Day 6: Prague to Vienna, via Kutna Hora!

A bright and early day today, despite my sore feet from all my dancing and wandering through prague thanks to cheap skate cabbies. I was once again the first person out of bed. So i wandered downstairs chuffed that i could eat as much as i wanted in the comfiest seats in a little peace and quiet. I quite enjoyed watching all the early morning buisness people hustling and bustling from my window seat when BAM! two incredibly drunk boys decided to press themselves up to the windows and begin telling me all about their crazy night! dont worry. i knew these ones haha. they had to ride the tram home smelling of a night out whilst the commuters just smiled and nodded knowingly. The boys made very interesting company for my quiet breakfast and before we knew it we were being hearded on the bus and heading off on our next adventure!

Our itinerary for today was the 'Bone Church in Kutna Hora' and the onto Vienna! I enjoyed sitting back and watching the scenery from the bus. One of my favourite parts of the contiki tour was watching the countryside from the bus. On both the Berlin to Prague and Prague to Vienna roads it was like communism never left. Some of the house still had bullet holes, the fields were bare, patches of snow littered the ground and old cars and shacks were the way of life. I wondered if these locals ever knew the berlin wall had fell. Or that should they choose they were free to go wherever they choose in the world.
 

 Kutna Hora...

Before i knew it we had arrived in Kutna Hora, who survived on the tourism the church brought into town! The Bone Church or as its properly know, The Sedlec Ossuary, houses the skeletons of between 40,000 to 70,000 humans, the bones of which have all been arranged to create chandeliers, a coat of arms, and other 'decorations and furnitures' within the church.

The outside of the church and its cemetary and the signature of  František Rint, the woodcarver incharge of the interior design...

The history goes that the churches abbot, Henry was sent to the Palestine aka, the Holy Land by King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. When he returned, he brought with him a small amount of earth he had removed from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. Word soon spread throughout Europe and  the cemetery in Sedlec became (excuse the pun) the dead centre of the era! haha. But in all serouisness. People clambered as fast as their deceased bodies could move to get a spot in the cemetery. As you can imagine the small space was soon filled and soon afterwards the older grave sites were exhumated and the skeletons stored in the chapel itself. A lovely man was the hired to clean up the bones and we can see his work still today.

 The interior of the church, The coat of arms and the candelabras. As you can see im at a loss of how to pose for the camera infront of the bones. It was truly a macarbe but fascniating place!

After the bone church we quickly dissapeared into town for lunch and were back on the bus en route to Vienna!!!
After arriving our bus driver did a quick loop of the city to orientate those of us who wanted to head out on the town for the night. I was not one of the party animals and was looking forward to a quiet night in with austrian tv and a cheap dinner when.... I saw it....

Skating infront of the Rathaus- Vienna

Vienna's City Ice Skating Rink. I think the group thought i was derranged when i threw myself against the window and watched the rink go by. In no time at all i had a group of willing participants and as soon as the bus had indicated to pull into a parking spot i was at the door waiting to get off! I have never skated anywhere so beautiful! The way the buildings were all light up as we skated to the classic hits of the late 20th century! It was truly a fantastic night had and after a quick coffee we headed back to the hotel with smiles from ear to ear.

day 5: Prague

Nothing much happened today. I wasnt feeling to well and was recovering in bed for most of the day.... 

In the afternoon I roused myself and went outside to browse through the close by shopping centre where I found a Promod! Yay :) Im in love with this european chain store. I quickly returned back to the hotel after being followed by a very enthusiastic local who wouldnt believe that my 'boyfriend' was meeting me back at the hotel in 5 minutes. Looking back I need'nt have panicked so much as I did. But that is the beauty of hindsight.

Luckily for me I had an amazing bunch of friends within the contiki group who acted as my escorts and fake boyfriends for the rest of the trip. And so arm and arm with my friends i was escorted to our final group outing in Prague!

We went to a traditional eatery in the cobblestone streets of the old centre and listened to traditional music and watched traditional dances! it was fantastic. my meal was wonderful and i even managed to get up and get dancing (with my two left feet). Thanks to the lovely Brendan who is a fantastic dancer!

Afterwards we again headed out on the same route as our pub crawl and danced the night away. At 2.30 in the morning our cab driver tried to rip us off and we found ourselves walking barefoot with heels in our hands back towards our hotel- not without a quick pitstop at Kfc on the way.... bloody cab drivers!

Day 4: Prague

Early this morning we were all showered and ready for a full day of sightseeing! we all looked like dogs breakfasts from the previous night out and everyone was cold and wobbly on their legs. but thats just the side affect of a night out in prague so im told.

 

Hradcany castle!

 
Our first stop was the beautiful Hradcany Castle, where we saw the changing of the guards, the centuries old Cathedral of St. Vitus and a well where unfortunate free thinking woman aka. witches were drowned in the days of witch hunting. the metal cage the surrounds the well is rumoured to bring bad energy and tormented souls to haunt those silly enough to touch. luckily no one was game enough to test this theory. 

 

The witches well in the central courtyard and the changing of the gaurds

The castle itself is amazing. perched high atop a mountain its cobblestone pavements are fantastic. My favourite part were the towers spurrets. Atop each spurret was a real golden ball. Hollow on the inside and containing the blue prints for all the buildings in the castle. Apparently Prague was often plagued by fires in the begginning of its life and the city officials needed a safe place for the blueprints. should they ever need to rebuild.

 Here you can just see the golden balls on the spurrets of this church- these hold the blue prints incase of fires

 
The cathedral of St. Vitas contains the tombs of many bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors and is one of the most amazing cathedrals i have ever seen. something right out of fairytales. The inside was so beautiful and huge that all i could do was stare with my mouth open. I loved the stained glass windows and only wish it had been sunny outside so we could see the play of lights.

 The cathedral of St. Vitas from the outside and the inside stained glass windows- i was a little too slow to notice my others photos from inside are blurry!

Our tour guide was wonderful after the changing over the gaurds she led us outside the castle walls where we could look out over all of prague with is amazingly beautiful red rooftops and colourful houses.

We then took the winding cobblestone streets down into the old city where we had coffees and hot chocolates before heading towards Charles Bridge and Old Town Square. 

My favourite part of prague- getting lost in these streets..

Charles bridge was so beautiful. I had been looking so forward to walking it that i was in a daze the whole time. I was very eager to touch the statue of St. John of Nepomuk. By rubbing the statue it is said you will be asured to one day return to prague. I cant wait for the day!

 Charles bridge and rubbing the statue of St. John

After quickly moving on we came to the Old town square of prague where we saw the renowned astronomical clock. I love this clock! its one of the oldest astronomical clocks in the world and the only one still working.  On the hour every hour the clocks statues perform for the city below. The first statue death tolls the bell to say that the end of life has come and so begins the march of the 9 apostitles (no idea what happened to the other 3) and after this march the golden rooster crows to signal that death will not triumph and another hour shall be lived. the story sounded much better when our tour guide told it to us.

 Another thing our tour guide mentioned that i thought was very interesting is that the majority of the Czech population have two birthdays- They have the day of their birth and their namesake day. Most czech names are chosen from a list of 365, with one name for each day of the year except national holidays. Any highly unusual name has to be checked by a special registary before being approved for the birth certificate!

Another little treasure of 'interst' in the old square was very eye opening 'sex machine museum' which provided everyone with half an hour of laughs and me with a renewed and disgusting understanding of the birds and bees haha.

Old town square- The crosses on the ground mark the execution site of 27 leaders of the rebellion against Emperor Matthias in 1621.


After our free time many of us were treated to a lunchtime cruise through prague. It was fantastic, the food was delicious and there was laughter and shots of traditional prague alcohol all round.
Afterwards many of us left the old town for a quick nap before another night out. my nap however turned into a day and a half recovery in bed as i was once again sick as a dog :(