My new favorite thing: The tea bowl.

On top of the world.

My day started trying to find the bus station and finding myself in a sketchy parking lot filled with parked buses and not a single person in sight. I finally bumped into a disheveled-looking woman with hair sticking up.

"Do you speak English?" I asked. "Do you know where the bus station is?" Blank look. "Autobus?" I pointed to one of the buses. She shook her head. Don't know.

I found it a block away. I think she knew.

I took the bus to Cesky Krumlov, 50 minutes outside of Ceske Budejovice. Next to Prague, it is the Czech Republic's second biggest tourist destination because of its picturesque town surrounding a magnificent castle--the Krumlov Chateau--perched on top a hill.

I started the day by climbing the Krumlov Chateau's round tower, up the stairs round and round until I reached the top. Considering that I heard that this town is usually a zoo of tourists, I think it was an impressive feat that I was alone on the balcony. The view was breathtaking, and I was happy to have it all for myself.

I wandered the castle grounds and then the garden. The garden was uninteresting until I walked through a hedge of yellow leaves that smelled of good old-fashioned fall. It reminded me of candy corns, pumpkins, hooded sweatshirts and leaves across the grass. I inhaled deeply and thought to myself, this is life outside a cubicle.

I took a long lunch, stepping into a vegetarian place with hesitation only to discover it was just the place that I wanted to be. My table and chair was wooden, the chair shifted when I sat on it, but it all felt very warm and the whole place had a nice bohemian vibe. I ordered a burrito and green tea, which was served in a pot and was poured into a small clay bowl. It felt strange at first to drink from a bowl, but as I got used to it, I loved the feeling of cupping my cold hands over the warmness and taking slow sips. If you put too much tea in the bowl, it got cold too fast, so you could only pour a little at a time, and then it was pure perfection.

For dessert, I got blueberry dumplings, which of course, had whipped cream all over them (I have found that most desserts in the Czech Republic are not that good and they try to compensate the fact by putting an enormous amount of whipped cream on top). The dumplings were good, however, and I ate slowly, drank my tea deliberately, taking in the soulful piano music and reading my book. It was one of the best meals of my trip.

The waiter looked like an outdoorsy, hippy type, with chin length blonde hair wearing a black fleece pullover. He spoke English to me but would always start giggling nervously and would awkwardly dart outside to get my orders. When he was figuring out my bill, I found out he was from Prague, and he started asking me where I was from and if I was staying in town.

I told him that I was only here for a day, that I was staying in Ceske Budejovice.

"No one ever goes there," he told me, "It has a nice square though."

"Yeah, I think I am the only tourist there."

He asked me if I was staying around town for a while. Was he hitting on me?

"Just for the day," I told him. He giggled and jumped away. Friendly guy, but a little too rabbit-like for me.

Afterwards, I wandered the streets a little, poking my head in tourist shops, trying to stay warm (I heard the waiter tell another table that it might snow tomorrow!) I went back to the castle for a tour of the old theater that was built in the 18^th century. There is only two like it in the world, and it is compete with all the original stage, seating, scenery, props and costumes.

The tour was the strangest thing ever. There was only me and this family of five who where there and we had to sit in the theater in almost complete darkness while the guide talked. You could barely see anything and the guide would barely look at us when he spoke. We then went under the stage where we could see how they manipulate the sets with robes and wooden machinery.

"It's a little uncomfortable in there," the guide said. It was also freezing cold. And dark. And he didn't demonstrate anything, which was a bummer. Instead of showing us the different sets and costumes, he showed us a poster with pictures of them, but it was so dark, you had to squint to see anything. I left 30 minutes later feeling like "What just happened there?" I saw the guide walk past me and then he broke out into a run into another building. Why does everyone run around here?

I took the bus back, wandered around the bus station mall, ate some mall food, then briskly walked back to the pension. After writing some emails, I could hear jazz music coming from the bar next door, but there is no place I would rather be than in bed, out of the cold and watching CNN (the only English channel on TV).

Krumlov Chateau.



View from the top.

Tea pot and tea bowl.

Sign on the bus.