Day 13: Telc and Telc Chateau
My day started off with an 8 o'clock wake up, which was later than most of my wake-up times over the past couple weeks. We were served a nice, free breakfast before class. While I did miss the freedom of travelling almost alone, it is nice to not have to worry about every single detail or to keep on top of lodging, transit, food, money, and time all at once.
Our lectures run most mornings from 9 - 12, and while we started off relatively slow today, it was still a very densely packed class. We covered Central European history from 1526 to 1686 in two hours. I really enjoyed the material and the professor was great; the program seems very well-designed and I'm looking forward to the course itself, which is a very promising start.
We had an hour for lunch after class and discovered the remarkably slow service of Czech (or Telc) restaurants. Even though we ordered the daily special -- chicken schnitzel, mashed potatoes, and soup -- it took so long for our food to arrive and we were late to the afternoon lecture as a result. The food was great though, with very generous portions, and the entire meal cost the equivalent of less than $5 total.
After a half hour lecture on architecture styles in Europe, we all proceeded to take a tour of Telc.
The little city is so beautiful, just like out of a fairy-tale. The square is one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. I can definitely understand why it's one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
We got a guided tour of the city from one of our professors, then went up to the Telc clock tower and got a view of Moravia.
In the distance of those pictures, the hills and fields that we passed on the way here are visible, as well as strips of bright yellow flowers that I described in my last post.
Since Telc is so small, the tour of the entire city and tower took less than an hour. We headed back to the other end of the city (a two minute walk) to the Telc castle for another tour. Incidentally, our dorm rooms are literally half a dozen steps away from the castle.
Originally Gothic, but redesigned in the Renaissance style, the castle was built in the 14th century. Having only been lightly lived in, and never suffered much outer damage, it contained a lot of original decor and was very well-preserved, unlike many of the other sites I visited in Europe. The tour was longer than I expected, taking about one hour, and we finished off in the castle gardens.
Most of the group headed out for ice cream afterwards -- it was about 40 cents (CAD) per scoop. After some rest and an hour of "Survival Czech" instruction, we went out to dinner. Our food took about 45 minutes to arrive and I (and a couple others) made the mistake of ordering pasta. When it turned up, it was more like porridge -- insanely overcooked, mushy, and bland. It was definitely the worst meal I've had in Europe so far, and that is including instant noodles and homemade tuna sandwiches. Luckily, it was again only the equivalent of $5, including a drink, and it was sustenance enough to quell hunger. We headed back to our dorms across the city as soon as we'd scarfed down what we could. Crawling into my very comfy bed and blankets after a warm shower was definitely a highlight of a very pleasant day.