Planning on leaving Prague early in the morning in order to make it all the way to a small town in Germany, we set the alarm clock for 5:00 am. Impossible. We awoke with a start at 6:08 as our train would have been rolling out of the station. Oops. We headed to the train station later that morning and crowded onto the 9:00 train, soon realizing that most of Prague was also heading for the countryside to enjoy the sunny summer weekend. Unable to find seats, we found ourselves squished against the bathroom door along with about 10 other people, and the entire railcar was filled body to body. Hot and sweaty, we resigned ourselves to a long day of standing, praying that maybe we would get a seat later on as people left.

About an hour and a half outside of Prague, as we were serenly watching the countryside pass outside the window, the unimaginable happened. All of a sudden, the train slammed to a halt with a large crashing sound, and we were thrown against the bathroom, bags flying, people falling. The lights to the train went out, and for a couple of seconds we just sat there, stunned and not quite sure what had happened. Slowly, people started to pick themselves up, and we opened the train door to see what had happened. We could not believe our eyes. We had just been in a train wreck. The conductor's car had slammed into the back of another car on the tracks, crunching it like a soda can and flipping it up so that it was lodged above our conductor's car, sticking into the air. People began pouring off of the train, trying to see what had happened, calling the police on cell phones. It was complete chaos. I ran up to the front to see if there were people on the car that had been hit. Fortunately, but unfortunately, the car was empty but for one man, who had been killed in the collision. The conductor was still alive, but stuck in the car underneath the front car. Everyone else on the train, though clearly shaken, was alright. We heard sirens as the fire department and police arrived and began trying to cut the conductor from the car. We waited on the tracks, just watching, for over an hour, as they broke windows, sawed through the metal, and struggled to free him. Eventually, another train arrived that could take us to the next station. Unsure of what exactly was going on, we only knew we had to get south, so we left the crash scene and reluctantly got onto the train. As we were pulling away, we heard the hellicoptor take off behind us, leaving the scene with the conductor.

Here are some pictures from the crash

We took the next train to a small regional station about 30 minutes away, where we were told to get off. We sat down on the platform with our bags and just waited. No one spoke English, we don't speak Czech, so we were in a bit of a bind. Eventually, about an hour later, another train arrived and people began to get on it. We took our chances and followed the crowd. We continued south through the Czech countryside, not quite sure where we were headed, and eventually ended up in Ceske Budejovice, the town after which Budweiser was named. We realized that not far from here was another small town, Cesky Krumlov, that had a camping site just on the river. We hopped on the bus headed for Cesky Krumlov, still unsure of what we would find.

What we found was paradise. The town is built in a bend of a river and takes full advantage of it's Eden-like location. Cafes and restaurants open up onto the river's banks, and all day rafters, kayakers, and canoers meander down the river. We found our campsite, a spot right on the bank filled with hundres and hundreds of tents and a convivial atmosphere, just outside the town. Exhausted from our ridiculously crazy day, we set up camp, downed some camp food, and went to sleep.

Here is a view of Cesky Krumlov

Walker's yummy (not!) "fried pizza with ketchup and cheese" dinner...oh the things you'll eat when you're really hungry.

Not much privacy in this campsite, though the idyllic location makes it worth it!

The next morning, we explored the small town with it's castle, hilly cobblestoned streets, bridges, and shops - all incredibly charming. We returned to our campsite at noon and rented a two-man raft. We packed our lunch and some sunscreen and pushed out onto the river. It was paradise. We floated/paddled for hours, through town then into nature, enjoying the scenery, the sun, and the utter relaxation. That yesterday's crash had landed us here was unbelievable to us. We floated for over four hours, and noticed that even out in nature, with nothing around, you could still pull over and find a paddle-up pirate bar serving beer and mixed drinks. This town knew how to take full advantage of what it had! At the bottom, we dropped off our raft and caught a shuttle back to camp. Sorry, but we have no pictures from the river. We figured that with our luck, we'd drop the camera in the river, and weren't willing to take that chance! We went into town for dinner at one of the riverside cafes, thanking our lucky stars we had found such a wonderful destination. Sometimes (incredibly) bad luck can turn good in the end!

A view of the tower of the castle, Cesky Krumlov

We couldn't figure out why there was a bear in the castle moat, either.