As we came back to our hostel to rest, Sean went MIA only to return to inform us we would be heading to the village of one of his Czech co-workers that fishes with him in Alaska. And so it begins. We were introduced to Vaclav, and Meera, and grabbed our bags and got into Vaclav's car to head to his town.

Vaclav owns a cattle transport business in the Czech Republic, and all he does is drive throughout Europe, so you can imagine how he drove. We left prague, the five of us, and rolled into a thunderstorm in the former communist state at about 100 mph. No biggie - this was just a taste. After driving for about 2 hours, we arrived to Vaclav's village of 900 people called Nazamyslice (Naa ZAhmeee Slitchzer) if you were wondering how it is pronounced.

There his parents had prepared us a Czech feast, which we enjoyed and set up camp in his guest house. The views were absolutely breathtaking. The landscape would remind you a lot of a scene from Behind Enemy Lines. After a hearty dinner, Vaclav had plans to take us out, so we went to the local discotec, which in this town was actually a former Soviet theatre that had been converted into this club-like thing. We enjoyed the local spirits and watched ex-commies run around to grunge rock, mostly American, their favorite being "Smells like teen spirit" by Nirvana. After a long night, we took the town "Traveller" home if you will.

The next morning, we were awoken at 10 for a tour of the the surrounding areas. Vaclav took us to the nearest large town for lunch, where we had a meal of something similar to chicken cordon bleu - very good, and outrageously cheap. We also had the chance to hike up a mountain in a National Forest. At the summit, there was a huge tower we climbed up that had a 360 degree view of the area for about 40 miles. It was absolutely amazing, and to add to the environment, there was still snow on the ground. After leaving the park, we went to a local hang out spot and played some soccer, and shortly afterwards prepared to leave for the next big city, called Plzen (PiL-ZehN).

We booked a hostel in Plzen, which is somewhat close to the German border in the south-western part of the Czech Republic. Plzen was certainly an economically depressed typical former Soviet City; but contains the original brewery of Pilsner Beers. The local brand is called Pilsen-Urquell, and after a night of catching up - we took a tour of the brewery. The people there were extremely nice, and the plant was unbelievably modern. The tour included an entire history of the process, (as this brand is the original Pilsner) and a tour of the current plant. It concluded with a beer poured directly from their wooden barrells stored 3 stories underground. I'm sure it certainly would kick the pants of any other Brewery tour.

After the tour, we booked our tickets to Munich, and embarked from the Plzen train station, where the Communist worker statues still stand for an amazing train ride. We noticed our tickets were a bit expensive; but we soon found out why. As soon as we arrived in Germany, we switched trains - to the most modern, pinpoint, clean method of transportation I have ever been on. We quickly arrived in Munich after some intense games of cribbage, and soon checked into our hostel (Menninger again), and after failing to find a bar to watch the Atletico-Real game we watched it on Sean's computer and took an easy night.