day 18 - august 22nd

today i made my way to the prague bus station, where i suddenly found myself in a world apart from tourist-prague, where no one spoke english and i felt totally out of place. a nice woman helped me make sure i was at the right bus stop, but i'm certain she was pitying me as i left.

the ride to mikulov was quick and pretty. i changed busses in brno, at a big depot, where i got on what turned out to be a local inter-town bus, with women shopping and teenagers going to each other's houses.

in case you're wondering, this is approximately what i did on this leg. today praha to mikulov by bus, biking from mikulov to cesky krumlov, then back to prague by bus:

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we passed a lot of farmland, traveling on the main highways. one of the many many fields of drying sunflowers.

i got into town around 2, and was starving and had no place to stay. i ate a sandwich from a local store, total lunch about $1.50, and then set out walking the town. it was a friday night and full of people already, so it was harder than i thought to find a place, and since i had little context for how this worked, i got worried. but i finally found this penzion


managed to communicate cost with the proprietor, who was watching the olympics, agreed to pay 550 crowns, more than i intended but then - what's that, $30? and got a lovely private room with its own private bath
a water glass, for men


and a lovely view of the castle.mikulov is a lovely little town, full of tourists, lots of austrians, and a pretty castle.


the square, with Goat Hill in the background
mikulov is in the middle of moravian wine country. the view from the castle:

and apparently we're never far from agribusiness.
the castle grounds had some interesting modern art

the roof of a house just below the castle, with art - turns out it's also a gallery


a pretty little staircase
mikulov was also the historical center of jewish life in moravia, and has a synagogue and jewish cemetary. here's the entrance to the synagogue:

i had a HUGE dinner of something traditional (can't remember what, but you can bet it included boiled potatoes and slices of cucumber and tomatoes, which at that point were welcome but whose novelty wore off very quickly), and fried cheese - which really is a big slab (4x4x1 inches, maybe?) of cheese, breaded and fried, and a glass of local white wine. on my way back i came across a big stage being set up in the castle grounds, with 3 english-named rock bands playing, but i headed to bed as i was going to pick up my bike in the morning!