Day Trip #2

So, today we had to go on our second mandatory day trip with ECES. I think the reason they are mandatory is because they are supposed to introduce us to the culture and history of not only Prague, but of the Czech Republic. I think that is why all of the trips we had to choose from were located outside the country. Anyway, today I went on another castle tour in a town that is as hard to spell as it is to pronounce. The cool thing about this castle though, is that the current owner actually still lives in it. He is like 86 years old, and he and his wife occupy around 4-5 rooms on the first floor. Obviously, the tour doesn't go to that part of the castle. The one thing that just drives me to giggles (yes I did just say that) about these castles is their trophy rooms. These are the rooms where they mount the heads, horns, skins, of hoofs of anything they killed while living at the castle. And if my dad and brother could see these rooms, I think that the little 8 pointers we have on our property just wouldn't seem that awesome any more. These rooms are literally covered in hundreds of antlers...some are bigger than I am!!! Essentially the only thing to conclude is that deer used to be a LOT bigger.

Today, we also drove to Kunta Hora, the home of the "Bone Church." The actual name of the church escapes me at the moment. It is a small, unremarkable building on the outside, but on the inside it appears to be straight out of a horror movie. The reason it was nicknamed the Bone Church is because of the 40,000 remains that can be found as decorations within its walls. The small graveyard outside the church was overcrowded as it was, due to casualties from the Plague and ongoing Hussite battles. Then, some "genius" decided to bring back some dirt from Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion and sprinkle it around the cemetery. Then everyone HAD to be buried in that graveyard because of its holy nature. Therefore, bodies were being exhumed and stacked in the church in order to make way for the new bodies. Eventually a woodcarver was commissioned to use the huge amount of bones as decoration in the church. So instead of curtains or paintings, the whole church was decorated with human remains. I recommend that everyone just googles it. The videos are crazy! But I thought it was so cool.

Tonight it is either sleep or dance club...as of now, I am still undecided.