Prague

 Hello, dear guests of my blog! Today´s article is something really special. I do not travel really often, but this year I was already in Venice for one day and then I spent five days in Prague recently. I probably won´t travel anywhere until next summer. To go to Prague has been my dream for quite some time. I saw well known bone-church of Kutna Hora on television a few years ago and since then wanted to visit it and Prague, especially after I started to be more interested in history and Medieval times. The trip was apsolutelly wonderful. I was there with my amazing parents and we had a great time. I planned the whole trip and we went there by our car. To drive all the way from Croatia to Czech Republic was very hard, especially for me because I hate sitting and always prefer walking, but it was worth it.

The Cathedral

The Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague

 DAY ONE

 We stayed in small hotel in Novo Mesto. There we had breakfast every morning and it was very good. I am a fan of cereals and in hotel we had two kinds of müsli and that made me very happy. Right after breakfast we´d go sightseeing. We started with cathedral in Novo Mesto. The cathedral is massive and gothic, my favourite style, and we were amazed by it´s beauty. We bought tickets to enter it which also included Old Royal Palace and St. George Church. After that, we had a long walk and got to the Schwarzenberg Palace which is full of beautiful pictures and sculptures with different motives, but mostly christian motives. I liked the work of Jacques De Gheyn II. the most.

 When we got out from the palace, it was rainning. The weather was tricky through our whole trip. We had to play parking again, so we couldn´t wait for rain to stop. We walked to our car and got really wet. This part was not really enjoyable. I wanted to go to the Lobkowitz museum, but we decided to go to the hotel and change into dry clothing. We did not go back to se that museum. Instead, we went to the Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague. Many people say that this museum is boring and small, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. The price was a bit to big for the exibition. The museum is in the house in which famous alchemist Edward Kelly used to live and do his experiments. Very pretty girl who works there told us many interesting things aout him and his laboratory; how he tried to make homunculus, how he broke his leg and how William Shakespear got some inspiration for his work from him ( or at least that is one of the stories, but it is not a hundred percent right ). I decided to explore alchemy more. It is very interesting.

 We ate in a small place with only few Czech meals, but that´s what I wanted because I wanted to try some traditional meals. I ate goulash and enjoyed it very much ( I am also a big fan of goulash ). Then we had a walk on The Charles Bridge and I think that was one of the things I liked the most. It was already night and Vltava looked beautifully when moon reflected in her. We saw Tyn Church, but sadly did not see the Astronomical Clock because it is being restaurated. We went to hotel then. It was very late and we were relly tired at this point.

Sedlec

F. Kafka and F. Mercury in the Museum of Wax

 DAY TWO

 After breakfast, we drove to Kutna Hora to see Sedlec. It did not dissapoint us. The line was long, but moved very fast. Inside of the church is completely made of bones from some warriors who died in battles and people who died during epidemic in Medieval times. The church itself is small and hard to even notice, but the inside of it is really special. The chandelier made of human bones is the prettiest thing in my opinion. Later that day we went to two museums. The first one was The Museum of Wax Figures. Famous people in their real size made of wax surrounded us. There were some emperors of the Bohemian Kingdom, Harry Potter, some politicans from past, some artists and some actors and singers from present; Staljin, Lenjin, Einstein, F. Kafka, Lady GaGa, F. Mercury... The exibition is sorted chronologically, so as you get more into museum, you get closer to the people from present. The second museum was The Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments , but I did not take any photos there. There are many instruments that were used to torture people who were thought to be witches or criminals in Medieval times. It was scary and that is exactly why I liked it. A chair full of sharp knifes, masks of shame, whips, chains to tie people in not-so-comfortable positions... Some things were autentic from Medieval times, but some are made recentlly for the museum. Beneath each instrument was picture which was showing in which way it was used and it was very nicely discribed in few languages.

 We wanted to go to the Old Jewish Cemetery, but it was already closed, so we had to postpone it for the next day.

Baroque library of Klementinum

Klementinum

A view from the tower of the Klementinum

Old Jewish Cemetery

DAY THREE

 The third day we went to Klementinum. Klementinum is one of the biggest library in the world, I think, and it has a huge baroque part in which you can not enter, but you can have a look at it from a certain distance. This part is full of thousands of old books which are sorted by their themes to the astronomical part, theological part, philosophy part etc... These books are all very old and unique and a person can get one of them only under special conditions and if the person has a real reason for it, for example if a person is a scientist writing a book or something and needs that book for his research. In the baroque library are few beautiful globes from 17th – 19th century that are really goregous. It is not allowed to take photos of it, but people take them anyway, so I did too. We had to climb up many stairs because library has a very high tower which gives you a beautiful look of the whole city. In library are also some instruments from past for astrological research, including a whole room that was used to determin when is the noon, and when light air is in special position for noon, people would show the flag on the tower so that bell ringer in church could ring the bell and everyone in the city would know that it is noon. It was before clock was available.

 Later we went to the Jew Quarter where we walked through The Old Jewish Cemetery. I love old graveyards and this one was absolutelly fascinating. Some tombstones are from 15th century. We also went to some synagogues. We did not know where to go later because we saw everything we wanted, but we found a real treasure – toy store Hamley´s. I love toys; I will always love stores and enjoy everything sparkly and playfull. This place was like a playground-store from some magic Christmas movie. Statues of characters from movies and cartoons, ice cream, games, toys you can buy, and dolls! Winx dolls! I haven´t seen soo many beautiful toys since... Well, the last toy store in Rijeka was closed somewhere in 2012, and that one wasn´t even the shadow of this one. Absolutelly beautiful.

Pusheen toys in Hamley´s >.<

A giant panda was dancing on the main square

 DAY FOUR

 The last day we spent in ex-camp from the Second World War, Terezin. This was my mum´s wish. I fell really uncomfortable when thinking about war and to see all these rooms that look the same as they looked when pore Jews and other people who sick Nazis wanted to kill had to stay in them was very disturbing for me, so naturally I haven´t taken any photos, but my mum did. There are beds prisoners used to use, showers ( sometimes water, but, hm, sometimes gas, right? ), tunnels for soldiers who used the place in the first world war... A good place to remind people that racism or any discrimination has no sense.

 We had a walk through a beautiful Obora Hvezda park and then got to hotel to pack ourselves so that we could leave tommorow.

 And that was it. We saw everything we wanted ( let´s forget Lobkowitz museum ), stayed in nice hotel, had decent meals, easily comunicated with people because Czech people speak English very well... It was wonderful and, what is almost of the biggest importance, I found out many things and my knowledge has expanded. It was a trully unique experience in a unique town.