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Wow! It's been a while and lot to catch up on! Since Easter, I have had some fantastic weekened trips to Stuttgart, Germany, Kutna Hora CZ, and Vienna, Austria. I have had some visitors the past month, and it's been fun playing tour guide- especially with Spring starting to settle in. I feel like I'm exploring Prague all over again, and I've been able to do some new things, such as visiting St. Vitus at Prague Castle.
Kutna Hora- small town, an hour outside of Prague. We went mostly to see the "Bone Church" called Kostnice Ossuary. This church dates back to 1511, and is decorated with the bones of 40,000 people! After the plague, there were just too many bodies for the amount of space they had, so it was a form of decoration. The chandlier includes every bone found in the human body! It was pretty creepy, but also really cool. It was nice being with Kristin, who is in medical school, so she could tell me the names of all the bones. After visiting St. Barabara and the Church of Our Lady, we headed to a very Czech restaurant for some amazing gingerbread and plum dumplings!
Vienna- Really nice, clean city. It was excactly how I pictured. I have been so smaller cities in Austria, so I was excited to make it there finally. It is home of Mozart, and was pretty apparent. We first went to the Habsburg "summer palace" to learn about the Habsburg's court rule there in Austria (which was for about 6 centuries!). We weren't allowed to take pictures of the insidea, but got some great pics of the gardens and structures around the palace. See pictures for details!
Witch burning- A holiday that would just never occur in the states. Czechs (and other europeans) believe in this pagan tradition that witches hold on to the last chill of winter, so you obviously have to burn a witch to let spring come in. I kinda thought it of like our Groundhog's day... similiar, but different... So I volunteered to be a part of the witch's burning skit (I was witch #3 thank you!), and it was pretty amusing to be a part of. Children came dressed like it was Halloween. The skit called for the angry villagers (Meghan, Troy, and Matt T) to act like winter would not go away (although it was 80 degrees that day, haha)... and the witch's to come up with some special brew. Jirka, the principal, of course comes in to save the day. When the skit called for Troy to light the fire, however, it became way out of control. It was a HUGE fire! Scraps of the stuffed witch started flying through the air, still on fire!, into the crowd. I was seriously nervous for a good couple minutes, and the witches did not return to the skit for a second scene.... Then I noticed there was no fire department ready, there was not a fire extinguisher, there was not even a bucket of water ready to fight the crazy blaze. haha I just could not help but think how something like this would NEVER happen in the states. And then I realized why the parents had to sign permission slips for their children to be there. haha Another Czech tradition added to the memories, good times.
That's it for now, but I'm going to Barcelona next weekend with Meghan for my birthday!! Very excited!
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