When your Fitbit calls you a "Step-geek"...

Snapped this on one of my evening walks.

So, my Fitbit called me a Step-geek after my tour on Saturday (see my last blog post). I clocked in over 21 000 steps. Here's what I got up to after the Bone Chapel:

The Statue of Saint John of Nepomuk

The Queen of Bohemia would meet with Saint John once a week without fail and would never miss an appointment. King Wenceslaus started to grow suspicious of his wife's behaviour. He decided to torture Saint John to find out her secrets. What sins was she committing that she had to confess so regularly? Was she having an affair? Was she having one with Saint John?

John was tortured by the King, put inside a wooden box and thrown into the river Vltava. Before he touched the water, angels swooped down from heaven and carried him away. That night, 5 new stars appeared in the sky. And that is why the statue of Saint John will always have a halo of 5 stars. 

You can find another statue of Saint John of Nepomuk on Charles Bridge.

The statue is located right outside of the cemetery
which surrounds the Bone Chapel. 

Saint Barbara's Church

Saint Barbara (circled) with her book
and tower, with 3 windows.

Barbara's father wanted to keep the wealth in the family. So, he locked his daughter in a tower, with only two windows. She read lots of books during her time there, including those about Christianity, and decided that it was the religion for her. Barbara wanted to become a Catholic.

She asked her father if she could build a third window, because of the importance of the number 3 in Christianity (the Holy Trinity). Nowadays this wouldn't seem like such an unreasonable request, but her father was furious! 

He dragged her to the Romans to be tortured, but this wasn't enough for him and he decided to decapitate his own daughter. I'd like to think that my dad wouldn't chop off my head if I asked for another window! 

This depressed looking guy, in the red tights,
is about to be punished for stealing.

(Left) A fresco on the wall of St Barbara's Church. Thieves were punished with the same hammer used for imprinting on coins. The thieves had to hold the coins in place, while the workers knocked them. Of course the workers didn't have perfect aim and the thieves' fingers seldom got away unscathed. If you were lucky enough to walk out of there with all of your fingers, you wouldn't even think about stealing again!

(Right) An 18th century wooden statue of a miner. Note the black leather apron tied around his waist. It was used for sliding down the mine-shafts and to kneel on.

Typically, miners would work 6 days a week and 14 to 16 hours a day. Naturally, they lived short lives. So, the church convinced them to donate their money to the church when they died. This is actually how they were able to build Saint Barbara's Church.

Barbara is the patron saint of miners. Legend has it that Saint Barbara saved a miner who was trapped underground, after he prayed to her profusely.








These next two weren't part of the tour, but I did it on the same day... Okay, no wonder I'm a "Step-geek".

On the way to the wall...

John Lennon Wall

Today, at the wall, you'll find young people getting drunk off beer and rolling a joint, but after the death of John Lennon, it was a means of expressing dissatisfaction with the communist regime.

Černý at it again

David Černý is a Czech sculptor known for his controversial work. For example, a giant, purple middle-finger pointed towards Prague Castle, put up right before the Czech elections.

I'm not sure what the meaning of these faceless crawling babies is, but you can find them climbing Žižkov Television Tower as well.

 

Faceless babies in Kampa Park, which is around the corner from the Lennon Wall. 

Met a delightful Italian man here who wanted his picture taken, while he kissed the baby's bottom. I saw the same man earlier, taking a video-selfie and pretending to conduct the band behind him (see the picture of the band above). What a lively man! 

Prague is a serious walking city. Just ask my poor geek-feet. The city really isn't that big, but a word of advice, watch out for Segways - it's the lazy man's mode of transport around Prague and they may just run you over. You have been warned!

I can feel it in my bones...

After thoroughly enjoying the free walking tour of Prague (see my first blog post), I decided to do the same company's Kutna Hora and Bone Chapel Tour. Seriously, check out Discover Prague Tours! (www.discover-prague.com) Once again, I wasn't disappointed.  

Welcome to the Bone Chapel!

The Bone Chapel is located below the Catholic Church of All Saints, which is surrounded by a cemetery (if it wasn't creepy enough already!).

The thigh bone is connected to the knee bone...

So, where did all of these bones come from? There are three sources. Firstly, people flocked to the cemetery to die, because they believed that it was holy land. It also helped that the church told people that their bodies would decompose within three days, because the soil was so holy. Great if they wanted to be buried with their belongings and not worry about grave-robbers.

Secondly, Protestants were pushed into the bottom of the church and left to die. And lastly, the Black Plague.

The basement of the church was used as an ossuary, until it was decided that a bunch of bones shouldn't just be lying around gathering dust. 

So, who decorated the chapel? 

In 1870, Frantisek Rint, a woodcarver, was ordered to arrange the bones in an artistic manner.

Frantisek Rint's signature on the wall of the Bone Chapel.

 

The crown in this photo is supposed to represent
Jesus Christ, the Key of Death,
because he died and was resurrected. 

This chandelier contains at least one
of EVERY human bone.

 

The coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family.

A bird pecking out the eyes of
an Ottoman or infidel.

Skulls from the Hussite Wars

Arrow (left) and ax (right) wounds. 

Mace to the face (left) and impaled (sword through the mouth) (right).

This poor guy had started healing when he died.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a CSI. Every week I'd religiously watch the shows on TV (Miami, Las Vegas and New York). I even watched Dexter with my dad. I think that I've always had a dark side and I like that about myself. But I do wonder... Is it socially acceptable to be in total awe of the remains of over 40, 000 people and not even a little bit creeped out? I think that I had to hide the fact that I was so excited.

How are you supposed to act inside a Bone Chapel?

Yay for "Dem Bones".

And the cherry on top of a creepy weekend in Prague; a guy walking his girlfriend on a leather leash. Some real-life 50 Shades of Grey for y'all.

So, why am I here?

Not why am I on this earth (that’s an existential question and post for another day), but why am I in the beautiful city of Prague? 

Beautiful, right?

New Beginnings and a New Me

Equipped with a confident new voice and bright red lipstick, I've set off to see the world. Well, 5 of the world’s countries that I've never been to before.

I really like this map. It's like the one I look up and see every time I'm in my dentist's chair. 

In December I graduated from the University of Cape Town (UCT) with a Bachelor of Social Science degree. My time there certainly wasn't all smooth sailing, but it was exciting to be a university student.

This year, I felt like I needed a break from studying to “get my life in order” before I took on another degree. So, with one degree under my belt, I thought, “here’s my chance!” To be completely honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do or study this year (if I did decide to carry on studying).  

In South Africa, it is more common for people to take their gap years straight after high school, but when I left high school, I didn't feel that I was ready to go off into the big wide world on my own. I wanted to go to UCT, and I was determined to get in. It was the only university I applied to. My parents went there and I wanted to go there.

So, there I was, my 22^nd birthday was around the corner and it was pretty much a now or never kind of situation. However, it wasn't as easy as it sounds to decide on a gap year. All of my closest friends decided to carry on studying, including my boyfriend. So, questions like “Am I making the right decision?”, “What is the right decision?”, “Shouldn't I just carry on studying and get it done all in one go?”, “Won’t I be lonely?”, and “Can I leave behind my family, my boyfriend and my friends?” all filled my mind. But also, “When will you ever get this opportunity to travel the world again?” In the cycle of life, it’s school, degree, work, marriage, family… maybe go on a few holidays in between, but no travelling the world for a whole year, by yourself, to find yourself.

Anyway, back to the present. This is no ordinary gap year! You won’t find me waitressing in some pub in England or travelling aimlessly around South America or sitting on the couch at home getting fat. In total, I will visit 5 countries that I've never been to before (and I've travelled a lot!) and in each, I will be doing something totally unique. First stop = Prague.

Follow the Yellow Umbrella

Yesterday afternoon I did a fantastic walking tour of Prague. I spent 2 and half hours following a yellow umbrella through the swarms of tourists. The tour was funny, serious, witty and super informative. The guide was amazing! And it was absolutely FREE. I highly recommend the tour to anyone who is visiting Prague for the first time. It's a crash-course in Prague's history and you'll figure out which places you'll want to go back to in your own time. 

Here are some pictures from the tour:

At first glance you may think that these two towers are exactly the same, but look again! You will see that the one on the right is bigger. This was one of those "whoopsie moments" in history. The church decided to cover it up, by justifying the architectural slip-up. To make the mistake relevant to both man and the Church, they said the tower on the right, the bigger and stronger of the two, was a symbol of Adam and the smaller, weaker tower on the left was a symbol of Eve... And that's what you call 15th century PR!

Do you like the look of this building above? Well, so did Hitler. Hitler loved Prague and had big plans for the city. This building, the Rudolfinum, was the seat of the Nazi Philharmonic Orchestra. If you look carefully you can see statues on the roof. Those are statues of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and other great musicians. There is also a statue of Felix Mendelssohn, a Jew. Legend has it that  Hitler's right-hand man, the Butcher of Prague, ordered the statue of Mendelssohn to be removed. His men went up to the roof, realised they didn't know which one Mendelssohn was and rather than admit defeat to their boss (Who would? He was called the Butcher of Prague!), they devised a way to find the statue of Mendelssohn. Their plan? Measure the noses of each statue. When they found the one with the biggest nose, they brought the statue down and smashed it into the cobblestones. Unfortunately, they were all prosecuted, because the statue that they destroyed was of Wagner, a German and an anti-Semitic, who just happened to have the largest nose.

Statues of famous musicians on the roof of the Rudolfinum.

 

Prague's Astronomical Clock (Above) - There's an amazing story behind this clock, which includes people being thrown out of windows and the gauging out of eyes, but you'll have to come to Prague to hear it. The four figures next to the clock represent sins; vanity (the first man's holding a mirror), greed (this man's holding a bag of money), death (no man, just a skeleton) and the Turk (a threat to the Church with his turban and musical instrument). Every day, on the hour, the four figures move and the 12 apostles come out of the two windows above the clock, as a reminder that people were only alive because of this clock and that there would be another hour to confess their sins before judgement day... or something like that. 

Here's a link to the Discover Prague Tours' website: www.discover-prague.com 

I did the Royal Walk Free Tour, but they also offer a Prague Pub Crawl, Prague Castle Tour and even a Concentration Camp Tour of Terezin.