My trip to Berlin left me a little dazed and confused, so my trip to Prague was destined to be a time of relaxation, walking around, and listening to...well, you know the drill. I also decided to do something I was at first a little weary of...CouchSurfing. It turned out to be amazing though, and my host couldn't have been nicer. Ryan is from Australia and is 25 and teaches English at a local university, as do his 2 roommates. I was lucky enough to have my own bed and set of keys, which made it very easy to go out during the day and see everything I needed to, then meet up with them at night.
I have to admit that I didn't party very much in Prague, partly a result of being a little burned out and partly because Ryan worked during the day everyday and couldn't really party that hard. We did go to a lot of little pubs though, the kind of which I never would have found on my own, which I was grateful for. I love that smoking is allowed inside and kids are routinely brought to bars while strangers smoke weed and cigarettes around them nonstop. And drinking starts early...I don't think there was a lunch that didn't have an accompanying beer (Czechs drink more beer than anyone statistically, even Germans, who come in second).
View of the Charles Bridge, which leads from old-town Prague to the Castle
This is the Old Town Hall of Prague, and is located in Old Town Square in Prague. From the top, you can basically get a really scary 360 degree view of the city.
As my walk continued, I went to the Prague Castle and, while I couldn't actually get into any of the buildings, there was a really beautiful gothic cathedral there, but unfortunately it closed 2 minutes after I got there.
This is my favorite Czech dish! Svickova...i think. Anyway its soo good with this kind os stew, brisket-like meat, bread "dumplings", cream, and cranberries, it was so Thanksgiving appropriate.
On my 3rd day in Prague, I took the opportunity to go to a place called Kutna Hora an hour outside of Prague. Aside from being literally one of the most random places I've ever been, Kutna Hora is basically a shithole, but they have this tiny part of town that has this place called the Sedlec Ossuary. Basically there was this monastery that was demolished to make room for a bigger church and unerneath it with vaulted ceilings, kinda creepy, a chapel. They let this artist use between 40 and 70 THOUSAND bones to make decorations and art with. Kinda crazy, but really cool!
See what I mean? All that's missing are the death eaters
Coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family, who funded the artist, who was originally a woodcarver.
Finally, there's a huge chandelier made entirely of bones, and it even has at least one of every bone in the human body...
This was Wednesday and I was leaving on Thursday, so I took a train back for a huge dinner and some beers and was finally able to smoke at this bar. In the morning I boarded a train for Vienna, where the pace picked up again...
Stay tuned!
xo
Jai'me
No comments:
Post a Comment