Český Krumlov and Kpop

This past weekend, I went with CERGE on a trip to a town in the Czech Republic called Český Krumlov. One the way there, we stopped for a couple hours at the site of an old communist work camp, where things have, for the most part, not been moved around or altered since the camp closed. While communist work camps in the Czech Republic were decidedly ‘work’ camps, not ‘concentration’ camps,  the prisoners at these camps suffered greatly. At this particular camp, prisoners were forced to mine uranium, which is carcinogenic and very dangerous to mine. Miners were regularly sick, and many who were released from the camp eventually died from cancer. It should also be noted that these work camps were unknown to all but a very small number of the Czech public. It was a sobering visit, but an important one to make, I think, because it's a significant part of the Czech Republic's history.

Entrance to the camp

The book on the table is "Lenin. This is one of the recreation rooms in the building where well-behaved prisoners we allowed to socialize. The only books, videos, and other media allowed to the prisoners were communist propaganda.

Another room in the recreational building

A room in the infirmary. The picture of the wall is of Stalin, and his picture is hung on the walls of many rooms at the camp. 

After leaving the work camp, we drove for a couple more hours to get to Český Krumlov. Even under a cloudy February sky, this town was one of the most picturesque places I have ever been. To me, it felt a little bit like finding myself in Disney World’s version of a Czech town, and when we got nearer to the castle (yes, the town has its own castle) I felt like I could step straight into a Tolkien book. In other words, I loved Český Krumlov, and if it had been a sunny day in June instead of a cloudy day in February, then it might actually have been impossible to convince me that I needed to get back on the bus and go home. The one thing June would have going against it, I suppose, would be that summertime is tourist season, and since anyone in his or her right mind should want to visit Český Krumlov, it probably gets crowded. Anyway, some interesting information I picked up on the trip, etc.:

1. Apparently, people raised in Farmville set lower standards for idyllic towns that in which they could happily spend the rest of their lives than some other people who aren’t from Farmville. Case in point: more than a couple CERGE kids dismissed the town straight away because “it only has like three bars.” Oh, the horror.
2. Bears live in a walled area right beside the castle, under the bridge that leads to the entrance. The town is, therefore, understandably obsessed with bears. There are wooden bear cutouts that you can stick your face through, as well as centuries-old bear frescoes on walls
3. Český Krumlov is famous for brewing Eggenberg beer, and I can assure you that it’s quite tasty.
4. There’s a Jesuit building in the town that had to be rebuilt twice, BOTH times do to unwise decisions made by the Jesuits when they were getting smashed inside. I bet the Jesuits threw some sweet parties.
5. The castle is built into a rock (hello, Lord of the Rings) so it looks like the side is crumbling, even though it’s not.
6. Hostels are on my list of favorite things ever. I don’t actually have a list, but if I ever make one, hostels make the cut. Why doesn’t America have more hostels?
7. Side note to #5: when I heard we were staying in a hostel, I just couldn’t resist looking up the plot to the movie “Hostel,” which is, incidentally, set in Slovakia (the other half of what was formerly called Czechoslovakia). That was a really bad idea, but I assure you that this hostel was nothing like the one in that movie. It was really fun and nice, and they gave us breakfast.
8. Rhee-Soo and I are going to open our own hostel somewhere just as beautiful as Český Krumlov. At our hostel LTBD, we will serve rice (to incorporate her Korean-ness) and employ painfully shy employees (to incorporate my Norwegian-ness). I’ll keep you posted on any further developments.
9. The town has many ghosts, mostly friendly, and people still occasionally claim to see them
10. I almost left my backpack in the bag storage under the bus when we got dropped off (right in front of the beer factory, incidentally, since that was the only spot with bus-sized parking spaces). I had to chase after the bus, and the bus driver was really great about it.
11. I saw live Roma music at one of the bars, and even danced with friends to a few songs! If I can figure out how to put videos on this blog, I’ll post one.

Beer factory where we got dropped off

The grill at the medieval restaurant where we had lunch in Český Krumlov

Wooden Bear cut-out

Bear fresco

Jesuit building that burned down twice

Castle built into a rock

More castle

More castle

Hostel

Roma music

Dancing!

Our tour guide, who was a native of Český Krumlov

View from the Castle

The top left door isn't real and the bricks are painted onto the building; at the time, symmetry, or the appearance of it, was popular. Also popular was painting buildings in such a way that the viewer questioned what was real and what wasn't. It was supposed to make you all introspective about your own life or something.

What many of the buildings in Český Krumlov looked like before they were restored. You can see the original fresco through the peeling layers.

Another view of the castle

As if the weekend couldn’t get better, we stopped by Hluboka castle on the way home and toured it. This castle was, I kid you not, the Hampden-Sydney man’s dream castle, or at least the Hunting Hampden-Sydney man’s dream castle. Owned by the Schwarzenberg family until 1937, when the Czech Government acquired it, the castle looks like any other breathtakingly beautiful castle on a hill at first glance. HOWEVER, when you look more closely, you will notice that the outside walls are covered with dear heads. Most of them are sculptures, and many are fake heads and real antlers. I thought that this was most peculiar, but I when I got inside the castle to the tour, it was apparent that the outside decorations were nothing, save a small warning, for what was inside. We only toured the 10 or so rooms that were open to visitors during he winter months, but I can safely say that the Schwarzenbergs loved, above all, two things:

1. Guns
2. Things you can shoot with guns

I only snapped one picture before the tour guide informed everyone that photography was not permitted (and I wasn’t rebellious enough to sneak pictures after that), but when you look at the picture, just keep in mind that the photographed room was relatively sparsely decorated compared to its more impressive counterparts.

I should probably have been at least slightly creeped out by the deer heads everywhere, but I actually really liked the atmosphere in the castle. I felt like I was at a really fancy lodge or something. Or like, a gun and deer head themed country club. There were only three things that I found unnerving:

1. Instead of hanging two blue herons up in some sort of tasteful way, they were each attached UPSIDE-DOWN by one foot to wooden boards, and looked very much like they had been shot about 5 minutes ago.
2. Part of the Schwarzenberg’s family crest includes a decapitated Turkish military captain. I can’t remember the full story here, but someone in the family killed the terrible Turkish man and they were excited enough about it that they included his head on their crest. I’m not sure I’d want to come over for dinner with their family if I were Turkish
3. The whole killing the Turkish guy thing appeared in two places I wasn’t expecting: The first was on the main door to the castle. The knob was his HEAD. The second was on the headboard of the master of the housed bead. It was a painted scene of the executioner in mid motion about to decapitate the Turkish guy.

A side door in the castle

The sparsely decorated room I managed to snap a picture of

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An example of the outside walls. Please notice the deer heads all over.

More castle (and a couple deer heads)

Turkish man's head is the doorknob

My future front yard

More of my front yard. 

 We stopped at McDonald’s on the way home. I don’t go to McDonald’s in the States, or not enough to remember the last time I was there, anyway, so it felt weird to go there in the Czech Republic. Actually, being in McDonald’s was a definitely more unnerving than being in the Schwarzenberg family’s castle. I looked past the strangeness of the situation enough to order food though, because I was hungry. On the way home, I looked out the window at the Czech countryside that I’d been too tired to look at on the way up. I thought it was beautiful. There were occasional areas where you could see the functional architecture of the communist period, and a lot of it had been painted over in bright colors in an attempt to make it more cheerful. The buildings stood in stark contrast to the older red-roof buildings. Some others on the trip weren’t as impressed with the drive scenery, but I think my affinity for it had to do both with the fact that I love old architecture (and the small red-roofed villages were straight out of a fairy tale book) and that the patches of forest we drove through reminded me of Virginia. So I can (sort of) understand why other people wouldn’t have considered the drive “anything worth mentioning.” 

Also, on the way home, I heard kpop (Korean pop music) for the first time! I was looking through Rhee-Soo’s ipod, and saw a playlist called “Korean”, so I was like “Hey Rhee-Soo, you have Korean music!” and, thus, I was introduced to kpop. Kpop music is a genre all its own, and if you get a chance, you should check out some of the music videos. They’re infinitely more entertaining than the videos for American pop music.

Upon arriving back at the apartment, I was exhausted, so I got my internet fix, and then went to Radost with the apartment mates for dinner. I had an amazing hummus and vegetable platter, and we all split an epic order of nachos. I don’t think I’ll ever get to try everything that I want to at that restaurant. We went to Popo’s later on, and then I headed to the 5-story club with Rhee-Soo and Pranadhi for a few hours. I figured it was something that I should do while I’m here, just to say I’ve been. It was pretty touristy (more English was being spoken than Czech), but worth visiting at least once. I got a Coca Cola Light at McDonald’s on the way home, making it my second trip to McDonald’s in the one day. I’m not proud of that, but it’s probably the first (and only) time in my entire life that I’ve gone (will go) to McDonald’s twice in one day. 

Yesterday, I didn't do too much, but I spent- I kid you not- four hours loading pictures onto Facebook. This was due to:

1. The internet being really in and out
2. Facebook SCRAMBLING all 170 of my pictures, so that I had to go through every single one of them to get them back in order. Fun times.

In the afternoon, I went to the gym to go running because I needed to get out of the apartment for at least a little while. And, I have to say, a looming half marathon is a great motivator. It’s definitely fulfilling its purpose right now. I had to wait for like ten minutes for a free treadmill though. Times like that are when I wish World Class Fitness Center would invest in more than 7 treadmills. But it wasn't too big of a deal. Plus, I got to watch Liverpool beat Blackburn on TV once I snatched a machine. Rhee-Soo came over afterwards and made Indian food with Kyra and I. I made vegetable korma, which turned out pretty good, and it's easy enough that I’ll definitely make it again. Kyra had some sparkling wine, so we had it with the vegetable korma, and dinner was delicious. Rhee-Soo showed us more kpop videos (Kyra is hooked now, too) and I feel like I am well on my way to being an expert in the kpop musical genre. If only I also knew Korean so I could understand all the lyrics. Oh well, minor details..

I ALSO found out last night that Rhee-Soo is really good friends with a girl named Julie, who is friends with one of my really good friends from school who is ALSO named Julie!!! Small world, right?! And I had, of course, heard about this other Julie, and she had heard about me. I love it when things like that happen.


KPOP LINKS:
Favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjcvasr-6o0
Another by him:  love with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnUEC_z-ops
FUNNIEST VIDEO EVER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6WgsXMXkE
--also, according to Rhee-Soo, you can't even get marshmallows in Korea. I think it makes this video just a little better (if that's possible)
Most popular girl group in Korea right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mPqycQ0tQ
Popular guy group, sweet dance moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roughtzsCDI
If this doesn't cheer you up, I'm not sure what will:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbwL8kSpEk