Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Our train didn't really look like the Hogwarts Express--although we did have our own compartment--and it really wasn't going to be the most epic day of all time... But we did get to see where the magic happened.
I'll begin my story at much too early of an hour (before noon) at the the train station.
This is the gang! We spent our ride chatting and hoping the some lady would come by and sell us candy... Too bad she just yelled at us in Czech to get our feet off the seat.
After two hours, we arrived in Ceske Budeovice. (Pronounced "Chess-key Boo-day-oh-vits-ah")
You can see it below on the map I stole from Google Maps.
Once we got there and started walking around, I felt like everyone was celebrating opposite day, and I didn't even know it. I'll explain more in the pictures.
All of the houses would be some really dank color, and then out of nowhere, there would be one super bright house! I'm pretty sure there's symbolism in here somewhere, but you'd have to ask an English teacher to be sure.
Oh, and apparently these people decided to mow their roof. I think they overdid it though, because there's no grass left.
People just weren't on the same level we are in America. (Haha, get it? Situational comedy.)
Instead of your typical public service colors (red, blue, white) they decided to think out of the box. Because an ambulance just can't save lives without being turned into a psychedelic florescent van.
And in the midst of all of this craziness, we stumbled across a very nice car--which Ty would be ashamed I don't know the name of--sitting outside of these rundown apartments. Ty had to stop and ogle it for a while before we could move on!
But, prepare yourselves for the creepiest part of the whole trip!... A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just let you see the picture...
...
Once we moved on from that sordid experience, we decided to utilize retail therapy!
Doesn't Ty look positively smashing in his new glasses?!
But, just as we were getting over the whole, creepy-Mr. Bean-on-the-back-of-a-mini-cooper incident, we ran into this statue.
Can you imagine what the sculptor was thinking? Like "Hey, a huge lion head isn't enough. I want to see breasts... but like 10. Pair it with monster legs and some unnecessary fat rolls, because that whole beautiful woman statue thing is just overdone. Yeah... that's it... PERFECT!" Then, I imagine the "artist" stepping back and doing that whole Italian thing:
Except maybe not wearing the chef's hat... Or maybe he does wear the hat, because he's crazy.
Because some things just can't be unseen, and we'd already tried retail therapy, we moved on to aroma therapy and smelled some beautiful flowers. Ty always asks me how I see these little beautiful things. My secret is: I just walk reallllly slow. :) The perfect speed to take everything in.
However, I definitely didn't have to walk slow on the tour to see the astonishing amount of beer produced here!
Czech people are very proud of Budweiser. They are very quick to claim it as their own and announce that it was originally made in the Czech Republic. I mean, who can blame them? It's a really good, popular beer! So we paid about 60 crowns to attend a tour of the Budweiser Budvar factory.
On our way out to the brewery, we walked by the shipping ground.
There were big tubs. This room was really hot because these were basically big fermentation tanks. The rectangles on the left in the white wall had steaming hot water running through them.
Then we went down a damp hallway.
They took us to a room where they hold the beer to let it age.
Here Ty is by an old fashioned aging keg. They don't use these anymore, but it was still pretty neat!
They even let us try a thimble full of beer. (I call this a thimble because Czechs think you're being a wimp if you have half a pint of beer instead of a pint.)
After seeing the process of making Budweiser, they let us into the factory where they package all of the products.
This is every teenage boy's dream. A wall made entirely of beer. What more could they ask for?!
This machine was interesting because it basically played tetris with the cases of beer. It shoved each one into place so it formed a perfect block.
These were giant bins full of bottle caps.
Have you ever seen so many beer bottles in your life?
We haven't, so we decided to do the classy thing and take a picture in front of the giant pile of alcohol!
Once we were done at Budweiser, we bought our souvenirs in the gift shop and decided to explore Ceske Budeovice some more. We found our way to town square where there was a big cabbage market going on. It's called a cabbage market here, but really they sell everything from jewelry, to clothes, to actual cabbage. It's definitely a fun place to buy souvenirs!
I had to admire the gargoyles on one of the buildings.
The fountain was beautiful, and I feel really blessed that I was able to experience Ceske Budeovice with my man by my side.
Thanks for reading!!
PS. I'm still behind on posts! More to come later! :)
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