(Him: Charlie)
There is no better way than celebrating one month on the road in Mikulov, Czech!
Instead of taking on more old towns and history, we chose to get off the beaten track and spend a few days in Mikulov, a small town sitting on the Austrian-Czech border. With a population of less than 8,000, Mikulov is sleepy at times, but certainly not lack-luster, because it’s at the heart of Czech’s wine country!
Czech is traditionally a beer drinking country. There are countless varieties of beers in Czech and people drink it just like water. In fact, beers in Czech are cheaper than almost all beverages, including soft drinks, and Czech has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world. Perhaps for that reason, Czech wines have never been very popular. However, after significant improvement in the last two decades, Czech wines, especially white wines have garnered international attentions.
The place we stayed at was Fontana Pension. Pensions are a popular type of accommodations in this part of the world. They are like B&B minus breakfast. When hostels are not available, we have to rely on pensions as budget accommodations. Our host, Michael, at Fontana Pension is a very warm and welcoming person. He does not speak much English, but he liked to talk to us. Every time he spoke to us, he would spit out English words slowly, but instead of silence in between words, the fillers were all Czech words in lightning speed. It’s hilarious how we had to pick up what he tried to say among gibberish! Our conversations ranged from hockey (he’s very proud of Czech’s national hero Tomas Kaberle), to dissing Slovakian wines, to our Euro-Asia trip. Michael is like a grown-up kid. His smiles and his genuine personality made us very relaxing and really feel at home.
For city people like us, the Moravian region (Mikulov and surrounding region) is serenity. On our bike ride to explore the wine country, the trail was flanked by endless crop fields and vineyards. With the sun putting a golden touch on everything, with wind brushing lightly on our faces, and with birds chirping in the background, tranquility is only word I can think of to describe the moment.
How cheap are the beers and wines? I remember seeing bottle of red wine that costs less than 1 euro when I was traveling in Spain. I thought that's unbeatable already. Is it cheaper than that? Like you say, it is cheaper than a can of soft drink.
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