Czech Republic: Homeland's beauty

When you travel abroad, you usually want to visit as many places as possible; you don’t mind getting lost in the city because you know you can find amazing places in hidden streets. So you just walk around and admire the beauty of local sights, buildings and other monuments.The more you travel, the more you also realize how many beautiful places there are in your own country. You actually start to see these places differently; you start to appreciate them more than ever before. Every time I go abroad and I come back home, I am more fascinated by the sights and beautiful places in my country. I think I hadn’t appreciated them so much before I started to travel.

I also realized that I always share my travelling abroad but I don’t really present you with my home country. Since January I have visited few places in the Czech Republic. Our famous capital city was one of them.

Snowy Prague

In February I spent few days with my Slovak friend Denčí in Prague where we did sightseeing with my Greek friend who came for a visit. Even if I have been there many times, it was different this time. It was very cold and snowy but Prague in winter edition was wonderful. We were walking (and freezing) a lot to see as much as we could. We saw the most famous places of the city – Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Dancing House, National Theatre. I think that I don’t need to tell you more about them because you’ll definitely find it on every website on google. What I want to tell is that one day we went to Žižkov Tower where I had never been before and where is really nice observatory located 93 meters high above the ground and it’s the only tower in Prague that offers a 360° view. If you have a spare day in Prague, I recommend going there, the view is amazing.

Karlovy Vary

Approximately 130 km west from Prague there is a spa town Karlovy Vary. It’s historically famous for its hot springs it’s the most visited spa town in the Czech Republic. It’s also known for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, for the popular Czech liqueur Becherovka and famous wafers.
My Greek friend and I spent there the whole day walking around. It was my first time visiting this spa town and I was amazed. What I liked the most was the Mill Colonnade and its neo-renaissance architecture. Like I said, in the town there are many hot springs used for treatments, when you go around, you can drink the water from them. If you ever decide to visit this beautiful town, don’t come in winter because you won’t experience the true atmosphere of this place.

Trip to Nové Hrady and Litomyšl

The weekend after my birthday the weather was so nice that my friend and I decided to go for a one day trip to visit the castle Nové Hrady and Litomyšl town.

The castle Nové Hrady is built in French Rococo style and is being called “Small Schönbrunn” or “Czech Versailles”. Since 1997 the complex has been undergoing a total reconstruction and modernization and in 2001 it was opened to the general public. My friend and I took the tour inside of the castle. You can see some rooms as well as the exhibition of furniture. It’s definitely worth visiting. I had never been to Nové Hrady before but I totally recommend you to visit this fabulous place especially in spring/summer when all the flowers are blooming! You can take a walk around the castle and also see horses and fallow deer.

Our next destination was the town Litomyšl. It’s a birthplace of the Czech national composer Bedřich Smetana. The dominant feature of the town is a monumental Renaissance castle. If you take a walk around the castle, not far from there, there are monastery gardens that are located between two churches. Smetana’s music is played there so you can enjoy the right atmosphere.

Mohelnice and Olomouc

During the Easter holidays I decided to visit my friend in Mohelnice and one day we went to visit Olomouc. The weather was quite cold; fortunately it wasn’t raining so we could enjoy the walk in the city.
In Olomouc there is one of only two astronomical clocks in the Czech Republic. The place is under reconstruction at the moment but you can see the clock on the following photo.

Astronomical clock in Olomouc, Czech Republic

I should probably mention that Olomouc is proud of its six Baroque fountains with ancient Roman motifs. We didn’t do much sightseeing in Olomouc, we just passed the two main squares and then we went to the shopping centre and cinema to get relaxed. We did enjoy our time there with our style!

Homeland’s beauty

If you live in one country, you are not so attracted to visit the local places. When I was in Mallorca, I found out that I had visited more places there than my friends who’ve actually lived there for many years. But it’s the same with me; there are definitely some foreigners who have seen much more from the Czech Republic than me. Why is that? Why are we more attracted to visit places in other countries? Unfortunately I am not able to answer this question. The only thing I know is that we shouldn’t forget that even in our homeland there are many beautiful sights, buildings, monuments, parks and other wonderful places. So let’s travel across our home country and discover its own beauty!

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