Weekend trip

I can feel it. Spring is coming! Which means that the days are getting longer, the sun is shining and Laurens is going on weekend trips again. This weekend I decided to go to Tábor: a town that is about 100 km south of Prague and has a long history. And since I like to see small villages, I took the slowest train possible on my way there, that took me through the strangest places, with mysterious names such as Čtyřkoly or Mrač. But I was enjoying myself during that train ride!

After one hour I arrived in Benešov, the end station of my train. Since I knew that my final destination was not such a big town and I had plenty of time, I decided to explore Benešov for a while. This town was not mentioned in my travel guide however, and pretty soon I found out why. There is absolutely nothing special to see there. In fact, there was only building that was worth taking a photo of. I would have loved to share that photo with you, but since the battery of my camera was dead once again, I took the picture with my phone and it seems like my laptop and my phone are not the greatest friends in the world, as they kinda ignore eachother. But believe me when I say it was one amazing house.

Police!
So after walking around for about 1.5 hours I got back on the train and was quietly enjoying the landscape when suddenly three policemen entered my compartment. The first one, a chubby bald guy who looked like the retarded brother of my all time hero Arnoldas Lukošius, shouted something at me in Czech.

Of course none of the three men replied positively when I asked if any of them spoke English, but I could understand the words "pazport kontrol". I knew it was useless, because I had left my passport at home in my other bag, but as a sign of good will I went searching in my bag. After ten seconds (my bag is not that big) I told those guys that I didn't have it with me and gave them my drivers license instead. The first guy was confused now and turned his head to the left a bit, like a child that didn't get what he wanted, but wasn't sure if his mother would get mad at him if he asked for it one more time, and kindly asked: "pasport?". I said to him: "No, drivers license." He looked at me even more confused now. Then the second policeman, that acted like an older brother of the first one, intervened and took my license out of the first guy's hands and started talking to the third guy a. In the meantime, the first guy proudly showed me the badge on his uniform. I nodded and smiled at him and he seemed happy.

One minute later, everything was ok. The policemen thanked me in Czech and they left. Upon leaving my compartment, the bald guy waved at me and said "good-bai", before being pulled away by his older brother. Travelling by train through the Czech countryside can be such an adventure.

Tábor
So in the middle of the afternoon I arrived in Tábor, a town I had never heard of before last Friday, but it was certainly worth the visit. There were quite a few buildings from the Middle Ages, that were nicely decorated over the years. And after having walked the entire route that was in my travel guide, I sat down on the main square. The sun was shining and I had some ice cream: it was a great moment that really felt like a holiday.

As you can read, I had a great time yesterday, and I'm happy that my next trip is already planned: one week from now I will be in Chrudim, a small town in the center of Czech Republic. I hope that will be an even better day, but it should be, because then I will be shown around by a very nice local girl. Can't wait for it to be next weekend. :)