We saw the Czech Republic on $28/day!

Numbers for the Czech Republic are in...

Initial budget: 4 days at $320 ($80/day, $40/person/day)
Actual cost: 20 days at $586 ($28/day, $14/person/day)

We think we did pretty well, what do you think?

OK, we kind of cheated - 14 of those days were spent volunteering on a farm. Take those out and we were at $95/day ($47.50/person/day), which is still not bad considering we spent four days in the most expensive city we've visited to date and another two days in a quaint but touristy town. We even splurged a little in these cities knowing we wouldn't spend much, if anything, at the farm, and we still came in under $50/person/day. Here's the breakdown with some details...

looks a lot like Poland's pie chart -
this is a good thing

• Lodging: $228 - 6-person dorm rooms at hostels averaging $16/person/night. If you're willing to share a dorm with 8-10 people, this number could be much lower. We can barely tolerate 6-person dorms at times.
• Transportation: $171 - includes slightly more expensive buses and trains Poland-Czech and Czech-Poland just because of the additional distance. This also includes trams and buses within major cities, and a handful of dollars for transportation for day trips to Kutna Hora, Mikulov, and Lipnik.
• Groceries: $46 - again, lots of peanut butter (it runs about $3-4 per small jar here).
• Meals: $49 - mostly from our first night in Czech when we got in really late and grabbed something from the local pub, morning coffees to make up for the Nesca-rap coffee they have at hostels, and trying local foods.
• Tours: $26 - Prague's free walking tour guide tip, admissions to the Kutna Hora ossuary and Lipnik Helfštýn Castle, nominal donations for a church here and there.
• Alcohol: $18 - clearly, we did not drink enough beer in Prague! Had we paid for all the wine we were served in Nemcicky, this number would be a lot higher.
• Gear: $15 - secondhand clothes for our upcoming Czech farm stay, a new battery watch for Jen.
• "Misc": $17 - more public toilets, otherwise not sure but not worried about it.
• Gifts: still $0.

Other fun Czech Republic facts...

• Cities visited: 6 (Prague, Kutna Hora, Nemcicky, Mikuluv, Olomouc, Lipnik)
• National parks visited: 0, sadly
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited: 3 (Historic Center of Prague, Church of St Barbara in Kutna Hora, Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc)

Overall we're still doing really well on the money side. We expect Slovakia and Budapest to be expensive, so we'll see how it goes...

Early Friday five: Olo-where?

When Patrick suggested a stopover in Olomouc ("Olla-motz") on our way back to Poland, my first thought was... "um, where?"

We loved this smallish town between Brno and Krakow. Loved it. It helped that the hostel was amazing. It helped that autumn was coming - the trees were turning, the air was crisp and clean, the days were bright and the nights were cold. It helped that the sunrises were amazing.

And it definitely helped that it only took three hours to get there from Nemcicky - in theory, anyway. You may recall a Facebook request about helping tourists in your hometown who are holding maps and looking confused? Well, here's why I posted that request.

Halfway through our trip the attendant came around to inform everyone that the train was having engine trouble ("machine defect!" she kindly informed us in English... the only English she seemed to know). Everyone disembarked at that station and ran to another platform to catch a different train that seemed to be going somewhere we didn't want to go. So we stood there for a few minutes collecting our thoughts and forming a plan, looking calm but confused, when a nice Czech gentleman came over to explain the situation in English. He and another young Czech student were also going to Olomouc; they kept us appraised of the engine trouble situation, and we all eventually got back on the same train. The Czech student even sat with us and talked for a while. We were more than happy to help her practice English in return for her assistance.

It's really easy to keep walking when you see someone squinting at a map, or trying to translate signs at a deli to figure out which meat is turkey when "turkey" isn't on their translation list, or frowning at a flat tire. Maybe you stop because you've been lost yourself. Maybe you stop because you want to practice another language. Maybe you stop because some nice Oregonians gave you a lift 30 years ago and you want to return the favor. Whatever the reason, we raise our virtual glasses to everyone who stops. The world needs more of you.

But I digress... Here are five more reasons we loved Olomouc, in no particular order:

• The museums are free on Wednesdays, which happened to be the day we arrived. We visited the Museum of Modern Art featuring great photography and interactive temporary installations. We also stopped by the Archdiocese Museum to see dozens of rare, well-preserved religious artifacts - shiny, centuries old, a bit lost on us non-religious folk but interesting just the same.

over 500 years old

the beautiful botanic gardens were free as well

• There are a bazillion cathedrals you can visit for free (or for a nominal donation). They're all quite interesting, and they were all gearing up for some sort of special services and had been decked out in fresh flowers throughout the worship areas. The Church of St Michael features a freshwater spring in the basement (allegedly where the original founders fed their thirst). St Moritz Church was our favorite - it has the largest pipe organ in Central Europe, and you can walk up a steep spiral staircase through a spooky warehouse type area and out onto the roof, where you have a great panoramic view of the city on a clear day.

if you go -
watch for soft plywood boards

• Czech Republic's "other" astronomical clock. Prague's may be more known but Olomouc's features lots of communist-era relics, a much longer once-a-day show, and a much better rooster finale.

the crowd was almost as interesting

as the clock's show

• Easy day trips. Well, at least one fairly easy day trip. We took a bus to Lipnik to see Helfštýn Castle. The castle itself was really interesting, but add moat goats and amazing blacksmith art and it was well worth the day and nominal cost.

handcrafted in the blacksmith workshop at the castle

• We finally slowed down in Olomouc... for a little while anyway.

let's do more of this?

Food notes:

• finally - kebabs!

in Europe "kebab" means delicious meat

shaved from a giant rotating steaming spit

on perfectly toasted bread and topped with garlic sauce...

we got our second kebabs there too

• Olomouc's famous "stinky cheese"

highly recommend the crepes from Palacinkola

• Moritz's beer

home brewed, straight from the tank,

"very beneficial to health"

Lodging notes:

• Poet's Corner Hostel - in a word, awesome. Great common area, great kitchen, great host, great location. We decided here that all future hostels must have a book exchange (it increases the chances of finding a comfortable place to hunker down for an hour or three, as opposed to having an uncomfortable Ikea chair to sit in for 10 minutes).

Regrettably, we only spent two nights in Olomouc before heading back to Poland to check out Krakow. But we learned some valuable travel tips during our stay - enjoying local fare despite the tourist tax, choosing the right place to sleep, and slowing down already!

Now, to just employ these lessons in our daily travel life. That's the challenge. We gave it a try in Krakow, didn't do too bad...

Prague!

Prague wasn't exactly on our "must-do" list but it was definitely of interest, especially since it was the only regret from Jen's whirlwind Western European trip almost 20 years ago.  Since it worked nicely into the Nemcicky vineyard/orchard plan, we parked for three days and took in the sights.

Much like everyone who goes to Poland visits Krakow, practically everyone who goes to Europe visits Prague so we'll keep this short.  (Our Czech Republic flickr set has a lot more context on our visit... we've included some links to our photos below as well.)

We now understand why people rave about the city: the charm of Charles Bridge (and all the bridges, actually) and the numerous squares around town; the architecture styles; the beautiful panoramas from the top of Prague Castle; the amazing astronomical clock; the easy-to-navigate city streets; the tasty beer!  

lokal - the kind of place where

they put a piece of paper on the table

and mark a tick for each beer you drink

prague beer museum

Prague is one of those places you could blow an entire month's budget if you're not careful so we mostly cooked at the hostel and stuck to cheap or free activities - the free walking tour, Vyšehrad Castle in the southern part of town, Letna Park and the Stalin metronome, meandering along the canal.  One day we went in search of thrift stores for work clothes - thank you, random blogger, because this ended up being a great way to see the less traveled neighborhoods.

We also took a day trip to Kutna Hora (an hour east of Prague) to check out the famous ossuary - according to Wikipedia, it's "estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have in many cases been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel."

deschanel and boreanaz would have a field day in here

It was beautiful, creepy and interesting all at once.  Potential visitors should know that it's absolutely tiny and the admission fee is a bit steep.  We found it terribly crowded as well, so we took in what we could and then headed to the much quieter town center to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

cobble stones in Kutna Hora

view from St Barbara's cathedral

Food notes:

• see beer notes above

Lodging notes:

• other than its excellent location and generally helpful, nice staff, Hostel Tyn was not the best choice - they moved us three times during our four-night stay; the kitchen and common area were too small for the number of guests it accommodated; the hostel seemed to be designed by a man (no handwashing sink in the toilet) who had never stayed in a hostel (the rooms had no hooks, no bedlamps, and big empty spaces where they could've at least put a table and a few chairs) who loved hot pink

Three days in Prague was the perfect amount of over-stimulation and mass-consumption to get us ready for a new mindset: small village farming.  Our Nemcicky summary is here - enjoy!

Poland on less than $30 per person per day.

Our next installment of "how much does it cost?" is brought to you by Poland.

Initial budget: 14 days at $1206 ($86/day, $43/person/day)
Actual cost: 18 days at $1006 ($56/day, $28/person/day)

The initial budget was a serious WAG because despite heaps of research, we really had no idea how much things would cost. Lodging ended up being far less expensive but we made up for some of that with meals/alcohol as we tried the local flavors. Otherwise, though, the category estimates were higher than actual costs but not too far off. Maybe 15 years of accounting and project management are worth something after all?

Here's the breakdown with some details...

pie chart not to scale

• Lodging: $473 - dorm rooms at hostels averaging $13/person/night, and a private room in Białowieża for about the same cost.
• Transportation: $193 - this includes buses and trains between major cities, trams and buses within major cities, and transportation to tour excursions (in Poland's case, the bus to/from Auschwitz - $13/person). This does not include our plane tickets to Warsaw ($490 each) which are included in our overall running cost per day.
• Groceries: $110 - our guess is that half of this cost is peanut butter.
• Meals: $103 - includes trying local foods, lunches on the go, countless train station coffees, and a few "first" and "last" night celebratory meals in cities.
• Tours: $65 - major expenses included the tour for Białowieża National Forest ($11/person) and the free walking tour guide tips ($6 * 3 tours). Otherwise, nominal costs to climb a church tower for panoramic views and that sort of thing.
• Alcohol: $46 - beer is cheap but yeah, we will start paying attention to this. Or not.  If we keep up our other frugality (except for not skipping must-see touristy places!) this is just fine.
• Gear: $3 - clothes for our upcoming Czech farm stay.
• "Misc": $14 - a large part of this cost is public toilets, which typically cost $0.30-$0.50. If we forgot the coffee line item for Canada, we definitely forgot Jen's gerbil-sized bladder and the WC line item for Central Europe. Otherwise we don't have great documentation on what this entails but at less than $1/day we aren't so worried about it.
• Gifts: This blog is still your gift. And you're still welcome.

Other fun Poland facts...

• Cities visited: 6, technically speaking (Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Białowieża, Zakopane for 15 hours, and Katowice for 60 minutes en route to Krakow)
• National parks visited: 1 (Białowieża National Park)
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited: 5, technically speaking (Old Town Krakow, Historic Center of Warsaw, Białowieża Forest, Auschwitz Birkeneau, Centennial Hall in Wroclaw which we saw from the outside)

So that's Poland in a nutshell.  Overall we're still on track too.  Stay tuned for our Czech money post - we're gonna blow you away!