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a weekend in “czech canada”
slavonice seemed like exactly the sort of place i’d want to spend a winter getaway. small, beautiful, artsy, it’s a borderland town right on the edges of south bohemia, vysočina (moravia), and austria (only 2km away). one of the greatest reasons to visit, its flanked on the west by the beautiful nature of česká kanada (czech canada), called this because of the rich swath of forests, lakes, and other natural sites that sometimes make it almost indistinguishable from canada. the short train journey (under an hour) from telc was pretty magical… to see names of towns and landscapes we didn’t recognize as we crossed from moravia back into the edge…
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telč & its beautiful square
every year in february, excepting the year we had just moved here, we like to take a little february getaway. this is mostly because alex, as an english teacher of primary school aged children, gets a whole week for spring break! as a freelancer, i do not get a complete week unless it’s reeeeally important (berlinale!) but i can try to shift around my lessons in order to do something fun that week. this week, a sudden cold threatened my weekend plans. i woke up friday unable to speak with a normal human voice and having to cough and blow my nose every three minutes. but i have to tell…
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berlin christmas market rundown!
hey. so i know it’s january, folks are knee-deep in resolutions, self-betterment, and photos to prove you went running. but i have some serious intel about the christmas markets in berlin, seeing as i’d been doing this “research” the week of christmas, that needs to be released on the wild internet or the thought will either wither away in my mind or this post will rot in my drafts folder forever. and technically, the twelve days of christmas are still on ‘til the 6th, yo. so pin it, bookmark it, do whatever it is you gotta do if you want to know the low-down on which berlin christmas markets to visit!…
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st. nicholas day & hangin’ in nuremberg
from what i can recall from my travels around germany in 2007, nuremberg (nürnberg) had the king of christmas markets; topping many a list. not only is the setting gorgeous and the stalls seemingly unending, but they are famous for both their glühwein and their lebkuchen (gingerbread). i knew alex had to see this! i mean, germany is soooo close… and yet, so far. although it would take about one hour by car (or less) if one drove directly west of budějovice to get to eastern bavaria, the public transport connections usually straight up suck. even after twenty five years since the fall of the iron curtain, the infrastructure and…
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třebíč, please
as i briefly touched upon the other day, the days before a holiday are tough. the anticipation. the getting through whatever stands in the way. when friday finally came and went, i gave a hallelujah and was excited about relaxing in a new town that’s been on my list for a little while– třebíč, recognized by UNESCO for having one of the most preserved old jewish towns in europe as well as a jewish cemetery that dates back to the 17th century. i was looking forward to a nice leisurely three hour train ride through the snowy highlands of the middle province of vysočina on the way to this western…
