Czech Republic, part I - Kutna Hora-Sedlec (i)

Bone chandelier in the Kostnice Ossuary.

The title of this series should probably be called Prague, but I went to Kutna Hora on my first day in the Czech Republic, and Kutna Hora isn't part of Prague so that would have been a misnomer.

I've been reading quite a few backpacking blogs lately and I really couldn't help noticing how quick people are to judge others. I suppose I'm somewhat guilty of this too. Still. It's ridiculous the amount of threads I found on the traveller vs. tourist debate, flashpackers vs. backpackers, whole discussions on the definition of solo female travellers, etc etc etc. Travel snobbery is stupid. Everyone has different expectations, different limits, different ways of enjoying things. There's no "right way" of doing it. Just because I spend more, or less on my trip, does not make me a better/worse person than your majesties. When all is said and done, we're all there because we wanted to be there. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, Prague. I arrived there at about 2230. Took the metro with the Korean girl. It was nice having company since I had no idea whether or not Prague was safe, but 5 mins in the still extremely crowded metro was enough to banish any fears about being mugged or attacked.

I found the hostel and managed to check in before 2300. The reception people told me that they'd made a mistake with the booking system and as a result I'd be upgraded to a four-bed dorm, free of charge. I was very pleased, of course. When I went into my room, I found that the remaining bunk was a bottom bunk, and that rather than those disgusting corridor public showers, we had our own, private ensuite bathrooms and toilets. Not only that, we also had a FRIDGE, a KETTLE and a MICROWAVE of our own and even a rather spacey hallway. Oh, and each bunk had its OWN POWER SOCKET AND NIGHT LIGHT. Plus Prague hostel, thy name is Heaven. On top of that, this is the hostel where I paid 7 euros for a total of 3 nights. Yes, you read that right. 7 euros for 3 nights. 

It was an wonderfully liberating feeling, being all alone in the dorm. Hostelling is fantastic and you get to meet people and all that, but it was so nice having the whole space to myself for a change, getting to play my music in the shower and belting out Queen of the Night at the top of my voice. By the looks of it, my roommates wouldn't be back till very late, since this hostel apparently had a pub crawl and their bunks were strewn with deodorant and makeup.

Anyway, I remember that first night in Prague, and the hostel, incredibly fondly. I danced around the empty room to Alin's song which was on replay, got some laundry done, sorted out my currencies and bought a surprisingly tasty and overpriced sandwich from the vending machine in the pool room. Microwaved it and was in seventh heaven. Simple little pleasures are the best.

Had a very nice, though late, night. A bunch of drunk Aussies came in from the pub crawl a little after midnight. Turned out that the most severely drunk girl was my roommate, and the others were just there to carry her back. After throwing up copiously in the toilet and completely grossing me out in the process, she came into the room, introduced herself as Feen and we had a surprisingly coherent conversation before the booze overcame her. I went on facebook, chatted a bit with some friends, browsed some blogs and went to sleep. It's apparently odd and goes against the cardinal rule in the traveller's bible, but coming back to a hostel and having some alone time to go on the internet is one of my favourite parts of a trip. I've read so many blogs that scorn "the internet users" in hostels and I'm tempted to tell them to go boil their heads. Going back to the hostel and going online is a way for me to unwind, to de-stress, to organise my thoughts and feelings of the day, and obtain some measure of closure. I can email my family, reply to my friends' messages, moon a bit over Pierre's new facebook profile picture, and come up with would-be aphorisms to combat Jake's teenage witticisms. Travelling is wonderful, but it does take the stuffing out of you, and you frequently need to recharge your internal batteries.

Got up at about 8 the next morning and drank a rather hasty coffee before going to the hlavní nádraží - Prague's main train station. I caught a train to Kutna Hora-Sedlec, where the famous Bone Cathedral was located. Journey took about an hour and a half, from Praha hlavní nádraží to Kutna Hora, then a regional train from Kutna Hora to Kutna Hora-Sedlec.

Praha hlavní nádraží.

A plaque of Woodrow Wilson, which struck me rather and impressed me enough to stop, take a photo, and include it in this entry - out of the 700-odd pictures I took in Prague.

Arriving in Kutna Hora-Sedlec.

The cathedral itself was a ten minute walk from the rather dismal and basic train station. Directions were fortunately very precise. however.

A prelude to the cathedral.

And this is where I'll just sit back and let the pictures talk for themselves.

Fun facts:

1. The ossuary contains the skeletons of around 40,000 to 70,000 people.
2. The ossuary gained its fame after the abbot returned from the holy land in 1278 and sprinkled some earth he had removed from Golgotha, onto the abbey cemetery, thus rendering it a desirable burial ground.
3. Due to the high mortality rate during the 14th century thanks to the Black Death and the Hussite wars, the cemetery had to be greatly enlarged but was still not enough to accommodate the influx of bodies, which was why the chapel itself was made into an ossuary.