Behind the Iron Curtain: The Devil walks among us and his name is Billy

It's 33 degrees. Sweat trickles down my arms and legs as I sit in the shadow of the third largest synagogue on the world. I'm in Plzen, home to Pilsner beer and not apparently, much else. 

The buildings are the same bright colours I've seen everywhere since crossing the border. It's hard to believe this was a Communist country only twenty five years ago, hidden behind the impenetrable Iron Curtain.

Plzen did in fact have an colourful past in regards to the Communist takeover of 1948. It's not really something you learn about in school and I knew very little about it, so it was interesting and awful to learn about these Eastern European countries which suffered brutality and harship under Communist regime - and yet in the face of this everyday people fought against it as hard as they could. The communist takeover led to the Plzen uprising which was harshly suppressed by Communist officials. Their most evocative move perhaps however was when West Germany sent a homing pigeon which became lost near the border - it returned two days later bearing strong anti communist messages and signed 'Unbowed Plzen'. This country was a place of interesting history indeed. 

This wasn't however, my first experience in this strange new land. That began the day before, following the footsteps of Goethe into Loket, a tiny medieval town framed by a hilltop castle and craggy outcrops from which tiny goats nimbly navigated their way down, the sad bleats of their kids struggling to emulate their spry parents cutting through the relative silence.  

An information board informed us that these little animals were 'Camaroon' goats, who could climb everywhere and never respected the barriers the council put up for them. Furthermore, the goats were apparently aware of their dominance, and watched the council members 'attempts to secure the impenetrability of the run with malicious looks and leers'. It ended with a note about the medieval statement that the goat is a reincarnation of the Devil must have come from a gardener. 

The highlight of this mountainside village was undoubtlty the castle, used in the Bond film Casino Royale and once known as the 'Impregnable Castle of Bohemia' this castle was laid siege to numerous times but without success. Sitting on the rocky crags with the river far below, it was breathtakingly beautiful. To add to the atmosphere, in the warm light of the sunset, the strains of a boisterous singer and his piano drifted across the bridge.

This is the Czech Republic.