autumn leaves

beautiful fall weekends are here! after last weekend in which we were mostly hanging around budejovice, i very much wished to get out of the city this weekend and enjoy the beautiful foliage this time of year. alex suggested popping over to třeboň for the day to walk around svět lake – it’s such a nice walk, and it occurred to me that i had never been there in the autumn before. in fact, the last time we even walked around the lake was over five years ago! those times that we were scrambling every weekend to see as much as the area as we could, thinking we could be moving on within the year. (ha, ha)

of course, no good fall adventure can be undertaken without a generous portion of apple oatmeal and a cup of tea.

i always stare with wonder at the little island. does anyone live there? who owns that little cottage? how often do they go there? the island fascination is never-ending for me. 

as you can see, late october is really a lovely time to visit the town. except we didn’t even go through the town gates, preferring to sit under the falling leaves in the gorgeous parks and on our big three hour trek, instead. i couldn’t believe that we actually went around

svět

in less than three hours! last time it took us four. either way, you’re going to come out with sore muscles.

hope you’re ready for a hearty dose of the wilds of south bohemia in the autumn! the interesting thing about svět lake is that there are so many different sorts of landscapes around it – from fields of cabbage to pine forests to sandy beaches.

this mushroom reminded me of the one that alice takes a bite out of to grow bigger or smaller. i’ve been reading alice im wunderland so the story is quite fresh in my mind lately, and autumn is a really nice time to read this story in this enchanting time of year, when the earth changes colors and everything seems a touch more magical after a long hot summer.

that beautiful building you see (above) enveloped by gorgeous yellows and oranges is called the schwarzenberská hrobka – tomb of the members of the noble schwarzenberg family, lords of the southern bohemia areas since the seventeenth century. (if you want to know more about this tomb and the schwarzenbergs, i’d really recommend this broadcast).

even though i enjoyed the walk quite a lot (as did our ferdinand), my favorite part was sitting in the park outside the city walls in the most gorgeous foliage scene with leaves falling on our heads, drinking a hot chocolate. the song “autumn leaves” – one of my favorites – kept playing in my head and i definitely had one of those “life happiness moments”.

a note on happiness: they say that in life you always remember the happy parts about something and tend not to remember the less happy moments. i sometimes can’t help but wonder why i remember so many of the unhappy moments (just as equally as the happy ones) back in seattle. i do often wonder if the place where you live has something to do with it; my theory would be that it does. not that i am trying so hard to compare the two places, but even with the trials that may come with living in another country and language, i am quite content here in south bohemia. gone are the several day-long funks, hiding under blankets, stress rashes, anxiety and panic attacks. not as much excitement, but so many contented moments in their place, and there’s something to be said for those.

i hope you are having a happy october as well, full of magical autumn moments.