Friday, 13 September 2013

Prague Day 9


Oh god oh god, Blog Panic.  Haven’t typed in days!!  And my public [read: 3 readers] needs [read: may or may not see this] me!  What did we do the next day??  Oh yes, I took Ads on a random tram ride through the city, so he could get a taste of it.  We went with Antonia and Jörg on a tour to a place called Kutna Hora.  Yes, some precarious possible spoonerisms in there.  So the tram ride.  We end up on the outskirts of the city, seemingly miles away [read: about 1 km] from everything, and I am convinced we will be too late to pay for the trip, and we will be kicked off and then our friendship with Jörg and Antonia will be ruined forever... Naturally, none of the above hyperbolic events happened and we left for the little town in the countryside that requires a bus ride.  It was once [1300s] the seat of the King’s residence and the mint, when it was a rich silver mining centre.  Naturally, the silver ran out and everything then moved to Prague.  There is a[nother] very large cathedral there, St Barbora’s; a gothic masterpiece that took 100s of years to complete.  I forget what St. Barbora did.  If you were Rachel Berry from Glee, she inspired your entire life and career, and is worthy of a huge place of worship.  As with all cathedrals, it is just lovely.  Too big/ much to take in. 

Down the road is the Chapel of All Saints, which contains an ossuary.  It is quite literally, many, many saints.  There are 40 000 bones in there, arranged into charming interior design motifs.  A highly recommended way to deal with departed relatives if funereal costs are just too high.  There are naturally gruesome souvenirs available- because they are badly made in China, not because they are skulls.

The surrounding town is a UNESCO site; and quite twee.  We have fair to middling pizza for lunch and then head home.  The bus drop off is at Wenceslas Square, and I know the Museum of Communism is there, hilariously, above a casino and a McDonalds.  We walk and then grumpily stalk around looking for it, but it’s just not there.  But I saw it with my own two eyes when Andrew the amazing beard- dying verbose tour guide took us past there the other day!! We check the 2, yes, 2 McDonalds/ casino combos on the square, several times, as if the capitalist fairies who beamed the museum up for maintenance will have put it back since we last checked.  No luck.  We give up in favour of a charming little pub thing near home under the Charles Bridge, where the fare is basically sausages and cold meat and... beer... .  The tables are mounted into old sewing machine stands- a completely random and unexpected find!  Some local men momentarily think I am photographing their crotches when I climb under the tables, until I explain the sewing machines to them- a fact which they had never before noticed, quite understandably...

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