Fallout in Czech Republic

The first day of Sept, a day notably 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, and suddenly we find ourselves looking at an empty campground on the way up to a hike.  Remnants of summer include a garbage can swarming with hungry yellow jackets that will soon no longer have access to beer and soda cans as a main source of food.   

There are no more kids riding scooters, no more speedo clad men on bicycles, and no more older women chatting in their white and beige underwear.  The tiny restaurants that are at every odd corner, hill top, and castle entrance serving cold beer and sausage sandwiches are being buttoned down for the season.   My small little quiet roads feel isolated; I now share them only with large awkward farming equipment that I sometimes have to pass on my bicycle (always hoping Farmer Brown, or in this case Farmer Zdenda Vojtech sees me.). 

All the tourists have evaporated, sucked back into cities by buses, trains, bicycles, and German engineered cars.  Back to Prague which is only 90 minutes away. Back to real lives...

Soon I too will return to my real life, taking with me vivid memories of a country I have only begun to understand, one with a complex history of being the center of a tug of war between Germany and Russia.  A country full of friendly people who do not share my language but are always willing to help me, a desperate "Americký." 

I look forward to that rare time when I meet someone from the Czech Republic.  I can just hear myself saying in a shrill, "OHHHH, I have been to your country.   What a lovely place ..... I spent a month in Mala Skala....." 

 I will be transported right back ... 

Meandering along on a bicycle on my way to the next castle or amazing rock formation.   Cutting through lush green forests and gold-colored hay fields. Laughing about the speedo clad men on bicycles and the women in white and beige underwear ... While watching carefully for large awkward farming equipment. 

So while this may not be the REAL life for most of the people we saw on our trip, it's a REAL GOOD life for the entire month of August. And it's been a REAL GOOD life for me as well during this past month.  

I will miss this place.