Kutna Hora

My friend Julia and I went to Kutna Hora last weekend.  Just a short train ride from Prague.  We went with the intent of seeing the Bone Church - and did we ever:

The ossuary holds the bones of 40,000 dead - mostly due to the plague.  So many people were dying that they had no where else to keep their bodies.  So they were arranged inside of this church, mostly just stacked up in piles of bones, some strung from the ceiling, and others making up a giant chandelier in the center of the ossuary.

A very strange experience.

Budapest

I spent last weekend in Budapest with Bennett and Martha.  Our hostel was in a residential building near the center of town.  We had a gorgeous courtyard and a wonderful view of the Music Academy just a building or two down.

The weather was extremely cold and it snowed most of the time we were there, but thanks to my Smart Wool socks and the mulled wine being sold all over town, I survived just fine.  We enjoyed our first European snowfall walking the grounds of an unknown (to us) castle near Hero's Square.

Our last night was spent eating marzipan sweets and drinking mulled wine out of funny gift shop mugs we bought at the Christmas market.  We found this funny thing in the middle of the market - a balloon over the assumably old/famous/weather sensitive statue.

It was great to have Bennett around for two weeks - though I would have been happier with two more.  I didn't get to show him much around Prague -  hit the basics, that's about it.  We had big plans to do a million other things, but two weeks doesn't seem to be enough time to do much at all.  I'm feeling so antsy to get home now that he's gone.  School is wrapping up in a couple weeks - then Martha and Pete will be here for my last weekend in Prague!

See you soon Minnesota!

p.s. Thanksgiving was great.  Especially the three kinds of pie (of which I had a slice of each).

Makeshift Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving buffet in Prague.

We'll see how this goes.

Berlin

Bennett and I made it to Berlin a couple weekends ago.  We were greeted by hoards of German soccer fans celebrating a victory and a young German boy doing a dance of sorts down the isle of the S-Bahn (while trying to hit on the punk girl sitting near him).

Visited the Bauhaus Archive.  Saw some beautiful tapestries and even more beautiful chairs.

Visited (of course) the Berlin Wall.  Saw a lot of shitty tags, but also saw some pretty neat art.

Went to a couple markets and found some old maps of the Bohemian lands for 3 euros.  Worth it!  Found the most perfect one-of-a-kind, hand-made bracelet.  Regretfully I pass it by.  I hope the lucky someone who snatches it up will take the time to appreciate it's perfection.  

I ate the most perfect food while I was in Berlin.  A warm flour tortilla with spinach and feta folded inside, then rolled up with lettuce, cabbage, onions and other unknown veggies.  SO DELICIOUS!!!  I wish I had a name for it, so I could find out where it comes from.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Graz, Austria

The roof of the art museum.

The train station I was stranded at for three hours.

I went to visit Martha last weekend in Graz, Austria.  Took the train - took nearly twelve hours.  I'm not even sure what happened, but we were just one train station outside of Prague and the train sat there for three hours.  The man in my car was saying that it's pretty common for that to happen on this particular route - yuck.  I found it pretty funny that almost immediately after crossing the Czech/Austrian border you could feel the difference in the landscape.  The Czech Republic is beautiful, but it's got nothing on Austria.  

By the time I made it to Graz, I was exhausted and terribly cranky.  Martha picked me up at the train station and we headed over to her place.  That night we wandered the streets of Graz with Theresea trying to find tickets for a music festival that was going on that night.  We walked up and down the city - seriously, the whole city.  We found no tickets, but we did find the wildest club in town.  I wish I could tell you more, but we didn't go in.  Instead we went to a music bar and watched music videos - I think we made the right choice there.

We had big plans to check out a market down the street from Martha's place on Saturday morning, but instead we spent the morning sleeping.  By the time we got out of the house it was already mid-afternoon.  We went to the art museum and some some crazy fetus art by Xiao Yu.  Crazy - really.  Then we hunted down some tickets for that night of the music festival - the music could have been better!  The venues were nice though - it was good to see those.  We also visited the Gyro stand in the center of town twice.

Sunday we spent the day hoofing it around Graz.  We climbed the mountain in the center of town (climbed = took the trolly car).  Walked down the art street.  Visited the university.  Walked through the city park.  Sunday was Austria's National Day, so there wasn't much going on - everyone had the day off.  Then we went home and had burritos for dinner!!!!!  So good.

Monday we woke up early and headed to town - visited a few shops and waited for my train.  The ride home was 8 hours - only one hour longer than it was supposed to be.

Elections '08

Today my czech roommate asked me if I thought George Bush will win the election.

Weekend in Krakow

I spent last weekend in Krakow.  It was amazing!  The city moves at a different pace than Prague, a pace that seems to fit well with my own.  Spent most of the weekend in the Jewish Quarter - there's a lot going on around there.  Outdoor markets and beautiful details.  

Stumbled upon this gem of a tea house.

This Church was gorgeous!  The Church of St. Francis just a few blocks from the Old Town Square.  I could have spent hours inside admiring these walls.

Just a few days before we got to Krakow it was the anniversary of Pope John Paul II becoming Pope (he was from Krakow) so there were memorials for him all over the place.  We would be walking down the street and turn the corner to find a brick wall covered in these candles - they were EVERYWHERE.  This was one of the reasons that Krakow felt so real to me - evidence of people living their lives all over the city.