Czechia or Czech Republic

I arrive pretty early in Prague. I am lucky, once again my room is available right away. I am not a big fan of this hotel choice. The hotel has AC, is in a good location – but my only window is small and doesn’t let much light in. The room is musty. I can expect to have sinus issues in a day or two like I tend to get in rooms like this.

Czech Republic, or Czechia, has been on my travel radar for a while. Once known as Bohemia it used to be part of a larger country called Czechoslovakia that was under communist rule.

I rest a little bit and then go out to get lunch. I end up at a very touristy but traditional Czech restaurant. There is a person playing the accordion while we eat. I try the goulash and the recommended dark beer. The meat and sauce of the goulash is good but not sure I am a fan of the bread dumplings. Their purpose is more so to soak up the sauce but alone they are too much bread and not tons of flavor. They seem to be quite popular here though.

After lunch I walk around trying to make the most of the day. I come to a square where I see a rotating head of Franz Kafka for the first of three times during my stay in Prague (other two times on guided tours). This time I am actually able to see it in action since it only runs once a hour. This monument built by David Černý was actually commissioned by the shopping center next door. They wanted a complimentary statue of the famous local author to attract attention to their shopping center. And it worked. There are also some hanging men (and women) hanging about town. One popular one is by Černý and is supposed to be Sigmund Freud.

Next I try the famous trdelnik dessert, very similar to other deserts in the region (aka chimney cake). I am not impressed. It is a dry doughy vessel but the inside custard, strawberries and light whipped topping are not bad. I am told later by a guide that you need to order it fresh and without anything inserted. Apparently they use the stale bread because it is a better vessel for ice cream and such. Overall the dessert is not my cup of tea so I’ll just skip it for now on.

I walk across the Charles Bridge to the other side of Prague. The bridge is crowded and hot. I am looking forward to reaching the other side and the park that is my destination. I first stop to see a mill troll and a John Lennon tribute wall. The wall at one time may have been nice but I see tour guides encouraging graffiti on this wall that is pretty much a scribble wall. I am sure the writings have meaning but its not attractive to look at.

I head to the nearby park to enjoy some shade and get a look at some creepy baby statues with barcode heads. Another David Černý work of course.

I head back toward the other side again and while I cross the bridge I watch paddle boats paddling around and boats waiting to travel through canal locks to higher level.

I walk down to the famous dancing house. There is a cocktail bar at top that I’d like to visit sometime.

I happen upon a hidden park (first of a couple times during my visit). It is a beautiful green space in the middle of a busy city.

I decide to go see a movie in an art house theater, Cinema Svetozor. The theater shows movies in the original language so I see the Wes Andersen’s Asteroid City.

Luckily I don’t have to wake up early tomorrow because my scheduled day trip doesn’t begin until after noon. I have a tour to the town of Kutna Hora booked for tomorrow.

Images from around town at night.

Mostar

This morning I took the train to Mostar, a medieval ottoman city famous for its stone streets and iconic bridge. Mostar is in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia & Herzegovina. It’s confusing because it’s not an actual political border or state but just a region of land. There are actually borders within their country but they are named differently.

Cheese burek this morning before my train

It’s about a 25 minute walk to my hotel where I get to walk through a cute town awakening for the day. Little do I know in just a few minutes crowds will thicken as day trippers come in via very large groups. I drop my bags off at the hotel and brave the crowds for a bit while I wait for my room to get ready.

During my wandering I end up at the famous Stari Most (bridge). This unesco bridge was originally built in the 16th century but was destroyed in the war of the 1990’s. It was reconstructed in the early 2000’s. There is a tradition here of jumping off the bridge into the Neretva river below. I forgot about this tradition until I see three guys “getting ready to jump”. They start collecting money for the jump – I later discover they are actually taking bets whether or not someone will jump. After a production they step down and don’t jump. Confused as I am I watch them for a while repeat this same routine multiple times. I am convinced it is a scam and happy I don’t give them money. I find out later from a tour guy that they do eventually jump but these younger guys make more of a production out of it to collect the most money. I still not have seen anyone jump but like I said it is a tradition and actual club you can join to work your way into the big jump.

I order coffee and a local dessert at a cafe and enjoy a view of the river.

It is now time to check in so I return to the hotel and settle a bit to let the crowds die down before I go back out.

I decide to visit a highly rated cafe to eat before I attend a walking tour I have scheduled this afternoon. I am tired of cevapi so I try some grilled chicken instead. I am very happy with my order.

Grilled chicken, salad, cheese, pita bread, grilled veggies

I meet up for the tour. The tour guide is a local who was an adult during the last war. He tells us about town history pre-war and Yugoslav era. Then he tells us how things were during the 1990’s war in this town. The ethnic groups are the same as in Sarajevo but here the residents are majority ethnic Bosnia and Croats with the Serbs forming a minority. I have gotten a completely different perspective than I did in Sarajevo. There was conflict here but the players are different and they change over the course of the war. The whole situation is so complex that I am sure it will confuse me even more if I talk to someone who is familiar with the viewpoint of the other two sides. The only thing to hope is that peace will last here.

Finally I find a place to get a couple drinks after being in a mostly dry town for two nights. I try a flight of beer and a local whisky in a NON-SMOKING area! I love enjoying my evening without a side of smoke. I really take the clear air for granted in the USA since we long since outlawed smoking in most indoor places.

Tomorrow I have a day tour scheduled for the country-side of Herzegovina.

Konjic and Cold War

A couple of days before I was going to start traveling again in April I decided to follow up on some of the plans I had. I had a second stop in BiH (short for Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the town of Konjic. While I fill in the details in the itinerary it seems like it is going to be difficult to do the things I want to do here without a car. Additionally it seems like the town is light on the activities if you don’t count river rafting (and it is a bit off season to do that). I attempt to move the days I had allocated to the two other stops I have in BiH but with it is getting too complicated to change things and I am running out out of time; I decided to keep things as they are for now.

Come to find out my intuition was correct. This town would have been better for me to visit as a day trip instead of an overnight. They don’t really seem to be set up for tourism right now because either it is off season or covid decimated the tourism industry. There is a lack of dining options and entertainment. The one big attraction I do see is almost a mishap: Tito’s Bunker. For Tito’s bunker luckily a local tourism office helps me with a taxi despite neither of us speaking each other’s languages (it is too difficult to walk there – believe me I thought about walking the 6 km). In addition one restaurant I try to dine at makes me feel really stupid for being there. I know I am part of the problem because I come into the country not knowing the language but most waiters are gracious and just hand me a menu and it works well enough. The waiter in this restaurant looks at me like he is not willing to work with me at all, no menu, nothing, so I walk out embarrassed. This situation is not repeated at other restaurants but I guess I need a situation to humble me once in a while. I really would like to learn local languages but the way I travel makes it impossible. I visit way too many countries. Learning a few phrases is all I can handle most of the time.

Despite all that above, it is a lovely town. It is almost like a Swiss town in the middle of the Balkans. There is a beautiful river and beautiful mountains in the distance. My rental is a basement apartment rented by the lovely man and his wife who live above. Today he gave me a homemade baklava made by the wife – Bosnian style with walnuts.

My second day I visit the main attraction Tito’s Bunker, the bunker created during the Cold War by the very popular Yugoslav leader President Josip Broz Tito (died 1980) . Construction started in secret ( even to the local community) in the 1950’s and completed in 1979. It’s construction cost $4.6 billion to construct (more than $20 billion today). It is no wonder why Yugoslavia was under financial collapse. It was kept open until 1992 but never used for its purpose. It was closed during the war in the 1990’s. It was only rediscovered in 2011 and shortly after opened for tours. This place is nice to visit because it is a well preserved relic of the Cold War era due to being forgotten for so long. I really enjoy my visit here. You can only visit by a prearranged tour. Fortunately they have tours In English. Along with the well preserved rooms there are also recent related art installations scattered around. Luckily the travel agency that books this visit also arranges my transportation to and from here because there is no public buses to get here.

I arrive back in town and walk around for the evening. There isn’t much else to do so I suppose it is good I am leaving tomorrow morning by train to Mostar. It’s a pretty town but maybe too sleepy for me.