October 4
Hello everyone!
Prague is beautiful but, just like living in any large city,
it’s often pleasant to escape the crowds and kafuffle. As the weather will soon
turn wintry, we took the opportunity to escape to the countryside to see the
green leaves turning to the fiery colours of autumn.
The main reason we visited the area which translates as
Czech Paradise, however, doesn’t change colour. In fact, they haven’t changed
colour for many thousands of years.
Česky
Raj is just short of 100km northeast of Prague: easily accessible by car. As we
don’t possess a car, however, we had to cross the city to the Černy Most
bus terminal to hop on a bus which would take us to a village called Jičín. Missing the
aforementioned bus by seconds wasn’t great planning, but another arrived soon
after to give us plenty of time in the fresher air of the east.
Jičín
itself is a nice place, with colourful Baroque buildings fortifying a pretty
town square. We wandered around their Saturday market before leaving on a seven
kilometre uphill trek to the entrance of a natural reserve of sandstone rocks
called Prachovské Skály.
Once inside the boundaries of the park (the kind lady
allowed us to enter for student prices as I fumbled around trying to find my
expired student card), the real walking begins. There are a variety of trails
snaking through, around and under the sandstone stalagmites which rise surreally
from the colourful hillside.
The exact reason for these freaks of nature is unclear, but I
assume it is due to the ice age and the erosion attached to it. The rocks,
which are the biggest collection of their type in Česky Raj, are a popular climbing
challenge for those who enjoy such a thing. In the picture below, a professional has scaled one of the rocky obelisks and is helping an amateur towards the peak. This is normally a challenge I
would hurl myself at; unfortunately, time constraints were against us. Though
watching those climbing the vertical peaks would have certainly resulted in
thinking twice about scaling the rocks. Terrifying.
The stones, cool to the touch, are a pleasure to walk
around. Squeezing through narrow crevices can lead to dark, mossy areas which
can seem otherworldly. It struck me as being the perfect location for The Lost World.
Our trip to paradise was for one day only, so we had to
eventually trek back to Jičín in order to catch one of the last buses to Prague. My guess is
that we covered in excess of 20 kilometres of hilly and awkward terrain on foot
during the day. In spite of the effort required, it was exactly what I wanted.
The air seemed fresher, the leaves brighter, the terrain more spectacular.
Whether
I’d describe Česky Raj as ‘Czech Paradise’ is up for debate. I would,
however, highly recommend it as a location in which you can get away from city
life. Just don’t look down if you climb those rocks…
Love
you all
Matt
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