Pictures of the amazing fountain

In Olomouc:

 

 

Olomouc

Found ourselves a lovely pension in the heart of Olomouc in Moravia. It seems as though we're the only ones here at the moment so it's really quiet. The city is very European looking...town squares, winding streets, churches, bells, cafés, mini-golf (well, the mini golf courses aren't quite what I'd call European, but there's one nearby in case we get a hankering). It's currently raining and thundering outside, but we're hunkered down watching steeplechase (human) on German telly. It seems to rain every afternoon and then turn nice again afterward. All in all the weather's pleasant though not super summery. Olomouc has a lot to offer. On Sundays, the museum of modern art and the archdiocesan museum are free. There are lots of old things to gawk at. Cobblestone streets to wander. Lots of parks and gardens. Plus it has an amazing fountain of Arion that is so cool and complicated it's worth a trip here just for that. A highly recommended place to visit.

Amazing!

Look at this picture and guess what it is...

It's confetti from the Flaming Lips show at Colours of Ostrava that landed in my jacket hood. I was covered with more of the stuff. Why did I have so much confetti on my person, you're asking. Well, I got to stand right in the front row and had the joy of an unblocked view of the show (unlike the Antony and the Johnsons show where a 6'7" behemoth of a man blocked most of my view unless I closed one eye and tilted my head). We waited over an hour in our spots, which isn't much of a wait to my mind. The show was great and worth skipping dinner (though we snagged some roasted cashews as we were leaving around 2 am). After the show ended, the crowd, which was huge, seemed ready to party well into the wee hours. We just hit the road back to the hotel to crash.

Hotel challenge

Our original hotel in Ostrava was, unfortunately less than ideal. It was on the main drag, which wouldn't have been bad except that we had no AC in our room (contrary to what we were told) so we had to open the windows. However, the noise was so bad it made sleeping pretty near impossible. At 9:30 we packed up and went on a quest for a new hotel. Surprise surprise the entire town was booked solid. We drove all over the place checking hotels (because, trust me, you usually want to cast an eye on the place before you book). Finally, we gave up and headed to the next town, Frýdek-Místek to look. First place we found was lovely, quiet and had windows we could open! What a joy.

After settling in, we drove back to Ostrava to the music festival. What an amazing place...it's an old industrial complex that has enormous rusty old structures and is just beautiful in its decay. Lots of photo ops. Tonight we saw Rufus Wainwright who played a great show...what a beautiful voice he has. After that we went over to the Kronos performance but we were still reeling with the tremendous R.W. show, the efforts of the day and perhaps a little woozy from all the herb that was being smoked around us that we decided to call it a night.

After getting back to the hotel, I was checking my emails and was sadly surprised to see an email from one of the hotels I had emailed this morning about a room. It was the one hotel that we tried to locate but gave up on when couldn't find it driving around Ostrava. The email said, "Yes, we have a free room for you." Sigh. Oh well, it's just the way things go sometimes when you travel.

Here is a view from our current hotel:

 

Driving to Ostrava

Unlike our experience last year, we were able to pick up our rental car, get back to the hotel and get out of Prague without a problem. Diving to Ostrava was also a pretty easy endeavour (though we were impressed/horrified at the fearless passing the Czechs do on the road - absolutely crazy passing speeds and such small margins for error). Getting to the hotel once we arrived in the city was the challenge - we had the wrong address so each place we went to was "correct" but not the actual hotel. We even wound up in one of the sketchier areas of town - I was quite happy that the hotel wasn't actually located in this area. Eventually, we talked to the people who know where things are - local cab drivers who pointed us to the hotel, which was about 5 minutes away by foot.

The weather is quite nice, though our room's a bit on the hot side especially because we need to keep the windows closed since we're in the local party-area. Colours of Ostrava starts tomorrow so we get to see Rufus Wainwright, Kronos Quartet, and Mogwai the first day. The 2nd day has many more events during the day through to the evening including Bobby McFerrin, Antony and the Johnsons, and the band that actually got us to commit to the trip here - The Flaming Lips.

Hoping to sleep well tonight..I was really really tired this afternoon.

We saw a lot of this kind of view today.

Sunrise at Red & Blue Hotel

I've been awake since 3:30 so I finally got up and took some early morning pictures out the window. Here's one with the sun starting to rise.

Czech Republic Day 1

After what seemed like the endless day (leaving home at 9:30 am on the 9th and arriving in Prague at 1:30 pm on the 10th), we are finally settling in to the hotel for the evening. We got here after an uneventful couple flights and took a 3 hour nap, which was utterly delightful, though it was a bit difficult to rouse ourselves from our slumber. Finally got up and took a wander up Petřín hill to look at the views, the gardens, and to climb the tower. The weather was perfect - sunny and not too hot. I would post pictures but I didn't take any with the iPad yet (although it's a better device, it's not as portable as my phone).

After out hill climb, we descended toward Nerudova Street and stopped in a great pub for beer and herring (yummy!). Levi has decided that we should go there every day - laid back and comfortable atmosphere.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow it's off to Ostrava and the Colours Festival.