Tuesday starts out nice enough. The kids go out to draw with chalk, which captures the attention of a few tourists. All at once, go musicians (good ones) appear, and my daughter starts to dance to their music. This ends up drawing more attention than the drawing, perhaps in part because you don’t have to bend down to see it, so these Asian ladies (real ladies, in terms of dress and age) join the dance. At first each one on her own, then together. They even pick up my daughter and I think that in the end they even thanked her. The musical duo looks very pleased, too. Other couples are inspired to dance as well, but we decide to move on.

First we go to the Co-op and the drugstore, and then to have a look at the bears. We stop for a snack on a bench (bread and salami, the typical meal of Czech workers), and after a minor detour to have some copies made of the house keys, we return home. Around two in the afternoon, a special working group sets out for Široká Street in order to clean out the local fountain, which people have been using as a trash can. We clean out mostly cigarette butts, scrape off the moss and clear the grass out of the cracks in the stone. In the end, we fill an entire trash bag, but now there’s no place to put it – the only garbage can on this busy street is full. It’s a typical Krumlov phenomenon, the total absence of usable garbage cans, so that the few available ones are overflowing by noon. The result is clearly visible, especially when it comes to cigarette butts. Krumlov could become a world exporter of those.

Later in the afternoon, we are planning to check out the local skate park, which we successfully found yesterday evening. It’s more than enough for us beginners but apparently too weak for the local pros – based on the amount of gravel we have to sweep off the asphalt there hasn’t been anywhere here in a long time. We have a similar park in Znojmo – one-eighth the size but with significantly better equipment and thus also more frequently used. There’s no half-pipe for tricks, but BMXers and people on scooters might have fun here. At least it’s quiet and we practice and fall without bothering anyone. I’m still exploring the differences and similarities to snowboards, which I am much better on. At least the kids and I make the same mistakes, so we are learning the basic principles together. They seem to be learning faster, though… :o) In any case, we have plenty of time to properly goof off, and even took some pictures for the project (some ridiculous snapshots). Our artistic endeavors have, in the meanwhile, remained on the asphalt… and our chalks, too, as we discover when we get home. The kids fall asleep during evening cartoons and Star Wars – which they only found in English, so they have expanded their vocabulary a bit. I have no energy left to write anything, which is going to happen and again and again over the next few days, so all I can do is write a few comments and go to bed, too.