europe — Czech Republic — Passports & Champagne

Cesky Krumlov is a very cool little town in southern Czech Republic. We were here for a few days and had a lot of fun exploring the town and floating down the river. A river about the same size as the Truckee River back home in Lake Tahoe oxbows right through the small town. The weather was warm so we took a day and rafted down to another town about 7 hours downstream. When we were not in the water we spent our time relaxing with fellow travelers and Skippy, the owner of the hostel we were staying at. Skippy played the best tunes and we had a great time in this little town filled with amazing people.

Austria

Innsbruck

Hallstatt

St. Gilgen

Salzburg

Prague is very crowded this time of summer so we followed the advice from some locals that we met on the train and visited some off the beaten path spots. When you visit a city and only strictly visit the top 10 sites then sometimes you miss the flavor. In Prague our favorite place was a bar named Lokal which was recommended to us from our new friends. It served pilsner beer out of the tap with almost half the cup filled with foam. These were our favorite beers we’ve tasted. They tasted like what we’d imagine butterbeer from Harry Potter tasting like. After a couple “butterbeers” we went to the famous astronomical clock which was stunning. Then we walked over and explored the Salvador Dali and Mucha museums. Next we wandered over to the John Lennon wall and crossed the Charles bridge. After being swarmed with tourists in 90 degree heat we somehow ended up back at Lokal pub drinking a pilsner and cooling down again. We stayed at a really nice hostel in Prague right in the Old Town. Hostels can really vary from exceptionally awesome and comfortable to basically the keys to an apartment room. Some have lockers you can use and some don’t so we sometimes have to carry all our valuables around with us. Some hostels have wifi in the entire hotels, some only in the lobby, and some none at all. When we don’t have wifi it can be hard for us to plan where we are going next and check what time our train leaves. This hostel in Prague was top notch, lockers, wifi, ac, bar downstairs, towels, and comfy clean beds. We decided to stay here again for one night after Cesky Krumlov before taking off for Belgium on the the coast.