Cobbles and dumplings à la Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov. Southern Czechia, on the river Vltava, a population of 13,000. UNESCO World Heritage Sight. Highly recommended by many.

And I concur.

Despite the beginning not being completely hiccupless.

We arrived in Cesky Krumlov after a less-than-ideal bus ride involving two shattered travellers, five bags (including an insanely heavy plastic bag and Nicola’s comic disaster of a suitcase which was incapable of standing upright by itself), two Starbucks take-away cups (the only café open before nine in the morning) and seats 63 and 34, which we were right to guess weren’t exactly next to each other.

My life seems to be nothing but a series of moments of wishing I were an octopus.

However, no one seemed to want seat 33. So it all ended up happy – we even had free hot chocs, and the bus host was a friendly woman who confused everyone by thanking everyone so profusely in the announcement before the penultimate stop, that everyone had assumed we’d reached the final destination as the bus stopped. Only to be ushered back in. “It’s not the final stop!”

It was sunny when we arrived in Cesky Krumlov, with temperatures nearing 30. We were hungry, shattered and I hated my elephant-weighted plastic bag (one of its pointless contributions, which I noted later, was carrying an unopened carton of orange juice, plus a bottle of water I’d taken from the previous air b’n’b having presumed it was Nicola’s. It wasn’t.)

We decided to prioritise quick decision to finding-long-sought-perfection as it came to finding a lunch place. We ended up in the charming quaint pizza place called Cosa Vostra, food was delicious, and then the forecast thunderstorms caught up with us.

The rain was something comparable to Vietnamese rainy season. The thunder was thundering right above our heads, and the horizon was covered in cloud. Fun, exciting, epic, but we knew that our obligatory mode of transport was our feet, and we weren’t 100% prepared. Nicola had an umbrella, we both had some level of coats, but… What is it with holidays, that you always dress for the weather you hope for, not for the weather on the forecast?

So after a while of pointless waiting for the rain to subside, we ventured out. I had Google Maps leading the way to our Air Bnb, but as you may learn from a future Prague entry, do not trust Google Maps or at least GPS when in Czechia. I was striding in front, leading us down all sorts of wrong lanes in the pouring rain because a) google maps failed b) the rain messed up my phone c) maybe some fault in my map-reading skills too. Maybe. All I will say is that navigating was significantly easier when I turned GPS off and followed Google Maps like a normal map. And when the skies were not bawling their eyes out.

We finally found our lovely Air Bnb and had a shower and a nap. I woke up to my alarm an hour later at 16.00, but somehow was aware of looking at the time next only at 18.04. Confusing.

By evening, the rain had subsided and we enjoyed a nice cool evening, a nice difference to the heat-scorched evenings of Prague.

Cesky Krumlov is gorgeous. The architecture, the canals, the bridges, the towering castle and its bridge.

We decided to have dinner at a riverside quaint restaurant linked to Hotel Dvorak, where the incredibly friendly waiter ushered us to a beautiful riverside table, where we enjoyed Martinis, goulash with a side of dumplings and potato pancakes. (When I had ordered soup with a side of dumplings in Bratislava a few years back, the waiter had first questioned my order and then blatantly laughed at it. This time they hid any potential amusement.)

It was stunning. We were especially entertained by an older waiter who came to make amusing conversation with us about ice hockey and French people and their habits.

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The next day we spent the morning exploring the INCREDIBLE castle garden, which I’ll dedicate an own entry to. We also found a few fun shops – a stunning musical Mozart shop, and also a quaint one with special offers on tree small soup. (See pic if confused.)

In the evening we had beef goulash at another riverside restaurant (pleasant but not as memorable as the first one), then continued with tiramisu and rounding it up with a good old set of divine White Russians at the Cafe Apotheka bar. Please pop in there if you have the chance.

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Cesky Krumlov, you did us good. I had high expectations and they definitely were fulfilled.

Arriving back in Prague half an hour late in the drizzly rain was uninspiring. Medium-sized quaint towns are my type of holiday.

And the weather was amazing. If I’d studied a Czech word every time I opened up the Prague or Cesky weather forecast, I’d be borderline B1. Thunderstorms were abundantly promised for every single day, but bar that day we arrived in Cesky, and an annoying semi-drizzle when we left, the weather was incredible. Absolutely amazing.

Next up, sunshine at Cesky Krumlov Castle Gardens. <3