Ceské Budejovice, June 2005
A very dear Czech collegue had invited me for a long weekend at her home in Ceské Budejovice. So I jumped on a plane to Prague, took the underground through half the city, hopped on a long distance bus and arrived one Thursday afternoon at the bus station of Budweis. She picked me up with her little car and after she had proudly shown me her place, she put a big pot of homemade soup onto the stove, enough to feed an army. It was such a warm welcome.

Next day we first dropped by to a local bakery to get some breakfast. Afterwards we walked to the office, which was perfectly situated in downtown Budweis just two roads away from the market place. It seemed like a dance palace in an old style building.

I met the local manager and the rest of the staff, chatted a bit with each and everybody over a cup of coffee and then said goodbye to explore the town.

The streets were quiet, when I strolled past the lovingly plastered facades, which were painted and white and soft pastel colours. I spyed into the shop windows looked onto the  menues of the restaurants and went into the park to enjoy the fresh green leaves of early summer.

In a side street I discovered a little restaurant that was serving liver with onions and apple and other supplements to which I added a glass of the famous Budweiser beer. The Czech kitchen is really delicious. Nothing over fancy, no. It is like coming home to your mother's table (provided your mother is a good cook ;-) and get served some really decent homemade regional food. Something I am often missing in today's restaurants.

In the evening we were meeting friends of my collegue in the pub. One of them would take care of me on Saturday evening, when my collegue had to work on her second job as a dance instructor.