Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora - Dry Bones Dry Bones

The next day... Kutná Hora! It's is a city situated in the Central Bohemian Region of Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic.

Sedlec Ossuary was the reason why we took an hour bus ride from Prague to Kutna Hora.

 

The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech: Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých) in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have in many cases been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. The ossuary is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, attracting over 200,000 visitors yearly.

Chandelier made out of human bones inside Sedlec Ossuary

 

Four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. An enormous chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vault. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a large Schwarzenberg coat of arms, and the signature of Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.

 

Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms made with bones

 

Signature of F. Rint written with bones

 

Chandelier made of bones and skulls

 

Wow.

 

Magnificent but we were still glad to be leaving Prague for Berlin after Sedlec Ossuary - we miss you Nicole!

Prague city and the romantic Charles Bridge and Prague Castle

More of Prague

It started pouring and us 2 Asian girls hid under our tiny umbrellas hoping to not get sick. The 3 other girls were not afraid, the 2 sisters even counter 1, 2, 3 and jumped into the huge puddle together! One was severely down with a flu anyway. They were so fun loving and we were so conservative in comparison. But oh wells, we still had Berlin ahead of us!

Then we went to a cafe and chatted since the rain was too heavy - the guide shared more about this beautiful city of his (he's Czech, of course). Somehow, the group started talking about Shakespears, how they feel about it and their favourite work of his. So much about our education - I remember the feeling when I had no contribute at all towards this conversation among Europeans, Australian and South Africans. I know about Shakespears and his work, but has never pay enough attention to form any opinion of it. But it was a feeling, and experience that I remember till today! Not that I've done anything much towards it though :)

I hope Mandy has done better!

Then it got dark - I swear the view on Charles Bridge overlooking Prague Castle is the most breathtaking sight I've seen in my life, I can say the same after these 6 years. Only the view on a hotair balloon in Cappadocia can compare till today, for me!

Cappadocia, Turkey

 

That is so amazing really.

 

 

Anyway coming back to Prague! Charles Bridge overlooking Prague castle was an amazing amazing sight. So romantic. I may want to go again for my honeymoon (no idea when and with who!) Though Interlaken of Switzerland has always been on my mind too...

 

Goodness. Too many places to go!

Anyway back to Prague!!!

Then it got dark and cold and it continued to rain - we tried to locate some restaurant that we have pinpointed on travel guide books, but could not find it too well. We tried to get shelther in shops like everyone else, but the shopkeepers keep chasing us out as we are obviously not interested in making any purchases. Can't remember for sure, but I think we ate some stuff, and went back to the apartment to make my favourite instant noodles ;)

They have bowls in the apartment you know! It was so awesome :)

 

I think we ate this for one of the train rides - good enough for me! :)

Start of the Orange Umbrella Prague City tour - Astronomical Clock at Old Town Square

We chanced upon a flyer which was the Orange Umbrella Tour. Somehow it looked right. NO registration whatever required - just be at the location at 3pm on any day and look for the Orange Umbrella.

 

All walks start by the Astronomical Clock at Old Town Square. Look for the orange umbrella with our sign.

The famous Astronomical Clock at Old Town Square

 

 

The Prague astronomical clock, or Prague orloj is a medieval astronomical clock located in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.

 

The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures—notably a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

 

 

When the clock strikes - everyone watches.

 

 

Even on their big day.

 

 

So we found the guide and 3 other girls joined us - 2 sisters from South Africa, and an Australian teacher. They were on Contiki tour http://www.contiki.com/

 

Instead of going shopping like the rest of their tourmates, they have decided to take a historical tour of this ancient capital of Czech republic. So the guide said it's 3pm, let's start!

 

We were surprised - just 5 of us girls - that's really exclusive!

 

http://www.praguetravel.cz/html/prague_walking_tours.php

 

For some real Prague flavour - Karlštejn Castle

Now we are ready for some real stuff!

Going towards the Karlstein Castle! Honestly don't remember very much about it anymore, but we was just great to get some decent sun after the saga. To be complete, I'll provide some information from the official and supplement photos that we took :)

Karlštejn Castle is a large founded in 1348, which has a unique position among Czech castles. It was built by Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles's collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire. The first stay of Charles IV in the castle is documented in 1355 when he came to supervise the building works as well as the decoration of interiors, especially the castle chapels. The construction of the castle was finished in 1365 when the Chapel of the Holy Cross situated in the Great tower was consecrated.

More information here http://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/history/

 

 

A lake nearby - such peace...

 

 

Risk being run down by the train...

 

 

Both of us did

 

 

 

And we got back to the apartment by train and some walking... read up brochures and decided to join the Orange Umbrella tour in the afternoon!

The first morning in Prague when the nightmare was finally over

When we woke up (alive), we walked to the train station to get our Euros changed! It was a lovely walk I've to say - people dressed for work, having breakfast at cafes and MacDonalds (actually really glad to see the familar MacDonalds).

Got some Czech crowns and threw the rent at the retired prostitute, asked to check out. She was obviously unhappy but we couldn't wait any longer to get out of this bloody place!

This place. We made the booking on http://www.hostelworld.com/ but it was a different name. The guy walked us over to this one remember. We went back to read the reviews, apparently they change names on the website often to con young travelers like ourselves (back then)

This. Centrum II Hostel. Bet you it no longer exist on your search engines

 

So after being cool and throw that little amount of money and demanding our passport, we had no place to stay for the next 2 nights. But we still want to see this city, hoping that this unfortunate encounter will not repeat itself! While I patiently waited and looked after the luggages (2 months worth of traveling stuff - thank god it was summer), Mandy ran around city of Prague to find us a place to stay. We could not afford those fancy hotels just across the road, therefore it was a much more challenging task.

 

After an hour Mandy came back with good news! She found an apartment for us, and the owner was coming to pick us up in a car. For I can't remember how much, SGD64/night for both? The hostel was SGD16/night/pax, while the Swiss girls next door was paying SGD9/night/pax. We couldn't get over the fact that we were conned and bullied.

 

The owner came and helped us with the luggages. His dog leaped into the car boot and stepped on my emotional support, the Miffy balloon that we bought in Groningen Medical Centre!!!

 



I sucked it up and moved along. At least we had a place to stay!

It was a short drive, 15min? The apartment was couple of subway stations away from the main train station, 6-7 stations away. It was near Czech Inn, was heaven compared to the hostel we put up in the night before.

May not look that awesome in the photos, but at least it felt SAFE. With a mini kitchen where we could make Asian instant noodles! Hahaha. And TV that we hardly used, but it was so important that it felt safe.

The owner told us where to get good breakfast, a traditional something, how to take the subway, how much it usually cost, places of interest. I've his name card somewhere... though we may not be staying in such a hostel / apartment anymore if we ever visit Prague again, we probably will remember the hospitality :)

It was probably 11am or something when we finally settled down - ready for the REAL Prague! :)


Three lessons especially for young female Asian travelers:

1. Never NEVER arrive in a new place/city when it's dark. No matter how you do it, try to reach before 4pm (may have to reach earlier in winters) so that you can navigate, get to the place when you are putting up, collect some brochures and maps and plan your next few days in that place

2. Always arrive with some local currencies. At least to take a taxi, have a meal or to pay for a night stay. Withdraw the money via cirrus ATM is also an option, provided you can find one.

3. DO NOT stay near the main train station. Is it NOT safe and tend to be most complicated with tourists therefore petty crimes and con cases. Staying slightly further i.e. couple of subway stations away may be a little inconvenient but much safer. Unless you are staying in a 4 star hotel and above which has some guarantee to your safety - else please DON'T.

Hello, again! To continue the story, actually a nightmare post Munich...

It's been 5.5 years since we updated the blog at all! Instead of Mandy, this's Maggie trying to complete our adventure here :) As we returned from the trip, we got busy we school, pre-registration training for me, PhD for Mandy, and now that both of us are working in our respective areas. Too many changes in these 5.5 years! Anyhow, what inspired me to continue must have been one of the following:

1. Photobook addiction:
In the past few months, Groupon has been having those photobook/photobook mart deals, which I've gotten myself hooked on. Made me dig out all digital photos I've ever since, not knowing what to do with them, but anything between $0-$30 a fully colored 40 pages photobook for each trip seemed really cool.
http://www.photobooksingapore.com/
http://www.photobookmart.com.sg/

So I went through all photos and got into the craze, in fact euphoria of all the traveling again. Got my hands on our student exchange photos too - but got reminded of this blog, which is probably a much better idea! Like to thank Mandy for her effort with the blog 6 years ago :) I can help to complete our journey here, 6 years on! :)


2. Idea for traveling writing:

Got this for myself from Hong Kong! Had always have thoughts for traveling and writing, even full time. Never knew if I can write at all, thus trying out here as well :)

Another book that I've lend to Mandy just last week:

Will see how far these traveling stuff bring us :)


Bringing us back to 2007:

After the great city tour in Munich, we were headed for the train to Prague, Czech Republic. Most of us probably have heard how romantic and beautiful this city has been, though perhaps many have not been! It for sure lived up to its expectation of being as amazing as it's known to be, but not without it's shortcomings. There goes the start of our nightmare:

Although we did not reserve a seat (I think), the train wasn't too full, therefore it was ok to find a seat or two. The train was like that in Harry Potter, with the second class carriage having 6 seats that face each other. There were no empty carriages, therefore we went into one with a strange big guy hugging his luggages, with eyes closed. (Sleeping maybe, can't be sure).

We went in, tried to be as quiet as we could, but the train was so old and creepy compared to the ICE trains that we saw going between the EU countries i.e. the Netherlands and Germany. Bad start.

To add on, we planned to leave Munich in the early morning and reach Prague in the afternoon. The Munich city tour was unplanned, therefore pushed everything else backwards. We really managed to leave Munich only at 3pm, which means reaching Prague at 11pm. VERY BAD CHOICE. I'll explain why.

It got dark, and the whole time we were just hoping that the sign PRAHA will appear magically ahead of time. But it didn't. At 9pm, it started POURING and my heart totally dropped. Bad weather says it all about my mood, almost all the time.

Then it reached some station which was not yet our station. Another 2 hours...

When it finally reached, it was 11pm, DARK, many homeless people (I assume) sleeping in the quiet Prague train station and money changer closed (obviously). We dragged out luggages out of the station onto the cobblestone walk way, half praying that the wheels do not fly out else we are gonna to have quite a bad life for the rest of the journey (we were poor students remember, can't afford another luggage in the middle of the trip, I guess)

Holding the map and address of the hostel we booked, we tried to navigate. However in such light there is almost no hope that you can tell anything much. A couple came our way, and we asked for directions. The middle aged couple apologize politely in English, explained that they do not know, as they are tourists too, from Mexico. However they were leaving the city and do not need their map anymore, therefore we could have it. It was definitely better than the print out google map we had at that point of time (mind you, no iphone back then, no google maps, no roaming, no money)

We walked a little more and decided to give up. Saw a taxi and explained where we wanted to go (the hostel should be near the train station actually we just could not navigate), and told the driver that we had no local currency (Czech crown). We only had Euro, and the driver quoted 10 Euros. We were sure it's daylight (actually nightlight or nolight) robbery, but had little choice. We got onto the cab and reached without 5 minutes (for 20 SGD?! --> exchange rate back then was 1 to 2)

We called the hostel in the afternoon while we were still in Munich, informing our new arrival time. The hostel guy stood at the address and waited for us, and said that the room reserved for us is taken as we were late @#$)&*$%)&

Did we not have an agreement? Anyway, he brought us to a hostel 2 streets away, stating it's of the same value. Again, we had NO CHOICE. We followed him and was "greeted" by a retired prostitute looking woman who was fat, (with makeup?), red fingernails, spoke almost no English. She demanded for one of our passport as we had no Czech crowns to pay the rent that night. Mandy gave it to her and took it back secretly afterwards, which she came banging on our door demanding for it. We gave in in exchange for a shelther over our heads that night. Mandy might have preferred to sleep on the streets actually, but I was too timid to do that. Like seriously?! In Czech Republic?! No way.

 



We booked an ensuite (Since things in Czech Republic is much cheaper even poor students like us could afford), but the room had obviously no bathroom attached to it. So much as being the same value. The shower was outside, with no lock and no where to place your stuff. We were so scared, and had a silly quote to say before the other one of us can get back into our room after showering (Mandy what were we thinking?!)

When we were finally bathed and ready to sleep, we placed an empty plastic bag on the doorknob of our room, such that any attempt of opening our room door would alert me the light sleeper.

OMG.

 

Well amazingly, after such a bloody scary experience with the whole I'm so going to die saga, we slept really soundly, but got up at 6am? When it was bright and we were all ready to go to the train station to exchange for some local currency and escape this shitty hostel (literally how we named photos related to this hostel)

 

Have I mentioned that the room was full of graffiti saying GET OUT OF THIS F place while you can?!



EURAIL Passes

EURAIL passes are certainly a cheap way and convenient way to travel around Europe, especially if you're under 26 (cheaper prices for youths). Besides, train rides provide some really great scenery. You'd also notice how the landscape of each country can be so different, even if they are just bordering each other.

However, there is indeed lots to learn about using that EURAIL pass before you can actually ENJOY your ride, so let me share a few pointers of whatever I know:

• VALIDATE your pass before using it!
• Write down the date that you're going to use it before you board the train, or ASAP when you're on it
• Keep your passport somewhere handy, conductors will check both your pass and your passport together
  
• RESERVE seats if necessary
  
• This is extremely important especially for Intercity Express (ICE) trains. We had to stand a large part of our 6 hour journey from Amsterdam to Munich because we did not reserve seats. The EURAIL pass DOES NOT guarantee you a seat. It only allows you onboard the train.
• Don't reserve seats if not necessary
• Not all trains are full, hence you'll get seats even if you don't reserve them. The best way to determine if there's a need to is to ask the ticketing office at the train station if there's likely a need to. We paid between 6EUR to 22EUR for each seat reserved. The cost varies from trip to trip.
• Know which seats have been reserved, and from which station to which station (if you haven't reserved your own seat)
  
• The ICE trains (and the DB German trains too, if I don't remember wrongly) have digital displays above the seats to show which seats have been reserved, and from which station to which station. If the display is not litted, congratulations, the seat has not been reserved and you're unlikely to be interrupted if you occupy that seat. If however, all the displays are litted, pick a seat that has been reserved from the furthest away station --- you'll get to sit for a longer period at least.
  
• Conductors can be nice or nasty
• Some will allow you sit in the first class cabin, even tho your ticket's for the second class (when there are no seats left in second class). Some will chase you away from family cabins even tho there's no family in sight that needs it. Just deal with it.
  

Can't think of anymore tips to post here, but hope these few help anyway!