Today we traveled to Český Krumlov, a small city in the southern region of the country. The main attraction here is the castle, which we toured while we were there. One thing I found particularly interesting was the history that the castle has with bears! To this day, they still have bears protecting the moat of the castle. At the top of the castle, there is a very large garden with fountains, trees, flowers, and other flora in an expansive isolated area that makes you forget you’re in a city.

While there, I reflected on the local customs and traditions that I noticed while in Prague. One significant one is that everyone here is very polite, but also quite reserved. In my experience so far, I’ve seen that people will not enter a “small talk” type interaction unprompted, but if you have a question, someone is more than happy to talk with you to answer it. This is different from the US, where I feel like I have many small interactions with people on the street or in stores, but in the Czech Republic, things are much more goal-oriented. Personally, I like this method of interaction more than in the US because I appreciate the direct and straightforward nature.