Czech-ing out the countryside

22 - 26 July

The bus station I needed for Nová Paka was out in Praha's suburbs, so I got myself on the metro, a bit later than I hoped. The bus station wasn't very clearly laid out, and I thought I was going to miss my bus but got there with a couple of minutes to spare and even got the last spare seat. I was quite clearly the only non-Czech person on the whole bus - probably in the whole station - and starting to wonder whether my desire to go somewhere off the main tourist trail was a bit too adventurous for someone who couldn't speak a word of the local language... Hopefully Český Ráj ("Bohemian Paradise") would live up to its name...

Nevertheless, I arrived in the small town of Nová Paka, from where I had a 25-minute walk to the 2-star hotel I'd madly booked myself into right out on the edge of town. It was mid-30s degree heat, and uphill, with no shade, and by the time I got there I was very hot & sweaty. Then I encountered a new challenge... No-one at the hotel when I arrived could speak hardly any English...

They figured out that I must be the reservation with a non-Czech name, but when it came to pay I realised I didn't have enough money with me. Trying to explain I would go to the ATM and pay the rest tomorrow proved a real challenge to someone I had no common language at all. Eventually she worked it out, and I even managed to get a wifi password... My first priority was then to learn a couple of Czech phrases - something that hadn't been needed in the tourist-filled Praha.

The next morning for breakfast I discovered the manager was there, who did actually speak some English, and the menu had an English translation even. I discovered that in the general area, locals were more likely to speak German, and signs may have German translations, since it is quite close to the German border in the north of the Czech Republic.

Enough talking - time for some photos. The idea was to do a few day trips around the area, and so -  armed with detailed directions and a photo of a map this time! - I headed for the ruins of Kumbruk Castle. It was another hot day, but the views across the countryside were quite impressive, and the ruins of the castle provided a good opportunity for a little explore.

The quiet calmness of the Czech countryside

Looking out of a window of the Kumbruk Castle ruins

Castle ruins

It was a good 6-hour return walk, however, so the evening was another quiet relaxed one - though to be fair, there wasn't exactly a nightlife to be had in Nová Paka! The next morning I took a bus to Jičín, a slightly larger town, and discovered an actual tourist office that spoke English. From there - now armed with an actual paper map - I headed for one of the so-called "rock cities" that make the Český Ráj area famous. A 1.5 hour walk up a hill led me to Prachovské Skály. I spent some three hours walking around the site, which provided many opportunities for good views and photos.

Rock towers poking out of the trees

Me in front of one of the larger rock towers, to give you a scale...

Some of the massive rock towers

Around the rock city

One of the lookouts over the rock city

View from atop one of the rock towers out to Jičín

A narrow gap the trail led through

Briefly, the geology is something like this: the area used to be under the sea. Tectonic processes uplifted the sandstone, which broke into several separate blocks around the Český Ráj region, one of which is Prachovské Skály. The tall rock towers and deep gaps were essentially then formed over time by erosion processes.

I ended up in Jičín for dinner, and found a restaurant with an English menu - and prices less than half than what an equivalent place in Praha would have charged. The waitress was fascinated by an English-speaking customer in Jičín and even more fascinated when I said I was from New Zealand, and since the restaurant was still quite empty, I got into a big conversation with her because she wanted to practice her English!

Back in Nová Paka for my last day there, and having done two big day trips, I satisfied myself with a big sleep in and trying to catch up on my journal and blog. I also was trying to work out how to get to my next destination - Katowice in Poland - which was proving a lot more difficult than I'd hoped. It must be said that researching accommodation, buses, trains and so on can be very tiring, and it's a never-ending process while backpacking around Europe.

Nová Paka had one last surprise for me though... This amazing sunset I saw out my window on my last night...

Not a bad sight, really...

The next morning I got a bus off to the Stará Paka railway station and went to buy my ticket to Katowice. The poor woman at the ticket office had probably never had a mad New Zealand backpacker trying to book a train ticket to Poland before and couldn't speak any English. When it turned out I didn't have enough Czech crowns left, nor enough Euros, and there was no electronic card facilty, it got a bit complicated, but I eventually paid in a combination of Euros & Crowns.

The tiny train got me to Pardubice, where a man in the information booth used Google Translate to tell me I needed a seat reservation as well, which I eventually got from the ticket office. While I survived, I'm not sure I'll ever be as optimistic travelling to out-of-the-way places when I can't speak the local language!

After leaving Nová Paka at 8am, I finally got to Katowice late afternoon and got dinner with an American girl from the hostel, who'd been to Auschwitz the day before. That was my plan for the next day, and given the sombre nature of the day planned, I headed to bed pretty early.