Semester Break

So. I'm back in Rome.... for the next 15 hours or so.

sunset on the plane

Okay. last update was on Halloween, so I'll start from there. Assuming I can remember everything.

Powder Gate

That day, we were planning on going to Kutna Hora to see the bone chapel.  When we got to the train station, we asked a man at an information desk which train it was, and he told us it was at the other train station.... we didn't even know there WAS another train station, and that it was leaving in 7 minutes. So we literally ran to the other station, but didn't make it in time.

Astronomical Clock

Instead, we found out how to go about taking the train the next day.  Instead, we decided to go to the Botanical Garden.  The weather wasn't great, but it was good enough.  We got down there and walked through the garden area, where they had a bunch of rocks on display, which was kind of interesting, and then we accidentally went in through the entrance of the garden, and thus got in without paying. oops. We looked at the flowers for awhile, and admired the changing of the leaves, and then we headed out.

Fall Leaves!!

On the way back, we stopped to look at the Emauzy Monastery, and then ultimately ended up at the Dancing House.  I wasn't really sure why it was called that, or why it existed at all, but the house really does look like its dancing.  It was definitely interesting architecturally, and the sun was setting at that point, so the lighting was really pretty.

Dancing House!

We sat on some stairs and watched the sunset over the castle, which was really beautiful.  Then, we decided that since it was Halloween, we should go hang out in a cemetery (AKA go to the Old Jewish Cemetery which is a really famous tourist destination) but by the time we got there, it was all locked up for the day.  Too bad.  So instead, we decided to go to a Blacklight Theatre show.  If you don't know what it is, definitely look it up.  Prague is famous for it, and it was REALLY cool. The show we saw was about a horror film writer who was having some trouble with his cast.  It was hilarious, and really entertaining, and I'm very glad that we went.  It also fit the Halloween theme pretty nicely.  Before the show, we ate at an Italian restaurant (they're everywhere in europe, it's ridiculous) and I ate the best ravioli that I've ever had.  It was spinach ravioli with ricotta cheese in a simple butter sauce. Absolutely delicious.  And whatever Katey had was really good too. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the restaurant.  That evening, we ended up not going out, since it was a sunday night, and we were exhausted, so we went right to bed.

Coat of Arms in the Bone Church

The next morning, we actually woke up early enough to make it to the train station for our train to Kutna Hora! It took an extra 45 minutes on the train due to various delays, but we got there eventually, and headed straight for the bone chapel.  It was so cool.  I know it sounds creepy and whatnot, but its more artistic than anything.  It's hard to think of it as anything else.  I personally, am fascinated by that kind of stuff, so we spent a really long time there looking at how they used the different bones.  There is a chandelier in the middle of the room that has at least one of every kind of bone, so I was looking for the little bones from the hands and feet and those little tiny bones in your ears, but I couldn't find them.  I found some other interesting ones though.  After that, we walked around the cemetery outside, which was interesting, because some of the graves were rather new, and some people had been cremated and had the urns with their ashes in the cemetery with the rest of the family in the family plots. I also thought it was interesting that some of the graves from more than 100 years ago are still tended to almost daily by friends and family.  They almost all have fresh flowers and glowing candles.  I did my good deed of the day by going around and fixing flower arrangements that had been blown over in the wind.

Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Then we went to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary that was down the street.  Its a beautiful gothic style church that was full of natural light from the big windows.  It's one of my favorites that I've seen in all of Europe.  It was really quiet and the air flowed through it.  It wasn't stuffy like most churches.  And there was a lot to see all around the church.  So we spent awhile there too, before heading back into Prague.   When we got back, we went back to the hostel to eat dinner and hang out for while before heading out for a pub crawl! The pub crawl left from a bar near Old Town Square.  The first hour or so there is an open bar with unlimited beer and shots.  We started off drinking beer, but then we decided to do a shot of absinthe... I was a little nervous, since I've heard such crazy tales about experiences with absinthe, but it really wasn't that bad at all.  There was less than 15 people on our pub crawl, so we got to meet basically everyone, which was nice.  We met two girls that are studying in Brussels for the semester (the only other girls on the crawl) and they were really nice.  I also met a guy thats studying abroad in Rome, and frequents the same bar that we go to all the time! It is slightly ridiculous how small the world is.  One the pub crawl, we went to two other bars, and then ended up at a 5 story club.  We stayed at the club until about 3 am, and made it back to the hostel around 4 am.  It was a good night.

Tyn Church

The next morning, we slept in a little, and when we did wake up, we headed into Old Town Square for some Starbucks and a free walking tour.  The walking tour guide was really awesome.  He's an american ex-pat, and he had tons of historical information to tell us.  We went all around the city and finally learned about all the sights we had been visiting over the last few days.  I really enjoyed it, but I wished we had done it on the first day, so we would have had all the information going in. After the tour, we went back to the hostel so Katey could do some work for her online class. We hung out at the hostel for awhile, and then went out for dinner.  I had chicken in some sort of Roquefort sauce, which was surprisingly delicious.  That night, we decided to stay in and go to the pub in the hostel to drink a Pilsner beer, which is the main beer of the Czech Republic.  It tasted like beer- surprise, surprise. I'm not a big fan of beer, but I liked it better than a lot of other beers I've tried.  We went to bed rather early so that we could get up early the next morning.

St. Vitus' Cathedral

The next morning we woke up really early and headed to Prague Castle.  When we got there, the woman selling tickets basically forced us to pay for an audio-guide, even though we wouldn't need it.  We spent a LOT of time at St. Vitus' Cathedral, which I found really interesting, and I used the audio-guide to learn more useless facts than most people would ever dream about knowing.  But I thought it was interesting, so I didn't mind.  Here's one for you: The architect of the cathedral was Peter Parler. He took over the project after the original architect died.  Also, when the facade was finished/redone in the early 20th century, the architects wanted to leave their mark, so they included themselves in business suits amongst the religious figures/symbolism.  You have to look pretty closely to find them, but once you do, its pretty funny.  We also visited the old palace thing, and saw the story of the castle exhibit.  I learned a ridiculous amount about Catholic Saints, and some information about the castles inhabitants.  We walked around a little more, but didn't really have enough time to see everything.  When we were done there, we headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the airport for our flight to DUBLIN!

Prague Castle

All in all, i absolutely adored Prague. It's by far my favorite city that I've visited.  I did NOT want to leave, and now I want nothing more than to go back!! I'm going to stop there for now. I'll probably end up coming back later tonight and writing about Dublin, but that took a really long time to write, and I'm going to London tomorrow, so I got stuff to do...

sunset in Prague <3