Ok so I need to back track a bit because I am writing this Sunday night, a day after the day this blog is actually about. We had terrible internet access in the hotel. I will try to not forget anything!
So we had to leave our dorms at 6am on Saturday morning for Cesky Krumlov (pronounced Ches-key Kroom-luv). I know I said 7am in my last blog, but we actually had to catch our bus at 7am so we left the dorms at 6. Which means I got up at 5. I actually spent some time Friday night watching TV, I caught part of the Romanian Music Awards 2012. It was very interesting, and very similar to watch something like the MTV Music Awards, just in a different language.
So woke up at 5, made breakfast and all that and then we all left the dorms at 6. (Apparently one of us got left behind and he didn't make it up for some reason, I feel really bad for him because it was just some misunderstanding or something). The bus was super fancy and had screens in the backs of the seats. For the beginning of the 3 hour bus ride I was looking out the windows at all the green fields and cloudy skies and tiny adorable towns. Then I decided to watch the Golden Compass to try and remember why I hated it so much when I saw it in theaters (darn cliffhanger endings!!). We arrived in Cesky Krumlov and got to our hotels, half of us stayed in one hotel and half the group stayed in another because we are such a bit group (only like 22ish people) and the hotels are all so tiny. The hotel my roommate and I stayed in was The Leonardo. It was so cute! Apparently some rooms had giant tubs, we only had a teeny shower. Lame. But the pillows were really giant and fluffy and so were the comforters. It was a nice change from the pillows and comforters in the dorms.
Our room:
We arrived around 10am and we didn't have to meet until 1pm for the castle tour, so my roommate and I went to get food because we were starving. We found this tiny place and I had a crepe with ice cream and chocolate sauce I whipped cream for 52 crown! That is just over $2.50. Amazing.
Then we walked around and took pictures, it was raining on and off so I took one of the hotel umbrellas. (It is really hard to use my camera and try to hold up an umbrella at the same time, as the camera requires two hands). We met a cat who was really friendly and pet him and took pictures, and two ladies passing us laughed and were like "haha, look they are taking a picture of a cat" >.>. We are still trying to pick a suitable Czech name for the cat. (We decided on Milos)
At 1 we all met to walk to the castle, I was trying to find the name of the castle but it's apparently just Cesky Krumlov Castle, or The State Castle of Cesky Krumlov. It was rather steep to walk up too but the tour was nice; no pictures allowed unfortunately (again, some people didn't care). It was kind of different from other castle/mansion tours I've been on; there was a lot of period art hanging up, but otherwise the decorations were rather bland. The architecture and the painting of the walls was really neat though. There were also two bears in the moat outside the castle because one of the royal families who lived in the castle had the sigil of two bears...or something.
After the tour we walked back to get a second key to our room because they only gave us one, and I stayed in the room and read. I fell asleep at some point and woke to the lovely sound of LIVE MUSIC! At first it was something that sounded American but sung in Czech, then as I was hastily getting ready to leave they were performing ABBA. I decided any live music would be good, even if it was touristy live music. So I followed the sound, not very far down the street and around the corner and I see a sign pointing into a bar. There was a guy standing at the bar and there was a door at the end leading into another room. I said hello to the guy and asked if I had to pay for the music, the conversation went something like this:
Me: Dobry Den
Bartender: Dorby Den
Me: Do I pay for the music?
Bartender: Yes, music (points to door).
Me: No, do I (make motion of handing money) pay for...?
Bartender: Oh, no, no, go in.
Me: (Start to walk to room)
Bartender: You want drink?
Me: Oh, some water please. Still.
Bartender: Still?
Me: (Making flat motion with my hand) Still.
Bartender: Ok, ok (fills glass in sink)
Me: How much? (reach for wallet to pay)
Bartender: No, no
Me: Dekuji (Pronounced deh-coo-ee, means thank you)
Bartender: Prosim (Pronounced pro-seem, roll the r, means please or just an general acknowledgement)
So I walked inside, the room was maybe 20 by 40 feet with low arched ceilings and low light, not many people were there but there was a big group taking up two table, two couples at two other tables, and two guys at the table nearest to me. There was a chair sticking out of the corner of their table, so after standing awkwardly for a bit, I pointed to the chair and asked if I could sit down, they vehemently nodded.
The band was beautiful. The bassist was probably in his 60s and had long hair and a bushy mustache. The drummer was younger and rather drummer-ish looking. The guitarist/lead singer was wearing rather tight jeans, a black shirt with an open black vest and a big cross necklace; his hair was probably as long as mine. They mostly performed early American hair-metal. They also played Johnny B Good and Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', the bass was supremely funky in that song.
So I was just chillin' and drinking my water and at one point the drummer switches out with one of the guys I sat down next to! Ohmygodiwassittingnexttooneofthebandmembers! I turned around to tell the drummer who just got off that he was doing a good job, I think my thumbs up and smiling got across but I'm not sure. The drummer who replaced him reminded me some how of David Tenant from Dr. Who. He switched out again after 1 song and only played one more in the following hour; he must have been a drummer in training or something.
I actually felt pretty cool the whole night because I didn't hear one person speaking English, the giant table of guys were all Czech as well as the band (they may have been German actually), and the couple sitting at the table in front of me. The giant group of guys were celebrating a birthday, because that's the last song the band played and the waitress brought them a tray of glasses and two bottles of champagne.
When the band finally came down I pointed to my camera and asked the singer/guitarist if I could take a picture, he rattled off in Czech, I said I was American, he asked me if I spoke German and I said no and then he said a bunch of other stuff. Either way, I got my picture of the band, with both drummers, and the other guy at the table who I assume was the band manager. I also got some video but the sound was so loud it kind of ended up really fuzzy. I'll try to post a snippet of it when I get home anyway.
The concert was really fun, lasted a bit over an hour and it was all free. I got back to the hotel and slept until about 9:30 Sunday morning.
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