considering my knee and Amys leg muscle inuries. Maybe that 2 km walk helped to stretch us out after all!! We also went to the castle which proved to be a bit hazardous for yours truly – very icy cobbles on a hill – not ideal.

Our last stop in CK was Dobra Cajovna – a gorgeous tea house! Part of me is sad we didn’t get there earlier but the other part of me is sure it’s a good thing as we wouldn’t have seen or done anything else. We shared a yummy Sheesha and a few different sorts of tea. A blissfull way to finish off a brilliant few days. Absolute Perfection.