Prague Part 2: Bone Ossuary and Wandering Around

Our first trip was outside Prague, to a famous bone chapel called the Sedlec Ossuary--it was a Roman Catholic chapel made of like eight million bones. Or actually, it's the skeletons of something like 40,000 people, so it's more like 8.5 million. HA. YOU THOUGHT I WAS EXAGGERATING. I got you good.

Here's a sign:

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Here's another sign. It gives information about ticket combos for the ossuary and some other attractions nearby. Numbers 2-4 have words in their boxes on the bottom, that maybe describe the attraction type, like church, cemetery, whatever. Number 1? Skull.

Here are some shots of the inside of the ground floor.

There were several just piles o' bones.

Bonedelier:

This is back outside again, on the nice sidewalk of death.

Then we realized there was the actual not-bone chapel up some outside stairs. It had some oddly suggestive paintings.

Then we left and took a walk to find this dumpling place for lunch. Here is a column-tower thingy that I forgot the name of.

Here's a local map built into the sidewalk. That's totally suite.

Then we found this big cylinder with a door with a little window. But there wasn't really anything inside.

Prague is a city that has a lot of architecture and statues going on. Like everything you see is some sort of intricate carving of either art or design, or both mebbe.

Later, it became night. We took some photos of pretty night things.

 This sculpture series is a monument to the victims of communism. As you go up the steps, the figure is less and less fully human, until it's like like a foot or something at the top.

Well, that was kind of a drag to end on. Suckers.

By the way, beer is wicked cheap in Prague, but I hate beer, so I mostly had expensive gin and tonics.

Spontaneous Trip to Prague Part 1: Pre-First Excursion

So like, crazy story. I was sitting in my jams in Ed's apartment on the Monday morning before I was to return to Japan (which was the following Saturday). I was czeching Facebook and saw that my friends Mike and Dana had czeched in at the Amsterdam airport. And I was like, shit, man. Amsterdam is right across the ol' channel. So I sent them a message being like, what are you doing in Amsterdam? I'm right across the ol' channel in Brighton. And they were like, actually we're just on a layover on our way to Prague. And I was like, hey, we could go over there and hang out with you. And they were like, yeah. And so Ed and I did a bunch of quick intaanetto lisaachi, booked ourselves a cheap flight and a cheap hotel, and were on a plane that VERY EVENING, to return Thursday.

I'm really glad to know that my "czech" homophony pun has FINALLY paid off, after maybe more than a decade using it.

If you are confused about why this is working, find Prague on a map.

Anyway, although our hotel was really weird, because it was in some old building that also had things like a restaurant (not associated with the hotel) and a dentist's office in it, and our room was in kind of a different part of the building from where the rest of the hotel was, I did not bother to take any pictures of it, because it was all pretty dull. Actually, the hotel was also weird because you had to buzz at the front door to get in, like in apartment buildings. This is perhaps because there are so many separate businesses in the same building. My point here is that I won't be boring you with hotel photos this time.

Right.

So after breakfast, our first point of business was to meet up with Mike and Dana, whom I hadn't seen for over three years, so that was a cool thing. Ed and I hadn't had time to do any research on what to actually do in Prague, so we were hoping the others would have a game plan set up. Luckily, they did. But that is for NEXT TIME.

Before we met up with them, Ed and I ran around and took a few pictures of the area around our hotel, which was in Old Town.

Behind us here is the famous astronomical clock. It was put up in 1410 and is the oldest astronomical clock that is still working, according to Wikipedia. You can look it up if you want to know more about this fascinating piece of history.

Here's a video from later that night of the hourly blah it puts on. It's funny because presumably every waking hour, you can see a big crowd of people gather as early as fifteen minutes before the hour strikes, anticipating the show. But it's totally not worth the wait.

 The astronomical clock is in Old Town Square, which is where the next few shots were taken.

I've developed this funny habit of making ugly faces when Ed is trying to take a selfie--but he never knows it until after the shot is taken. Bwah ha ha.

This Gothic church is called the Church of Mother of God before Tyn. Jeez.

The statue in the background here is the Jan Hus Memorial. He was like a priest, philosopher, and reformer and such. Wikipedia makes it sound as though the reason he was eventually burned at the stake was merely because he believed that Catholic mass should be presented in the local language, rather than in Latin, but I imagine there was more to the story. Good ol' Catholic leaders.

Here's us walking to the train station. Notice how like all the buildings are old and pretty in this town.

We had to kill some time before our train, so we explored the grounds of the station and found this statue honoring President Woodrow Wilson. We were pretty confused as to why there would be a statue of an American president in Prague, and especially why so many of the donors were from various American families and organizations, as acknowledged on the plaques. But apparently this statue was originally put up in 1928 because Wilson was instrumental in getting Czechoslovakia's independence. Then the Nazis tore it down in 1941. Those guys. The statue was put pack up a couple years ago by the American Friends of the Czech Republic, and I guess they have strands running all over the U.S., where they got their donations.

 I don't remember what was going on here, but evidently it was very funny.

And here's just a funny video.

So next time I'll talk about where we actually went on the train.

Oxford University and Town

Okay, so we were in Oxford to czech out the university, to which I will apply to a doctoral program(me) later this year. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously early to be visiting a school, since at the time I had no idea (and still have little idea) about what I specifically would want to research during my time there. So we stopped by the admissions office and I picked up a couple pamphlets and talked for a few minutes to the graduate admissions officer. She did give me a good tip regarding funding, though. At Oxford (and Cambridge), you have to affiliate with one of a few dozen colleges for administrative purposes, and many colleges offer scholarships or grants to students of merit or in need. So instead of naming my top choices on my application, I should just leave my college options blank, which will leave me open to funding opportunities from any of the colleges.

Blah blah.

Next we stopped at the Centre for Linguistics and Philology and talked to the administrative head or something for a little while. I didn't have anything specific to talk about yet with professors, which was kind of lucky since fully none of them were around that day. After that we mainly just walked around town and visited a couple college campuses for two days.

Oxford is a very pretty town, but the pictures get kind of samey after a while, so I haven't included everything.

This is a building next to our hotel. I think it might have been some sort of city building.

On Hertford College campus, there is the commonly-called Bridge of Sighs, which according to Wikipedia is actually named the Hertford Bridge. Also according to Wikipedia, this bridge wasn't meant to be a replica of the original Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy, and in fact doesn't really resemble it at all. People still call it that, though, and it seems to be a popular wedding site.

 Bodleian Library.

The Radcliffe Camera seems like a cool place to be.

This building looks like a classic bank, but it isn't a bank. It's the Clarendon Building, which used to house the Oxford University Press, but now the Bodleian Library uses it for stuff. Boring.

There were a bunch of freaky stone heads of Roman emperors in front of the Sheldonian Theatre.

Here are some pictures of one of the campuses we visited.

 There were signs that said you couldn't go onto the grass, so we couldn't see what this oasis wood was all about. As if people don't understand that grass was made to walk on. That's why it grows on the GROUND, STUPID.

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. It's like a thousand years old, man.

HA HA HA.