Kutna Hora & the John Lennon Wall

This past Monday we did not have class since it was Memorial Day in America and this program is run by a US school, not a Czech school. A few of us decided to take a day trip to the village of Kutna Hora by train. The train was so cool because the interior looked like the train from Harry Potter. The village is an hour outside of Prague by train. Katie Baum really wanted to go see the bone church that was there. The actual name of the church is Sedlec Ossuary. According to the legend, in 1511 a half blind monk decorated the church with the bones from the destroyed graves surrounding the church. He regained his sight afterwords. There are 3 large bone structures, a chandelier, a coat of arms and numerous wall decorations made of human bones. The chandelier is constructed with every type of human bone that can be found in the body. It was cool, but really creepy. It's also creepy that these bones were peoples' prior to 1511.  I also don't understand how someone can be half blind. Is it just one eye that is blind? Or that he just had really really bad eye sight to the point he was legally blind, but not truly blind? Half blind is just fishy. He's either blind or he's not. Whatever floats Kutna Hora's boat I guess. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to update recently!!

Later that day I went on a walk around Vin Hirodui (our neighborhood in Prague). I just walked from pretty building to pretty building and found a lovely park about a mile from our hotel. I also went into this gorgeous church in Namesti Miru (the square near our hotel). However there was a service occuring so I did not take any photos because that would have been rude. And I didn't want to be noticed and get roped into an awkward situation because I don't understand Czech at all. Except for Dobredun which means good day.

That evening my roommates and I walked across the Charles Bridge to the neighborhood where the John Lennon Wall is located. This wall was painted on during the Velvet Revolution in 1989 to piss off the Communist government and was filled with quotes from John Lennon's music as well as portraits of him . It has been painted over many times since then and is the most beautiful piece of graffiti I've ever seen. I left a little something for my deephers as well :). Initially we couldn't find the wall in the neighborhood and wandered around and found a beautiful park alongside the river and a bridge with all these locks on it.

For my unicorns <3

So. Many. Locks.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are going to Kepler Tower and the Communist Museum. On Friday we leave for Budapest and then VIENNA!!!

Weekend Endeavors

Friday Night
Friday we saw some pretty churches and had dinner in the old town district. Nothing to cray for Europe.

Saturday
During the day my roommates and I went wandering in Prague. We got lunch at a cafe. First Katie wanted to go to the Museum of Medieval Torture so Mimi and I begrudgingly joined her. It was gross and disturbing as expected, but Katie enjoyed it. I took no photos because I don't want to remember it. It's sick. It's also weird that all this stuff was saved and there was enough to open a museum with it. To each their own I guess?
Afterwards we went to Prague Castle area again. We crossed the Charles Bridge and wandered farther up into the area. We bought these yummy doughnut things with sugar. We found a playground on the way and the Czech children have such fun playgrounds. There was this seesaw thing and these little carts on a circular track that you could peddle around on. SO FUN. There were also hiking trails on the other side of the park.
We made our way up to the castle and a bride and groom were taking wedding photos and I was so excited. They top my lists of favorite Prague couples that I've spotted. It's a hard list to get on. Most of the Prague couples here do too much PDA though. Way too much. Especially in the metro station and you're all excuse me I'VE GOT TO GET ON THE METRO. Find a less public area please&thank you. Or at least out of the general walking way. Anyway back to the bride and groom. They were adorable. And she had pretty flowers in her hair. I also feel really bad for the guards who stand outside the palace, because they can't talk to anyone and people are always trying to make them talk and take photos with them. It's just weird. Get out of their personal space. Afterwards we navigated the tram system back to the metro and to our hotel. That evening a bunch of us went out to get to know each other a bit.

Sunday
I met my good friend Heather for lunch in the old town square. I hadn't seen her in a while and it was lovely seeing such a friendly face in a foreign city. She is studying abroad in Prague as well. We walked around Prague too despite the rain.
I met Mimi and Katie at the clock in the square to work on our metro station project for school and now its 11:11pm (make a wish) and tomorrow we are going to the bone church in Kutna Hora.

PLAYGROUND

Not a good time. A gross time.

One end of the Charles Bridge

Couple of the year

Prague!

Wandering finds

The Jewish Quarter

Today's lecture consisted of visiting the Jewish quarter of Prague and learning about the history of the Jewish people of the Czech Republic. We visited four synagogues and the oldest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe which has graves from the 1300s.
One of the girls in our group got a pretty bad concussion and had to be taken to a doctor to be checked out. I felt so bad. She was a walking zombie for the rest of the day.
The first synagogue we visited is called the Pinkas Synagogue. Today it is not used for worship and is a memorial for all of the Jewish citizens of Prague who perished during the Holocaust. Inscribed on the walls are the names of every person who died from Prague in alphabetical order in Hebrew. It is a very different experience to see every name listed instead of just a single number of the amount of people who died. I do not have any photographs of the interior as no photography was allowed. On the second floor there is artwork created by the children who were contained in the Terezin concentration camp that depicted what they had been through. I'm not sure how the artwork was preserved or who saved it, but it was disturbing to see how these young children were able to draw scenes of their experiences.
Outside of the Pinkas Synagogue is the Jewish cemetery which is now closed (no more people are buried there). It holds many Jewish people who died between the 1300s - 1700s. The last burial was in 1718. It is quite crowded.
The second synagogue we visited is not used for worship and houses many pieces used during Jewish holidays and went through the rituals used during the death of a family member.
The third synagogue we visited was the Old New Synagogue and it is the oldest active synagogue in Europe.
The last synagogue we visited was the Spanish Synagogue. This is the most ornate synagogue in all of Prague and it is breath taking. I sneaked some photos.
The architecture of the Jewish Quarter is the prettiest in all of Prague in my opinion.

Second Synagogue

part of the Jewish Cemetery

The Spanish Synagogue

Ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue

The Jewish Quarter

The Jewish Quarter

Tonight we are going on the church crawl. All the churches in Prague are open from 7-10pm with free admission.
Have a good Memorial Day Weekend to those in the USA!!!

Prague Castle

Today we went to the Prague Castle which is at the top of the hill and over looks all of Prague. It is a huge complex, but only a small portion is open for touring because the rest is used for federal offices. There is no "governing" royal family. Ancestors are recognized as relations, they are not "royal" or recognized as special by the state. We saw the window where the defenestrations of Prague occurred that started the 30 Years War which was cool. The palace is not as ornate as other ones of western Europe, however the wing we toured was built in the 1300s and most of the palaces that I have seen were built in the 1700s & 1800s so that may have been the cause for the difference.
The church is called St. Vitus cathedral that is on the castle grounds, and it took over 500 years to finish. It is a gothic church and construction started on it in 1344. Christianity was very popular in Prague when the missionaries came in the 700s, however 83% of Prague's citizens are atheist today. St. Vitus Cathedral is the first photograph in my first blog post.
There was also an exhibit with weapons of torture, non weapons of torture and armor which was interesting, and we got to go see a dungeon. I did not like the dungeon. I am so happy I did not live during the medieval times. That would have sucked big time. If you see the armor from the movie Monty Python that's what a lot of it looks like.
We passed by Johannes Kepler's house, the creator of Kepler's laws. He came up with the first two laws while living there. 
The subways in Prague rely on an honor system and your tickets are checked at random. Today on our way back the officers targeted us when they heard us speak, but we all had our tickets. They also have a very small badge. It looks like a small decorative pin.

Stain glass over the rear entrance

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral

Organ inside St. Vitus cathedral

Grand Hall where jousting used to occur in the Prague Castle

View of Prague from top of the hill

The people photographed above were hanging out in a small square. It's supposed to be levitation but I think it's fishy. They were hanging out there for a while.
I bought a ticket to see the Czech's national ballet perform Swan Lake on June 9th. Something to look forward to :).

Arrival

I arrived in prague with my fellow group members at 10AM on May 22nd. Traveling was pretty simple and I had no major issues or delays which is always welcome. After we arrived it was about 4 AM Eastern time, but we went to lunch where I just stared and tried to not fall asleep on my plate. I have yet to try the beer here but almost everybody else on our trip did. Our waiter didn't particularly like us, but what else is new? We then went on a walking tour with Dr. Klima around Prague and hit up some of the major sites, and we learned about the metro and tram systems and our local surroundings from our hotel. I am rooming with two other girls, Mimi and Katie. The weather is shaping up to be pretty gloomy for the rest of the week with rain and what not. Tomorrow we are touring the Prague castle and some churches and we have our first lecture. 
Just a few shots from today. I wish I could say where they all were from in Prague, but I was having enough trouble staying awake and walking and photo taking at the same time to pay attention to what Dr. Klima was saying...