After reading for 20 or 30 minutes, we began strolling again. We crossed a foot bridge whose boards mushed under our feet and I felt prepared for the trip because I wore my fairly new black boots that I bought in Prague at Bata a month ago.

It was past 4pm at this time and was it starting to get dark so we decided to walk back to the castle grounds. I stopped to take a picture of the castle because I didn't have one in its entirety. This picture was amazing and would be my future wallpaper on my laptop. It was a postcard shot. As soon as I was finished I wanted to look at the picture to see that it came out okay and my Kodak digital camera fell out of my hand, took two bounces and went ker-plunk, right into the pond.

I watched the whole thing without moving a muscle. I watched 300 dollars sink to the bottom of the pond. I took 2 or 3 steps away until I jerked myself back around and tore off my coat. I had short sleeves on so I squirmed my way to the edge and dipped my arm into the frigid water. About 5 seconds in I already started to lose feeling but I kept searching for it. I swear it landed right where I was grabbing but the pond had swallowed it. Nemo and all his friends were scrolling through the pictures now. I started to slip in myself before my friend Lee pulled me back up. The bank was about two or three feet off the ground so I couldn't get as low as was necessary. I searched twice before I couldn't feel my arm anymore and pulled it out, covered in mud and slime. My clothes were covered in dirt and I was freezing. We had a good 15 to 20 minute walk back to the Castle, but I didn't want to put my coat on being as dirty as I was. I was just about to do it when we came upon a pile of ash. Or was it? Heat was radiating off it and I couldn't believe it. 

Where the hell did this come from? I peered over it and realized the ash was only a thin layer that was covering this ember mound. I was so anxious to warm myself and the ash layer blended in with the ground so well that I didn't realize that I was stepping in it and that my boots were on fire. The smell of burning rubber is unmistakable but I was concentrating on getting warm but it wasn't long before I realized what was happening and danced the fire out. I'm surprised I didn't start a forest fire. After I stomped it out, I returned to the warmth. 

My arm was regaining feeling and the mud dried to a crust that I easily brushed off while I took off my shirt to shake off all the dirt and leaves that had accumulated from laying on the ground. About this time my other two friends had come looking for us and one of them said "Hey I see Lee and Matt and Matt is half naked. What have they been doing in the woods all this time?" When they approached, I explained to them that my camera was in the pond and they debated about going back to get it. 

During this time it was pointed out to me that I was standing somewhere I shouldn't. Once again, I'm standing in the ash pile and my boots are burning away. I stomped them out again while everybody laughed. Thankfully Lee didn't tell them I already did that once. I looked at bottom of the boots to saw that they were gooy like taffy. All together I was out 350 dollars for that trip. All the stress I had alleviated that day returned in a matter of minutes.

After re-living the events in my head I returned to my time with Veronika. I wanted to walk along the pond and find the spot where my camera fell in and take another picture of the castle and pond but Veronika was adamant about stopping at a restaurant for a bowl of soup. Upon entering the restaurant I suddenly remembered what Konopiste was famous for. 

The Archduke Ferdinand went there to hunt and when the castle is open from April to October, you can go inside and see all the animal trophies and skins that he shot. In the restaurant all of the chandeliers were made of antlers, and skulls lined the walls. Most disturbing was the stuffed head of a wild boar that was set in a screaming motion. Veronika ate pheasant soup while I sipped on Becherovka (a Czech herb liquor) to warm ourselves up and we commented on the ‘80s pop songs that didn’t fit the surroundings of the restaurant.

After we left the restaurant, Veronika took me to a monument for nine Americans that were tortured and killed during World War II. As it turns out, one of the grandsons of the men contacted the mayor of Benesov to discuss a monument to the Americans who died. Veronika's father doesn’t speak English so Veronika took on the project of researching archives for information about them and the events surrounding it and so a year ago a monument was erected, and besides a thin layer of dirt, it looked brand new. The monument sat on a road behind the building where they were confined and interrogated.

We briefly returned to her apartment before heading into town for dinner and she took me to this excellent restaurant in the town-center where they had big comfy chairs and a stylish interior. Actually there were tables and chairs in which to sit in a patio setting. The doors are all glass so there is an unhindered view of the town-center. Further inside is the bar and more tables where it was definitely warmer. The beer was too expensive for Benesov, but I ate the best pizza I’ve ever had in the Czech Republic. 

The salad that Veronika ate looked really tasty as well. From there she took me to a pub called Strom (The Tree) which was a mix of younger and older people with more of the former and less of the latter as the night progressed. For a town of only 13,000, this was a happening place. It’s a great place for ex-pats to practice their Czech and be looked upon as the "exotic foreigner".

There were a few other lively pubs close to the town-center where people from smaller towns drive into for a more sociable weekend night, however we opted to finish the night by walking across town to her parent's house where we relaxed and drank a few more beers. On television was a movie revvered by most Czechs for its subject as well as the shot location. It was the director's cut of Milos Forman's Amadeus and even with a mild understanding of Czech, seeing the Czech-dubbed version provided a sense of authenticity, as long as I didn't focus on the mouths of the actors.

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