Henry's Year in Germany: Cheb

Translation: People with hats or short Martian crossing zone.

Cheb
15 August 2009

On a whim, I decided to take the train to Cheb, a small town in the Czech Republic. This town met my two criteria quite well: it was within 3 hours on a train and I had not been there. The journey began racing the bus to the bus stop and ended around three hours later in a tiny train station with a passport check somewhere in the middle. It was nice to see a language I didn’t recognize again but the signs to the center of town were clear enough. Immediately, language aside, it was evident I had reached another country. Everything was not as clean and tidy and frankly, it looked like the type of place you would hope to get out of if you were born there.

Suddenly, despite the August heat, I was no longer thirsty.

The tourist office lady gave me an 8.5x11 sheet and when I asked a question, she said everything interesting in the town was on this sheet. The sheet had big pictures too. Within about 45 minutes I had walked through most of the “attractions”, the church, the square, ect. I forgot to look up the exchange rate before I left so I just got the middle-small amount from the ATM and based everything off of how much a candy bar cost. Is this castle worth 2 candy bars to me? Yes.

This is a picture of me on the 2nd floor of the chapel.

The castle had a neat tower and a double-storey chapel, both of which I had all to myself. I spend a good amount of time walking around and it was nice. With so few tourist attractions, there was no rush to see and do everything. I watched people take wedding pictures in a monastery garden, I watched kids on the street break dancing, and I saw families picnicking. I spent some time sitting on a bench with a book. The city was quiet and it was just a chill day overall. To round it out (and spend my remaining kroners), I visited the grocery store. It was a very un-touristy tourist day. Fantastic!