Czech hikes and adventures

A place where have some extra fun..
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bitkar
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Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

Soooo, i will have my photo (sometimes video) blog too :)
Its a good way to motivate myself for using my DSLR and make some nice pics again (usually i dont really take pictures too much anymore). I will post mainly for those who dont know anything about the Belly of the world aka hearth of the Europe aka Czechia. I will show you mainly some nature as i dont visit cities too much. Usually i like to hike somewhere in forrests or i like to explore some remainings of civilization - urbex.

I will kick it out with some past videos and photos. Overall I had two big roadtrips - one around the Bohemia region and second around Moravia and Silesia (east and north-east part of CZ).

In 2017 i had nothing to do for my vacation, so i took my car and found some urbex spots and also tried to follow CZ border (ex iron curtain for some parts). I made a video about it:

https://youtu.be/MSpTMLImBb4
and some photos too:
https://goo.gl/photos/cD4QRmwTBvZRm1UGA


This was a major project/vacation so the video is more like long travel documentary than just a short vid.

next time, i will show you the second road trip and we will continue to see Czechia with some smaller hikes.

Welcome to my home, i hope you will like it :)
Michal aka bitkar
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RAYMAN
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by RAYMAN »

yeah told you its our backyard...! :lol:
Although never knew the Czech Republic had so many lost place architectural sites! Guess it was Jan Saudeks fault! hahahaha! :lol: :bananadevil: Hope you get the joke...! :D
Pfizer sells vaccines these days....probably also blue colored! hahaha.. :lol:
I know parts of the czech photography biz.I know Jan Hnizdo for 35 years and have taken pictures with the 20x25 pola 30 years ago..image transfer.....
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bitkar
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

hah, dont expect level of those guys... and ofc i was using either a phone camera or my old Canon 600D :) nothing that advanced you mentioned.
Michal aka bitkar
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

my second road trip - this time in the eastern part of CZ

video:
https://youtu.be/BPmIsIRBxsA

photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jzgyiHTJG7bXDzCB6

This was the second of the two biggest CZ adventures. You can see what was left from the CZ-Austrian border (more iron curtain stuff) and ex border patrol army bases/baracks. And some mountains etc.

Next time, i will ad some random smaller things. I also installed some photo sharing web app on my own hosting, so I hope iam done with using Google photos. I can make albums and share them or share individual photos hosted on my webhosing service. No 3rd party.
Michal aka bitkar
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by Finis »

Video is interesting but I'd like some educational or entertaining commentary. Will be on your website? Where is that site? Maybe add CC captions if you don't want to speak. Youtube's CC thing has an auto translation ability we non-czech speaking people can use.
Mice die in traps because they don't know why the cheese is free. -- seen on a bumper sticker
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bitkar
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

well, that is an interesting point. I havent been thinking about it too much. There is not much talking or stuff. Maybe i will add some CC later. Its a good suggestion tho - if i make some other (propably short) video just for you guys, i will comment it.

In "short" whats going on:
1st part is departure and pretty much a way from CZ to Moravia part. You can see an old castle (was closed that day) on the way. And then in the evening we arrive in a part that is called "Czech Canada" and the name of that village is "new world" :) which is a nice place to start. And ya - there is a "beer vending machine" - you scan your ID and then give it money and you get fresh beer like from a pub. That stone we arrive at is the CZ - Moravia border stone :) Its kind of symbolic as we are one country. There are more stones like this to mark the Czech-Moravia border.

2nd day you can see some of the Czech Canada nature and there are some stones that have similar shape to things - the most known is the Devils Ass, just a stone that looks like ass :)
After that we (well it was me and my gf that time) go to visit a museum in a forrest that shows old bunker line for defending Czechoslovakian border - first built for defence against Nazis and later used as iron curtian military border patrol system. The museum is set up for the war period mostly, so you can see how it looked like - there are anti tanks and anti personel barriers (barbed wire and so)
After that we move to a next location to see the first ex comunist army border patrol barracks. The building was intended to be used as a hotel after cummunist era, but the investment failed and the building is in a state of decay. I think its going to be demolished as we saw some workers on the other side. I did not stay there for long coz the building was ruined and i did not want to be seen there.
Next is ex military base also used for border patrol unit. The main building looked good and everything seemed to be locked up, so i did not go in. Also i was trying to be fast as it was at some road. Also you cannot be sure if there is no camera or security system, if things look too good :D so i basically run around to see the property. So we left fast. On the way we saw another small bunker - you can see plenty of those in CZ. All those were part of CZ defence against nazi germany built in 1930s. You can even buy some of those.
Next abandoned building is another baracks from CZ-Austrian border line. This one was in state of semi-reconstruction, so it was not too interesting.
in 16:50 min. you can see the regular border building where you were checked for passports and such in the old times (now you just go thru coz EU has almost no internal borders - Schengen space). Did not try to find a way in.
Next one was very original looking barracks again. This time no reconstruction or anything. That building was eaten by nature alot. I very enjoyed it there. Shame that there are no tables or anything left inside. In 24:32 you can see some old wall painting with some comunist type of sentance... non complete but something like "we will serve well and complete every task" or some bullshit.
Next stop is for overnight sleeping. We wanted to sleep at an old castle ruins. Turned out, those ruins were not ruined enough to be accessible. it was more like a paid turist spot and it was closed. So we slept outside the main gate :)

3rd day at 30th min.
The next one was the next baracks on my list - should be the same type as the prevous one, but it was demolished not long time before our arival. So we went on to a next one which was basically in a state of reconstruction and so it was not abandoned and interesting. I met a deer there, scared him a bit in a small auxillary building. Went away to let him run away thru door but it ran thru a closed window....
The last barracks were in a state of decay. You can see cracks in walls you can see thru and holes in cieling and such. I did not want to walk there too much as i found it risky and also the house was at very big road where many cars passed by. So parking there could catch some attention. Still trespassing is not totally legal even when i go to some abandoned places and i do not steal or destroy anything.
That was the end of another day. We wanted to visit border of CZ-SK-AT but there was soooooo much insect and moskitos! it was not possible. There should be another abandoned military base deep in the woods. I have to see that one in the winter. So we drove far and got to next sleeping spot late. Slept in a car, it was comfy.

4th day at 36th min.

Sleeping point, car parked on a parking space at forrest. Destination was a hill with a lookout tower. Path there lead us right at the CZ-slovakian border. There was a small monument for soviet soldiers that were killed in WW2 at 37:51. Time for a lunch (MREs)
The next night we went to a small hotel to have a shower and sleep in a bed for one night. Its good especially when travellnig with a gf.

5th day is at 40:20
On our way to another lookout tower via nice mountainous landscape, having nice diner and so. The lookout tower was at some fancy hotel built in a communist era - you can totally see the architecture, especially on the interior. They lended us keys coz we saw one group leaving the tower. Was nice to be there alone :) We waited out some rain there.
Going north trying to copy CZ-SK borders. There was a big and well known water dam (43:30).
Then my gf had an idea to climb the highest point of Beskydy mountains called Praděd. And we went from the lowest valley there :D It was a pretty tough climb. We got back to the car very late at dark and slept in the car again.

46:30 is the 6th day

You can see the sleeping setup. The seats recline the way they form one continous "bed". Damn I loved this car. It rusted too much, i had to get rid of it. But it was bulletproof. Japanese tech. It was just the road salt that killed it after 22 years. I sold it to some dude, seems like the car still lives.
Next trip was to CZ-PL-SK border. Point where three countries touch. It was raining but that did not stop us.
49:47 was funny, coz the landscape really looked like it was some kind of painting or just a picture. I felt like iam in a painting. It looked like that with naked eye :D ... oh btw the border is in a creek so we were not standing in the exact touch point (which says this sign 52:21).
And that was all for the day

day 7
Going west in the north (Silesia). We go to amunition storage compound. Its been build before WW2 so even nazis used it. There are info tables about that place. Now its open area, some of the buildings are rented as garages and storages.
That day we planned to visit my friend i had not seen for a while, so after that amunitions storage place we headed to visit him.

Day 8
After a nice day and evening with some beer and other alcohol, the next day we headed back home to Prague. So this was the last day. Was like 5 hours of driving to get back home but it was nice. You can see the last part compressed into 10 minutes (those 5 hours of drive). So you can see alot of nature and villages and such.

I hope this is enough for you to enjoy the video more :) Feel free to ask anything.
Michal aka bitkar
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Steinie
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by Steinie »

Cool Pictures and Video!
Here are my thoughts which you should NOT take serious. All people in Maravia are dead! I didn't see a single person, was there a Zombie Apocalypse?
Nice to see healthy goats!

My favorite shot was:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... gxUmpPZ25R
I will assume this is a beer tap and FREE? (just hoping) :bananathumb:

How many days was the trip?

I think I saw your shadow with someone else but fully aware both of you are dead...

I was very interested with your video and photos since I am part Bohemian. Thanks for sharing! :bananacheers:
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by RAYMAN »

Yeah all dead......
Um talking about dead...
That was a building full of DD beauties :lol: .. chicks.... :lol:
Europes most famous lost place..in ex Yugoslavia.. :mrgreen:
https://www.styriabooks.at/info/blogs/dekadenz-in-beton

The name was the Penthouse hotel run by the mag Penthouse in 1972...in old communist east.... :o :? :mrgreen: :P

https://sometimes-interesting.com/halud ... ace-hotel/ :oops:

https://www.haludovo-palace-hotel.ch/geschichte.html
:oops:
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bitkar
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

Steinie wrote: 19 May 2021, 17:43 Cool Pictures and Video!
Here are my thoughts which you should NOT take serious. All people in Maravia are dead! I didn't see a single person, was there a Zombie Apocalypse?
Nice to see healthy goats!

My favorite shot was:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP ... gxUmpPZ25R
I will assume this is a beer tap and FREE? (just hoping) :bananathumb:

How many days was the trip?

I think I saw your shadow with someone else but fully aware both of you are dead...

I was very interested with your video and photos since I am part Bohemian. Thanks for sharing! :bananacheers:
Haha :D you did not disapoint. Well... even tho its not serious, i will answer anyway :) ... so:
On my vacation I tend to avoid ppl as i have enough of them normally ;D (like a zombie apocalypse training ;) ) But also i dont want to include ppl in photos for privacy reasons. But we met like 10-20 ppl overal (not including when going to a supermarket to buy some water and food or driving thru city). I remember two guys especially - two brothers about 50 yo. We met them in a restaurant and had a good fun talking to them. They said they like and have old motorbikes and looked a bit like bikers. Had some helmets and so. They had some special strong accent from Vysočina (middle of Czechia or between czech and moravian part). Was funny a bit too. We met them later and they had really old mopeds :) cool guys. They went to the same place - the bunker museum in the forrest after the lunch.

That beer tap is like a beer-o-matic machine thing :D its pretty rare even here. You throw coins there and scan your ID (that you are 18+ yo) and you can get a beer from tap in your glass or you can use a plastic cup that is present there. Pretty cool. Funny is that there was an ID card of someone's granny - some kids used it to get a beer :) that granny must be considered to be an alcoholic, coz eveyone uses her ID :D

I think it was 8 days - read the long post ;)

Yes, it was with my GF i had at that time and I have no more. We broke up few months after that vacation for very complicated reasons.

Oh you are my "brother"! that explains your interest in beer ;) Its in your DNA ;) cool.
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Re: Czech hikes and adventures

Post by bitkar »

Rayman: ya, I like urbex and there is sooo many places in the world. Good youtube channel is Broken Window Theory. Check it out. Those are some german guys, so you will understand them well even with no subtitles. Their video production quality is awesome.
Michal aka bitkar
tS freak since tS2 (1998) and forever (tS7.61 modeler)
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