Spring break part 7: Olomouc (aka olla-moats)

Olomouc is a town in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. It was the Moravian capital from the 12th to the 18th centuries, so it's full of history but relatively undiscovered by tourists. We completely fell in love with it.

This is a brass model of Olomouc in the town square.






And this was our wonderfully amazing hostel we had all to ourselves.

If I hadn't loved the town so much I think I would have just stayed here all day, drinking tea and reading. 

According to the locals, this is the tallest column in Eastern Europe. While I couldn't find that cited anywhere, it is listed as #1 on the website World's Most Historic and Notable Columns.

It has a replica of a cannon ball that was shot into it during a Persian attack, which is cool.

Every time you go around a bend in this town, you come upon an amazing statue or fountain. There were so many of them and they were all very detailed and unique.

This copper series was my favorite:

Check (Czech) out that detail:

I had no idea these people even noticed I was taking a picture. That's kind of awkward. 

My other favorite thing in the town square was the Astronomical Clock. It keeps time of every imaginable type.

It was remodeled in communist style so that workers now take the place of the saints. 

It even had a clock showing the current position of the astrological signs and houses, etc. 

I loved it.

The highlight of the clock is at noon when it rings. We had been told we had to see it, but we could sense a slight sarcasm when this was said, so we didn't get our hopes too high. But that isn't to say we didn't run (well, I kind of did a fast hobble. The hip is good, but not that good) the last couple blocks at 11:59. We got there just in time. And this is what we saw:

At this point I cut the video off, and I'm glad I did as it went on like that for at least five (although it felt like 30) more minutes. But don't worry! I still caught the finale!


Well. How do you top an experience like that? I guess you can always go look at some more fountains.

Poseidon

Hercules

Sausage anyone?

Pinky and his Trabant (the East German, two-stroke engine, plastic frame car)

"Hmm, what are we going to use to build our new road?" "There are some rocks down at the river. Let's use those." "Okay."

"I live in apartment building number 7. Just come on in the front door."

The ironwork everywhere in this town was AMAZING. 

We had lunch one day in a restaurant where some Slovakian guys were eating. And since Pinky makes friends everywhere he goes, they were soon talking to us (although only one of them kind of spoke English).  

We figured out after awhile that they were collectors and they were all there going through and comparing their collections of postcards from their hometown Bratislava. Our main friend (pictured below) kept trying to give Pinky money so he could get a new pair of pants that didn't have holes in the knees. They were having a good time. 

I loved the roads.

And now, we come to the main story from Olomouc. 

Pinky had had his heart set on getting a concertina in Romania, but since we didn't end up going there, he decided he wanted to get one in a little town in the Czech Republic instead. We asked our lovely hostel hostess, Eloise, if she knew where we could find one, and she pointed us towards a music shop. We asked them if they had any accordions (they didn't speak English, but luckily "accordion" is a very easy thing to pantomime). They said no, but circled a spot on our map and we headed off again. Their directions brought us to this little residential side street on the edge of the town square. Pinky was getting very excited.  

And then we saw it - the perfect little accordion shop. The craved wooden accordion player in the window even had a handlebar mustache. 

But we tried the door... and it was locked. 

We interpreted the sign as saying that Monday through Friday they were open until either 12:00 or 6:00. And at that moment it was about 3:00 on Friday. The next time they would be open again was 1:00 on Monday. And we had a flight out of Prague on Sunday. 

Pinky was devastated.

What else can you do in a situation like this but find a bar down a little ally and get a beer.

(Which had a sod roof!)

We showed the bartender what the sign had said, and she confirmed that those were indeed the shop hours. 

Sadness.

But cute little bar puppy!

Before we went back to the hostel that night, we walked back by the accordion shop. Pinky was convinced that the shopkeeper lived above the shop, and we should come back by tomorrow morning and see if we could get his attention. I wasn't so hot on the idea. 

But nevertheless, we returned the next morning and rang the doorbell. Nothing. We rang it again. One of the windows on the top floor opened, and a man leaned out and asked us in Czech what we wanted. Pinky tried to tell him that he wanted to buy a concertina, but the guy just waved his hand, told us to wait a minute, and disappeared. We looked at each other, not knowing what was going on. A few moments later, he opened the front door and invited us inside. He had woken up his teenage daughter (who was still in her robe and slippers) so she could interpret for us. It turned out that it wasn't actually an accordion shop, but it was an accordion repair shop. And so the only accordions he had were broken. Pinky told him that was okay, that he could get it fixed back in the US (the guy could not believe that there were people who knew how to repair accordions in America). But he said he just didn't feel right selling something that was broken, so if we would come back in the afternoon, he would spend the rest of the day trying to repair them as best he could. I say "them" because Pinky decided to get two. This whole exchange took about an hour, during which time the mother came home from shopping and was very confused as to why there were strangers in her house on a Saturday morning. But they were all very, very nice.  

Pinky was beside himself with joy. We tried to do some sightseeing that day, but all he could focus on was his new accordions. We went out and bought the family some flowers as well, since we had now taken up their entire Saturday. 

When we went back at 4:00 it felt much more comfortable, since they were expecting us, and they were all dressed. This is the father demonstrating one of the accordions that Pinky bought:  

Before we left, the father invited us into the back of his shop to drink some traditional plum brandy from a glass jug with him. 

It was a pretty neat experience. 

But now we had two large, heavy accordions to lug around for the rest of the trip. Terrific.