Location: Kutna Hora, Czechia

Week 1: Kutná Hora (Fri)

Friday was the second of two mandatory day trips and we had the choice between Plzeň and Kutná Hora. I chose Kutná Hora because we would be visiting a bone church (and who wouldn't want to see that). 

We drove an hour from Prague and made our first stop at the bone church, which is located up the street from the Museum of Bricks. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to make a pit stop :(

I'll be back </3

The bone church was wild. They don't allow pictures, but a picture wouldn't do it justice anyway. You can see the best picture I found online below and explore it virtually here. Myczechrepublic.com very generously informs us that "It contains the bones of about 40,000 people who died of the plague in 1318 and during the Hussite wars in the 15th century. They were originally buried at the church cemetery. When the cemetery was closed at the end of the 15th century, the exhumed bones were transferred to the chapel and compiled into pyramids. In 1870, František Rint of Česká Skalice arranged the bones and skulls into creative decorations that include bells, the Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms, and a chandelier." 

Mr. Rint, IN 1870, thought, "Let me get creative with it," gathered his friends, and I'm picturing an episode of Queer Eye, like, "Yes, honey, love the way you strung those femurs together 🌟" Joanna Gaines could never.

On a real note, I expected the bone church, as well as the catacombs in Paris, to have been constructed between the 12th and 16th centuries, when gothic architecture was poppin'.* It blows my mind that a church was decorated with bones over 100 years after America gained its independence. Now I feel insecure that I'm so shocked; somebody else, please, be intrigued by the way history works.

💀

After the bone church, we stopped at another, much more boring church. It would've been cool if I hadn't just seen a coat-of-arms made of bones. It did have a self-supporting spiral staircase that was interesting, but that's that on that. Oh, actually, I just remembered it did have two skeletons in clear coffins?? So never mind, a little more interesting than I had originally remembered.

We then stopped at another, mediocre church. Unfortunately, I remember this church accurately and am sad to say there were no bones, just your typical, beautifully constructed, gothic church.

Our group in front of the mediocre church

We then headed to lunch at a cute restaurant hidden amongst the mysterious, winding roads of Kutná Hora. I wasn't very hungry, so I got a side of roasted potatoes and vegetables and, honestly, one of the best meals so far. Kutná Hora does it all.

Entrance to the restaurant

After lunch, we went to a medieval silver mine and then, "You're not claustrophobic? Okay, good," into the medieval silver mine! We all thought the bone church was the highlight of the day, but then our tour guide told us to turn off our headlamps and sit in absolute darkness amongst the worms. I am now one with the worms.

Christine, Lilly and I before becoming one with the worms

I don't remember the lowest point of the ceiling or the smallest width of the path, but I assure you that it got cramped. Our guide also joked with us about how the miner's installed wood beams to hold up the ceiling and that sometimes they would deteriorate causing the mine to collapse, haha!

Roomie in the mine

After the mine, it was back to Prague where Julianna bought a VPN so we could hook her computer up to the TV and watch Project Runway. The finale is next week and I would love for Bishme or Brittany to win, but I don't think there's a world where Laurence loses. That opinion is for all the Project Runway viewers out there.

Enthralled by Project Runway

Ella and I didn't feel like going out for dinner, so we flipped through the channels before landing on the UK's version of House Hunters. In the end, the couple didn't choose a house, which launched me into the first wave of culture shock I've experienced on this trip. The whole point of the show is you see houses, and pick a house? There's no conclusion if you don't pick a house? They were also talking about saving the storks throughout the show. What storks? You have to introduce the storks before asking me to save them. Joanna Gaines would never.

General Thoughts

- Prague is awesome
- Friends are cool (I plan on a blog post introducing them all sometime soon; that's for you, Mom!)
- Room is clean

Specific Thoughts

- You should download the NYT Games app and play Connections
- Why is the NYT Games app's medium sudoku so hard?

-...

- Am I bad at sudoku?