český krumlov and the festival of the five-petal rose

we knew that we were in czech republic just by listening to the radio - suddenly the music was modern and funky, as if we had been suddenly delivered from the 1980s that still plague modern germany. we scooted on down to český krumlov for 3 nights to soak up the UNESCO world heritage buildings, but got sucked into a time warp and thrown back farther than the 80s. in fact we were transported all the way back to the middle ages!

WTF I hear you cry. we asked ourselves the same question when we found out that we had turned up during the medieval festival of the five-petal rose. as it turned out it was a celebration of all things medieval in a setting that lent itself to the experience – a 500 year old town preserved in its entirety. there were hordes of people dressed in medieval costume, medieval food, medieval music and dancing, live chess by people dressed as pawns, bishops, knights etc on a 20 x 20 metre chessboard, jugglers, jousters and more!

It all had the makings of a geek-fest that could go horribly wrong, but it was so well planned that it went horribly right. It was pouring with rain half the time but people were just really into the spirit of it – everyone was there to have fun. A busload of chinese tourists even turned up in medieval costume – it was wild!

At midnight we stood on a little island in the river under a cliff that overhangs the town. From the castle roof we watched fireworks exploding overhead as people called out in jubilation. I was holding G’s hand so tightly and in that moment there, I felt so wildly, presently, wonderfully, completely alive.

On our final day before heading east we headed out to šumava national park and did a little hike/got lost in the forest and bushbashed for a few hours. It’s so good to touch base with nature!