Český Krumlov is one of those towns that is full of tourists. It is quite picturesque; the Vltava River winds through, forming such a tight curve that the old town is almost an island, with the castle rising up and above on the opposite bank. The hilly terrain amplifies the higgledy-piggledy arrangement of the tightly packed houses. No wonder Egon Schiele painted so many pictures of it. Today there are endless strings of pensions lining the streets, hordes of people standing about snapping photos, and inadequately shod ladies off-roading their wheelie suitcases through the cobblestone streets. I suppose tourism in places like this is just an inevitability, but for some reason I cannot fathom, where tourism goes, tacky and irrelevant souvenir shops follow. Not just in Český Krumlov, everywhere. I have no idea how these merchants stay afloat, because they never seem to be doing brisk business, or selling anything that anyone would want. I wish they would disappear entirely, or be replaced by something something more relevant or at least sightly. I myself almost never purchase souvenirs – it goes against both my pack light and budget principles – but when I do, one of my favorite places to look is the grocery store. There are many nifty souvenirs to be found in grocery stores. One of my best souvenir scores ever was reusable grocery bags from the Bónus grocery store chain in Iceland. I think they cost about $1 each. Who doesn’t want a bright yellow shopping bag sporting a googly-eyed pink piggy bank mascot? No one, that’s who. 

Český Krumlov is in/famous for having booted Egon Schiele just over a century ago, after he offended starchy sensibilities by using local girls of possibly a younger age as models for his nude sketches (I really don’t know how old they were). Attitudes have since reversed, and there’s the Egon Schiele Art Centrum, which I was very keen to visit, but which ended up being a big, fat disappointment. I was expecting, you know, Schiele, and what they really have (in addition to other modern art exhibitions in which I was not interested) is an exhibition that’s more an appreciation of Schiele. It has some biographical info, photos, and a bunch of budget reproductions of his work. I did spot one postcard-sized original, and there may have been a couple others, but it doesn’t offer anything more than would a good quality art book combined with a decent biography. In fact, a good quality art book would be better. It’s not even worth the relatively cheap 140 Kč/~$6.50 entrance fee, especially considering that you can buy a plate of tasty fried cheese for same price. That cash would be better banked towards admission to a museum that displays more of his originals.

Other than the “art” centrum let down, it was fun to putter around ČK for an evening and a day. It’s so small I just went in circles, something I am prone to doing in small towns. Winter is a good time to visit, because the river is really pretty, and visible from virtually everywhere, and it’s nice to admire the view without it being besmirched by screaming drunken hordes rafting down the river on various forms of water transportation. Apparently this happens without fail during the summer months, but right now the only creatures on the river are ducks. 

I’m not sure what’s going on here.