Na víno zemi!

This last weekend I went down to Moravia. This is the southern region of the Czech Republic and is typically referred to as the wine country. I have heard that the people in Moravia have an elitist attitude about themselves and their wine. They say that the people in Prague don't know what good wine is so they send all of their bad wine up here and keep the good wine in Moravia. So basically, if you want good Czech wine you are supposed to go to Moravia.

I left Friday after class and took the bus to Brno. From Brno I had to travel one hour farther south to Mikulov where I was staying for the weekend. Since none of the people I was travelling with had class on Friday they all left in the morning, but being the good student I am I left later. This meant that I would have to figure out getting around Brno and into Mikulov on my own. After spending close to an hour in search of the bus station in Brno I tried to go buy a ticket. I quickly learned that they do things differently here. You don't buy a ticket at the station. When you are getting on the bus you hand your money to the driver and he prints off the ticket for you. Well I was not aware of this so when I went to tell the lady at the window that I wanted a ticket she snapped back at me. I think what she said to me was, "You're in the Czech Republic, we speak Czech. No English!" But I can't really be sure. I tried my best to ask her in Czech where I catch the bus and she told me. At this point I decided to leave and try to figure out the ticket part later. I then had an hour to wander and explore Brno. The city is not that big but when you have a small map it can be hard to find certain sights. I tried to find the Old Town Hall but I passed the street and ended up at the Town Square. This is when I heard the voice of an angel! The square had quite a bit going on. There was a floor hockey court set up with a pee-wee league playing and there were a bunch of new cars sitting around it. As I was standing in the square I heard the song "I've Got To Break Free" coming from some speakers nearby. I went to watch and was thoroughly amused and entertained. He danced, he sang, and he even stopped mid line to pose for cameras and make jokes with people in the audience. Needless to say I enjoyed my time in Brno.

After watching two songs by this handsome devil, I decided to turn back to the bus station and head to Mikulov to meet my friends. Once the bus arrived I got on and told the driver where I was trying to go. He said something in Czech to me and I just replied with "Anglicky" (meaning English) and so he shook his head, mumbled something to himself, and took my money. I grabbed my ticket from his machine and I went to find a seat. As I started to walk away he said to me, "Arrivederci!" I laughed, said thank you, and sat down. The ride to Mikulov went fairly quick and painless. It was when I arried in Mikulov that the problems began to arise. I didn't have a clue which stop I was supposed to get out on. So after debating with myself for quite some time I finally chose one and hopped off the bus. It's a good thing too because I think if I had stayed on much longer I might have ended up in Austria.

Once I got off the bus the search for my friends came. That was tricky but after some wandering around the tiny town I finally found them! We went and had some wine and dessert at one restaurant and then decided to go to the sports bar by our hostel. While we were there we watched Czech Slovakian Superstar. This is essentially the same as American Idol. After that the bar changed the channel to MTV which was showing the Beyonce-Justin Top 20 Countdown. It was really fun to watch that!

On Saturday we got up and were getting ready to check out of our hostel. About a half hour before we were going to leave, the old German lady that ran our hostel brought us a plate full of apple pastries for breakfast. She was such a sweetheart. She spoke no English but was really nice to us and gave us the entire flat in the upstairs of her hostel/house. After we checked out we went and walked around the castle grounds and then went to the edge of town to some caves. The caves were really cool, but I kept bumping into the walls and low ceilings. I was a little concerned that I might bump into something and the whole place would come tumbling down. Luckily I came out alive and the cave is still in tact. Cool parts about the cave: There were bats, there was a mammoth bone, there were some weird statues one of which was a weiner dog, and one of the pockets in the cave had been flooded. After the cave we went back into town and had lunch. Some delicious goulash!

When we finished lunch we went on a hunt for some wine tasting. Unfortunately all the cellars in town were closed due to harvesting. But we still had some good wine throughout the weekend. And a few of us bought bottles to take home to Prague. And we all bought some burčák! Now, you may be wondering, what is burčák? Simply defined it is delicious! It is commonly referred to as the impatient person's wine. It is extremely young and not fully fermented. It is only left to sit for five to ten days and after it is pured you have about four to six hours to drink it before it goes bad. We all bought a liter, which was served to us in big plastic bottles, and we hit the road back to Brno. When we got back to Brno we had about 2 hours to kill so we went in search of Old Town Hall. We found it and this is where we saw the Brno Dragon and the Wagon Wheel. The Brno Dragon is really an alligator hanging from the ceiling that was given to the city by Archprince Matayás. And the wagon wheel was created by a carpenter that said he could cut down a tree, make a wheel, and roll it to Brno from Lednice (40km) all in one day. The townspeople didn't believe him so he set out to prove them wrong. He did it but after that the people of Lednice were convinced he had assistance from the devil so they never bought his work again. Sucks for him. The other crazy thing we saw in Brno- a McWalk. A walk through window for a McDonalds. It was amusing.

After we had wandered as much as we could we went to catch our bus back to Prague and got in late Saturday night. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend. I decided one day when I retire I will move to Mikulov and own a winery. I will sit around drinking wine all day. Any of you are welcome to join me!