Travel Mysteries: Solved Edition

On our first night walking around Telč I noticed some chalk markings on a door in our neighborhood. "Stupid kids," I grumbled. "Always marking things up with graffiti."

The next day, I noticed the same graffiti above another doorway. And then another. "Wow, those kids really got around this place," I said to Tom. He wasn't particularly upset about it.

We headed to Slavonice a few days later... and the graffiti followed us. "What the heck is going on?? Did these kids really go to the next town over to graffiti everything?"

Later, when we got to Prague, I noticed the markings again. That was when I thought that maybe this wasn't your average graffiti.

So, I turned to the inter-webs and learned that these markings aren't graffiti at all. Actually, K, M, and B refer to the names of the Three Wise Men (Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar). On the Epiphany, (popularly known as the 12th day of Christmas), it's common for Catholic families to bless their homes by writing "K + M + B" and the year above their doorway. I've never noticed this in the United States, but based on our quick travels through the area, it seems to be a popular blessing with families in the Czech Republic and in Poland.

So there you have it: travel mystery solved. I'll return the trench coat and giant magnifying glass when I'm back on American soil. You never know what other travel mysteries are out there!

-R

For more information:
1) http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/poznan/basics/National-holidays/Three-Kings_103193v
2) http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=49http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/customs/epiphany.html

Meandering through the Czech Republic

There is a lot of catching up to do, and I think the best way to do it is with photo tours. As Rachel said, we've had friends and family visiting for the past month, and we've had a great time. We'll definitely post pictures of that soon, but for now let's do a little recap. We were in Croatia about two months ago. From there we went to Vienna and then in mid- to late-May we traveled through the Czech Republic. It was beautiful. We saw many small towns, walked dirt roads in the country, met a local while canoeing who insisted we take a swig of rum with him, toured castles, drank mead, and ate an entire "rabbit feast". We were there for a little over a week.

This was our general path:

Here is a list of our major stops:

- Brno: We only stayed for an afternoon, as the city was a little large, and after Vienna we were looking for something smaller. Still, the people were friendly and it was a nice place.

- Telč: Stayed for three days in this small town. There was a festival going on where we feasted on Czech festival food like brats and piping hot, doughy treats. The dirt roads through the fields of canola outside town were beautiful.

- Slavonice: A village on the border of Austria, Slavonice was one of our favorite places. Again, the trails are picturesque and the Vienna-Prague Greenways (a long bike path) runs through here.

- Český Krumlov: This is where we went canoeing and enjoyed our mead and rabbit feast. Český Krumlov has a castle on a hill overlooking the river... and the area is a great spot to canoe.

- Prague: We spent three days here. It was rainy and overcast, but still a fun city with crowds of people visiting. We also got a chance to meet up with a friend of Rachel's for breakfast.

- Olomouc: Our last stop before heading to Poland. Another small town in the country with some good restaurants and tons of churches to tour.

We took a lot of photos, but here are the highlights. Enjoy!

The main square of Telč

Sunset in Telč