Cesky Krumlov

A not long time ago (September 11-12), my program went on a weekend trip to Cesky Krumlov, a very small, quiet town about three hours from Prague. We left early Sunday morning and stayed until late Monday afternoon. The town was beautiful. It’s definitely a touristy location (a big hotspot for honeymoons) but they’ve done a good job maintaining a sense of originality and authenticity – there’s no chain-stores allowed (no Starbucks, shopping malls, etc.) and most of the food is local. It sort of reminded me of a small New England beach town in that it was very quaint and very charming, though there were some exceptions; namely, a castle, moat and bear guards (no seriously, there were literally brown bears guarding the castle).

Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel (it was really nice – each room was unique, and the one I stayed in was filled only with wooden furniture [except for a huge, plasma TV that didn’t work?] and had really high ceilings [my favorite thing in the world] with wooden beams and paneling) and unpacked. We explored the town a little bit and ate lunch at this vegetarian, pseudo-Indian restaurant. There were tables outdoors that were placed right along the river and it was really pretty and idealistic and sort of felt like you were looking out onto the set of a movie because nothing in real life is as pretty or perfect. Oh, also the food was good.

After we finished our meals, we took an extended tour of the castle (they said it was a “special” tour, but I’m pretty sure they say that to everyone). My group’s tour guide was some dude from Florida who had visited Cesky Krumlov thirty years ago, loved it, moved there, and has never looked back. The castle was really cool. It’s the most historically accurate castle in all of the Czech Republic (maybe Europe?) and about 86% of the stuff in it is original; it looks the exact same as it did a million years ago, blah, blah, blah (no but it was really cool!).

In the middle of one room was this enormous, gleaming chariot thing that was completely covered with roughly five pounds of 14-karat gold. I think the guide may have made a note about how the royal people forced their servants to carry them into rooms on the carriage, but I also could have just imagined him saying that, as I was absolutely not thinking about what I myself would have done as an 18^th century Czech royal who owned a 14-karat gold carriage. Absolutely not thinking about it. At all.

Oh yeah, there were also TONS of bearskins in every room. Apparently when the guard bears die, they just skin them (sorry, this is gross) and then decorate the castle some more, which is really all I have to say about that.

Another cool room was the ballroom, which was this huge hall that kind of reminded me of a temple sanctuary. It had a lot of open space with lots of mini-balconies where people could go during the ball to rest and watch other people and gossip and make out (I made that last one up). The walls were decorated with these really detailed, beautiful murals of people dancing and jesters jesting and stuff. Most impressively, though, were the different placements of mirrors – all of varying shapes and sizes – that were meant to be “enchanting” and “bewitching,” but really probably just functioned as a huge source of confusion to those in attendance.

Anyways, the reason why it’s worth mentioning the decorations is because of the motivation behind the decision to feature the mirrors as a ballroom focal point: THEY WERE SHOWING OFF BECAUSE IN REAL LIFE, MIRRORS WEREN’T EVER USED BACK THEN. Like, no one knew about them! They weren’t even invented until the Enlightenment! Essentially, Czech people in the 18^th century put so many mirrors in the ballroom to show off how hip they were. And thus concludes my explanation for Mirrors in the Ballroom (doesn’t that sound like the name of some horrible romance novel?). But okay, moving on. 

That night, I walked up to a landing at the top of a hill and saw a view of the entire city of Cesky Krumlov. It was, in a word, stunning. 
The castle, the rooftops of the ancient houses and buildings, the moon was glowing, and – I swear – the sky is a different color in the Czech Republic than it is in the United States. It has a kind of velvety texture, that isn’t navy, but sort of looks like a deep black that’s been painted over with some hue of royal blue. Breathtaking.

Well, that same night my entire program went out to dinner together because the directors had rented out this restaurant and hired a “gypsy band.” The food was good – whenever food is paid for, I basically try to order whatever dish has the most amount of meat in it, since I can’t afford it in real life and thus am probably severely protein-deficient (or at least I think I am, which, in terms of how much the whole “lack of meat” thing affects my life and health, is arguably the same thing).

The “gypsy band” was really just a group of Romas playing music at us and smoking a lot and yelling while our directors kept telling us to give them money. It was fine.

One thing that I haven’t really fully processed yet is the weird paradigm between Czechs and Romas (lovingly and politically correctly referred to as “gypsies,” in a similar syntax as one might say “I just ate some maggots.”). For the most part, I think racism is discussed pretty openly, and I would posit that many Czechs feel passionately that racism is bad or wrong.

However, the notion of “racism” or “prejudice” doesn’t seem to blanket the Roma minority. It’s mostly covert discrimination, in that it’s not super blatant, although there is a LOT of legislation, especially in regard to housing and work-related issues, that oppress and marginalize the Roma people. Most of the explanation I’ve been presented with when I’ve challenged/heard people challenge this sort of Czech ethos is that it’s not as if Czechs want Romas to be dirty people who steal things and are stupid and can’t do honest work and have a million babies that all turn into thieves and mongrels – believe them, if the Romas could be as educated and good as Czechs, they’d totally be down to treat them equally – but it’s just that that’s the way things are, so why not accept it and move on?

I don’t know. As I said, I haven’t fully processed either the situation or my experiences yet, and I don’t think I necessarily know enough, or am well-versed enough, to wax poetic about the social injustices of the Czech Republic from only a month’s experience (though to be fair, hello, have you met my parents?) It’s something worth exploring, at least, and I’m excited to learn more about the historical and political contexts of the Roma people.

But back to Cesky Krumlov. The next day (Monday) was a free day, so we ate at that vegetarian restaurant again (yum) and went to the Schiele Museum. Scheile was some German (actually maybe Austrian? yeah, he was definitely Viennese) painter who visited Cesky Krumlov and mega fell in love with it. He moved there, but his art was really controversial (a.k.a. he liked painting naked little girls [but not only naked girls, he painted some really beautiful things, as well]) and too avante-gardeish so he got kicked out. But then everyone was like no just kidding, you’re going to be really rich and famous, come back. So that was cool. And then we played in the river a little bit and left!

It was a really nice trip and now we only have three days of school before I embark to Rome, otherwise known as my vacation from vacation! Yahoo.

Okey dokey, well, I’ll update again soon (maybe). Probably if you’re reading this, I love you and miss you a LOT.

Mom & Ima, perhaps I’ll call you out in a more public forum in order to bring you the inevitable eternal shame that attaches itself to those who experience an egregious bout of disenchantment with their firstborn, but seriously, can you guys please visit me?

That’s all for now! I love you.

(Also, e-mails about your lives and what’s going on in the United States – has the crazy that is Michelle Bachmann subsided yet? – are very much appreciated, if you have the time or inclination.)