Saturday, 29 May 2010
To Čížová
South Bohemia is mostly countryside and it often smells of pig-shit and other variations of dung. It even has a number of Country Clubs and I've seen the American Stars and Bars flying more than once. Still it is an attractive Central European region with little heavy industry, a cluster of medieval towns, numerous castles and many pretty villages and small towns. It is perfect terrain for cycling and walking, and walking is what I did, even more than I had anticipated, probably even more than Švejk did.
Usually Jaroslav Hašek was thorough when putting together the backdrop to his novel. This applied to geography, history, literary quotes and quotes from war calendars, encyclopaedia, but when it came to timing he was way off. Studies conducted by Antonin Měšťan and Hans-Peter Laqueur estimate the Švejkova anabase to 72 hours. This is however impossible. Not even a super-fit Marathon-runner would have done the 160 kilometres in such a short time, and in between Švejk spent time in pubs and at police stations. I set aside a week for the walking and it turned out to be no more than I needed.
Písek is another pretty Czech town. Kamenný most (The stone bridge) across the Otava predates the Charles Bridge in Prague by 100 years and is the oldest existing bridge in Bohemia. The town has two squares and a cluster of old streets. The surroundings are also attractive, green rolling landscapes dotted with quaint villages. But above all this is Hašek country. His mother, Kateřina Jarešová was born near Protivín, 20 km to the south, and his father Josef Hašek was from Mydlovary a bit further south. Jaroslav Hašek visited the region in his childhood and again in 1915. He uses his local knowledge both in Švejk and in the stories about his grandfather Antonín Jareš. His grandfather's rebellious attitudes influenced the young Jaroslav, something which is clear from the stories about the pond-warden Jareš from Ražice who stood up against the aristocratic landowners, the Schwarzenbergs.
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The Stars And Stripes? The Confederate flag? Lynyrd Skynyrd? Czech beer? Sounds like heaven to me ... :-)
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