Cafés and Cadavers (well, sort of)
Written at 11:37 PM on 10-13-06 in Prague, Czech Republic
Wow, it’s been three days since I wrote my last blog, and what have I been doing? A whole lot of nothing. Which is exactly how I want it.
Today marks officially two weeks until I return. I’m 4/5 of the way through my trip. And my how it’s gone by. Even slow days, like those in Prague, seem to disappear like grains of sand through my fingers. Now then, let me get back to the story.
After that first night in Prague, I decided to book a couple more nights. I decided to cut Luxembourg from my trip and instead enjoy a few days of relaxation here in Prague. Unfortunately, the time for Julie has been anything but relaxing. She had been growing steadily sicker over our days in Vienna, and by the second day in Prague, she was positively miserable. Nonetheless, we decided to make a day trip to a place called Kutna Hora.
Kutna Hora is a small town about an hour outside of Prague. It was once the second biggest city in the Czech Republic but has long since outlived that reputation. It was known for two things—its silver mine, from which the town got rich—and “the Bone Church.” Of course, that’s not the church’s official name, though that is how it is now regarded.
In the town’s heyday, a man of the church was sent to Jerusalem on some business. When he returned, he brought with him a handful of dirt from the Holy Land. He then sprinkled that church over the soon-to-be graveyard, consecrating it as the most sacred of ground. Next thing you know, being buried in the Kutna Hora cemetery was all the rage. From the lowest peasant to the highest lord or lady, everyone wanted to be buried here, such that soon, they were running out of room.
Then the Black Death struck, overwhelming the town with bodies. Thirty thousand people died from the plague in the area. Now I’m a little unclear on the history here, but the gist of it is that because there were so many people in the cemetery already—and so many people currently dying—the church decided to set up a communal grave. This is not to be confused with a mass grave, which generally associated with the horrors of war and genocide. This communal grave was not to exist in the ground, however. Previously buried bodies were exhumed and their bones added to the massive number of bones remaining from the Black Death. With all these bones, the church was decorated.
Decorated probably isn’t the right word. Adorned is perhaps more appropriate. Giant pyramids—monuments to the dead—were erected inside the church. Skulls and crossbones covered the walls. At the entrance were two giant chalices composed of bones. Likewise, the coat of arms of one of Kutna Hora’s foremost families hung in an alcove, made also entirely of bones. Most impressive, though, was the chandelier consisting of every bone from the human body. Around it, chains of bones hung suspended, a grim tribute to the dead.
Despite what you might expect, the Bone Church is not awful to behold. The bone monuments do not stir up sickening feelings of morbidity, nor do they seem in any way to dishonor the dead. In fact, it’s really a striking sight. With these bones, something artistic has been created as a tribute to the dead. Instead of disappearing into the bowels of the Earth, unmarked and unnamed, the people who died continue to offer a reminder of the transience of human life and the precarious position we occupy as we tread across this mortal coil. It is not perhaps what many would want to become of their remains, yet maybe it is preferable to utter anonymity. Maybe it’s better to be part of something greater, a thing people can continue to appreciate, than to disappear into the cracks of time. I’d like to think so.
Julie and I got a bit lost trying to find the church, not an easy task in such a small town. Let it be known that where I thought the church was, was in fact where it was. But then she started second guessing me and we went off wandering in the wrong direction and eventually had to return to the train station and check the map. We ended up having extra time anyway, though, because there really wasn’t much to do in the town. We only needed about an hour to get to the church, see it, and return, and instead we had two hours.
We arrived back in Prague in late afternoon and went for a wander. We wanted to catch the sunset up at Prague Castle, so we headed toward the old city. All throughout Prague are buildings covered in statues of all kinds. Julie and I suspect that they come to life at night. We started making up stories for the different statues we saw. We arrived in front of Prague’s Clock Tower at about five o’clock and caught the cuckoo-clock-like mechanics of the device.
Prague is a very touristy city and it showed most in the main street and old city. On the main street, designer clothing labels like H&M, Lacoste, and New Yorker, lined the road. In the old city, windows hosted all manner of jewelries and gimmicky souvenirs. In the area we were staying, there were a lot less tourists, which was nice. But on our walk to the Castle, I heard more English than I did Czech.
We crossed Charles Bridge and checked out the stands of various artists and street vendors. I thought this kind of place was vastly preferable to the other shops, because each item had a certain authenticity. The items were hand-crafted (at least I believed they were) and made with a kind of uniqueness that was absent in the cookie-cutter souvenirs that lined most shop windows.
The view from the Charles bridge was great, especially as the sun was beginning to descend into the hills surrounding Prague. I took a lot of pictures. I don’t remember to story to it, but there’s a statue on the Charles Bridge and to rub part of it is good luck. I don’t know about the luck part, but it was pretty cool seeing the parts of the statue polished from the throngs of people who have touched it over the decades.
After crossing the bridge, we began to make our way upward. Prague Castle is perched on a hill overlooking the city, so it was a bit of a climb. We made it okay, albeit a little late to catch all of the sun setting. The view was still fantastic, though, and it was cool seeing the sun’s rays scattering across the city, casting part of the town in darkness and the other part in light.
We went about wandering the castle. Prague Castle is more of a series of antiquated buildings than a real castle, like Edinburgh Castle, for instance. It was free to wander around the area, though everything was closed. We saw the six o’clock changing of the guard. The guards kept grinning while trying to keep straight faces as tourists took pictures of them. It was pretty funny.
We took the old castle steps back down the hill and caught the tram back to our hostel. We were quite far away, by this time, and it was a long ride. When we got off, we were both ready to kick back. Julie was feeling worse and neither of us had eaten much during the day (I had the hostel’s all-you-can-eat breakfast), so we went for something quick and easy. I had a hamburger and fries at the hostel’s bar, while Julie had a sandwich. We didn’t know what we wanted to do with the rest of our night, but I’d noticed a cool-sounding café on the map that was very near our hostel. I decided I wanted to check it out, and Julie came along.
The Shakespeare Café boasts to be the largest English bookstore in Prague. That’s not saying much, but it did have a pretty good selection of English books, many of which were used. The café part of the store sold all manner of drinks, from beer and wine, to warm mead, to tea and coffee. I was excited to discover that they offered a “Seattle Mocha.” I have missed my mochas terribly. You see, they don’t know what a mocha is in Europe. It’s an American/Starbucks invention. This place had it though, so I was excited.
Now, it wasn’t as good of a mocha as I can make, and certainly fell short of the mochas of American cafes, but it sufficed. Julie had tea. For the rest of the evening, I wrote while Julie read some book about tractors in Ukraine. (Don’t ask me.) By about eleven o’clock, I was feeling my creativity burn out and Julie was feeling her life burn out. She was feeling much worse than at the beginning of the day. And so we decided to walk back to the hostel, whereupon she went to sleep and I stayed up for a little longer writing before also going to sleep.
The next day was even more uneventful. After another large breakfast (for my part), Julie and I went out to do laundry. Always exciting, I know. I did some reading and she went in search of a chemist (pharmacy) to get drugs for what was now becoming a full-on cold and sinus-infection. Needless to say, she was miserable. She was also upset because she didn’t know what her plans were. She leaves for New Zealand on the day after I return home, but between now and then, she didn’t know what to do.
After laundry, we decided to go do our own thing. She wanted to check out stores on the main street, while I wanted to explore the back roads and find the more out-of-the-way shops. We agreed to meet up at six o’clock. I returned to the hostel and then headed off in no particular direction. I started checking out all these cool pawn shops and bazaars. They had all kinds of cool stuff. Most of it was junk, but it was still fun. I found a clothing outlet store and bought a couple new longsleeve shirts for about ten American dollars. Out of random luck, I stumbled into this tent-like facility that had even cheaper clothes. They had fleece jackets for between ten and fifteen American dollars. I bought a couple basic T-shirts for about two or three dollars, and a couple long sleeve zip-ups for about ten dollars. I was pretty pleased at my discovery, not that buying clothing was exactly what I should be doing as my travel budget is dwindling. Oh well, when in Prague…
Prague wasn’t as cheap as I expected, actually. Aside from the clothing places I found, which were still about on par with the clearance section of department stores, everything was priced fairly equal to the U.S. I suppose with the advent of the tourist industry, Prague’s prices have swelled dramatically over the past decade. At least the beer and coffee was still cheap, though.
I headed back to the Shakespeare Café where I wrote for a couple hours before returning to the hostel to meet Julie. She was really a sinking boat. Not much was keeping her afloat except for the hope that she’d get an email from a friend and figure out her travel plans. Even that hope, though, was soon to go awry and she would be forced to adapt. I’ll get to that in a moment.
Because she was miserable and didn’t really feel like doing much of anything, we decided to head into town to go to a movie. We thought about getting dinner also, but after drinking a pepsi and having some free chips (they were giving them away at the movie theater), eating was the last thing I wanted to do. We watched The Devils Wears Prada, which just happened to be on a two-week sneak preview at the theater we were at. Of course, all the movies were about three months old by U.S. standards, but that’s the way it goes. The movie was good and afterwards we headed back to the hostel. From there, we returned to the café for about an hour and a half until it closed at midnight. I did writing and she read her tractor book.
She went to sleep and I stayed up until about 1AM reading before I eventually faded as well. Consequently, I got up a little later the next morning. Once again I had the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. It worked out pretty well, because I just stuffed myself and wouldn’t be hungry until dinnertime. While I ate breakfast, Julie worked out her travel plans. She was contemplating continuing on with me to Berlin, but after talking to her parents, she decided to catch a flight to the UK and meet up with some family friends until she got better. I have a German friend from Australia I’ll be meeting up with in Berlin, so it’s probably just as well that we split up. I just hope she gets better. (And I hope I don’t get sick with what she’s got.)
While she figured out her travel plans and went to the grocery store for some food, I headed back to what was becoming my favorite café of this trip. Maybe it’s the shelves of used books, or the fact that everyone who sits in the café also seems to work there, or the frequent dogs that follow people into the café—whatever it is, I really enjoy the Shakespeare Café. The only downside is no internet, but I can take care of that back at the hostel. Anyway, as you can see, it’s been a pretty quiet, uneventful couple days. I suppose Berlin and Paris will have a lot of sightsteeing, while Amsterdam will be another place like Prague. With only two weeks left, I’m keen to relax as much as I can and get as much writing done as possible.
Tags: cafes, Czech Republic, Europe, Kutna Hora, Prague, Travel, Writing
gregbilsland
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