Kutna Hora

I went to Kutna Hora with my coworkers for a training session.  Kutna Hora is a small Czech town that is largely known for its Ossuary, but ill get to that.

First off, was the training.  It sounds like a chore, but with this group of teachers and bosses it ended up being pretty fun!  We teach English to children, so a large part of the training usually consists of role playing and playing different games and inevitably going out to drink massive amounts afterwards.  One of such evenings was when I lost my camera, I took it out to get a picture of everyone together and left it on the table in the restaurant.  Tragedy abounded.  Then we all went to the one night club in this tiny town, and had a ridiculous evening where my boss totally did not grace everyone on the dancefloor with a champagne shower (it was her birthday) and proceeded to totally not break her arm falling down the steps of the DJ booth.  hilarity.  But I did have to give a presentation first thing the next morning after sleeping for about an hour.... which was filmed.... which is somewhere on the big bad internets now.... Im kindof happy it hasnt been brought to my attention yet.....

Aaanyhow, I promised details on the Kutna Hora ossuary.  Welllll it is still unclear to me exactly why, but there is a Gothic church on the outskirts of Kutna Hora that looks rather unimpressive on the outside, and it is entirely decorated with human bones on the inside.  I just googled it, apparently there are the bones of over 40,000 people decorating the place.  The story goes that a 13th century abbot brought soil from Golgotha back to this church.  Because it is holy soil, all these people wanted to be buried there.  The cemetary had to be expanded, and there still wasn't enough room.... so they started making chandeliers out of skulls.  Pretty linear reasoning...

The Chandelier

Coat of Arms

They even had a bone baptismal font, which I find most morbid of all, but I couldn't find a picture online...

So yes, it was pretty morbid, quite strange, and entirely fascinating.  I'm not sure if there are others, but I'd go so far to say its one of a kind.

Aaaaanyhow, after the bone church, we drove out to BUDAPEST for a long weekend!!!!

Budapest was absolutely amazing, it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  We were lucky enough to be able to stay in an amazing hotel inside the old castle walls of the Buda side of the river.  The hotel was actually on a UNESCO heratige site, as was the surrounding walled-in area.  It was all soooo beautiful, and I'm kicking myself for losing that camera because words really can't do justice.

So much of the city just looked like something out of a fairy tale.  This complex was nextdoor to my hotel.

And this was the view across the river.  It was absolutely fantastic to see Budapest, and I was so happy to be able to see it with my family :)  Again, some amazing meals were had.  One restaurant we went to had people playing "traditional gypsy music".  There were three men, two with violins and one with an upright bass who were serenading the restaurant patrons.  It was so amazing and picturesque, and like something out of a movie.  And then they played the theme from the Godfather, which was straight up awesome.

After that, we drove back to Prague and they flew back home.