Cesky Krumlov etc. etc.

Sorry for random jumbled order of pics -

Scotty prepares to deliver the death-blow

A heavily-cropped Halloween shot - too much cleavage for the net!

Cesky K from above

This beautiful little gorge was right by the road - but we had to scramble across inhospitable terrain to even find it - nice work making us do it, Greg

The castle at night

The Gregster makes a new friend

Cesky K framed by an opening in the castle walls

Me and Laurie

Me and Sonj up at the castle

Looking down at the Vltava curving around Cesky K

The Cesky Krumlov goat - ah ha ha ha I love this photo sooo much - wish I took the original, but alas, it's a photo of a poster at the castle - but it is an authentic CK bridge the goat's on

A young couple in love high above Cesky K

I love the light in this picture - for some reason it really makes me think of a Brueghel painting,. this for example - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brueghel_the_elder_-_winter_landscape_with_a_bird_trap.jpg

The Cesky Krumlov painted tower

My other squirrely friend

This way for Kafka

The man himself

Me as the Halloween wench and Al the sexy vampire. Yes, you're correct, we do have EXACTLY the same makeup on.

Woah, blusher overload! Ah fondled by the incredibly hot Brandon Flowers... I mean, Scotty. Doesn't he look pretty in his eyeliner? Pity he squirmed like a little baby girl while I was putting it on him! PS there's the rip in my costume which would only get worse in the course of the evening.

Priceless... I've got Scotty just where I want him, but he's straying (note location of hand). Al seems quite content in a Scotty/Carolyn sandwich there. Drunk, moi? Never!

Me & Carolyn were the only ones to really make an effort, the rest just went with crazy makeup. Sonj, Scotty, Carolyn & Al with his patented "it's Halloween, I'll run around with my mouth hanging open" look.


Don't worry, he's a fully qualified breast inspector, I checked his credentials... PS wait until you see my version of this photo - no matter what Scotty may tell you, he's intent on head-butting me boobs. I also love Al's shocked expression here.

At Cesky Krumlov. Ah, oh so pretty. Whose idea was it to bring Greg, though? Yes, this was the best available shot of the boy...

Some interesting chairs at CK



Open your heart to the leaves, my child

Couldn't you just see Sonj in a lovely leaf snow-globe?


Scotty following the principle, "if you love them, set them free"


My eyes! My precious eyes! Greg tries to fend off the rampaging leaves...



Hello all, someone other than my mum has noticed with 'alarm' (not really) the lack of blog entries in the last couple of days - most unusual, I admit. Have been super busy doing fun things, so here's the scoop:

Thursday - went to the Trades Fair Palace, which houses the National Gallery's collection of 19th and 20th century art - mostly Czech, although a lot of Picassos, from the boring analytical Cubist phase... Some interesting pieces, but definitely not the best gallery I've ever been to. Plus it's overwhelmingly massive - once I was in I fully understood why there was an option to pay for single floors rather than the whole deal. I did like that there's a Czech cubist painter called Kubista... I also walked 3 kms out of my way trying to find the place. Last time I try to navigate by following supermarket signs, grrr.

Friday - visited the big graveyard not far from where I live (PS, have been in the hostel, or 'hovel' as it's affectionally nicknamed, for a solid month, with a few brief interruptions!) and found Kafka's grave in the Jewish graveyard. The best part of it was that the sections and plots are numbered, so they actually gave you the coordinates of Kafka's grave ha ha. It was also really pretty, tons and tons of trees everywhere, and everything looks fab at the mo with the autumn colours and falling leaves. They also have these weird little cubbyholes where people put people's cremains. Some of them were all decorated - one even had a mini christmas tree in it (when's the last time that person's ashes were visited?). On Friday night we had to relocate to another hostel with Laurie's friend who's visiting from Berlin. Sigh... When I removed my suitcase from Carolyn's yesterday it was (I reflected) the sixth time that I had trundled it up or down the road from her place. Ah c'est la vie de la travelleure. Yeah, I made that last word up.

Saturday - up bright and early (7 am, yikes!) to catch the bus to Cesky Krumlov with Laurie, Christina (Laurie's friend), Scotty, Sonja and Greg. Sonja and Greg were late getting there and the bus almost left without them (Greg's fault, doubtless). The journey was as uneventful as you'd imagine - oh, until the bus rear-ended a car, of course. Although it was a minor prang, no injuries as far as I could see, we had to wait on the side of the road (with the bus actually blocking the lane and causing a giant traffic jam in this little blink-and-you-miss-it Czech town) until the cops came and investigated, including taking photographs and using one of those wheely measuring things to see how far the bus was from the side of the road, how near to the zebra crossing the crash occurred, and other arcane bits of useless information. After that, despite the bus being perfectly fine, I'm sure, we had to wait until another (and less comfortable bus, at that) arrived from parts unknown to carry us the rest of the way, an hour behind schedule.

Once in Cesky Krumlov, we went to the church, wandered up to the castle but didn't go inside (Czech 'castles', well, based on the one in Prague and now the one in C.K., consist of fortified palace complexes rather than single buildings, so you are able to go up and wander about without paying to go in anywhere) then went on a guided tour at night with a guide who was sweet but very nervous and answered most questions with "I don't know, I will find that out but now there's no time". We had a yummy dinner at a vegetarian place and then made a half-hearted attempt to party the night away before everyone came to the conclusion that bed was actually a much more attractive option at that stage.

The next day, Laurie and her friend went back to Prague early, to give Christina a chance to see some of the sights of Prague. The rest of us spent all day wandering about and generally behaving like 12 year olds (Greg's influence) - scrambling over fences and along river banks, exploring an abandoned shack up on the hill (made that much more frightening by the true-crime stories Scotty had regaled us with in bed the night before), having fights with piles of fallen leaves,and playing two-on-two soccer with a ball we found in the park (me and Sonja against the boys - and it ended in a draw, way to go!). Lots of fun! We decided to take the train back to Prague after our little bus adventure on the way to C.K., which was almost a disaster as well, since when we changed trains at Cesky Budejovice we knew we'd have to run to get seats, but it turned out the train blew right past where we were standing and stopped at the far end of the platform, so there actually weren't enough seats let alone the chance for us to sit together (people were actually sitting in the corridors). However, like the cunning bears we are, we nabbed a table in the dining car, and for the modest outlay of a pot of tea each (hot chocolate for me), enjoyed the ride in far more style and comfort than if we had actually managed seats in the main carriages. The train still managed to arrive back in Prague an hour late, but oh well - we had fun on the way, playing games and chatting etc.

Monday - went to my first ever Halloween party, outfitted as a wench (so yes, not very different from my usual wardrobe). It was fun, but what started at the beginning of a night as a small hole in the (insanely uncomfortable, plastic) bodice of the costume expanded through the evening into a large hole until eventually Grace took it upon herself to basically rip off the entire front of my outfit - thanks, love! Was meant to take it back today, but haven't quite managed to figure out a way to fix the thing. Will have to find needle and thread somewhere and practice my abysmal sewing skills, methinks!