Day 5- Kutná Hora

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was planning on it but I ended up Skyping with my brother so blame him. Yesterday, I went to Kutná Hora, about an hour and half drive from Prague. I was really excited
to see the bone church (The Sedlec Ossuary) but Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady ended up being
my favorite part of the three stop trip. I feel like no one wants to go there because everyone talks up the
Church of St. Barbora (Barbara) or The Sedlec Ossuary. No one was inside the cathedral and it was
pretty awesome climbing up into the attic and seeing the cathedral from a different vantage point. Parts
of it were original from the 14th century but a good chunk of it is original from the 1700s and then what
was redone again later in the mid 2000s. The Sedlec Ossuary is made of the bones from 40,000 people
that died during the plague. It's actually pretty cool and not really creepy. Other places were more eerie
than that.


The Sedlec Ossuary: Made with bones from about
40,000 people.



The ceiling at Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady.
Just wait until all of my photos of this place are up. It's
just stunning.

 

We then drove over to the Church of St. Barbara. This church was so beautiful. The architecture of the
building is phenomenal. There are painted windows, not actually pieces of colored glass glued together,
but are still just as beautiful. The pulpit is handcrafted out of wood and there is a beautiful altar as well.
There are several chapels within the church, devoted to various saints. This is yet again another 14th
century building. (Seriously, these buildings are amazing). We tried going to the Church of St. James
but it was closed. We did manage to visit the Stone Fountain as well as the Plague Column in the center
of the city. It was an amazing day and probably ties with Karljsten Castle as one of my favorite parts of
the trip.

Day 2- 500 Pictures in 5 Hours

Super cool book tower

Today I got to do all the touristy things in Prague. Kaja took me to Old Prague where she had to make a stop at the public library. Their public library is so cool that I had to take a picture inside :). They also have a national library, but you can't check out books. Oh well that's still pretty cool.

Orloj

She then took me to Old Town Square where I indulged in a trdelnik (see instagram photo). She also took me to Orloj, the clock tower. There's an interesting story behind the tower. Back in the 1400s a clockmaker made this clock for the city of Prague. It's an astronomical clock and on the hour the doors open up and you can see different saints. At the end, the rooster crows. It's quite amazing. Anyway, many different European cities wanted the clockmaker to make clocks for them and the mayor of Prague said absolutely not. This is going to be in Prague only, so he blinded the clockmaker. The clockmaker was so upset that he stuck his hands in the mechanics of the clock and died soon after. The clock didn't work for 200 years. Morbid, yes, but fascinating none the less. There is NOTHING in America that was built in 1200, so that fact alone is amazing.

The end of the Charles Bridge that takes you into Lesser Prague

After walking around Jewish Prague, Kaja took me to meet up with Lucy who spoke Italian and Czech fluently with a little bit of English. So I got to practice my Italian (thank goodness my comprehension in foreign languages is better than my speaking abilities.) Lucy took me across the Charles Bridge into Lesser Town. She also took me to a park where there are PEACOCKS!!! How awesome is that??? They just roam--similar to the OC Park--and are just hanging in windows or trees. She also took me to the bridge with locks, which you can apparently get arrested for now.


I saw St. Nicholas Cathedral briefly and then hiked up 100 steps to Prague Castle. After hiking these steps you get the most spectacular view. You can see the US Embassy sitting all by it's lonesome at the top of a hill (in typical American style) with the Germans fairly close by. The one thing I love about these vistas is the face that everything is green or a brick color. Or blue. I've only seen skies this blue after a rain in SoCal. We continued on to St. Victus Cathedral and it is seriously one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen, not that I've seen many. The stained glass is so detailed it's amazing that it was built in 1060. I feel like the people of that time put more thought and energy into the details of it all. Like seriously, each statue is devoted to a saint or an important person and everything tells a story.We saw the changing of the guards, which I think they do every hour. Lucy also explained to me about the flag on top of the president's house. Similar to the United States, if the flag is up, the president is at home, if not he is away.

St. Victus Cathedral- Simply stunning

Some interesting things I've  noticed while here has been lack of children and doors. Like there are plenty of kids here but they're families of three maybbeee four. I have yet to see more than three kids together that aren't part of a school group. It's a cultural thing here though, it's just something that's super unique to me. Now about the doors. Yes I'm being literal, I guess I could be figurative as well. But there are doors e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Almost all of them old and original. These doors are beautiful, just like the ones in our lives. They are locked or unlocked at specific times for specific reasons. Despite the wear or the amount of detail on the door, each door is unique and beautiful, leading to the next part of the adventure.