Our walking tour was really fun, so we ended up taking another one on Saturday that went to different areas of the city. It was nice to hear the history behind the city and all of the beautiful places that I was taking hundreds of pictures of. Here’s a few things I found to be the most interesting:
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| Old Town Square..The statue of Jan Hus is just right of the center of this picture |
In the middle of old town square there is a statue of Jan Hus. He was a religious reformer in the 1400s. He believed that people should be educated about their beliefs and had a strong influence on the protestant movement that came about a century after his death. He was burned at the stake in Old Town square for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. The statue was erected as a memorial to him 500 years later.
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| Astronomical Clock |
The Astronomical Clock was really cool. It tells you all type of things like what time of the year it is, where the sun and moon are in the sky (during an eclipse they move right on top of eachother), and some other stuff about astrology. Also, the white band on the outside of the lower circle has 365 names around it. Each day it points to a different name day, so in the Czech Republic parents will usually give their children a gift on their name day. Unfortunately there is no Kelsey on the clock, but a few people in our group found out what their name days were.
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| The Dancing House |
TheThe curvy part of this building represents the woman dancer and the straight part represents the man. The building was inspired by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astair.
There is a statue of an old Arch Bishop on the Charles Bridge that people run for good fortune (a bit like rubbing Abe’s toe before finals). The story behind this tradition is that the queen had confessed to this arch bishop. The king wanted to know the queen’s secret so he asked the arch bishop to tell him. The arch bishop refused to break his vows and so the king had him tortured and thrown off the bridge. Because the arch bishop was an honest man people rub his statue for good fortune.
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| Pissing Men by David Cerny |
This statue is by an artist who has a lot of other controversial sculptures around Prague. These two men are standing in a pool of water the shape of the Czech Republic. They are peeing on Prague and one other big city, the odd thing is that you can move their hips and change the direction of their pee. One of the more comical works of art I saw in Prague.
For dinner the first night Catherine, Olya and I went to Lokal, a really good restaurant for traditional Czech food that our tour guide had recommended. The food was so good and the inside of the restaurant was really cool. The wood paneling had been carved out kind of graffiti like and there is light shining through from behind. Even the bathrooms were decorated cool, they were plastered with a bunch of old 50’s looking pictures and advertisements. I had chicken and mushrooms with mashed potatoes. It was the perfect meal after a long day outside in the cold.
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| My delicious chicken with mushrooms and mashed potatoes |
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| some of the cut outs in the wood paneling |
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| Catherine in Lokal's really cool bathroom |
The next day we took a train about an hour outside of Prague to Kutna Hora. Seeing as none of us speak Czech it was an interesting experience trying to find which train was ours. After some running through the train station and onto various platforms we found our train and were on our way to see Kutna Hora and specifically to see the Sedlec Ossuary, commonly known as the bone church. The whole inside of the church is decorated with human bones collected from the mass grave found at Sedlec. The mass grave here was formed after the black plague and the Hussite wars and was unearthed during construction and demolition to make room for new graves. It was really cool to see but also really eerie inside and kind of creepy when you think about the fact that all those bones used to belong to someone.
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| Bone Decor |
After seeing the bone church we explored the city a bit and then headed back to Prague. For dinner Tess, Shradha, Josh, Catherine and I tried to find this restaurant in a monestary where the Monks brew their own beer. The beer is supposedly really good and its supposed to be a pretty cool. Unfortunately, we didn’t really know how to get there and ended up walking around in Prague looking for this place for two hours…in the rain. We did eventually find it but by that time (9:30pm) they had stopped serving food. We were all starving so we took the tram back into the city center and got off at the first stop next to a restaurant. We ended up at this diner that was right across from the river. We sat at a table in the back corner of the restaurant that had a beautiful view of the river and the Prague castle. We ate like kings that night..and for so cheap! We ordered French fries for starters (some of the best French fries I think I’ve ever had) along with some other tomatoes au gratin things. Then for the main course I had pasta with cream sauce and salmon. I licked my bowl clean. Then the others ordered dessert and we also went through a few bottles of wine between the 5 of us. I think our whole bill ended up being 2,550 CKA which is about $150 US. Needless to say it ended up being a great night! It was probably my best night of the trip.
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| Cheers to FINALLY getting something to eat! |
On Saturday we all went on the morning walking tour and then split up at lunch so those who had gotten there late Thursday night could see some of what we had already seen. So, Catherine, Tess and I went to an Absinthere for lunch. Ends up they really only had absinth drinks so Cat and Tess got an Absinth coffee and I just got a latte (all the drinks were loaded with sugar and I was not about to take a straight shot of Absinth). Their faces were priceless after their first sip of the coffee. I had one small sip just to try it out and it was absolutely awful. I don’t know who thought absinth and coffee were a good match but they were so so wrong. It took about a half hour for them to get the whole 4 oz of absinth coffee down. Then it was off to get some street hot dogs for lunch on our way to meet the group at the Lennon Wall.
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| In front of the Absinthere where we tried some interesting drinks |
The Lennon Wall is the one place in Prague where it is legal to Graffiti. It started in 1988 during the time of communism in the Czech Republic. At the time students in Prague used the wall as a way to express their opposing views and to speak out against the communist regime. Today it represents youth ideals of peace and love. We left our mark on the Lennon Wall with a black sharpie.
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| our handprints and names are in the center of the peace sign |
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| The portraits Tess drew of me and Cat...we kind of ended up looking like men |
That night we went to the famous 5 story club called Karlovy Lázně for Catherine’s 21st birthday. It was kind of a sleezy place but it ended up being fun dancing with the girls. Each floor had a different theme or type of music. My favorite one was the 4th floor. It was called “Black Music”. I feel like that is very politically incorrect, but it was definitely the floor with the best music.
Our last day in Prague Olya, Alaina, Ann Claude and I just walked around the city until it was time to go home. In the airport I ran into Aaron Krebs from back home. He is studying in Milan and was also visiting Prague for the weekend. Small world!
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| Me, Olya, and Catherine with the Charles Bridge behind us |
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