PRAGUE – Czech Republic (Tues 28 July)

We were quite glad to leave the hostel today. After reading back on what I wrote, it did feel like a bit of a whiner. After all we had a better welcome than a young couple that arrived last night. They flew into Prague yesterday and then grabbed a train to Olomouc, arriving at the hostel at about 10pm. They effectively had their key thrown at them, their money taken from them, and then the welcoming committee left. When they climbed the stairs to their room they found that they had no lights, no power, and no one to complain to, or to request a room change or help in any way. The poor guys were left trying to find their way around their room by the light of their mobile phone.

Like I said we were quite glad to leave the hostel today, but this was not to be before having a run in with the long arm of the law … well almost. You would think that first thing in the morning when there is hardly anyone around, it would be quite safe to sneak a quick drive, 25 meters down a one way street and through the hostel gates to load up our bags. Unfortunately, down that small piece of road there happened to be two police women on patrol walking towards me. As I drove in the gates they followed me in on foot. I greeted their stern expressions with the best smile that a kiwi boy can muster. They started rattling off some French (I just love these French number plates – they get blamed for everything). I knew exactly what they were saying but refused to acknowledge that, and fortunately for me neither of them spoke or understood a word of English. After lots of smiles, nods, gestures and them laughing between themselves at the absurdity of the situation, they shrugged their shoulders and walked off. Today is going to be a good day. The last thing we wanted was trying to decipher a ticket, and figure out how and where to pay it.

After leaving Olomouc the weather wasn’t so kind, it became overcast very quickly, but that isn’t such a bad thing when we have a driving day. It is still a bit of a shock to the system when yesterday we were struggling with 30 plus degrees and today it was dipping down to 17.

We stopped at a little place on the way through called Kutna Hora. This place is famous for one thing … bones. There is a bone church here. This town was once quite a bustling little city that rivaled nearby Prague, due to silver mines. That was until the silver mines ran out of silver in 1762. But in the church there were different goings on. The local abbot (Henry) had been to the Holy Land and brought back a handful of dirt from Golgotha. As a consequence everyone who was anyone, from near and far, wanted to be buried in the crypt.

In 1870 a local woodcarver was allowed to get creative with the bones of the 40,000 residents. In the four corners of the church there are huge stacks of bones organized into large alter like shapes that almost reach the ceiling, each one topped with a crown. The central chandelier is made from at least one of every bone in the body, there are two very large goblet like shapes on each side of the stairs as you enter, there is a Schwarzenberg coat of arms (with a rook pecking out the eye of a Turk). The whole place is festooned with human bones, sculpted into various forms and shapes. This is what you might call ‘Grave Art’.

I think I have mentioned before, the way people here take their dogs everywhere, and we’re not just talking little ‘Paris Hilton’ type dogs (her dog, not Paris Hilton), we’re talking big dogs like Bull Mastiffs. Someone had brought their very large dog into the ‘Bone Church’. Now wouldn’t that be ‘Doggie Heaven’? Judging by the drool, he obviously thought so.

Our general impression of the bone church though wasn’t as expected. And we aren’t sure if that was because of the mummified bodies in the crypt in Brno that we had seen just a few days earlier was still fresh in our memories? Was it because most of what we saw there we had seen in their promotional material and books, so there were no real surprises? Or was it because it seemed to be a little musty and unkempt? The tourists pour through this little church, the prices aren’t exactly bargain bin, and yet it doesn’t appear as if there is any maintenance that goes on. The ceiling above the corner alters is just crumbling away, falling down and you wonder how long before this work of art will be buried again. It’s a shame really, because it is certainly unique.

From here we went the few kms up the road to Prague. Our first mission was to check in to the Hostel, but we got distracted on the way. We found a cheap hairdresser, so I had my first foreign professional haircut, and Ohhhh … it feels so good. It is surprising how good it feels to feel a little less like an unkempt itinerant tourist, or in layman’s terms a ‘bum’.

After the last hostel, this one was a dream. A private bathroom, a double bed and enough room to swing a cat. Maybe we need to stay in the ‘dives’ occasionally to make us appreciate the little things, like lights that work and running water. We don’t even mind the five floors of stairs that we have to walk up and down every day.

Our next mission was to walk into town, our destination, the astronomical clock. We had decided that tomorrow we would join a walking tour to orient ourselves and to see the main sights. From there we can go back to see the things that we like. We had been told by people that we had run into that there are free tours, but do you think we could find them?! Even the information centre didn’t know about them. Perhaps they know and just don’t want to share, as there are paid tours that seem to leave every five minutes. Perhaps they get commission. Finally after much digging we found that if you turn up at 10:00am there will be someone outside the Czech Tourist Office (the opposite side of the old square to the Information Centre) with a ‘Parrot Green’ umbrella … this is your guide. They do a morning tour of 2 hours Old Town and Jewish Quarter and an afternoon tour that starts at 1:30pm for a further 2 hours that takes you across the Charles Bridge to the Lesser Town and the castle. These tours are run by students and history buffs, and operate solely on tips. If you don’t like the tour, you don’t pay. It sounded like a good system to us. Tomorrow we have a date, 10:00am.