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What a find! Scott and I were sitting in our hostel in Prague wondering what to do next, thumbing through some brochures of nearby lands when we discovered sweet little Olomouc [pronounced Ah-la-moats] (don't ask me, ask the Czechs). After our grand tour through Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague, I had had enough of big cities. Sure, we took a couple breaks in between, but none of them were long enough. Olomouc is the kind of place where you reserve a bed for two nights, and then you keep extendeing your stay. Some people realize when they arrive that they won't be able to leave, but Scott and I kept adding one-more-day each morning we woke up and realized we couldn't leave tomorrow.
Olomouc is a very small city by my standards, but it is the third largest in the Czech Republic, and the second largest in the Moravia. It is full of old, beautiful churches and bordered by ancient, crumbling walls. In the center is one large square with an impressive Town Hall and Astronomical Clock, surrounded by bizarrely large fountains and monuments. You could walk all of the beautiful cobbled streets in an hour if you weren't constantly distracted by the details. In this old, old town new life is bustling--the university brings all sorts of diversity and energy to the otherwise quiet streets. There are tons of unique bars (one in an old airplane where the Communist leaders used to enjoy the fine life, and one bar with a built in rock climbing room), cafes and tea rooms.
But it wasn't really the amazing town itself that made us stay longer and longer. I guess it was three things: First, we were surprised to find out that there was going to be a festival in a nearby town on our first town (more on that later). Then, it was the promise of day trips (there are caves and castles and so many hikes nearby that you could never reach them all), but we only ended up going on one trip to Bouzov Castle--a huge, fairytale castle full of so many turrets and towers and niches you can't count them all.
I guess what made us stay so long was the comfort of the hostel. We really needed a few days to unwind and relax. The staff at Poet's Corner Hostel immediately drew us in, making us feel like we were already friends. And then their kitchen drew us in a little further, with it's awesome views out the window, free yummy teas, and recycling(!). And then we discovered the common room, full of the comfiest chairs and couches you've ever sat in, built just right to keep you glued for days at a time. The Poet's Corner guest book is full of comments of how people just couldn't leave. Scott and I didn't resist this strange phenomenon, but relished in it. We listened to the CD collection (some traditional Czech music, mixed with a lot of jazz and independent stuff), and drank lots of tea while we browsed the reading library, and made a model of Bouzov Castle.
'Made a model of Bouzov Castle? What does that mean?' you may ask. Well, I'll tell you: we literally took a book full of strangely colored shaped and turned it into a castle. That's how I know how many turret and towers and niches it had--because I helped create them. It took a couple days, and there were a couple parts that we had to unglue and fix, but in the end it looked really awesome. (Check my Olomouc Photo Album in a couple days for pictures of this fine work of architecture.)
But for me, the first day was the best. The Ride of the King was an experience to remember. There is a legend behind the festival ab out a king who had to escape the country dressed up as a woman, but I don't really know the details. When our group of tourists arrived in Doloplaty for the festivities we were a little confused and lost--we showed up only an hour before it was supposed to start but we couldn't find anyone. So we we sat in the field set up for the post-festival concert. Throughout the next hour people started coming out of their houses, and eventually a whole crowd of people were lined up along the main street. We were not disappointed--a bunch of men on horse back paraded along, stopping at each house looking for the king, and once they found him (a little boy dressed up in traditional drag) they still stopped by each house, now asking for food and drink. By the end the horsemen were pretty drunk.
The neat thing about this festival was that almost every household in the town was involved. Some of them offered food and drink from their houses. Some played instruments, sang, or danced. And most people were dressed up in the most elaborate costumes, that I was told is a very important part of their cultural identity. After the parade, we all went back to the field to get drunk and watch more dressed up people do some more dancing. It was definitely a good time by all.
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