Kickin' It in the Czech Countryside

It’s been a relaxing few days with David. He has taken some time off work to show me some of the nearby sights, which are by far the most beautiful and least touristy (imagine that combination!) I’ve seen yet. I visited the cottages of some of his friends who were influenced by Thoreau’s WALDEN POND, and went to swim in a rain-water pond formed out of an abandoned marble quarry. When he’s gone away to work, I am vastly entertained by watching his rather rotund middle-aged neighbor walking around his yard in tight Speedos. (For SIT people I have to say in all seriousness that the slideshow photos of that Russian man actually make a lot more sense now!) He has a pool that must be about 8 feet by about five feet in width, and according to David, talks about it incessantly. Every day he checks the temperature and duly reports it to David, and shockingly enough, keeps up this routine (along with the wardrobe of gray underwear-only) even in the coldest months where temperature drops to -5 degrees C. One day I saw him entertain houseguests, another, supervise the placement of some bricks. You can almost see the love this man has for his pool, a shame he never goes in it. (a note—from my forays into the Czech countryside, wandering around one’s neighborhood in only underpants is, I must say, quite accepted. But it still makes it no less funny…)

I’ve spent a little bit of time walking around. Turn right on the nearby road and you get to town, a neat sprawling little place (though a population of 10,000) complete with old buildings and churches and archways and courtyards and squares and all the other things that I still haven’t been in Europe long enough to not notice and enjoy. Turn left on the road and you get into nature. I walked past a pond, equestrian stadium, farm, and up a hill that lead into a path taking you deep into a Bohemian forest. Somehow you can just feel all those fairy tales taking birth in places like this. You just expect to run into Hansel, Gretel, or the wolf in Grandmother’s clothes. There is an old castle ruins from the 12th Century I walked around as well, not having to work hard to let the imagination go. I also took a ride out to a site even more in the countryside where David has purchased the land and is planning to build a house there, very beautiful.


Oh, the bottom pictures here are of the pond at sunset, and on my walk through the forest...