facism & frostbite (again!)

so this weekend we took an nyu trip to western bohemia. let's just say that the only positive thing about this experience was the fact that it was free. our tour guide took advantage of our very flexible itinerary - nothing was really set in stone as far as excursions were concerned - and basically did with us what he wanted to do and ignored the desires of the group (including the one nyu staff member, honza, who was on the trip). i won't bore you with my bitching and moaning about the eight kilometer hike he dragged us on, or his complete disregard for the fact that it was 20 degrees out the whole time, or the fact that some of us actually need to eat to make it through the afternoon, so i'll just show you some pretty pictures instead:
these are some ruins of some castle somewhere between prague and karlovy vary (aka carlsbad, aka a ritzy-titzy spa town that we went to). sorry for the vague-ness about the location, but i honestly cannot remember where the heck this was. these ruins were probably the highlight of the trip.
the river that runs through karlovy vary. honestly, this town is really pretty, and i can definitely see its appeal (gorgeous buildings, hot mineral springs, the hotel/casino from the latest james bond movie), but we were there in the middle of the off season, so things were kind of dead.
the beginning of the now-infamous 8km "short walk." our guide tricked us into believing that we were going on a short walk to a nearby town, and forced us to hike through the czech woods along some no-name river on a dirt road. two hours and twenty-five unhappy kids later, we trudged into the quaint town of loket.
this is the view from loket castle. this town looks like pretty much every other czech town. bright buildings, cobblestone streets, an ancient castle overlooking the whole thing. if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all (not that i'm jaded, or anything...).
and this, this is the tour guide from hell, the anti-christ, the facist. if he paused to take one more picture of a moss-covered tree, i was going to launch him like a javelin into the next stream. fo' serious.

moral of the story: don't let tour guides take advantage of you. stage a mutiny, or, at the very least, refuse to leave the bus.