-
celebrating summer, art, + love in krumlov
ahhh, the good month of june that ushers in the long-awaited summer season. still the unpredictable spring weather, yet we can rely on its warmer temperatures and suddenly, everything is a-buzz. no longer am i hibernating indoors because how can you when there is so much to do? outdoor festivals and concerts under the stars, barbecues with good buds, and open-air theater. we are lucky here in south bohemia that one of the best and most well-known open-air theaters is right here in our region, located in český krumlov. not only is it an outdoor theater, only open in the warmer months, but it’s a revolving theater (otáčivé hlediště). that…
-
spring around here
officially, spring has sprung and since easter weekend, we’ve had a handful of gorgeous warm days here in south bohemia with highs above 22ºC! (although you wouldn’t know it by how bare most of the trees here still are!) i’m still not quite used to this continental european “spring”. it seems to come in mid-april, still with bare trees sometimes, and by early june, we are blasted with either heat-wave temperatures (or rain and floods, depending on the year). spring is a blink-and-you-miss-it affair, unlike western washington with our first cherry blossoms blooming in late february! i’m really trying to get into it this year, though… embrace those mild temperatures…
-
budabest
hi friends! did you have a lovely easter? i just kind of peaced out of the blog for about a week… i actually did write an easter post but last minute packing took precedent. if you were following along on instagram, you might have seen that we took off to budapest for the long holiday weekend! this year was the first year that (finally!) good friday was a public holiday… which means now i don’t have to feel guilty for taking that and thursday off, heh. it is so difficult to write about this holiday besides saying that it was just magical… all of the heart eyes and sparkles come…
-
kutná hora + remarkable czech churches
i’ve been meaning to go to kutná hora to visit the creepy sedlec ossuary just as long as i’ve been living here in the czech republic, but a foot injury prevented me, and plans were put on indefinite hold after we moved from prague; in the opposite direction as kutná hora. however, i am happy that we finally made it and spent a balmy spring day in this memorable little czech town about one hour east of prague. day trippin’, got to get away.. first, we ended up in sedlec, a cute little village only a kilometer or two from kutná hora, which is the sight of the famous sedlec…
-
in prague: botanical garden
as a spring baby, i have developed a great love of visiting some sort of garden on my birthday. early may is usually prime time to see certain flowers in bloom and everything around looks positively lovely. so when one of my friends here in budějovice tipped me off that the butterflies are hatching from their chrysalises at a special event on the prague botanical garden in troja, i mentally made my afternoon plans. the garden isn’t located in the center but rather the far reaches of prague’s seventh district, beyond holešovice. the butterfly event goes from early april to early may (just over one month), so we were there…
-
prague birthday
hi friends! i just took two full days off from doing anything except having birthday adventures, and it was quite a wise decision, really. by the time my head hit the pillow on night two, i was completely exhausted. the good kind, like you want. i spent it in prague this year and started the day with a growling stomach, so decided to finally give cantina a try. back when i was living in prague and totally broke, i would walk past this restaurant on the way home from going to the supermarket and wish that someday soon i could go here, as it has reputedly the best mexican cuisine in…
-
rainy krumlov
may first in many cities across europe means an all day party in the street in celebration of european labor day. may first in czech republic, well, that is probably one of the quietest days you ever did see… probably because everyone gets a bit wild for witches’ night the night before. but of course, i am awake. me, with scheduling a lesson pre 9am and deciding to head out to krumlov for the day. the streets of budějovice , especially usually bustling lannova třída were as dead as doornails. so, krumlov: also emptier than i have ever seen it, even in the dead of winter! the atmosphere was cool and…
-
spring stories (from our czechpat life)
a big ol’ smattering of a spring update is here, now that it’s suddenly may and things are really happening! starting out freezing, peaking mid-month with warm temps, and ending on a cold rainy note, april in budějovice came and went. we postponed our “cabin in the nature” trip until the end of summer due to this, below left, from alex’s birthday. (second out of three birthdays of his spent in czechland that have snowed!) spring definitely got a slow start here in europe this year. funny that now spring has sprung, everything has exploded with greenery and you’d never know it was like that at all. (see photos, at right)…
-
třeboň + april weekends
how odd it was to go from a full day of snow to sunny and 18°C in one week! from winter coat to bare legs and sandals. but that’s april for you. (shrug) in case you haven’t yet guessed, we had to postpone our lovely little cabin trip ‘til august… ‘cause when the proprietor contacts you the day before to tell you “it’s like winter here!”, you listen. (we just took off for prague instead, which i’ll post about on tuesday) so with the forecast looking wonderful this weekend, we spent the afternoon in třeboň, only about a half-hour away. třeboň is one of my sobo (south bohemia) happy places. i love to…
-
a tree blooms in žižkov
žižkov is one area of prague that i never really got to know on a personal level. it’s supposedly got the most pubs per capita of anywhere in the world and is well known as a place where expats congregate and live because of cheaper rents and um, said pubs. my prague expat existence never included ol’ žižkov as i was swept from crumbling kolbenova to plush malá strana in one day (and ohhh, what a day it was). but a part of me can’t help like i missed out on the experience, with our schmancy st. nicholas cathedral and trdelník on demand (well, we were pretty broke then; i…
