Excitement: my first day as a tourist in Czech! My destination was the Sedlec Ossuary, in Kutná Hora, a church decorated with about 40,000 skeletons. Not kidding. There’s something both beautiful and macabre about this place: parts hauntings and bizarre. The church is a massive tomb for their dead, with bones serving as both decoration and memorial. And the goth girl in me went all out, taking a pile of photos, raiding the gift shop for skull-themed gifts and even buying the audio tour.
My favorite was easily the chandelier— which is supposed to contain all the bones from the human skeleton. The creativity in this is something else— I had no idea skeletons could be so whimsical, and yet at the same time, solemn.
Getting to the town was a bit of an adventure— one of my trains was late, making my travel time a bit epic. Also, had to change trains twice. But, I was very, very happy to be able to successfully navigate an unfamiliar train system.
Also, food: given that bread and meat appears to be this country’s staples, I’ve been super nervous about dining out. Actually, I’ve just been avoiding it. (The only time I’ve eaten out so far is at a Chinese restaurant, that had pictures of the food on the menu. Also, I was with a student who spoke English. Shut up.) Getting vegetarian, gluten-free food is enough of a hassle in the US, where I speak the language. Here, I’ve been quite apprehensive about getting food that I can eat.
Didn’t get too brave today— the place I ventured into had an English menu (more shut up!) but I was glad I got over my initial nervousness: savory potato soup and perfectly roasted veggies. Also, the waitress was super nice, answered all my questions, and was very patient as I thumbed through my phrasebook/dictionary.
Detroiter in Poland 
Leave a Reply