Bones, barriers, and ballet

Yesterday was an eventful day. Here’s why:

We nearly missed our train to Kutná Hora

Alyssa and I woke up early and walked about ten minutes from our hostel to Prague Main Station. We used the kiosks inside the station to buy our tickets to Kutná Hora, a town that is located about an hour from Prague. We wanted to go there for one reason: the Sedlec Ossuary.

We bought our tickets with ease and headed to the platform, thinking we had made it to the station at the perfect time. However, when we reached the platform I realized that there were no ticket validators around. I did a quick Google search and found out that there are no validators on the train either. After witnessing several people getting fined for not having validated tickets in Budapest, I was not going to risk it.

We went back downstairs and started frantically searching for the little yellow boxes. We had THREE minutes until the train would come and couldn’t find a validator anywhere. We were just about to give up and wait two hours for the next train when I noticed… a validator! We quickly stamped our tickets and sprinted all the way back to the platform. Luckily, we made it to the platform just as the train was pulling up and off to Kutná Hora we went!

The Sedlec Ossuary

Alyssa and I were ready for some breakfast and coffee by the time we got to Kutná Hora, so our first stop was the gas station. Nothing else was open! Granted, it was only 9am but still… I think that must be quite a sleepy town. When I checked online, I discovered that most of the cafés don’t open until 11am.

Getting breakfast at the gas station was quite the experience. Neither of the workers knew English, which meant that I had to resort to pointing and nodding in order to communicate which sandwich I wanted. This was the first time I had experienced much of a language barrier on any of my trips! To my surprise, most people in Oslo, Bergen, Budapest, and Prague knew English. I was telling Alyssa that if I could have one super power, I would choose to know every language in the world. I have tried to learn the basics — how to say “hi”, “please”, and “thank you” — in each language, but I still feel bad when I can’t communicate with people.

After breakfast, we went to the Sedlec Cathedral thinking it was the ossuary. I’m glad we went there, though, because it was beautiful! My favorite part was admiring this beautiful painting on the ceiling. Oh, and we had the entire place to ourselves!

Since we were confused about where the ossuary was, we ended up exploring more of the cathedral than most people probably would. At one point, we were roaming around up in the rafters of the building! 😂

Eventually, we made it to the Sedlec Ossuary. The entire inside of the church is decorated with real human bones! Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any gruesome history behind the bones. They were dug up from the graveyard and placed inside the building in 1870. I have to say, it was a strange feeling being surrounded by human bones. There were several organized piles of bones which had alternating layers of skulls and tibias (maybe… I don’t know my bones very well😅). One pile in particular really creeped me out because the top of it had SO many layers of skulls, all of which were facing me. It felt like I was being watched by the dead!

Other features of the ossuary include an enormous bone chandelier and lots of wall decorations. There were also a few skulls on display. Apparently, they were the skulls of soldiers who fought in the Hussite Wars. Some had nearly a quarter of the skull missing due to weapon strikes to the skull. How horrible.

Overall, I thought the bone church was a mix between creepy and fascinating. I’m glad that they no longer let people take pictures inside because it helps to make sure people are respectful of the dead. After all, they were all real people just like us!

After visiting the ossuary, Alyssa and I decided to stop at a café for some hot apple cider. Once again, it was difficult to order with the language barrier. The worker must’ve heard “hot apple” as “hot dog” because that’s what showed up at our table! It eventually got sorted out through Google Translate and was funny after the fact, but was quite the challenge in the moment!

The Communist Museum

After returning from Kutná Hora, Alyssa and I ate some crepes at the Christmas market and then headed to the Communist Museum. I’m so glad we went because I learned a lot about Czechia’s recent history!

Czechia was a communist country from 1948 until 1989. Under the Communist Party, people were expected to dedicate their lives to the goals of their society. Propaganda was used to convince people that working hard (12-14 hours every day) and as a group was ideal. For example, a group gymnastic event called The Spartakiad was held as a metaphor for communism; the best performance occurred when everyone performed in exactly the same way. People were expected to maintain this mindset even when their land was stolen and their money devalued.

The Communist Party also banned the arts from society. If people were caught with books, magazines, etc., they would be punished. There were several police forces that were designed to keep an eye on the people. If anyone was suspected of not being supportive of the regime, they were tortured and even executed. Many people tried to flee the country, but there were border patrol officers and booby traps at the border. Border patrol officers were incentivized with vacations and watches to kill anyone trying to escape. Some people were so desperate to escape that they tried making hot air balloons to fly away in. Others were so fearful of being caught that they ended up killing themselves.

Eventually, people began to protest against the regime. In 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire. His act caused others to protest even more. In attempt to stop the protest, some officers dressed in casual clothing to blend in with the crowd and then beat protesters up.

One of the walls in the museum was dedicated to a timeline of Eastern vs Western historical events. Most of the events from the West were from American history, which made the horrors of this period in Czechia even more shocking to me. For example, in the same year that Disneyland was opened in the USA, a monument of Stalin was unveiled in Prague. It’s crazy to think how different these two places were not too many years ago.

Visiting this museum caused me to reflect on all of the privilege I’ve had with living in a democratic society that values individualism and education. My rights are something I will always be thankful for!

Swan Lake at Hybernia Theater

To end the day, Alyssa and I attended a Swan Lake ballet performance at the Hybernia Theater. It was wonderful! I couldn’t believe how those dancers could spin nearly twenty times in a row and land on just their tippy-toes after each jump! Who knew I would enjoy watching ballet so much. I think it helps that Alyssa looked up a synopsis of Swan Lake before we went. Otherwise, I’m not sure that I would have known what was going on.

Well, I certainly won’t know what’s going on tomorrow if I don’t get some sleep now…

Until next time,

Clara