Hiking in Česky Raj!

First, let me apologize for the lack of updates on this here blog-thing. Wifi in the apartment is less reliable than ever, so we've had a tough time doing much of anything internet-related. That being said, KC and I have been doing a lot of fun things here and Prague is great!

Earlier this week, we took a train out to the small town of Turnov to go hiking in the region of Česky Raj (the name means "Bohemian Paradise"). After a rainy start and some serious difficulties finding the hiking trail, or "rambling path," we had a wonderful time exploring the countryside and taking lots of pictures. The region is characterized by verdant forest and striking limestone geomorphology: karst, sinkholes, caves, etc. Here are just a few photos - this place is gorgeous!

Interesting building we saw from the train. I really liked the contrast of the pretty flowers and the decaying structure.

This is the old Jewish cemetery in Turnov. Like most Jewish cemeteries we've seen in Europe, the graves are crammed together in a very small area due to lack of space. This cemetery is particularly interesting, though, because about half of it is covered by a small highway overpass.

The view from the beginning of the trail, which goes through a lovely residential neighborhood in Turnov.

Beautiful forest.

KC at an overlook on the top of a karst formation. There was a small spiral staircase attached to this towering rock feature, and the view from the top was amazing.

Me, at the same overlook.

LIMESTONE.

After hiking for a while, we came upon the Valdštejn Castle, which was first built about 1,000 years ago and added on to over the centuries. The structure was built right into some amazing limestone karst towers, which made it even more spectacular.

Statue in the gardens of Valdštejn.

The view of the valley, as seen from Valdštejn Castle.

Since Valdštejn is so ancient, there are also a fair amount of ruins there, like this one.

This whole country is absolutely gorgeous. Everything looks like a painting.

KC on the trail.

These are the limestone karst I was talking about.

Absolutely spectacular, right?

"Rock towns" in the Hruba Skala region. 

While walking to the bus station in Sedmihorky (near Turnov), we saw a lot of beautiful agricultural lands as well. This part of the world is so gorgeous in every way, and I feel incredibly lucky to experience it.

Photos and Such

Sorry we haven't been blogging with any semblance of regularity - I've been too distracted by being in Prague to take the time to write about it! But do not fret, gentle reader, for I will do my best to inform you of what we have done since our last post.

(As I've said before, you can see some of our pictures here, however I've reached my monthly upload limit and can't post anything else until July 1. So instead, I'll post some photos here!)

We spent today at the Praha Zoo with Veronika, which was quite fun. I'll admit my expectations were not high, since I've never been a huge fan of zoos, but this place was quite nice. It is by far the most gigantic zoo I've ever seen, and even has a chairlift to transport patrons up a big hill. On the hillside, they have a neat mountain goat exhibit complete with craggy rockslopes, as well as an exhibit of North American elk and deer (they looked rather familiar). It was such a big place that we only saw a fraction of it, but we had a lovely time nevertheless. I really liked getting to spend more time with Veronika, too; although she's kind of quiet, I really like talking to her and learning more about Czech culture. Her hometown of Mělnik sounds really interesting, and hearing about it makes me want to see a few of the smaller towns outside of Prague.

The zoo had a free photo kiosk. We used it!

And more pictures!

Czech ice cream is unbelievably delicious, and generally not as expensive as American ice cream. Hooray!

This is a view of the Vltava River from the walls of Vysehrad, the ancient castle/fortress of Prague. Beautiful place. We happened to wander over there last week, and were astounded by it's beauty and massive fortress walls.

Dining with the Hare Krishna in Staré Město. So inexpensive, so delicious! We've had a lot of interesting foods here, and a number of them haven't been traditional Czech. Don't get me wrong -- Czech food is delicious, but we want to try everything while we're here! Actually, we even went to an Afgan restaurant in Nové Město the other day, and it was great.

We thought this sign was funny. I assume whoever designed it was unaware of the American euphemistic term "Sausage Fest."

This is the National Museum, located at the far end of Wenceslaw Square. We got to go there for free yesterday because it was Prague Museum Night, an annual event where all of the city's museums are open free of charge and there are special events going on until 01:00 am. It was really crowded and tiring, but absolutely fantastic! In addition to the National Museum, we also got to see the tower at Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) and the Museum of Music. The museums in Prague are amazing, and it was cool to see all of the different people who came out to Museum Night. It looked like the majority of people in the crowd were actually locals, which makes me thing Praguers are quite cultured indeed.

I surreptitiously took this photo while KC was photographing the National Museum. Note his adorably ridiculous facial expression, if you will.

We went hiking in Divoka Šarka yesterday, which is a great public park on the Northwestern edge of the city. 

Limestone cliffs overlooking a vast green valley.

And said green valley. So gorgeous.

I don't think blogger will let me put any more pictures in this post, so I will add more in a subsequent post. The past week has been fantastic, exciting, and exhausting. We've had a few difficulties with the language (yesterday KC and I somehow managed to get yelled at in Czech not once but twice, which was extremely awkward and embarrassing), but on the whole things are going quite well.

Also, if you are expecting a postcard from me, it might be significantly delayed or may not arrive at all. Turns out I was using incorrect postage for international mail - oh no! I'm trying to send out replacement postcards to everyone, but it may take a while so be patient.

Also also, a note on the blogs new tagline: in case you haven't already noticed, the tagline for this blog is now something like "live in hot fat and deleted the pelvis." This is Google's hilariously inaccurate translation of some all-Czech instructions on a package of palačinky mix KC and I attempted to cook. Palačinky is quite a difficult thing to make, and it's pretty safe to say we failed miserably.