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In heading off for Strakonice for the last day of the bagpipe festival, I undertook a great adventure of the adventuring kind. The trip was under-planned and under-resourced (I should have printed out the program and maps of the town before I left California). Also, the bankomat gives out money in 1000 Kč bills, which is equivalent to about fifty dollars, and it's hard to buy things with them. I could have dressed warmer, but it wasn't super cold. But if you get inspired to go to the 2016 Strakonice bagpipe festival, remember that I told you that August in Southern Bohemia is almost autumnal. It sprinkles, so if you're afraid of the rain, prepare for it.
So, starting from the bus. The schedule is here. Well, no, it isn't, but you search for the bus nearest to the time you think you want to go and it tells you. Scroll down the page to find the teeny little button that gives you results in English. A regular old-fashioned timetable would be nicer but that's what you get. There is a plain timetable at the metro stop. As far as I can tell, what it's really there for is to indulge the Czech national competitive sport of glaring at the transportation time table. Seriously at every bus, tram, train and metro stop, you're bound to see a couple of Czechs glaring at the timetable. Even at the stops where there's a new one every few minutes.
Because I didn't buy my tickets online, which you totally can do at the link where you can find out when the buses leave, I also didn't print out any information, So | just had a vague idea that the buses come about every half hour and I didn't hurry. I missed the nine o'clock bus and it turned out the next one was at ten-thirty. So I had a lot of time to kill before there were even any people to watch. I had brought some crochet to work on, so that was all right, but the sign listed three buses for Strakonice and two of them appeared to have buses that left between nine and ten-thirty on a Sunday morning, which worried me when they didn't show up, and also, there was a letter R over the Sunday schedules and I stupidly left my dictionary behind and I couldn't remember whether the verb on the sign meant that one may or must buy tickets online or in the office (it's may). The bus stop you want is Number 5, by the way. It's the one farthest from the stairs that bring you up from the Andel metro stop.
The cost for the ticket is 100 Kč and exact change is nice but not necessary but I was happy that I had a 200 Kč bill because I think 1000 Kč might have been impossible for the bus driver to deal with. That is, for a 130 km bus ride, it costs five dollars. Not all public transportation is this inexpensive in Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), for example, is much more expensive. But generally, convenient, cheap, safe, and pleasant public transportation is the rule here. The trip there was a bit more than an hour and a half, while the trip back was closer to two and a half hours because of traffic coming into Prague for the end of the weekend.
There were splashes of rather cold rain on both bus trips, but spoiler: it was balmy and cool in Strakonice and only a few drops fell. I tried to take pictures from the bus window and a few of them even came out.
Remember that I had read, but did not download, the program for the festival? I knew there was to be a closing day parade and some programming. But the timing of everything had slipped my mind. So when I arrived at the bus station in Strakonice desperately needing to pee, I found a very quiet town. I thought, well, that's what I get for wandering off unprepared and under-resourced. The bus station has one of those old fashioned toilets with a hand-written sign saying that you must pay 5 Kč (twenty-five cents) but no information about who to pay that to (usually it's not a coin-operated lock) and I didn't have a 5 Kč coin so I just walked on into the silent city, figuring I would discover what there was as I went.
this has gotten long already so I guess we're going to have a part two in which I have lunch, follow a crowd, stand for a long time, and enter the castle.
So, starting from the bus. The schedule is here. Well, no, it isn't, but you search for the bus nearest to the time you think you want to go and it tells you. Scroll down the page to find the teeny little button that gives you results in English. A regular old-fashioned timetable would be nicer but that's what you get. There is a plain timetable at the metro stop. As far as I can tell, what it's really there for is to indulge the Czech national competitive sport of glaring at the transportation time table. Seriously at every bus, tram, train and metro stop, you're bound to see a couple of Czechs glaring at the timetable. Even at the stops where there's a new one every few minutes.
Because I didn't buy my tickets online, which you totally can do at the link where you can find out when the buses leave, I also didn't print out any information, So | just had a vague idea that the buses come about every half hour and I didn't hurry. I missed the nine o'clock bus and it turned out the next one was at ten-thirty. So I had a lot of time to kill before there were even any people to watch. I had brought some crochet to work on, so that was all right, but the sign listed three buses for Strakonice and two of them appeared to have buses that left between nine and ten-thirty on a Sunday morning, which worried me when they didn't show up, and also, there was a letter R over the Sunday schedules and I stupidly left my dictionary behind and I couldn't remember whether the verb on the sign meant that one may or must buy tickets online or in the office (it's may). The bus stop you want is Number 5, by the way. It's the one farthest from the stairs that bring you up from the Andel metro stop.
The cost for the ticket is 100 Kč and exact change is nice but not necessary but I was happy that I had a 200 Kč bill because I think 1000 Kč might have been impossible for the bus driver to deal with. That is, for a 130 km bus ride, it costs five dollars. Not all public transportation is this inexpensive in Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), for example, is much more expensive. But generally, convenient, cheap, safe, and pleasant public transportation is the rule here. The trip there was a bit more than an hour and a half, while the trip back was closer to two and a half hours because of traffic coming into Prague for the end of the weekend.
There were splashes of rather cold rain on both bus trips, but spoiler: it was balmy and cool in Strakonice and only a few drops fell. I tried to take pictures from the bus window and a few of them even came out.
Remember that I had read, but did not download, the program for the festival? I knew there was to be a closing day parade and some programming. But the timing of everything had slipped my mind. So when I arrived at the bus station in Strakonice desperately needing to pee, I found a very quiet town. I thought, well, that's what I get for wandering off unprepared and under-resourced. The bus station has one of those old fashioned toilets with a hand-written sign saying that you must pay 5 Kč (twenty-five cents) but no information about who to pay that to (usually it's not a coin-operated lock) and I didn't have a 5 Kč coin so I just walked on into the silent city, figuring I would discover what there was as I went.
this has gotten long already so I guess we're going to have a part two in which I have lunch, follow a crowd, stand for a long time, and enter the castle.
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This is funny, obnoxious, and charming at the same time.