I am terribly sorry for the late post, but I have definitely been having some technological difficulties! You see, my computer has stopped working for unknown reasons... And so has my brand new camera... I just have terrible luck I guess, but I am making do. My gracious Slovakian roommate has been loaning me her camera and computer until I can get mine fixed/replaced. Here is a summary of the exciting things that I have been up to since my last post.
Trip to Kutna Hora:
We stopped at a small town on the way there (the name escapes me at the moment) to see a site where they dug up 40,000 bones and used them as decoration inside a church. Apparently they ran out of room in the graveyard so naturally the solution is to dig up the dead people... In any case it made a great site to see! At Kutna Hora we saw the church of St. Barbara which is the second largest gothic cathedral in the Czech Republic (after St. Vitus in Prague Castle). Absolutely beautiful! We also went on a tour of a medieval silver mine. Walking through the tunnels was way cool, but I am definitely glad that I'm not a miner...
Troja Wine Festival
This was a wine festival at the Troja Chateau here in Prague. It was a beautiful building with beautiful gardens and beautiful wine. There was also traditional Czech music and dancing, a really neat experience!
My first operas
We went to the State theater to see La Traviata. Very cool! Then four days later we went to see another opera at a different theater which was also really cool! I don't think that this will be my last mention of opera this semester, I will definitely need to see more!
Prague Zoo
This is definitely the best zoo I have ever been to! It was huge, and all of the animals were really active so it was exciting to see! Even the tapir was standing up, which is something I have never seen from the tapir at the Minnesota zoo. There were also a lot of baby animals, including Sumatran tiger cubs which I had been looking forward to seeing since August when I read an article about them back at home! It was great to finally see them in real life, and they were just as cute as one would expect baby tiger cubs to be! It rained while we were there, but it was so much fun that nothing could dampen our spirits!
Karlstejn Castle and Wine Festival
This is the second biggest castle in the Czech Republic. It took only 15 minutes to get there by train from Prague. It was awesome. There were lots of people in costume, and in the castle courtyard there was medieval dancing and song. Even Charles IV showed up with his entourage! This was especially exciting for me because I've never seen royalty in real life before... I don't mind that it was just people in costume, I was sold!
St. Wenceslas Day
Wednesday was St. Wenceslas Day! He is a huge deal here, a national icon who naturally deserves to have a national holiday named after him! It's the only day of the year that they have services in the church at Prague Castle, so my roommate and I took advantage of the opportunity and actually attended them (she's Lutheran, shhh...). We went to Vespers which was followed by mass. It was awesome to be a part of, to think that Charles IV and the Hapsburgs and countless other people went to mass at the same church, very powerful. But things got really mind blowing when they brought out the actual skull of St. Wenceslas. His cranium. The one that held his brains. What???? All of a sudden they were processing with his skull on a cushion to the front of the church. It was straight out of Indiana Jones. I still can't really believe it. After mass they took his skull back to his chapel and we were allowed to go and say a prayer in front of it, which everybody, including us, did. I have never prayed to a skull of any kind before, so that was new for me. All in all, it was fantastic experience! I am so lucky that I could be here for it!
Visitors
My aunt and uncle, Mary Jo and Tom Smith went on a tour of Eastern Europe and the last few days of their tour were in Prague. So on Thursday we met up for lunch, and later saw part of a free concert in the Senate Gardens. The gardens were beautiful, they have free range peacocks roaming around! Definitely a place that I want to visit again. It was really great to see them, and it was fun to hear about their adventures! It made me excited to go on more of my own adventures, stay tuned to here about those...
Paddle Boating
Yesterday I went paddle boating with friends on the Valdova river. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous, and it was a beautiful day!! The boat offered a great view of the city, but it was pretty hard to pedal... I may or may not have been steering a majority of the time...
Hopefully I will be able to get my camera and computer situation figured out soon, that way I can update on a regular basis and hopefully post some pictures! I hope everybody is doing well back home! What do I miss this week? Smoke-free facilities!
I'll post again soon!
Martha
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