Fried Cheese in Bohemia & Spelunking in Moravia

Before leaving Český Krumlov, I tried 'Smažený Syr Hermelín' as recommended by the Czech I met in Prague. 'Hermelín' is the locally-produced Czech version of French Camembert cheese. 'Smažený Syr Hermelín' is fried Hermelín cheese, a very Czech snack. It wasn't bad, but I probably won't be having it again as I'm not a fan of big chunks of cheese nor large quantities of fried foods.

Modern-day Czech Republic is comprised of ancient Bohemia and Moravia. The western part of Czech is considered Bohemia, the capital of which is Praha. I'm now in Brno, the capital of Moravia. Today I visited Moravský Kras - Punkevní Jeskyně (Punkva Caves) and Macocha Abyss to be exact. Macocha (Ma-tso-ka) is Czech for 'stepmother'. The legend is that a widower with a son remarried, giving his son a stepmother. When she had a child of her own, she wanted to get rid of the son and threw him into the abyss. He was able to hold onto the edge and was saved by locals, who punished the stepmother by throwing her into the abyss. Thus the abyss was named after the stepmother - Macocha Abyss. One of the cooler cave tours I've been on - part walking and then the rest on the Punkva river in a boat - inside the caves!

Off to meet R. in Wien (Vienna) tomorrow. I will be very glad to see a familiar face and have companionship for the remainder of my trip, but feel much more independent based on the 2 weeks of solo travel. I often craved a companion to share in the experience, but being solo in a foreign environment definitely throws you outside of your comfort zone much more than traveling with someone.