Game of Bones

Myself and friends in Kutna Hora

St. Vitus Cathedral at the 
Prague Castle

My program arranged for us to take a guided tour the Pražský hrad (Prague Castle). The castle is actually a compound consisting of St. Vitus Cathedral surrounded by courtyards that are used as political offices, including housing for the president of the Czech Republic. We did not go into any of the buildings, but rather walked around outside, admiring and learning about the architecture. The Prague Castle incorporates almost all of the architectural styles from the last millennium. The stained glass used in the cathedral windows is particularly interesting because when the castle was built, spinach was used to make green-colored glass since they did not have colored dyes! In addition, many of the glass pieces are plated with real gold.

The Bartered Bride at the National Theatre

Last Friday I attended my first opera at Narodni divaldo (The National Theatre)! The opera house was incredibly beautiful and ornate. I saw Bedřich Smetana's Prodana nevesta, also known as The Bartered Bride. The opera was staged in the original Czech version, but thankfully English subtitles were used during the performance. Overall, the performance was quite impressive, and there is possibility I will have a chance to go see another opera before my time here is over.

On Saturday I went on a field trip to Kutna Hora, which is an old silver mining town about an hour east of Prague. Kutna Hora is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site because examples of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture have been preserved. Our first stop was the Church of Bones, where there are huge displays made out of human bones! The church is the Sedlec Ossuary, and the interior is decorated with sculptures of bones (bet they you haven't seen that on HGTV!). The focal piece is the bone chandelier, which contains at least one of every bone type in the human body. We also visited the Italian Court where they used to mint silver coins a couple hundred year ago. We had a traditional Czech meal for lunch, so it consisted of lots of meat, potatoes, and heavy sauce! Strangely, the beef was served with a little bit of whipped cream and jelly, and even weirder, it was actually pretty good. We finished our time in Kutna Hora by touring the gothic St. Barbara Cathedral.

Chandelier made out of human bones!

Today was the last day of my intensive Czech course, and I finished with a final exam. I will continue Czech classes throughout the semester, but I am grateful to no longer have Czech class five hours a day. I also am pleased to announce that I have accepted an internship position with the Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization People in Need, and you can check them out here. I will start classes and work with my internship next week. Until then, I will be spending the weekend in Munich attending Oktoberfest!

View from the Prague Castle