Prague: Beers, Bone Church and New Friends.

Greetings from Prague!

Sunday I said goodbye to Ro and caught a bus to Prague. It was a four hour trip, not too bad but I'm still ill so I slept most of the way.

The bus let me off in front of the train station. I went in and was concerned to find that it was stark and almost entirely un-populated. The only people around were two guys in currency exchange booths. I asked where I could find an ATM and they motioned downstairs. One escalator ride later I was in the middle of a loud, bright, bustling train station/ mall.

Sir Toby's is at last the hostel I had been looking for. Lots of great people from all over the world, traveling in groups and solo, ready to make friends, tell stories and have fun. I made instant friends with Amy, a girl from Essex who checked in at the same time as me and is in the same format. We quickly found a group of guys, two Americans and one Brit to make friends and enjoy happy hour in the basement bar with. Over the course of the evening I met people from Brasil, Australia, all over the US and Europe, Chile, and a few more from Britain.

It was a wonderful feeling, the same one I had studying abroad; a group of excited young people, looking to make friends and connect with other travelers. It was so refreshing, an atmosphere I didn't know I had missed so much. A girl from Colorado, Taylor and I had similar plans for the next day so in the morning we met up and set off into the city together.

We did a large self-directed walking tour from the Castle gardens to the castle, to the monastery where we had sausages and beer for lunch overlooking the city.

 Prague is known for its beer, and even though it's probably the reason I'm still sporting a chest cold I'm glad I sampled a few different kinds. Mostly lighter beers, but I even found a dark beer that I like in Prague, such is the magic of Czech breweries.

The topography and visual points of interest at the top of the highest parts of town made it easy to find our bearings. The architecture is often Gothic with its own unique Czech spin. The stone, old and painted black by pollution; but its darkness adds to the character of the building facades.

After lunch we walked down the steep incline to the old city and St Nicholas church where we happily paid three Euros to enter the stunning Cathedral.

I have never been in a Baroque space before and I was blown away by the level of resplendent decoration positively dripping from every available sconce, arch, ceiling, banister and balcony. We were allowed to go up to the mezzanine to see the brightly colored murals splashed across the vaults and to look down at the altars framed by gold-leaf designs. It still definitely felt like a cathedral, quiet and serene but with the decoration shouting for joy.

Taylor and I took our time in St. Nicholas Cathedral, but soon made our way out and continued down to the river and Charles bridge. A wide pedestrian crossing lined with statues looking down upon the crowds of us tourists looking back up at them. The bridge is the gateway into the old downtown and we followed where it led into the main square of the old downtown.

When I made plans to go to Prague I had no idea, but the World Hockey Cup was going on while I was there. I wondered why people in helmets and jerseys were so common, and as we got closer to the center more and more of them became visible. Every bar had the game playing, some of the squares had set up screens to project them. We sat down for a beer part way through the afternoon and could occasionally hear cries of excitement or anguish from the restaurant.

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The next day four of us from the hostel set off together to find the city of Kutna Hora, about an hour's train ride from Prague and home to the famous Bone Church. The train had a lot more attitude than the ones I have been on before, rocking and shakey with breaks that scream like harpies while the carriages are coming to a stop. We found a comfortable compartment, and chatted all the way.

We arrived to a bright blue sky and sunshine in Kutna Hora, and a short walk from the train station to the bone church, that was well marked on all maps of the local area.

The Bone Church isn't really a church, but the crypt basement of the small church above. In the four corners are neatly piled bones of human skeletons, skulls all arranged into pleasing patterns. The foyer, walls and ceiling are decorated with bones in various patterns, one being a six by four foot coat of arms of a family that donated to the church. The story goes that a monk brought back soil from Jerusalem and spread it at the church, so the location became the number 1 place to have your remains lain to rest.

The problem though, was there wasn't enough space for the high demand, and Monks had to start digging up old skeletons to make room for the new ones. Legend has it that a half blind monk was the first one to start arranging the bones artistically in the crypt and when he was done he regained his eyesight. There are the remains of over 40,000 people stacked, hanging or in some other way arranged in the Bone Church of Kutna Hora.

I was expecting it to be chilling or creepy, but really it was hard to register that the bones were real, that they represented 40,000 lives. Also, the fact that they had all been different people with different features, morals, life stories, people who loved them and were all now, for all intents and purposes totally identical, white skulls with a constant grin.

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We spent the afternoon in Kutna Hora, visiting a few more cathedrals, including one with the the color scheme of a banana-cream-pie. We all dozed on the train home, tuckered out by a long afternoon of sunshine, walking and bone dust.

The sun was just starting to set back in Prague and we hurried back up to the Ridge to the castle gardens to find a famous beer garden overlooking the city. We made it just in time to enjoy the golden light playing off the spires and domes of Prague while sipping on a tasty brew.

Prague at night is really the way to see it. I almost avoided going into the city after dark, but since I had made so many friends I felt secure in a group of solo-travel girls who found ourselves to be not so solo after all. After the beer garden we split ways with one of our party, and the rest of us walked another of the girls to the train station, following the same route through the old city we had walked the day before. The change between day and night is stunning.

Prague's up-lighting game is on point and all the major buildings are bathed in the dramatic light, paired with street lamps lighting the way for nocturnal pedestrians it made the city a great place to be after dark.

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Now I find myself on another train, rolling through lush wooded hills and pastoral scenes on the way to Vienna. Taylor and I by coincidence had the same travel plans and are headed to the new city together. I'm happy to have found another awesome travel buddy