Beautiful České Budějovice

Last weekend a couple of us ventured into the Czech Republic looking for cheap alcohol. The trip can be accurately summarized by the following quote from one of the great masterpieces of our time, Eurotrip (skip to 2:05):



But I'm getting ahead of myself. This trip started as a quick, last-minute idea because our Team IKI time on Friday made it difficult to go on a big weekend trip. So we decided a booze run to our friendly neighbor to the north was in order. With our unlimited train passes, we weren't exactly worried about the trip. Related note: Just because you CAN frivolously board any train at will does not necessarily make it a good idea. Although it did lead to this masterpiece:

Yes, that is me drinking a Czech beer on a Czech train cruising at high speeds through the Czech countryside. Life is hard sometimes.

Anyway, the train ride was pretty fun. Aside from the fact that there were no electrical outlets to speak of and we REALLY didn't want to do homework, it was comfortable and the drive by service was good. Plus we went through some very nice countryside:


So yeah, the ride was all well and good. Well the ride THERE was good, but again I'm getting ahead of myself. Things started to go a little south when we had crossed the border and still hadn't seen much in the way of... well, civilization. This was one of the largest train stations we stopped at on the way:

I neglected to include in the picture the part of the facade of the building on the right that showed that it was basically a brick building covered by an inch of plaster. And yes, that is an abandoned barn. This was the biggest, most modern train station we stopped at.

Needless to say, we were feeling less and less sure about this whole Czech booze run thing. These worries were compounded once we actually got to České Budějovice and saw nothing but huge concrete buildings and absolutely no people. At all. I have to say though, their train station is pretty cool (well, on the outside anyway:


It was when we realized that this city is not in the slightest tourist-friendly, combined with the fact that we were dragging rolling suitcases, where we started to think we maybe should have researched this trip a little more.

"WHAT THE CHRIST HAVE WE DONE"

Ahem. So we did end up getting our alcohol, but it was in a more rushed, panicky tone than we were hoping. And it was pretty cheap. We then, of course, were forced to look around while we waited for our train back to Vienna.

Minor construction project

This was the least shady place we found to eat:


We ate at McDonalds instead. I'm not proud of it, but it was necessary. Then we finally got on the train back to Vienna! We would be back shortly after nightfall.

Or so we thought.

Turns out that in the Czech Republic, it is rather common to flat out lie when explaining your train route. We boarded a train to Salzburg that was stopping in Linz, which is a very common and easy place to catch a connecting train to Vienna. Unfortunately, once we crossed into Austria we were forced to get off the train. Confused, we asked why, since we were told we were going to Linz. "You take bus", explained the extremely helpful train staff. Yes, we had to take a 45km bus ride in order to get to Linz. For the record, buses do not travel as quickly as trains. I know you are stunned.

Because of this slower-than-desired route we got to Linz just in time to miss the last train to Vienna. Excellent. What to do now? Well, we had just been in Salzburg the previous weekend and I knew of an excellent hostel. Train leaving for Salzburg in 15 minutes? Excellent. On the train we met some drunk Austrians who had boarded the wrong train after watching their football match. I could empathize.

We got to Salzburg finally around 12:30am, but we decided that instead of getting a hostel it would be cheaper and faster to wait until the 2:15am train to Vienna. Sounded ok to me. Hung out at another McDonalds and the train station in the rain until it was time to board. I may have gotten an hour or two of not-terrible sleep on the train (better than the Mallorca Airport, I can tell you that for DAMN sure) and we rolled into Vienna around 5:30am. And promptly passed out.

Research is important, kids. Always remember that. At least I got a really nice port out of it.


Side note: Totally got 2nd place at a foreign quiz night. We will get 1st soon. That round of drink and bottle of Jameson are practically ours...