the kindness of strangers

Loket, Czech Republic

Left Ceske Krumlov hoping to get from there to this tiny town of Loket, in the west of czech republic in one day. Took the train back to Prague, changing once, and then headed off in the direction I thought the bus station was. And, because I'm me, I got lost. Started following random people with suitcases, which didn't work at all. Finally I asked a woman on the street, and she walked me to the local bus stop, told me which bus to get on, to go one stop, and then gave me a ticket. At the stop though, I still couldn't find the station, so I wandered around a lot and asked other people. When I made it there, the guy at the desk told me to take a bus to Sokolov and then change and go to Loket. So I got on the bus, and with the help of the woman sitting next to me got off at Sokolov. When I got there it was 9:30 and very dark and I couldn't figure it out. So I asked another woman for help. Then her friend came out of the pub (conveniently located at the bus station) and they found the platform for me. There was one bus at 10:30, so they invited me into the pub. There, I met Misha, Anetko, her two year old daughter, Peter, Anetko's father, some random guys, and found out the woman I had asked for help was named Simona.

They bought me a beer, and then Misha, who spoke fluent english, and was in a wheel chair or on crutches from a major car accident that had her spend two months in the hospital, and had done a lot of traveling when she was younger, decided that I should come spend the night at her appartment since Simona was already spending the night, and we could drink wine and hang out. And because she seemed nice and it was late I said yes. A bit later we left, Peter pushing Misha's wheelchair, Simona pushing Anetko's stroller, and me carrying the crutch. When we got to their appartment, Peter put Anetko to bed, and then opened the wine. They gave me some yogurt (dinner) and then we sat around talking. Simona wanted to show us her my space page that she had put a lot of time into creating, and then wanted me to edit it for her since she had written it in english. She was visiting Misha so that they could take pictures of her and Anetko so that she can show people her taking care of a child when she applies to be an opear in England. Got to bed really late and ended up sleeping on the floor. Then Anetko woke up at 6:00. Managed to sleep untl about 7:30, and then it was up and out. Misha's dad drove her, me, Simona and Anetko to Loket.

Loket's midevil festival was going on, so they wanted to stay there for the day and hang out at the festival. It was a bit difficult though, because the castle where the festival was occuring was built on a hill in the 12th century and not designed for wheel chairs, so Misha had to spend the entire day on her crutches. It took a couple hours of being in town and multiple rings of the door bell and then a phone call before I could get into the hostel. They had all been out at a concert the night before and were completely out of it. After dropping off my stuff I rejoined Misha, Simona and Anetko at the festival.

The festival was great! There was food (very good, since I had eaten almost nothing for 24 hours), music, people in costumes, stuff to buy, a castle to visit (complete with dungeon and torture chamber). I think one of my favorite things was the festival food. Over the two days I had this pizza like thing - fried bread with ketchup and cheese, a sausage rolled in a tortilla like thing with garlic, a potato pancake with ham and raw onions, a potato pancake topped with sourkraut, a bread bracelet thing with almonds, vanilla and cinamon, and a ginger bread cookie. Grease filled and fantastic. Also saw sword fighting, traditional dancing, the firing of an old musket, and a music group with very quiet bagpipes. There was also a parade, where everyone that was dressed up went through town.

Loket is a very small place. The river curves so much that it's almost on an island, but not quite. Because of that it hasn't really been able to grow at all, and so the town is still the same as it was hundreds of years ago. It also isn't completely full of tourists. Once the festival was over, I was suprised at how quiet the town was.

Today I hiked (and got lost and once again had very nice people helping me) to Karlovy Vary, a spa town that was big a couple hundred years ago. There are about 15 different springs that produce waters of different temperatures. The water had been diverted to fountains around town, and people, often elderly walk around drinking the water out of special china cups that have a sort of straw like thing. The waters are supposed to be healing, and especially good for the digestive system. So I had some, although I was drinking it out of my water bottle. The town is strung out along the river, and the buildings are beautiful. It was built so people could go to spas, drink the water, look at beautiful buildings, breathe the fresh air, and get better. The water is free, but you have to pay for the toilets.