Well, just got back from my 2 weeks vacation. Here it is... my version!
3 days in Prague - wonderful! Everything is so beautiful and clean!! I couldn%26#39;t believe how clean it is! It%26#39;s only downfall, in my opinion, is the crowds. There are so many people! Our first 3 days were spent seeing the main sites and being typical tourists. I was pleasantly surprised at how my friend was treated. She has a broken leg and gets around slowly on crutches but there was always someone on the tram or metro to give up their seat for her. Very nice people!
We rented a car out of Prague and headed off to Cesky Krumlov. Parking was cheap and easy and we found the center to be great! The afternoon was enough time for us to wander around and take it in. It%26#39;s beauty rivals that of Prague! We spent that night in a small hotel in Trebon. That evening we went to a small pub. If I remember correctly, the beer they served was Svijany. We hadn%26#39;t seen it before, and haven%26#39;t seen it since!! As a non-beer drinker, I actually really liked it.
That morning we left for Telc. Being a monday, everything was closed. But we took a nice stroll around the square and the gardens. Very quaint. We decided to drive around the country side and found the 800yr old Lime tree. I thought it was great! We also attempted to find the ruins of Stamberk Castle and the Rostejn Castle. We must%26#39;ve taken a wrong turn somewhere... but it was a great drive nonetheless!! That night we spent at the Travellers Hostel in Trebic. I thought it was very nice! We ate at a restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, something along the lines of U Neptune. I loved it! I ordered what they called a Chicken Steak Africa. Chicken cooked with bananas and bacon, on a bed of spinach with tons of fruit! So delicious! That morning we explored Trebic and the afternoon we spent in Jihlava at the zoo. It was a nice little zoo, I was actually quite impressed with it. And I%26#39;m a huge animal lover so it was a nice change of scenery from small town squares, castles and churches. We then drove to Brno.
Brno - unfortunately... I will have to say that Brno was our least favourite place. Our hostel was friendly and helpful (Wind Point on Cejl). Our first morning we head straight to the info and couldn%26#39;t believe how rude she was to us. There were some communication problems but instead of being friendly in her explanations, she was abrupt and rude. We get on the tram and not a single person offered their seat to my friend with the broken leg. Can you imagine how difficult and painful it was to try to stand on a tram, holding on to crutches and trying not to put pressure on her broken leg?? We were in Brno for 2 nights and used the tram 4 or 5 times a day, and not once did somebody help her out and give her their seat. What a disappointment... We then get to Petrov Hill. My sister and friend decide to go up the lookout tower in the church. My other friend and I stayed down. We sat on the chairs at the bottom of the steps and admired the small chapel, talked about the decorations, etc etc. The man selling the tickets to go up the tower came over to us and literally shoo%26#39;d us away, told us to %26#39;beat it%26#39; and closed the doors behind him. I was appalled by that treatment. We were being quiet and respectful, admiring a part of the church that does not require a fee. And there were chairs!! I couldn%26#39;t believe I was told to Beat It. These are the 3 main instances that stand out, but are by no means the only problems we came across in Brno including the fact that there was dog poo everywhere and in general quite dirty (compared to the rest of Czech we%26#39;ve seen). At that point, we were so discouraged and ready to leave. The only redeeming factor was the older man at the castle who explained the prison layout to us. He was so nice and made us feel immediately better. Part of our time in Brno was spent at the caves. The definite highlight of being in the Brno area.
After Brno we went up to Krakow for 4 days. But the rest of the update is for the Poland forum :p
We returned to Prague for a few hours before our flight home and decided to visit Kutna Hora. We had a really nice time there and were reluctant to come back to Prague because that meant going home.
This was a great trip and I loved my visit to the Czech Republic. It did not disappoint!
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Sorry you didn%26#39;t enjoy Brno - it doesn%26#39;t match what I know of the city, though, as it is drummed into people from a young age to stand up for elderly or disabled. Over the many years that I have been in the city, on and off, I have very rarely seen anyone fail to stand up, and only then the person who didn%26#39;t stand up was told off by other passengers. Saying that, you were staying in Cejl which is, let us say, not the most salubrious part of town, and suffers from some social problems and is quite neglected, so I quite believe that your experience wasn%26#39;t quite what it might have been :) It isn%26#39;t an area that I would have recommended - I used to live on the other side of it and there is a definite difference between the people on the trams that go through Cejl and those that go elsewhere. However, it is quite unusual for them to be that full all of the time so that there is nowhere to sit down, so you were unlucky.
But anyway, you say that it did not disappoint, so that is the main thing, and well done for making it to the caves - did you go on the underground river trip?
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Nice report i will be there on Tuesday trying to dodge all those pesky tourists he he.
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Hi GCEK - we were also under the impression that we weren%26#39;t in a very good area of Brno, so I do understand that maybe my experience would have been different elsewhere. Unfortunately, Brno has hardly any hostels to choose from so for backpackers on a budget, Cejl was the best available choice for us.
However, the Pegas Hotel is definitely in my top 3 dining experiences!
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