The rafting beginners

DAY 1

Marek left Slovakia soon in the morning and joined me a couple of hours later. Together we took a train with direction to Ceske Budejovice. Then we joined Cenda and Tin-Lan ( 2 weeks ago from Tai-Pei to Paris, one day before from Paris to Prague) who came by train from Prague.

Jan Duben after 1yr in Tai-Pei, Taiwan

We were looking FWD the station Vyssi Brod-klaster. Then we walked through the raining darkness towards the camp. As the only camp inhabitants we realized that summer holiday is over and that it is maybe the cause of the enclosure. The pub´s roofed terrace we had squatted was almost beautiful compared to the outer world - almost no rain but including the high air humidity, low wind but having some turbulences "inside" so the third factor which made us feel not so comfortable (of course except Marek carrying Irish weather wherever he goes wearing just a T-shirt and a hoody if it´s really very cold) was the subjectif feeling of low temperature reinforced by two former factors. Hungry, we started to cook. Later, some of us build a tent, some of us used the pub´s equipment to improvise a bed. Some of us slept in the tent for the first or second time in their lives and thus it had been an adrenaline experience amplified by the polar weather (compared to taiwanese subtropical 40degrees C). Eating and sleeping helped us to hope in sweeter weather next day for sailing the boat.

Marek, Vojta, Tin-Lan

DAY 2

In the morning, we learned from Tin-Lan that Cenda invented a new way how to have one sleeping bag extra. It´s easy, we start with two people and two sleeping bags, suppose those two persons like each other, they can use one sleeping bag as a carpet and the other one as a cover, then, when the more tired of those two falls asleep, one can misuse the situation and steal both two bags as a cover for himself, he is so selfish, she added. But Cenda strictly refused this theory and added that it is not about falling asleep of the first one but just about the pure force!

As it kept raining all the morning, we decided to quit our boat reservation and to move down the river using different technologies (2 go by bus). Arrivé into Cesky Krumlov has been as rainy as the morning was and we looked again to avoid to be out in the rain. So we kept us hiding in the museums.

The bad weather

Heavy bags and heavy rain prevented us from sleeping in the nature and we paid a Traveller´s Hostel´s room. Immediately we started to explore the Hostel´s kitchen shared by at least 50 people everyday. Such a quantity of men and women could cause a huge mess and that´s why there used to be announced several simple rules how to handle with all of the stuff in the kitchen.

The good spirits of the Traveller hostel´s kitchen: Mara and Vojta (next performance: Hostel Jednota, student dormitory, Prague)

Rule #1: Stickers with name on the food to prevent from beeing eaten by anybody else and as well rule#2: the opposite sense stickers "eat me" reinforced us in searching for such marked food in the kitchen. We won an orange juice, yeah! Then we cooked in the dog&cat~Prague_Jednota_dormitory_style: onion, pork meat tin, rice, ketchup. We ate as much as possible and the rest we put aside on a plate and scratched "......" and installed it in the refrigerator like a tax for drinking the orange juice. However the Picasso way creator enjoyed playing and scratching the rice off the rest, he felt a little bit disgusted from the way of creation and really did not hope this rice to be eaten by somebody else. Just like playing a team game with no players enough.

As we had a room, we didn´t care no more about the weather and went exploring downtown. Although nobody was in the streets we didn´t saw more than a little sector of the field of sight rimmed by the raincoats while keeping away from splashes. Everything, even the souvenir shops, relatively evoqued the historic nature of the city. The only UNESCO non-protected object on our sightseeing tour had been a Czech foreign affairs minister Karel Švarcenberk´s A8 behind the Schwarzenberg chateau. We were a little bit confused about the cars so we asked Marek why he didn´t tell us that he came here by car a couple of days before and why did he ever came back to Brno to join me for the train trip. He smiled mysteriously only when we told him that he hasn´t to be afraid of the scratches made by us on his car if he told us the truth.

Jan & Tin-Lan

French part of the gardens; from left: yellow, blue, yellow

bridge to the gardens

As soon as we got know that Cenda´s father is going to pick up us wherever on the river we scheduled to sail the boat for tomorrow at almost whatever natural conditions. When we entered the hostel again, we met two Japanese guys named [Masa] and [Taiki] (Taiki´s travel weblog) who enjoyed the consummation of the "EATME" plate. Last year, they have been travelling from Japan to Europe across continental Asia and thus they visited countries like Nepal, Tibet, Kyrgystan, India, Iran, Turkye, Hungary on their trips. They travelled alone and met each other in Vienna. After Budapest and Prague they went here to Cesky Krumlov. Those samurai courage should be appreciated. So we invited them for sailing the raft for tomorrow.

DAY 3

During continental breakfast we realize there is no rain outside. We leave for the chateau excursion and few hours later we rent the raft.

Chuang Tin-Lan + Tu-Wei Yang = VSLN

The waterman in the boat rental office felt a bit surprised of us. He has been just washing his socks in the office when we arrived. Our wool gloves didn´t cease to surprise him and that´s why he took a couple of pictures of us.

in the boat depot

wool gloves equipped Tin-Lan, Mara the compressor, Cenda the photographer, Vojta the hilfer

Taking basic instructions from Cenda how to drive it and so on. We passed some dams of Cesky Krumlov like the only boat in last two days. We liked it an so we used the "Mouse´s hole" to carry the raft up the river and descend her again and again. After few rides we met Masa and Taiki and gave them a ride as well.

Masa, the Japanese Charon


Masa, Taiki, Tin-Lan, Vojta, Staralfur Mara, Tu-Wei Yang
at the email address exchange center

Vojta, the barrel

Then we sailed down to the Zlata Koruna and instead of predicted 5hrs (the stream speed) we did it in 90mins and returned the raft to the office. Back to the shore we started to cook again and we used the premium gift - the compatible gas bottle found in the library of the Hostel - just to cook again.

Dry food, made in the Capuchin dehumidifification way

After a while, Cenda´s father arrived to pick up us home. I liked this feeling of dry & safety...

see our 2006 very similar trip, CZ language