The phrase that keeps popping into my mind about this whole trip is, "It's a bit hedonistic." McDonald's serves alcohol, some of them do beer and some of them even do shots. The mountain we climbed had beer sold at the top. The tour bus sells beer (twenty crowns for not-terrible beer at not-quite-room-temperature can be a fantastic treat.) The gas stations and truck stops all sell beer and shots. I nipped in on our rest stop on the way back from the Slovakia and had a bit of a knock-back with a couple of buddies, so that for the last hour of our journey I was three sheets to the wind from horrible toffee liqueur and delicious Czech specialty, Becherovka. I chattered with people all the way back to the hotel. A group of us broke off and decided to have a real night of it, so we headed out to a pub specializing in dark beers called The Black Stuff. That's where I met my first Czechs.

I'll explain that comment. The Czechs tend to be very reserved, in my (rather limited) experience. The older generation is especially... well, not quite standoffish, but no smiles or pleasantries either. The two Czech girls sitting at the table next to us struck up a conversation, though. Shocking! Their names were Susanna and Janna, they are biology students at the Olomouc university. They asked if we were from Ireland or Northern Europe, they couldn't decide. So we explained no, from Kentucky actually. The really admirable thing about them is that they actually seemed to know where it was. THey teased me about Americans not knowing any geography and probably not even knowing where the Czech Republic is.

Long story short, the two girls stayed with us, four of their friends showed up and chatted with us. Our group slowly dwindled until it was just two Czech students, four from my group and a German and a.. guy named Diego, I have no idea who he was, but he spoke Czech and English and sucked at pool. I didn't pay attention to the pool game, just to the students really. We talked about education and healthcare and religion in our countries. Alec did most of the talking except when he and Lucas would confer over some more difficult piece of vocabulary. I used the word 'religious' early in our conversation and Alec's reaction cracked me up. He reeled back as though he had put his hand on a hot stove. "You are not religious, are you?!" he asked. I explained quickly that I certainly am not religious in the least little bit, but that most of Kentucky is. He told me that he doesn't like American politics, but he likes Americans, he said that they are very open.

We stayed at the bar until it closed, then went to another one until it closed too, then finally to the bar with the pool table where we only stayed for about an hour. In our travels from one bar to another it somehow happened that we all sang Living in an Amish Paradise by Weird Al Yankovic. It is a smaller world than I know what to do about. By the time we stumbled out onto the quiet streets of Olomouc birds were singing and the sky had much more blue than black in it. I hiked home, giddy and zombified by my long day. By the time we hot in to the Hotel Gol I had been awake fir 24 hours. I tumbled into bed without so much as changing into my night shirt.

I woke up two hours later (this morning) to get ready for a tour of a gorgeous chateau and garden grounds. I took a bunch of pictures, so I won't describe it much. I have to get someone to let me use their computer for uploading since I don't want to do it in the internet cafe where I am now.

Ive changed my mind about Mexican food for dinner. I'm going to go buy a gyro, the cheapest, saltiest, most delicious food in Olomouc, I'm going to eat the hell out of the gyro, and then I am going to pass out and sleep until we have to leave for Vienna in the morning.

Oh, and I got email addresses of the Czech students, so I may end up meeting up with them and continuing our rambling conversation and sharing insights. It is funny to me just how much translates.

(I'll probably one day fix these for typos and such, but it's all I can do to... y'know, remember what happened on what day right now, so throwing anything at the page is better than nothing.)