"The Charbor Chronicles": One Year Anniversary of Five Unexpected Hours in the Czech Republic

Technically, my son and I actually went into and through a small chunk of the Czech Republic on the 25th, and the one year anniversary would have been yesterday. But seeing as though I had already posted something on Bratislava, Slovakia, and seeing as though I was unsure about how much time I would have to write something for the 26th, it seemed better just to wait to publish this one day later than the actual one year anniversary.

My thoughts on the Czech Republic visit, which came as a mild surprise, were mixed. First of all, it was a new country, one that I had long wanted to visit. This trip obviously did not include Prague, the capital and largest city. Also, the most famous city. But we did briefly pass through Brno, which is the country's second largest city, and it was attractive, although not nearly like the pictures that I have seen of Prague, admittedly. Otherwise, there was Prostějov, which wound up being a very attractive small city that we walked around in, looking for food before I remembered that I did not actually have any local currency, and had not warned my credit card companies that we would actually be in the Czech Republic. So, all we did was walk around for a bit, and then, we just headed back without a meal.

We drove through some very charming, pretty towns and countryside. The kind of villages and landscapes that make you want to come back, truth be told. It is a beautiful country, and we only saw a snippet of it.

Yet, my mindset was not in the right place. After realizing in Prostějov that we did not have any local currency, I started to want to get back to Poland. I was starting to get a headache and was increasingly irritated, especially when we hit not one but two traffic jams. Traffic jams are never fun, but it can be especially annoying not only when you want to get somewhere soon, and also, when you are surrounded by empty farm fields, which compounds the absurdity of being in bumper to bumper traffic.

Plus, I had always wanted to visit Katowice, which would be on our way to Krakow, which we needed to get back to that night for a flight the next day. And we actually still had Polish currency, and I could use my cards in Poland. So, while Brno and Prostějov were nice surprise visits, and while the picturesque villages and countryside were also present, the traffic jams on the highway thereafter kind of soured our time in the Czech Republic, which was surprisingly long. I had gone to downtown Brno, even though it was a bit out of our way, because it seemed like something worth seeing. We had stopped at Prostějov to grab a bite to eat, without success. And the villages were just very nice to drive through. The highways, though, we like highways anywhere, and after a while, we just wanted to get to where we were going. What was supposed to be a brief excursion, at best, wound up being a bulk of the trip from Bratislava to Katowice, as we were in the Czech Republic for something like five hours. Some of it was nice, but admittedly, some of it was in those traffic jams, too, and driving along seemingly endless highways.

Nevertheless, one year later, I still find myself glad for the experiences that we had there, especially in Prostějov and those villages. I find myself wishing to have had the patience (and time) to stop and take some pictures of the villages that we did pass through. But below are some of the pictures that I did manage to take during our brief visit through a tiny part of the Czech Republic, as well as my original thoughts at the time (I wrote these from the hotel and probably the airport in Krakow, if memory serves correctly).

Enjoy!

Yes, my son and I visited another country on our way back from Bratislava to Krakow.

This time, however, it was not planned.

It just kind of happened.

You see, my son and I had had a marathon few days, and we were feeling pretty tired.

Happy and feeling lucky, but definitely tired. Exhausted, maybe would even be a better word for it.

Budapest still feels a bit like a crazy blur. So does Vienna. So by way of comparison, Bratislava was a welcome change of pace. Small and mostly quiet, almost sleepy.

After the crazy but awesome trip to Budapest, we visited Vienna. Not nearly as thoroughly as we had Budapest, but there were reasons for that. First of all, we were extremely lucky finding free parking right next to the youth hostel that we were staying in at Budapest. That was a privilege that we did not have in Vienna. Also, we were only staying in Vienna for part of the day, trying to fit in a decent one day trip without the privilege of staying the night, because we had reservations in Bratislava.

So, we tried to visit as much of Vienna as possible with more limited time and circumstances. With parking in Budapest taken care of, we could afford to forget about the car. That was not the case in Vienna, however. Yet, we did get extremely lucky in terms of parking in Vienna. It was free everywhere that we went, both by circumstances and sheer luck. In District 1, the major tourism sector of the city, parking is apparently free on weekends. Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised. Then, we just got very lucky parking close to other major tourist sites, finding parking spaces that were available and free. Not sure that I could even repeat that feat if I tried, truth be told.

By the end of the day, however, we were both tired from all of the chaos from running around two major cities. So tiny Bratislava, with it's quiet, relaxed pace, was a welcome respite from the chaos of Budapest and Vienna. It was what we needed.

We disciplined ourselves enough to go see the old town at night, and briefly visited again on Sunday morning.

That was when we left and headed for Krakow.

According to Google maps, the trip was scheduled for four and a half hours.

That was no surprise.

What did surprise me was when we suddenly entered the Czech Republic.

To be honest, I was beginning to suspect as much, when we kept seeing signs for Brno.

My reaction was mixed. I love traveling and seeing new things. But I also wanted to get a vignette, and that turned out to be a more tedious process than I would have believed possible.

Elsewhere, I wrote a little bit more about my experiences with the vignette.

Suffice to say, we got the vignette, and continued on into the Czech Republic.

Pictures (more of them, anyway) are posted on another, somewhat similar blog entry about our surprise visit to the Czech Republic.

So, we almost stumbled into the Czech Republic.

And allow me to admit that my initial reaction was mixed.

On the one hand, it was a surprising thrill to visit yet another new country.

But it also meant spending more money, and a surprisingly inconvenient and irritating

way to do that, to boot.

You see, to drive without penalty in European countries, you have to either register into the system, or purchase a vignette. Usually, they run from anywhere between 10 to 12 Euros.

I already made the mistake of forgetting about the vignettes when I had driven through Slovakia and Hungary earlier in the trip, and did not want to repeat the same mistake.

But they would only take cash. How are we supposed to pay cash when we literally just entered the country, unexpectedly in our case, and have none of the local currency?

They seemed neither troubled nor interested, and also not surprised by our dilemma, and subsequent confusion and unhappiness. They (yes, there were several places, each with identical cash only policies) kept telling us to go to the gas station further in the rest area. But they too were cash only.

While in Austria, I had gotten some Euros, but the minimum amount of withdrawal was 50 Euros! What if the minimum here was more or less the same? What would I do with the extra cash, especially since I assumed (mistakenly, as it turned out) that we would only be in the Czech Republic for a brief time.

Then, finally, I remembered the 50 Euros that I still had. They accepted Euros, and really, why shouldn't they?

So finally, I received the vignette. But we had wasted a lot of time at this border station.

Then, we were on our way.

Having seen so many signs for Brno, I decided that we should go see the city.

It was a brief visit, to be sure. But it was worth the very short diversion.

Why not, right?

Brno is a very lovely city. The old town retains a medieval splendor.

At least, I thought, we did not simply plow through the new country. We were still both explorers, after all? Why not take this as a special opportunity to visit something completely new to us both.

At the time, of course, I had not expected that we would be in the Czech Republic for nearly as long as we wound up being there for.

My original expectations, once we actually entered the Czech Republic, was that it might be a bit like that slice of Delaware on I-95, between Washington and Philadelphia. You breeze through it and don't see really anything while there, before quickly crossing into another, larger state.

In fact, though, we wound up spending the better part of five hours in the Czech Republic.

As it turned out, we would see quite a few other things and places before leaving, to boot.

I decided that since we were already in the Czech Republic, and so close to Brno, we might as well go there and pay a visit. Then, we wound up getting hungry while back on the road, so I headed toward the downtown (Centrum) of a very charming and pretty little city called Prostejov, before I realized that I had not actually planned on visiting the Czech Republic, and so I could not use either my card, and had no local currency.

Eating, in other words, would have to wait until Poland.

This was the point where I began to feel really tired. It was probably a combination of things. Exhaustion from running around all over the past few days. The sun and the heat, which we could not seem to escape on this trip. The earlier frustrations with no Czech currency, and nothing to eat, and still a long way to go. And, of course, the two big traffic jams, both of which the GPS was unable to avoid, and which it rather drastically estimated as shorter in duration than they in fact wound up being.

Rather unexpectedly, and I might add, uncharacteristically, I began to want to get out of the Czech Republic. It had been fun and exciting at first, even after the initial frustrations with the vignette and the first traffic jam. In fact, I enjoyed Brno and Prostejov, as well as some of the other typically European villages we passed through. But once we got back on the highway, and then hit the second traffic jam, I began to grow sick and tired of the drive.

It is fairly rare, especially on this particular European trip, that I began to grow anxious and wanted simply to leave a place. But as I mentioned earlier, I had expected a short trip into the Czech Republic, similar to the stretch of I-95 that runs through Delaware. Maybe a quick visit to Brno, since we were going there anyway.

But the projected length of the trip back to Krakow from Bratislava was roughly 4 1/2 hours. We had been on the road for one hour by the time that we entered the Czech Republic, and it felt that the closer we should be getting to Krakow, the longer the estimated length of the trip was. By the time that we reached almost four hours, and still had the better part of an hour left before reaching Poland again, I was ready to leave.

Eventually, of course, we did leave. We reached the Polish border. Admittedly, I was happier than expected - much happier, frankly - to be back in Poland than I would have believed possible. On some level, I felt guilty. After all, the Czech Republic, even the tiny little bits that we saw, were charming and pretty. It was a privilege even to see that much, even though I have always wanted to visit this country, particularly the capital, Prague.

I am still glad that we got to see what we saw of that country. Someday, perhaps even someday fairly soon, I hope to return, especially if the opportunity to visit Prague finally arises. I do appreciate the day that we had, and will remember the few cities and villages that we passed through here fondly.

But for once, I was happy to leave a place, as well.