September 2016
I hadn't been to Liberec before, but somehow I'd heard about it, supposedly a depressing town in northern Czechia, nothing to do there. Well, I checked it out.
Getting to Liberec turned out to be most convenient by Student Agency bus. The ride is a bit over an hour, but, truth be told, from the "Černý Most" station, i.e. from the absolute ass of Prague, which you also still need to get to. The downside is also that you need to buy tickets well in advance, because there are shitloads of people wanting to leave both from Prague and from Liberec.
I won't load you with facts about the town, about what happened in 1352 Wikipedia or an auntie-guide will tell you.
Better straight to photos: the arriving tourist will be met by Liberec with a loud station (even at 8 am it was quite crowded, because in Czechia life starts a bit earlier than in Russia)
A transport ticket (for any, like in Prague) costs 20 crowns, a bit cheaper than in the capital. I didn't really understand the tariffs, but judging by the info on the ticket itself, you can ride for 40 minutes (in Prague they offer an hour and a half for 32).
Jumping ahead, it seems that in 40 minutes you can circle the whole town twice.
By the way, on the ticket there was an ad for some driving school. The abundance of advertising in Liberec generally pissed me off, but more on that later.
In town I saw at least 2 types of transport: bus and tram. And, as is known, a town where there's a tram can't be bad.
Both buses and trams run in several color variants (sad), there are standard-city ones:
There are completely white ones (notice the driver is happy, even in the morning):
But there's also a fail - transport in advertising colors:
By the way, an interesting feature of tram tracks was noticed - in some places there's both narrow and wide gauge (wonder why?)
In most Czech towns it's easy to determine what landmarks there are thanks to signs:
By the way, I never went to iQLANDIA, but should sometime. Was in a similar museum in Stockholm, liked it a lot.
The town even has some zoo, but they don't interest me at all (since I'm the king of beasts anyway, bitches).
Czechia is probably the country with the largest number of spiders I've seen. Special highlight - the amount of cobwebs on bridges. Spiders a couple cm in diameter, in large quantities.
Liberec, overall, made a good impression on me. I had a worse opinion of it in advance, but everything's ok - definitely worth coming once.
Quiet, cozy. The town even has terrain.
Pay attention to the speed limit sign, very correct, but it should be like that everywhere, not just in bumfuck.
Signs are generally interesting (in Czechia they're cool):
Typical Czech dude-in-hat (but there are no dudes in hats here, only in sandals with socks)
Liberec schoolchildren:
Flowers (about 250 rubles)
Modern art
Fucking awesome bread box, lying on the street. One of the biggest impressions of that day.
Trees grow in a grate - beautiful, but garbage collects.
The town even has a river. A town without water is not a town.
In Liberec there's both decent graffiti
And school shit.
Liberec people haven't decided yet, smash fascism
Or don't smash fascism:
Interesting that hydrants are in plain sight
and old ones too
Crosswalks are equipped well in places
In places total crap: here, for example, 4 roads meet, crossing on foot is hellishly inconvenient.
By that time I'd gotten hungry. In Liberec with food, it turned out, everything's fine. We went into the restaurant "U Balcaru"
The first place we came across where there were people (always do that). Lunch menu - very cheap.
Sometimes I wildly want fatty Czech cuisine, which is ideal for tourists who spend a lot of energy walking.
Yum, done. Schnitzel (in Czech "řízek", you must remember this word), real man's choice.
The ideal drink in a cafe is homemade lemonade. All owners must learn to put a piece of lemon and some mint and ice in mineral water. Sell at beer price. None of those fucked up Moscow prices like 300 rubles for a glass.
Near the station we found a bakery where we also took pastries to go. Very good. There were huge numbers of people inside.
Really want to try Czech "chlebíčky" (a.k.a. Russian sandwiches), but in 3 years hands don't reach.
What do houses look like in Liberec? Different.
Mostly - like this.
Those poorer - live in "paneláky". In Liberec I clearly discovered some cult of pink.
And so - everything's standard.
U = ugly windows.
Liberec center looks absolutely identical to all Czech towns.
Can't tell it from Nymburk, which is near Podebrady.
Manhole
Greetings to Tema Lebedev
Square in the center
But Liberec has one huge problem. The town shits in its residents' eyes. Way too much advertising.
What is this?
Moscow before Sobyanin?
Prague?
There's also typical for Czechia art
Verbal amateur hour
Horror
Buy, spend money
Thank God, it's time to leave. The station looks at least somehow nice (among stations).
Looks cool the greenery that climbs into the glass.
Liberec is a junction. Plenty of directions to leave.
When leaving the tourist briefly returns home, to plastic Russia
Bottom line - Liberec is a normal such Czech town. Not bad, and not good. I probably wouldn't want to live there, Prague is better by far. You must definitely visit, fortunately it's quick and cheap.
January 2023
This time visiting Liberec started with the zoo
Technology reached here too - you can buy a ticket online. At the entrance there are turnstiles with QR code readers
The reader doesn't work, so near the turnstiles stands a specially trained grandpa who reads QR codes
Zoo's normal, fun for a couple euros, no more. You can learn how you jump like who
Liberec creativity
One interesting impression - a place where they wash and treat elephants
Elephants are happy
Two-headed giraffe
Find the owl
Second impression - an eagle eating a mouse
Liberec is an interesting town. Looks either very good in rich places, or like the asshole of the world
This is a not bad example
This is reality
Everything's crumbling. Prices, by the way, are no less than Prague's
Visually Liberec is shittier than other Czech towns
On the plus side - transport is always visible
On the minus side: almost all designers here are rednecks
There are hipsters too
And antiquity
But reality in the end is again somehow like this
Wide spaces, noise, parking lots
Good districts exist. This one is straight Salzburg
Walked through the forest
Third impression - church in the middle of nowhere
Can sit and eat a sandwich
Important to know about Liberec: that it looks like shit is not completely Liberec people's fault. The thing is that Liberec is Sudetenland. I.e. not Czechs and not Germans. Both will always not give a fuck about this territory, because at any moment someone will reconquer it
But nature is beautiful
Last impression - drained reservoir. When else will you see such a thing
