Prague

Oh man, did I accidentally cut it close making the bus to Prague- I didn't know you had to check in with your passport before hand so they sent me back and forth before I finally shoved my passport into the driver's face and he let me onto the bus. I blame the faulty ticket counter at the central station in Vienna. That's all I'm saying....

Anyway, the bus ride to Prague was amusing- the Austrian countryside was dull and gray. Then we went through this long tunnel and on the other side, there was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and bright sunshine. I'm sorry, was this Narnia? How is this even possible? So bizarre.

Once I arrived in Prague, I found my way to the hostel which was down the street from a huge TESCO! Oh how I have missed it. I love Tesco so, even though there weren't any batons, which was sad. And I also speak NO Czech so I wasn't too sure what I was picking up in terms of meats and cheese. Oh well. Upon arriving in the hostel, I found that there was a free guided tour leaving in a few so I tossed my things in my room and followed a guy to the city center and the large Glokenspeil clock that goes off every hour.

I took copious notes about this tour and the guide, David, was very kind in giving me extra information. Unfortunately, you won't be getting all of these stories because I cannot find my notebook. Typical. So I'll do my level best (thanks Stephen Fry) to remember what I can.

My favorite thing about the city was the colorful building facades. They were all different and unique and just beautiful. Also, the city was pretty bomb-free during the war because when Hitler took over, he made it one of his bases so why bomb it? The one place it was bombed was in the center square, wich took out the German archives. Other than that, the city has remained the same. Our journey took us through Wenceslas Square, past some great architecture and churches to the main symphony hall whose top is decorated with statues of musicians. It's right off the banks of the Muldau, which of course make me think of Smetana's homage to the Muldau. From there, we went to the Jewish Quarter which, unfortunately was closed because it was Friday. Some of the synagogues were beautiful from the outside and I can only imagine what they were like inside. Another church we passed was St. James and I do remember this story: it's famous for a statue that came alive in the middle of the night and caught hold of a thief trying to make some money. The next morning when the priests arrived, they found the man hanging from the statue. They started to cut through his arm to release him because why would they deface the statue? Just as they cut through, the statue came to life again and dropped his arm. Moral of the story: Don't try to rip off the Virgin Mary.

Glockenspiel clock

main square in Prague- Wenceslas Square

see the jagged edge of the building? this is where it was bombed...

Philharmonic Hall

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LOVE Dvorak

Jewish Quarter through the snow

one of the old synagogues

memorial to Franz Kafka

Powder Tower

Don Giovanni's ghost outside the opera house where Mozart conducted

Wenceslas Square

After a quick dinner (from TESCO... sigh.... I miss you Tesco.... so much...), two other girls (Charmaine and Charlotte) and I joined up with Kristian, a local who worked at the hostel, for a night walk around the Lesser Town, which was right across the river from the hostel.  We saw the John Lennon Wall, the castle from below, the Charles Bridge, the Contemporary Art Museum with its surrounding baby statues, all lite from the glow of the moon and the muted lights that line Prague's streets. Despite stepping in a large puddle of water, I loved listening to the stories, like I had that afternoon, and always enjoy being able to see a town by night.

penguins lining the water

Vaclav Havel- Czech President

You know how sometimes you have those super vivid dreams that you are convinced are actually real life? Well, I had one that night about my alarm not going off and therefore not making my train to Kutna Hora and was resigned to start deciding what I needed to do instead. But then my alarm went off and turns out that it was just a dream. So off I went to the train station to Kutna Hora. My main purpose was to see the Sedlc Ossuary, which was a Cistercian monastary form in the late 1200s. Because he had brought back some dirt from Golgotha in the Holy Land, it became a site for pilgrims and many wanted to be buried there. The cemetery also saw a lot of action during the Black Death and the Hussite Wars. When the cemetery got too full, the monks exhumed the skeletons and becan stacking their bones in the chapel. Now the entire inside of the ossuary is decorated, including a large coat of arms made up of over 500 bones.

The church is incredible. It was dark (not a lot of natural light was getting in because of the outside clouds) and it was absolutely silent. It wasn't creepy, it was just macabre and fascinating. I spent almost an hour there, just looking and thinking and wondering about the people who had unwittingly donated their bones to decorate the church.

The other church I went to in Kutna Hora was St. Katherine and it could not have been more different! It was light, it was airy, it was colorful, there were cool secret passages that took you to the choir loft and through the eaves of the roof, and there were gorgeous frescoes at the back end of the nave. Absolutely stunning and so different.

Back in Prague, I walked up to the Castle Mount and wandered around St. Vitus' Cathedral. I was a little castle-d out and it was expensive so I watched some news reporting from the castle courtyard (it was election day in the Czech Republic), took a few pictures, and then headed back down to the city center to visit St. James' Church (the one with the arm....) and pop into the English book store across the way.

It was a bit early to head back to the hostel so I ended up wandering around and found myself in a candy store where these two men were making candy. It was absolutely fascinating and mesmerizing and I found myself there for 20 minutes watching them knead the sugar mixture, layer, mold, cut and roll it, form it into long rods and then cut it into bite-sized pieces. Luckily they let us try because I wanted to reach my hand in and touch the mixture so bad. The candy was delicious, made even more so by having seen it made before my own eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I did like Prague, I just wouldn't say I was overwhelmed by it. I think it's a bit over-rated. Mind you, I wasn't there on days where I could see the Jewish cemetery and the synagogues, which was a bit of a let-down, and I didn't end up going into the castle but I just didn't love it like I thought I would. Maybe it was because the Czech language gave me a headache or I was tired of not understanding anything but I just liked it, didn't LOVE it.