Romana and I went on a trip to the Moravian Karst region, which is about an hour and a half away. We planned to make it a day trip but the main cave requires a reservation and Sunday morning was all that was available, so we stayed in an airbnb Saturday night instead.
On our way there were stopped off at a much smaller cave but couldn't go in as there was a wedding on. I don't know why they were getting married in a cave. Maybe they were vampires.
Instead of sitting around waiting, risking possible vampire attack, we went to a nearby town for food. The penzion we stopped at kind of wasn't open, but the guy offered to cook for us anyway. I think he was trying to impress me because I'm Australian, and he succeeded. He cooked the best meal I've had so far in Czech. It was just pork steak and stuffed potatoes but it was very very good.
We went back to the cave and joined the tour. It was in Czech so they gave me an English translation. They showed us around and we all eagerly snapped photos of stalagmites and stalactites and stalagnates that we'll never look at again. The cave was discovered when a bloke noticed snow had melted around a crack in the ground. The temperature in the cave stays 7-9 degrees all year round and the air had been venting through this natural chimney. Over the years he climbed down and explored more and more of the cave. Eventually he found the current entrance and quite frankly I don't know how he'd missed it. It's pretty big. And had a car park and stairs leading to it. Unless...
We stayed in a nearby town called Jedovnice, which is on a nice lake. The people we stayed with were apparently very nice. They didn't speak English though so I'll have to take Romana's word for it. We walked through a wheat field down to the lake and went on an impromptu pub crawl around the lake. Unfortunately we forgot to have dinner.
The next day we went to the Punkva cave. It's the main event. It was formed by the Punkva River, which flows underground. The highlight was coming out at the bottom of the abyss. In years gone by part of the cave collapsed forming a 148m deep hole. They played music when we got to the bottom to show the great acoustics.
We continued along and hopped into boats for a 440 metre boat cruise through the remainder of the cave. It was very narrow and the boat pilot man was very good navigating through some sharp bends.
After that we took a chairlift up to the top of the abyss. There wasn't much up there except a viewing platform, which gave me vertigo.
On the way home we stopped at Boskovice castle. It is an old ruined castle on the top of a hill. It shares an origin story I'm sure I've heard for other castles. The lord was lost in the woods and a peasant (a bird catcher, in this case) helped him without knowing who he was. The lord was thankful and gave him a castle.
It's naming story is brilliant. The bird catcher was enjoying his new castle but couldn't think of a name. When he stubbed his toe he had a sudden flash of insight. So he decided to name it Boskovice, which apparently translates to "I won't walk around barefoot in this castle anymore". I'm not even making that up. Legend has it that he never stubbed his toe again.
The view from the castle was probably the highlight. Here is a picture of Romana sneering at the peasants below. You can't really make out the sneer, but I'm sure it's there.
The other cool thing was this contraption:
It is a hamster wheel for people. You get in and run to turn the wheel which turns the crank and brings water up from the well. It seems like an incredibly convoluted method of drawing water which I think is why I love it.
We also visited the Jewish cemetery. We didn't spend too long there as it was very lively.
In other news, I've recieved my letter to go for an interview for Czech residency. It's on August 15th. They're going to try and sus out if Romana and I are a couple. I have to hire a translator for the interview. I just tried to do that but I couldn't because the website they gave me is in Czech.
I also finally went to drop my CV off at some schools. I got off to a cracking start when the first school was a welding school. Strangely, they were very nice and accepted my CV because they sometimes need English speakers. Most of the other schools were either closed for summer or didn't exist. I did manage to find one that was open and the guy gave me a job. He's going to email me about starting next week. I don't really know anything about salary or hours so I'm just waiting on this email. I also should probably learn how to teach English.
On our way there were stopped off at a much smaller cave but couldn't go in as there was a wedding on. I don't know why they were getting married in a cave. Maybe they were vampires.
Instead of sitting around waiting, risking possible vampire attack, we went to a nearby town for food. The penzion we stopped at kind of wasn't open, but the guy offered to cook for us anyway. I think he was trying to impress me because I'm Australian, and he succeeded. He cooked the best meal I've had so far in Czech. It was just pork steak and stuffed potatoes but it was very very good.
We went back to the cave and joined the tour. It was in Czech so they gave me an English translation. They showed us around and we all eagerly snapped photos of stalagmites and stalactites and stalagnates that we'll never look at again. The cave was discovered when a bloke noticed snow had melted around a crack in the ground. The temperature in the cave stays 7-9 degrees all year round and the air had been venting through this natural chimney. Over the years he climbed down and explored more and more of the cave. Eventually he found the current entrance and quite frankly I don't know how he'd missed it. It's pretty big. And had a car park and stairs leading to it. Unless...
We stayed in a nearby town called Jedovnice, which is on a nice lake. The people we stayed with were apparently very nice. They didn't speak English though so I'll have to take Romana's word for it. We walked through a wheat field down to the lake and went on an impromptu pub crawl around the lake. Unfortunately we forgot to have dinner.
The next day we went to the Punkva cave. It's the main event. It was formed by the Punkva River, which flows underground. The highlight was coming out at the bottom of the abyss. In years gone by part of the cave collapsed forming a 148m deep hole. They played music when we got to the bottom to show the great acoustics.
We continued along and hopped into boats for a 440 metre boat cruise through the remainder of the cave. It was very narrow and the boat pilot man was very good navigating through some sharp bends.
After that we took a chairlift up to the top of the abyss. There wasn't much up there except a viewing platform, which gave me vertigo.
On the way home we stopped at Boskovice castle. It is an old ruined castle on the top of a hill. It shares an origin story I'm sure I've heard for other castles. The lord was lost in the woods and a peasant (a bird catcher, in this case) helped him without knowing who he was. The lord was thankful and gave him a castle.
It's naming story is brilliant. The bird catcher was enjoying his new castle but couldn't think of a name. When he stubbed his toe he had a sudden flash of insight. So he decided to name it Boskovice, which apparently translates to "I won't walk around barefoot in this castle anymore". I'm not even making that up. Legend has it that he never stubbed his toe again.
The view from the castle was probably the highlight. Here is a picture of Romana sneering at the peasants below. You can't really make out the sneer, but I'm sure it's there.
The other cool thing was this contraption:
It is a hamster wheel for people. You get in and run to turn the wheel which turns the crank and brings water up from the well. It seems like an incredibly convoluted method of drawing water which I think is why I love it.
We also visited the Jewish cemetery. We didn't spend too long there as it was very lively.
In other news, I've recieved my letter to go for an interview for Czech residency. It's on August 15th. They're going to try and sus out if Romana and I are a couple. I have to hire a translator for the interview. I just tried to do that but I couldn't because the website they gave me is in Czech.
I also finally went to drop my CV off at some schools. I got off to a cracking start when the first school was a welding school. Strangely, they were very nice and accepted my CV because they sometimes need English speakers. Most of the other schools were either closed for summer or didn't exist. I did manage to find one that was open and the guy gave me a job. He's going to email me about starting next week. I don't really know anything about salary or hours so I'm just waiting on this email. I also should probably learn how to teach English.
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