Them Bones, Them Bones...
Listening: Now that I am grown, everything’s changed. I’ll never be the same because of you.
Hola kiddies. I'm not supposed to be at this internet cafe right now. I should be out drinking with two aussies, two Yorkshire lads and a couple from Wales. But I'm not. I'll get more inot that later.
The castle was absolutely amazing, I have to say. From the front to the back, it's the best castle that I have ever been to. Well, if you're not counting Disney castles, it's the only castle that I have ever been to, but we're not picking nits here.
Here's a view of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge. I took the picture on my way over to the Castle. You see that tall spire in the middle? Well, I climbed that as far up as I could, all 287 spiral steps. It was truly amazing. That tower is actually the South Tower of the cathedral in the castle. Here are some views from that.
On the right, you can see the famous Charles Bridge, and off in the distance, you can see Prague's ugly ass TV tower. On the left center of the picture you can see a bit of the Old Town Square.
Probably one of my lonlier times this trip happened in the Royal Palace. I was in this room:
It was the ball room in the Royal Palace, complete with uneven hardwood floors. What I would have given to have had one person to just do one single swingout in the middle of that room. It would have been grand. What would have even been better would have been if I had two people with me. One person to hold all of our gear, and one person to dance with in the middle of this ballroom.
It was truly amazing what kind of detailed mosaic work that they had within the castle walls. This was just around the corner from the cathedral.
This bronze statue was just outside of the "Golden Lane," which was a fancy way of saying "The Tourist Kitch Hawkers Inside The Castle Walls." I liked this statue a lot, because to me, I fel like it symbolized the idea of death weighing a person down.
Here's an example of the vibrant colors on the buildings inside of the castle.
This is the dripstone wall of Valdstejnska Zahrada. Valdstejnska Zahrada is the "secret garden" at the foot of the palace gardens. It is quite an amazing spectacle. The wall is all artificially made to look like stalagtites and stalagmites to create a space where artificial and real living nature would intermingle. It was very cool.
Here are some pictures of the rest of the garden.
Walking around the castle took me from about half past ten in the morning until about four thirty or five o'clock at night. It took a long ass time, because I poked my little nose into every single place that I could. On the way back to Nove Mesto, the "New Town" where Miss Sophie's is, I happened to catch a bunch of Hare Krishnas singing and dancing. I found that amusing.
But that wasn't half as amusing as seeing the wedding in front of the Astronomical Clock (which was closed and covered fore renovation).
Oh, and I almost forgot, I got a photo with the guard in front of the Prague Castle. I was trying my hardest to get the guy to crack a smile.
But in the end, I ended up getting a nice Aussie family to come and take my picture for real.
The restof the night, I spent running around trying to upload pictures to make a nice blog, but I kept gettng the runaround from different places. Some had USB connection, but I couldn't get the uploading to work. It pissed me off.
I went to sleep at two in the morning after seeing the first inning of the Red Sox game. I was pretty happy with the 2-0 score when the bar closed until I woke up this morning to find out that Graffanino bit the big one. *Sigh*
This morning, after checking out and checking back in for my extended stay, I headed to Hlavni Nadrazi to stry to catch a train to Kutna Hora where the Bone Ossuary at Sedlec is. In line to get a ticket, there were two lads from Yorkshire who were also going to try to see the Ossuary. I asked them if I could tag along and they said that I could. So off we went to Kutna Hora.
On the train there, during our transfers, we spoke briefly to some other people who were also on their way there, but it wasn't until we got off the train that we forged a friendship with an Aussie couple. We walked to the Ossuary together and when we got there, we found out that they were closed for lunch. How lame was that? So we headed back towards Kutna Hora town center to see if we could find a bite to eat. On the way there, we met up with a couple from Wales and told them that it was closed, so they joined us.
Unfortunately, we stopped at the first placec we came to instead of getting to the center of Kutna Hora. It was a sketchy casino/pub that served half liter beers for 14ck, which is 11ck short of equalling a dollar. This wasn't piss beer either. It was some quality, easy drinking lager. Now, you don't have to tell me how dumb this was, because I already know. Drinking at noon after not eating anything since about ten in the evening the night before, I was a bit snockered by the end of the first round. But rounds kept coming and we all just had a grand time of getting to know one another.
We finally made it back to the Ossuary at about half past two, and I have to say that I was both impressed and disappointed by it. The sculptures and decorations themselves were outstanding. The only thing was that I totally thought that it was going to be bigger. You know, it's like seeing the breasts of a girl with a padded bra. Though the breasts might be magnificient, they're just a bit smaller than you had imagined. Let me just show you some of the magnificience though.
After we finished with the Ossuary, we ended up getting to the Kutna Hora town center where we had lunch and drank more beers. After that, the lads from Yorkshire went back home. We set up a time and a place to meet so we could all go out drinking tonight. The five of us that were left went to another beer garden that had the most amazing view.
At around half six, the five of us came back to town and reaffirmed our meeting plans. They were going to shower. I was going to take a quick nap. I took a nap that was fifteen minutes longer than expected, and I got to the meeing place about ten minutes late. They were nowhere to be found. I was a little bit sad that I didn't get to see them again. The two couples had my e-mail address, so I hope to hear from them. The Aussie guy had a couple of really good pics of the group. Mine all came out piss poor. The girl from Wales works for McDonalds and is learning the business of running restaurants and hopes to run one of her own in the next couple of years, not a McDonald's mind you. I didn't, however, get to give the Yorkshire boys my card. I hope I can get their info through the couple from Wales. I know the girl from Wales will contact me.
In other news, over the pat couple of days, I have developed this tickle in my throat. I blame being in the rain in Amserdam without an umbrella for two days. I have been downing the Airborn like it's nobody's business as of late. Every morning, I take a tablet. I'm about to tear into my second and last vial of the stuff tomorrow. Hopefully this little itch will leave on its own. I have been eating well and I have been drinking fluids. I have been drinking a lot of juice too. Oh yeah, and alcohol kill germs, right? Well, I have been taking those antibiotic all day long.
Speaking of food, here are my pictures of my czech meals.
Mmm... Pilsner Urquell
A Beef Stew Soup of the Day.
Beef Goulash with Traditional Potato Dumplings.
Half a Roasted Duck Crusted With Fennel Seeds On Forest Honey with Sweet And Sour Braised Cabbage and Potato Dumplings.
The first three images were from a 3 course prix fixe meal that had an apple streudel dessert and cost me 190ck, or about $7.50. The half a duck cost me 290ck, which is roughly $11.50. You can't get half a duck anywhere for that cheap. Not even in Chinatown! It was awesome.
Anyways, that's it for now. My agenda for tomorrow is simple. I just have to acquire absinthe (I already know where I'm getting it), and take the train to Vienna. Tomorrow night, I stay at the Wombats hostel new the Westbahnhof. Hopefully I won't have too hard of a time getting there. Hopefully, I'll get there before dark. Hopefully this itch in my throat will go away. Hopefully, the Red Sox will come back from two games down.
Hola kiddies. I'm not supposed to be at this internet cafe right now. I should be out drinking with two aussies, two Yorkshire lads and a couple from Wales. But I'm not. I'll get more inot that later.
The castle was absolutely amazing, I have to say. From the front to the back, it's the best castle that I have ever been to. Well, if you're not counting Disney castles, it's the only castle that I have ever been to, but we're not picking nits here.
Here's a view of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge. I took the picture on my way over to the Castle. You see that tall spire in the middle? Well, I climbed that as far up as I could, all 287 spiral steps. It was truly amazing. That tower is actually the South Tower of the cathedral in the castle. Here are some views from that.
On the right, you can see the famous Charles Bridge, and off in the distance, you can see Prague's ugly ass TV tower. On the left center of the picture you can see a bit of the Old Town Square.
Probably one of my lonlier times this trip happened in the Royal Palace. I was in this room:
It was the ball room in the Royal Palace, complete with uneven hardwood floors. What I would have given to have had one person to just do one single swingout in the middle of that room. It would have been grand. What would have even been better would have been if I had two people with me. One person to hold all of our gear, and one person to dance with in the middle of this ballroom.
It was truly amazing what kind of detailed mosaic work that they had within the castle walls. This was just around the corner from the cathedral.
This bronze statue was just outside of the "Golden Lane," which was a fancy way of saying "The Tourist Kitch Hawkers Inside The Castle Walls." I liked this statue a lot, because to me, I fel like it symbolized the idea of death weighing a person down.
Here's an example of the vibrant colors on the buildings inside of the castle.
This is the dripstone wall of Valdstejnska Zahrada. Valdstejnska Zahrada is the "secret garden" at the foot of the palace gardens. It is quite an amazing spectacle. The wall is all artificially made to look like stalagtites and stalagmites to create a space where artificial and real living nature would intermingle. It was very cool.
Here are some pictures of the rest of the garden.
Walking around the castle took me from about half past ten in the morning until about four thirty or five o'clock at night. It took a long ass time, because I poked my little nose into every single place that I could. On the way back to Nove Mesto, the "New Town" where Miss Sophie's is, I happened to catch a bunch of Hare Krishnas singing and dancing. I found that amusing.
But that wasn't half as amusing as seeing the wedding in front of the Astronomical Clock (which was closed and covered fore renovation).
Oh, and I almost forgot, I got a photo with the guard in front of the Prague Castle. I was trying my hardest to get the guy to crack a smile.
But in the end, I ended up getting a nice Aussie family to come and take my picture for real.
The restof the night, I spent running around trying to upload pictures to make a nice blog, but I kept gettng the runaround from different places. Some had USB connection, but I couldn't get the uploading to work. It pissed me off.
I went to sleep at two in the morning after seeing the first inning of the Red Sox game. I was pretty happy with the 2-0 score when the bar closed until I woke up this morning to find out that Graffanino bit the big one. *Sigh*
This morning, after checking out and checking back in for my extended stay, I headed to Hlavni Nadrazi to stry to catch a train to Kutna Hora where the Bone Ossuary at Sedlec is. In line to get a ticket, there were two lads from Yorkshire who were also going to try to see the Ossuary. I asked them if I could tag along and they said that I could. So off we went to Kutna Hora.
On the train there, during our transfers, we spoke briefly to some other people who were also on their way there, but it wasn't until we got off the train that we forged a friendship with an Aussie couple. We walked to the Ossuary together and when we got there, we found out that they were closed for lunch. How lame was that? So we headed back towards Kutna Hora town center to see if we could find a bite to eat. On the way there, we met up with a couple from Wales and told them that it was closed, so they joined us.
Unfortunately, we stopped at the first placec we came to instead of getting to the center of Kutna Hora. It was a sketchy casino/pub that served half liter beers for 14ck, which is 11ck short of equalling a dollar. This wasn't piss beer either. It was some quality, easy drinking lager. Now, you don't have to tell me how dumb this was, because I already know. Drinking at noon after not eating anything since about ten in the evening the night before, I was a bit snockered by the end of the first round. But rounds kept coming and we all just had a grand time of getting to know one another.
We finally made it back to the Ossuary at about half past two, and I have to say that I was both impressed and disappointed by it. The sculptures and decorations themselves were outstanding. The only thing was that I totally thought that it was going to be bigger. You know, it's like seeing the breasts of a girl with a padded bra. Though the breasts might be magnificient, they're just a bit smaller than you had imagined. Let me just show you some of the magnificience though.
After we finished with the Ossuary, we ended up getting to the Kutna Hora town center where we had lunch and drank more beers. After that, the lads from Yorkshire went back home. We set up a time and a place to meet so we could all go out drinking tonight. The five of us that were left went to another beer garden that had the most amazing view.
At around half six, the five of us came back to town and reaffirmed our meeting plans. They were going to shower. I was going to take a quick nap. I took a nap that was fifteen minutes longer than expected, and I got to the meeing place about ten minutes late. They were nowhere to be found. I was a little bit sad that I didn't get to see them again. The two couples had my e-mail address, so I hope to hear from them. The Aussie guy had a couple of really good pics of the group. Mine all came out piss poor. The girl from Wales works for McDonalds and is learning the business of running restaurants and hopes to run one of her own in the next couple of years, not a McDonald's mind you. I didn't, however, get to give the Yorkshire boys my card. I hope I can get their info through the couple from Wales. I know the girl from Wales will contact me.
In other news, over the pat couple of days, I have developed this tickle in my throat. I blame being in the rain in Amserdam without an umbrella for two days. I have been downing the Airborn like it's nobody's business as of late. Every morning, I take a tablet. I'm about to tear into my second and last vial of the stuff tomorrow. Hopefully this little itch will leave on its own. I have been eating well and I have been drinking fluids. I have been drinking a lot of juice too. Oh yeah, and alcohol kill germs, right? Well, I have been taking those antibiotic all day long.
Speaking of food, here are my pictures of my czech meals.
Mmm... Pilsner Urquell
A Beef Stew Soup of the Day.
Beef Goulash with Traditional Potato Dumplings.
Half a Roasted Duck Crusted With Fennel Seeds On Forest Honey with Sweet And Sour Braised Cabbage and Potato Dumplings.
The first three images were from a 3 course prix fixe meal that had an apple streudel dessert and cost me 190ck, or about $7.50. The half a duck cost me 290ck, which is roughly $11.50. You can't get half a duck anywhere for that cheap. Not even in Chinatown! It was awesome.
Anyways, that's it for now. My agenda for tomorrow is simple. I just have to acquire absinthe (I already know where I'm getting it), and take the train to Vienna. Tomorrow night, I stay at the Wombats hostel new the Westbahnhof. Hopefully I won't have too hard of a time getting there. Hopefully, I'll get there before dark. Hopefully this itch in my throat will go away. Hopefully, the Red Sox will come back from two games down.
posted by ZEN!!! | 15:49
2 Comments:
re: the Ossuary.
It was probably small cuz the people back then.... were small. Now if they used German remains.... :P
maybe you can put a request in to be added to the Ossuary after you die.
Dude, I would totally love to be buried in the Ossuary with all of my records and coooking tools. And what I meant about the ossuary was that the building wasn as huge as I thought it would be. The bones are all human sized. The Ossuary itself was only one room and about the size of our entire apartment without walls. Maybe a little bit bigger.
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