Moravia

I’m back from yet another exhausting weekend of travel. It being Tuesday, however, I’ve had time to recover from my journey and am ready for my next one (I leave for Munich on Friday!). I spent the weekend in Moravia which, contrary to what many originally thought, is not a Balkan state It’s the eastern part of the Czech Republic where there are two semi-cities (Brno and Zlin) and then a lot of teeny tiny towns. My favorite part of being in Moravia: the people there are MUCH nicer than the residents of Prague and most of Bohemia. Thank goodness.

So for the usual rundown: We left early on Friday and headed east. I’d like to say the countryside was beautiful but I actually slept most of the trip. Anyway, we arrive in a random town (which is what I will call most of the towns we saw as I do not remember their names) and get to have a lovely Czech lunch. This is the point where you recall that I don’t like Czech food. Then we go to view Mucha’s Slavic Epic which is a series of 20 paints that are 6 x8 meters. They were absolutely huge and we got a little history lesson of the Slavic peoples to boot. Then we headed to the town we were to sleep in. Our hotel was more of a bed & breakfast and was absolutely adorable with huge, spacious, clean rooms. I was a fan as was my roommate Melinda. Anyway, we searched out dinner and then were in for a real treat *note the sarcasm here*. CIEE had bought us all tickets to see a Czech punk rock concert comprised of 5 middle aged if not old men. The largest didn’t wear a shirt. And they sang in a different language. To a crowd principally comprised of people with Mohawks and a ridiculous amount of black apparel. We ducked out pretty quickly and called it an early night.

Saturday we got up early and had a pretty full day. We made our way to Zlin which is one of the larger cities in Moravia but still more like a town. We toured an animation/film school where we learned how puppet movies, etc are filmed. It was... interesting. Then after lunch we went to the Bat'a shoe museum. This part of the day was more up my alley. We concluded with an elevator ride to the top of their highest building (unsurprisingly, it was not tall at all). Coolest part of this, however, was the elevator itself as it was actually a man's office. Bat'a, the owner of the shoe factories Zlin grew up around, had his office installed as an elevator so he could quickly get to each floor and never have to leave the comfort of his own space.

The night was my favorite activity of the weekend- wine tasting. Our group split into two smaller groups and we each visited a wine cellar located underneath someone's house. Our host was this wine tasting champion of Europe who was exceptionally friendly and generous. We tried 10 different wines that he'd grown and made himself. Then he let us resample whichever ones we especially liked. Needless to say, by the end of our session, we were all a bit louder and more jovial than we had been upon entrance into the cellar. After we left, we decided to also try the wine cellar that the other group went to. We naturally had to try those wines as well. It was a good night.

Sunday was our last day. We had a "Czech day" according to our guide. The Czechs really really like nature and so she basically meant we would be hiking. We toured a chateau called Buchlovice in the morning that was beautiful. The gardens were filled with peacocks and all the rooms had their original decoration intact. It was a nice and calm tour. THEN we hiked 4 kilometers up a mountain to reach a castle. Of course, none of us were in our hiking gear so it was an amusing experience. The castle wasn't very impressive but did get rewarded with a Czech lunch. Although, I'm not sure that's really a reward.