The worst day

One day had to receive the honor of being the worst day of the trip. Thursday won. We woke up early, had breakfast, and toured the castle at Cesky Krumlov. The moat there is home to a huge brown bear. Learned that the answer to 'does a bear poop in the woods?' is no. He poops in a moat. We decided against photographic evidence.

We had developed set roles by this point in the trip. M. was not allowed to navigate as his attention was easily caught by tractors. Once while navigating, he looked up and asked why we were turning right. He hadn't noticed the signs. DH was not allowed to navigate or drive because he couldn't see out the windows. So M. drove, I navigated, and DH was in charge of snacks and naps.

We headed north to a spa town where we were going to get massages. We had been told it was full of Russians. I think this was code for overpriced, ugly, and not worth the trip. To quote M., "This town sucks." After trying five different hotels and finding them all full or WAY out of our budget or closed, we decided to head back to Plzen.

Now the map we were navigating with was not the most detailed of maps. It had major highways, bigger towns, and county lines. We had discovered that the term road was loosely applied. Some marked major highways were similarto our interstates back home. Some were more like our two lane highways. Then there were the roads that didn't make it to the map. A few had all three lines painted on them, but most did not. It seemed they took an asphalt truck and followed the cow trails. There were no shoulders. They planted trees next to the road- right next to the road. In a few places the road had been paved around the tree. Most of them could fit two cars side by side. This was not a concern for the drivers; they passed uphill-around a corner-in the rain with abandon. We call this "feeling Czech".

We drove around Plzen searching for a hotel or wireless signal. We were not successful. M. and I left DH at a cafe and went in search of a hotel. One place was kind enough to show us a room. We went to the fourth floor and a chambermaid met us. She said "room". We nodded. She took us to the door, pointed, and left. The door was locked. I don't know if this counts as showing us a room, but she was nowhere to be found. We had some trouble with the fire escape, but made it out mostly undetected.

We were cold, wet, tired, and cranky – always an excellent combination. M. and I decided that we were going to get in the car, drive north, and stay in the first hotel we came across that had a restraint nearby no matter how sketchy it seemed. That is how we ended up at Hotel Diana. It had a pool/large cement round bowl full of rain water and scum. It had communal bathrooms. It had a bathtub with a shower head laying in it. It had shower curtain rings with no shower curtain. It had beds/cushions on platforms. It was a Communist horror. It was clean and dry though, and the restaurant was across the driveway.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you walk into a room and everyone looks you up and down and knows you do not belong there? We have.