From snow-covered statues, to foggy mornings, to Christmas markets, Prague in the winter feels like a fantasy land. Equal parts cozy and formidable, the city captures the duality of the season. Sometimes I feel like a child, looking at Christmas lights and catching snow on my mittens, but sometimes I feel like a traveler wandering through a forbidding and ancient realm of eternal winter.
In this post, I’ll be showing off Prague with pictures from the winter season so far.
^ Kicking off the holidays, the Náměstí Míru Christmas market in my neighborhood opened last month while my parents were visiting. Above are pictures from its first night! ^
^Above are scenes from the Vltava river bank on a chilly November afternoon^
^ Prague being its “dark academia” self ^
^ winter-themed people-shaped cute things ^
^ Friendsgiving potluck ^
^ The grand opening and tree lighting at the main Christmas market in Old Town Square ^
Thank you Jesus for this trip. So our flight went much quicker than was expected, instead of 10hrs 40min, we got to Japan in 9hrs 15min, which was really fast. The flight went extremely well and smooth by God’s grace. And something which struck Alissa and I during this flight, was the airline food and movie selections that the plane had. We flew with Delta, on a non stop, which was nice. Though with the meals served, we noticed there was an individual sized small container of ice cream, and later on for a mid flight snack, a warm chocolate chip cookie. This caught our attention because in our last four flights we had experienced going to and from Japan with Asiana and JAL, there was not such a high sugar content in the meals, but rather much healthier fruit based snacks for desserts. It brought to mind the sugar barons that have succeeded in America to have sugar become such a huge staple of the regular American diet; sugar addiction and death by sugar. One other thing that was in such a stark contrast on the plane was the flight attendants. The look, size, ages and demeanor were drastically different from Asiana and JAL. Delta on this flight, the crew was mixed, in age, older men, and older women, mixed in size, slightly plump with some and others being of healthy weight and thin. One older female flight attendant seemed a bit especially court, and very short answered, sort of snappish and rude with the fliers. Answering in a striking and resounding NO! With requests which could not be met, in a somewhat rude fashion. For example, oh, do you have iced tea? — A firm resounding extremely snappish fast and blunt NO! Is the answer. This is in an extreme stark contrast with Asiana and JAL airline flight attendants. They are extremely homogenized in appearance, all being thin, taller young women, not as many male attendants. With very polite and somewhat apologetic customer service, that gives the customer a feeling of them being the point of focus. The experience of behavioral people watching of the crew was very different and interesting to see. Upon arrival in Japan I quickly noticed the sheer cultural differences in politeness. What seemed like 30 people right from the get go bowing and with arms stretched saying this way to your next location for your next tasks, in a slightly hurried, happy to see you, and apologetic, sorry for the inconvenience, manner. A massive massive reminder, that yes. We have just stepped foot in Japan, and this is how Japanese culture does things. We got through customs-check extremely quickly and something that Alissa realized and was very surprised by was the fact that there was no security check, no screening of luggage and no walking through metal detectors and taking off shoes and belts and laptops, or any critical and detailed checking of our luggage and contents all over again. Just a simple and streamlined paperwork processing and we were on our way. This was a wonderful surprise, and led to a slight feeling of regret as we thought, oh darn, had we had known, then we would have brought our food gifts as well, which we had left behind, because we weren’t sure if it would make it through Japanese customs. Wooow. Passing through the last door through customs, our next tasks were res
On Sunday, we woke to the first fall chill of the season. It was as if the wind knew we were going to the perfect autumn destination: Kutná Hora, a town perched on a hill, crowned by an imposing gothic cathedral, and best known for an ossuary decorated with bones.
Kutná Hora is a town of around 20,000 people located an hour’s train ride east of Prague. It originally rose to prosperity in the 1300s, because it was home to a silver mine. Its most famous historical sites also date back to the medieval time period, including St. Barbara’s Cathedral and Sedlec Ossuary. I could tell, during the long walks through the town, that the architectural feats were more than just beautiful; they were rooted in a history much deeper than my own.
We arrived in Kutná Hora around 11 am, with 10 hours to spend as we wished. Our abundance of time allowed us to move slowly—to wander in any direction we felt pulled—and as a result, the whole day had a relaxing and explorative feeling that made the trip so enjoyable. Because of the perfect weather (sunny with some stormy clouds rolling over, and warm with a chill), we walked almost everywhere. In fact, my friend’s apple watch clocked us at 8 miles total!
For the rest of this entry, I’ll let the pictures tell the story of our trip:
^spot the 3 west coast license plates on the wall of the coffee shop we went to for breakfast!^
^we started with the statue-guarded walkwayto St. Barbara’s Cathedral^
^Megan, Cierra, and Grace^
^the view of the terraced hillside from the statue walkway^
^St. Barbara’s Cathedral looks good from any angle^
^This was taken moments after I took the picture above this one^
foreshadowing for our later trip to the Bone Church^
^somehow this tree in front of the cathedral reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings^
^the garden in front of St. Barbara’s^
^the top of the hill was covered in lawns and flowerbeds, with some sculptures^
^and some other cool buildings^
pictures from our walk to the next cathedral^
^Church of the Assumption at Sedlec^
The next stop was the Bone Church (Sedlec Ossuary), but pictures were not allowed.
^a graveyard wrapped around the outside of the bone church, and just beyond the walls was a playground–we all thought it was an interesting contrast^
^a combination of buses and walking got us back to the main town center^
Having previously seen an overgrown cobblestone path leading down the hill from St Barbara’s, we decided to follow it. The following pictures are what we found…
^cat #1!^
^As the night got darker and clouds rolled in, St. Barbara’s Cathedral took on animposing and dark fantasy-esque appearance^
^left to right: Todd, Cierra, Grace, Megan, me (pc: Cindy)^
^these are the terraces we could see from the cathedral!^
^cat #3!^
We ended the night with dinner at an Italian restaurant, took the train home, and slept very soundly.
