Last time I visited Cesky Krumlov I asked the laid back American who ran the Krumlov House hostel how he came to live there. Juggling a baby and our keys to the hostel, he explained that he had been travelling around Eastern Europe rather like we were and on ending up here liked it so much he started the hostel. I asked him if he ever thought about moving on. He looked at me blankly and with perfect sincerity asked me where on earth would he go that was more perfect than this. I can't help but agree.
Krumlov is a beautiful medieval town on the banks of the Vltava River as it meanders its way towards Prague some 125 km away to the north. Grey soviet-era concrete outskirts give way to the wonderfully preserved streets and bridges of the old town in the centre. A brightly coloured 13th century castle dominates the centre, its moat contained two depressingly woe-begotten bears when I first travelled there but they seem to have been thankfully transferred to happier quarters now.
The memorable thing about Krumlov is the incredibly friendly, easy-going atmosphere which comes partly from the friendliness of its inhabitants and partly from the seductively lush and tranquil landscape but seems to infect all the strikingly divers people who travel there. I've met visitors from a huge variety of nations (not just from Australia, Canada and the US) a nuclear scientist on sabbatical, veteran travellers with impressively hard-core diseases on their cv and the likes of myself, a 17 year old student, but (as happens all to rarely) all seem on an equal footing.
When visiting try and stay at Krumlov House which seems more a home than a hostel. Eat thick meaty ghoulash and rich bread dumplings at the Gypsy Bar. Play Russian Roulette at the pastry shop, half of whose pastries contain delicious apple or cinnamon and chocolate fillings and half seem to have dredged the Vltava for a kind of horrendous gravel.
Take a rafting trip downstream on the Vlatva (a river so slow and shallow you will end up pushing the raft at least some of the way) and do some aimless ambling around the beautiful woodland that surrounds the town. Above all enjoy the fabulous Czech beer (Eggenberg being the local brew) and relax.
Sadly whilst I first heard of Krumlov by word of mouth, it has become a regular recommendation in most of the large guidebooks and the character of the place has changed. Commercial hostels have moved in and where previously the thronging German day-trippers left the place quiet in the evenings this is no longer the case.
It's a familiar story with travelling; every country contains a paradise unheard of by the Lonely Planet but passed on by word of mouth. A river island in Zimbabwe where on arrival everyone is given hammocks to string up where they wish, a travellers' village in Argentina accessible only by hitching made legionary by its exquisite banana cake. The real draw is always the people you meet as much as the scenery.
Krumlov is and was one of those places and is still my favourite place on earth but I seriously recommend visiting at Easter, late summer or early autumn, where the feel of the place is similar to how it was 8 years ago when I first went. In high summer it is still beautiful and fun but just another mainstream travelling halt on the tour, not quite the utopia of old.
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