I had an undeserved chance to visit a little bit of Czech Republic, and I did not decline. Some of the photos below were taken not by me, but by a friend.
Our bus to Prague arrived six hours late. Upon finally getting out of that moving cage, we attempted to find some food as cheaply as possible, and perhaps see something along the way. So we did, but nobody used the camera for a few hours in Prague, and we only had a photo from inside the train station hall.
Main train station is «Hlavni nadrazi» in Czech. Its hall was red, and it was common to lay or sit on its floor. The floor met the walls in a round miter — very convenient for sitting:
Only late night tickets were available to Tábor.
Czech trains have different classes of comfort, and we didn't get it at first. However, the whole wagon was empty and we decided to stay when we finally realized the mistake.
We battled the sleep in order to not miss our station, which were announced at a very low volume. A nice and optimistic ticket inspector did his check in the middle of the way. Being very friendly, he checked our tickets, asked something about politics in Ukraine (we lived in Kuchma times), but the language barrier was too high for us to understand each other. He left, and only then he mentioned that we were in another class. But he could not care less and did not try to fine us. I was scared the whole way and wanted to go to the proper wagon.
We were also scared of the wagon door. Passengers had to open it themselves and the handle looked absolutely unusual. We weren't sure that we would be able to open it in two minutes of train standing. Lucky us — some local person came from another wagon and opened that door first as a professional.
A few minutes of walking through the sleeping town, and we finally got to our destination. Everything was closed. We were let in by a kind american after knocking for some time.
Doors of Cesta.za festival in Tabor, Czech republic
There were several groups of people at the festival. First and foremost, the two owners — musicians of the duo called Sabot. Second group was the volunteers — they came much earlier and helped with the preparation or other tasks; volunteers did not pay for their stay. The third group contained the artists who were going to perform. And the last group of people was simply the viewers like us. Owners, artists and volunteers lived in rooms. Others were staying simply on the floor of a vast loft under the roof. We had to pay a fee. Some people chose to stay in hotels in the town.
people sleeping on the floor of a loft
There were people from many countries and nationalities.
Next morning we could see everything better. The building is a former mill:
cesta.cz building. A former mill in Tabor, Czechia
They made a theater in this part of the building. Divadlo is Czech for theater:
cesta.cz divadlo Jo theater doors. Czechia, Tabor
We helped to carry seats into that theater once because we wanted to be closer to cool people.
Installing seats in cesta.cz's divadlo Jo theater. Tábor
As we were helping with the stuff, an american noise musician Damian Catera did his soundcheck. Nothing fancy — noise and abstract stains moving on a projection screen.
Damian Catera soundcheck in divadlo Jo space of cesta.cz in Tábor
The festival was operating the following way: applicants apply each year in autumn. Those who have been selected have to arrive one month before the festival date and choose some other artists to collaborate for the fest. These formed groups of artists must prepare an art performance or an exhibition during the time remaining. When the time comes, there are five days of performances. Discussions followed the next morning.
There was a kitchen with one meal per day. Exclusively vegan, the food was prepared by some of the volunteers. We helped once, too — instead of walking around the town.
An example of vegan dish at cesta.cz
This is what the floor of the international loft looked like in daylight.
Sleep places in the loft of Cesta.cz
We did not sit on the festival grounds the whole time, of course. We had to get into the town at least to eat — a one meal per day was not enough.
Some street art: a three-color stencil tram.
A stencil art of a tram in Tábor, Czechia
A reservoir has been constructed in Tábor back in 1492, called Jordan pond. The water that was flowing from the pond was falling 9 meters in total, earning the title of a waterfall with the name Jordanski vodopad.
Jordanski waterfall (Jordanski vodopad) in Tábor
The heart of the old town through one of archways:
The central square of the old town of Tábor, Czech Republic
One of the walls had this aerial photo of the old town, with the yellow circle marking the location.
Аерофотографія старого міста Табору на бігборді
The old stairs up to the old town center — from Novakova to Klokotska street:
Old stairway in Tábor, Czechia
The upper end of that stairway was renovated:
New stairway in Tábor, Czechia
A sign about the stairway being slippery in winter:
The road gets slippery in winter. A sign in Tábor, Czechia
There was no window, so we could see this stuff in a random Czech cellar:
An old cellar with an old toilet seat in Tábor
The river of this town was called Lužnice (LOOZH-nee-tse) and it had waters of an unpleasant dark color similar to the color of Spree in Berlin. This hydro-technical thing existed on the river inside the city line:
a dam on Lužnice in Tábor, Czechia
The terrain was hilly. Someone had these interesting stairs from their home to an upper street, but had them disused.
Abandoned and hals-dismantled stairs in Tábor
Two views from a bridge: part of the city was visible from the upstream side.
Lots of trees and the roofs of a roman-catholic monastery were visible from the downstream side.
a view of Tabor-Klokoty monastery and trees from Svehlov bridge
The Czech name of the monastery is Římskokatolická farnost Tábor-Klokoty
And old stone bridge near the festival grounds and a rapid on Koshynsky stream (Košínský potok) below.
A super-old arched bridge over a stream. Košínský potok, Tábor
We had no maps these days. We've been shown some initial road turns by a festival participant. Here we are standing on the Antonin Śvehla bridge (Śvehlův most) and shouting height estimates at each other.
P.S.: In the future, we have Wikipedia, which tells us that the height of Śvehlův most is 25 metres above the water.
Міст Śvehlův most over Luznice river in Tábor
The week of performances began. Every evening, usually in the dark, someone demonstrated their art to others. Here is a group containing Italians, Japanese and a Lithuanian preparing to perform.
Performance artists preparing at cesta.cz Spirit Matters, 2005, Tábor
The previously mentioned Damian Catera performed noise together with a Czech duo S/M. One member of that trio suddenly stopped twiddling his knobs, took a wooden ladder and started to hug it in various ways, casting a shadow onto the projection screen that was displaying stuff.
S/M & Damian Catera. Alex Svamberk disturbing a ladder. Interdisciplinary art at Cesta.cz Spirit Matters festival in Tábor, 2005
Photos made in modern living blocks of Tábor by Romana Hagyo and Annette Munk.
Balconies of modern living blocks of Tábor by Romana Hagyo/Annette Munk
Outdoor devices to dry the washed clothes and carpets in modern living blocks of Tábor by Romana Hagyo/Annette Munk
After each performance the evening continued at the backyard. One evening was unusual — the whole crowd decided to make it into the town in order to consume the beers of the surrounding country. A crowd of already slightly intoxicated artists headed towards a local pub. We both were anti-alcohol (and still are), but wanted to be closer to the cool artists. We entered the pub with them. They ordered their pints. We ordered a tea, after consuming which a decision was made to leave, because the artists were already in another dimension.
An interesting observation: after strictly vegan kitchen of the festival during the day, most people were roasting sausage over a bonfire after performances. Only a few people were actual vegans.
Sausages over bonfire flames. cesta.cz spirit matters festival in Tábor
The last group was called The Glue, and they had the best performance. It kept people engaged, never allowing to lose attention. It was location-specific. Everyone was literally tied together at hands and were guided over a route that included climbing through windows of Cesta. They gave each viewer a little glass of Becherovka (we gave ours to the lithuanian bassist) and a slice of cucumber straight into the teeth, since the hands were tied. The route was filled with their art objects. One of corridors was decorated with origami cranes.
origami cranes under a ceiling. cesta.cz spirit matters festival in Tábor, Czech
We were dragged outside into the night, where a member of The Glue was making hydra-like movements on top of a swing frame, illuminated.
Тhomas Myrmel (The Glue) at cesta.cz spirit matters festival in Tábor, 2005
Another member of The Glue was sitting in a shed, making madman grimaces accompanied by the sounds of the festival grounds recorded during the preparatory month. We were dragged past her, and slowly into the theater space, where our hands were freed at last, and we were shown a stop-motion with an origami crane and a small musical performance by The Glue. A very dynamic an energetic performance.
It turned out that they cheated a bit because they all lived together in The Netherlands, which kind of broke the rule of creating groups from artists who have never met before, but no one cared, because the stuff was cool.
The festival concluded with a backyard party, with Sabot drummer as a DJ.
It was time for us to go to Prague to board a bus to Ukraine. We packed our bags, paid for the stay, said goodbye to everyone, exchanged email addresses to never use them, and went to Prague by train with three artists.
a train locomotive in Tábor
We observed a following situation inside the train. One artist was worried of being late to her other train to Germany. A lithuanian guy knew a few words in Czech and told a ticket inspector about the situation. The inspector heard the story, took a telephone and made a call to Prague train station, and they held the train for her. At it did wait!
If you think this is the end of story, you are wrong. The two of us parted our ways with the cool artists and went the known path from the train station to the place from where the buses to Ukraine took off. While en route, we saw posters of real concerts of cool bands like Rammstein and felt envy towards the people in this country. It was even annoyingly as close as today, on a... wait, it is tomorrow. And our bus is also tomorrow! We got lost in weekdays under the influence of interdisciplinary arts. We cursed a lot. Checked the bus station — could it be that the bus is today, too and they will agree to take us earlier? No, there were only plastic bags dancing in the wind. We were as angry as was Butch having to return to retrieve the forgotten watch. Decided to go back to Tábor to sleep. Angry as hell, we strolled the streets, witnessing the horde of happy tourists waiting for the figures at that Prague clock tower.
A sign saying Pozor! (Attention) in Tábor. Wordplay: Pozor means «shame» in russian.
Shame on us. We were walking through Tábor and thought about what lies will we tell so that the people laughed at us less. We told the story about the bus was delayed one day because too few passengers came. It was hard to make them believe this story, but they were drunk and soon stopped asking.
