Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Day 7 - Kutná Hora + Prague

turn me around so I can be
everything I was meant to be
Lord I need loving
Lord I need good, good loving
Tell Me a Tale - Michael Kiwanuka

Day 7 started with taking the 08:06 train to Kutná Hora. From Prague, it takes around 50 mins. The purpose of going there was to visit Sedlec Ossuary or Church of Bones. There's a slight of confusion on which direction to go when I arrived at the train station, but I made it. Also found where the ticketing office is and got my ticket to visit this Church of Bones. I didn't really know what to expect. I think I was expecting more like a catacomb. The ossuary is very small, located under a church. When I arrived there's not many people there being early in the day. We couldn't take pictures there, but an Asian guy (I think Korean) was trying to stealthily take pictures using his phone. Then other Asian tourists arrived (I think Chinese) and one of the lady just quite openly took pictures with her phone. I was like oh guys, don't give us Asians a bad name, but then I became one of those bad tourists and followed suit - I'm sorry you guys. Took two pictures using my phone, one of them wasn't good and one of them is below.

You would take maybe just 10-15 minutes to see all that's to see in the ossuary. It is that small and when I was there some part which was actually being covered, seemed like they're doing restoration. I really thought this wasn't a good decision on my part, it's not worth the journey back and forth to see this, I should have spent the whole day in Prague. I guess if you make it to the other part of Kutná Hora where I read there's a beautiful church, it might be worth it, but I didn't make my way there because it's some distance away from the ossuary and I've been to many churches so while it might beautiful, it's also possible I wouldn't be that amazed. So then I had way to much time to kill before my train back at 11:01. So I started by taking pictures of the cemetery just around the church ground and then I visited the small church on top of the ossuary which also has nothing much. It does have a small window that looks down to the entrance of the ossuary and I did manage to take a few pictures of the bones arrangements that are visible from there.

There's another church nearby, Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist, but being that it was Sunday, there was a mass going on and we couldn't enter. I just saw a little bit of the inside of the church from the small window at the door.

Then I decided to just have a late breakfast at the cafe by the Museum of Bricks. I literally thought it's a museum about bricks which perhaps could be interesting, but it seems like it's a lego museum kinda thing. After that I just made my way back to the train station, stopping first to buy water at a shop which again I think was manned by Vietnamese. I googled this, Vietnamese are the third-largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic. From Wikipedia, Vietnamese immigrants began settling in the Czech Republic during the communist period, when Vietnam, which sought to bolster its skilled workforce, sent students and guest workers to socialist Czechoslovakia for education and training. How interesting. Anyways, for pictures from Kutná Hora, you can go here. I don't have many though.

Back in Prague, I had a few items on the list, seriously just being a tourist visiting places and taking pictures. I downloaded Prague tram route map before the trip, couldn't really get it, but somehow on the day my brain clicked. From Prague main train station, I took a metro first to a stop that would allow me to get on a tram that I needed. The metro frequency didn't seem to be quite often, I don't know if it's because it's a Sunday or because it's off-peak hour. Anyways, got on the metro and the tram and my first stop was the Dancing House. Yep, that's how much of a tourist I was. I basically made an effort to get there just to take pictures, but there were many other tourists there too. In fact I took a picture for a group of Italians who suspected I could speak Italian because I counted them down in Italian. I wish I could be more fluent though.

Next, it was to the Prague Castle. When I was about to get ticket, I saw they were about to change the guards, so I went to watch that first.

The Prague Castle ticket that I bought covered the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane, and St. Vitus Cathedral. They're all inside the compound of this castle, so the castle compound is very big. The first thing that I visited is St. Vitus Cathedral because it's the nearest to the ticketing counter. The cathedral is big with a lot of things inside it. When I was there, it's also quite full of tourists. A point that might be useful for future visitors - there's a toilet just outside the cathedral and it's free :D

After that, I went to the Golden Lane first because that day the lane was closing earlier. I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite interesting. It's basically an area where people used to live. It's one long alley and there are different houses and inside the houses are exhibits showing items belonging to the people who used to lived there from way in the olden times to the more contemporary time. Google told me that the last residents moved out in 1953 and there were many famous people who used to live there too. I just remember there's a famous fortune teller who used to live in one of the houses. She had some tragedy in her life and then she became a fortune teller.

At the end of the Golden Lane was some dungeon or punishment area. I googled, apparently the name is Daliborka Tower. I looked at my photos, I took some pictures of really scary instruments of torture. You can see it in my Flickr album. After the Golden Lane, I went to the St. George's Basilica. Again I couldn't remember much, so I'm trying to remember what it's like by looking at my photos.

The last thing I went to is the Old Royal Palace which I think is the least interesting thing compared to the rest. I remember there's a long hall. Then there's a room where there were many crests of what I assume the different royal families.

After that I was done and I made my way out of the castle and on to the next points in my list. Getting out the castle, I passed an area that gave a good view of Prague.

The next points in my list were the Waldstein Garden and Lennon wall. Somehow I got lost on my way to the Waldstein Garden that I gave up. I reached Malostranska metro station though and Google map shows that it should be nearby, so maybe I wasn't lost, it's just it really takes that long to walk there. Either way I was tired of walking and trying that I just took the tram to the next point in the list, Petřín hill. Honestly, I think it's too much of an effort to get there, but my transport ticket was a 24-hour ticket and it covered the funicular that gets you up there, so I thought might as well get the most used of the ticket. If I wasn't that tired, I think Petřín could be quite nice to explore. There was a garden and when I was there were many roses. There's also a tower. Being up on the hill, I thought it might give me a good view of Prague, but I couldn't find any vantage point. Maybe you need to get up on the tower or maybe walk around more. I didn't do any of that because I was really kinda tired of walking. In the end I didn't spend that much time in Petřín, I didn't see all that it has to offer.

Next was to fulfill the definitely must-see places of a tourist in Prague. First stop was Charles Bridge. The way there was filled with tourists. Looking at my picture, before walking the bridge, it seemed I entered St. Francis Of Assisi Church. The picture below is of St. Salvator Church which was also nearby.

I actually didn't take any picture of the bridge on its whole because it's just filled with many people. I did take pictures of the many statues lining the bridge. Below is a picture of the castle as seen from the bridge.

After I reached the end of bridge, I thought why not try for the Lennon wall again. The walk there was quite quiet, to the point I wondered if I was getting to the right direction. I think there was moment of being lost a bit, but I got there. Though there were some tourists, it wasn't a lot. Most were young people who I'm sure needed the photos for their instagram. One guy was like a bit exasperated his friend couldn't frame him the way he wanted it to be :D The wall itself is not very big. I didn't really get a close look at it because I think people needed their space for photos.

Then it's back crossing the bridge again and when I reached the other side, I saw a Hare Krishna procession. I don't know if they do this every Sunday. After being told the day before that most Czechs are atheists, it's interesting that there are those who found their way to this. It was definitely my first time seeing this.

Last point of the day was Prague Old Town Square and also to see the Prague Astronomical Clock. It was also filled with tourists. A while after I reached there, the Hare Krishna group also got there. It was a tiring day, a lot of walking. I checked, I clocked in more than 25,000 steps.

Dinner was italian pasta with non-alcoholic beer. Chose that because I was curious and it was cheaper than like other non-alcoholic drinks and I have to say I like it a lot. Okay I don't drink a lot of beer so for me to say it tastes like beer, well perhaps don't take my word for it, but for me it really tastes like beer and I like the fact it gave you nothing, no buzz, nothing, which is perfect for me who travels alone and needs to be alert. I was already so tired so my alertness level was perhaps already going down, I couldn't be impaired more. I think non-alcoholic beer is quite common in Europe, but I never find this being offered in the menu in Singapore. Side note: the first time I drank beer was as a toddler when my dad asked if I would like to try his. This was usually when he's about to finish his beer so he offered me a little before he finished it off. I wonder what he would think of non-alcoholic beer, if only he could get a chance to taste it. Gosh, I'm gonna tear up writing this, but there are moments when things happen when I wonder what my dad would think about it *sigh*

:) eKa @ 8:59:00 PM •