Day# 28: Prague

The next day the school had organized a day trip to Prague for students interested in going to see the city. We left at about 4:45 am with two buses full of students. A new friend I have made this semester, Marianne, had organized a private tour of the city for a few students. Thinking it a worthy cause, I signed up and paid the ten euro. Our tour guide was an older Czechoslowakian woman named Paula. We met her at our bus stop. "You are all Catholic, yes?" she asked us. We nodded. "I am a Protestant, I hope you don't mind," she said with a smile. Of course we didn't mind. She was very kind and it was nice to learn a little about the city, and very helpful to have a local to tell us where not to shop or exchange our money.
We saw the astronomical clock in the main square, which at the noon hour had little figures that moved. It was orginally built as an attraction for the city of Prague. The figures included the twelve apostles who appeared at two windows towards the top, and a skeleton who rang a bell telling hte people symbolically, "Memento more," - Remember your death. There was also a trumpeter who played when the clock was finished to announce the hour to the city. Also in the main square was the place where the guillotine once stood. Also nearby was the Dvorjak Concert Hall. Dvorjak was originally from Prague, I think, but he eventually moved to America.
Paula took us up to the castle- Prague has one of the largest castles in eastern Europe. We didn't take the tour because it was too expensive for the amount of stuff you got to see. In the square within the walls of the castle was a cage where adulterous wives were placed so that everyone knew who was being unfaithful to whom. We asked what happened to the adulterous men and Paula said, "The cage wasn't big enough to hold all of them!" Paula showed us the general layout of the castle, the entrance to the gardens - which used to house wolves and bears to protect the castle as opposed to having a regular moat. Connected to the castle was the cathedral, dedicated to St. Vitus, a young early Christian martyr. The cathedral was in the Gothic style and made of sandstone, which Paula pointed out as being more porous material and thus very susceptible to pollution. The church was modified and added to over the years but the pollution had so darkly stained the outside that you couldn't tell which part was older.
We could only stand in the back of the cathedral as the rest of it was part of the tour. The stained glass windows were extremely beautiful. Most of them were in the same style, a mosaic sort of style, but each was a little unique in how the figures and faces were portrayed. There was one however that was very different in its style. This stained glass window, designed in the 1930s, was by the famous painter, Alfons Mucha. His window reminded me of a water color painting. It was also very striking in its color contrast, as a lot of the other windows used vivid, deep shades of colors of reds and purples and blues, while this one had softer shades of golds, greens, and blues of aqua and turquoise. There were also some mosaics on the walls, one of which depicted the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John, but these were blocked of by guard rails so we couldn't get very close. Good King Wenceslaus is buried there, as are some of the Hapsburgs, I think. Those Hapsburgs are everywhere! There was an organ in the left part of the transept, but I couldn't get a good look at it since we were in the back.
We visited another church that was once Russian Orthodox but now belonged to the Czechoslowachian government, whatever that means. There was no blessed sacrament, and Czech flags were in the sanctuary. But the organ was playing when we came in - it sounded familiar, like something you might hear at a wedding. I think it was in D Major.
For lunch I got a couple blueberry Czech pastries, the nI got a wrap at K.F.C. because it was cheap. They were playing American pop music in there -Lady Gaga and Rihanna and "Big Girls Don't Cry." Joey Walsh and Craig were bobbing to the music of singing off and on. THAT was amusing. Craig told someone earlier that day, "Emily and I are tight: she plays the organ and I listen!" I thought it rather sweet of him.
During the tour we also went through part of the Jewish part of Prague. Several synagogues had been closed and/or turned into museums. We also saw a miniature of the French Eiffel tower from a distance, and the U.S. embassy -we got to stand on American soil for just a little bit! Because the U.S. owns the property on which the embassy is built in every country except for England.
The final sights of the city we saw were the Charles Bridge and the church of the Infant of Prague. The bridge was lined with statues of the saints on either side, donated by various religious groups or churches I think. Venders selling jewelry, photos, paintings, and other wares had set up stands along the bridge. I bought a photo of the bridge from one of them.
We had stopped at the Infant of Prague church on the way to the bridge. Mass was being celebrated in Spanish at 5 pm, so we returned after the bridge, after we said good bye to our tour guide. There was a solo male singer with an organ accompaniment for the music. The singing was fine, but the organ was very out of tune, so that was a little painful to listen to.
Earlier I had looked around the church and prayed before the statue of the holy Infant. The church was a former German Lutheran church which now belonged to a group of discalced Carmelites. Thus there were Carmelite statues all over: St. Simon Stock, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and a newer statue of St. Therese of Lisieux. The statue of the infant was about 1 ft - 1 1/2 ft tall, placed on a side altar on the right side of the church in a glass case. I bought a small pin of the Infant and a booklet on the history of the statue and the church.
For dinner we went to a small Czech restaurant. Word had spread amongst Franciscan students throughout the day about how good the food was, so when we arrived the restaurant was full of Franciscan students. We had to hurry and eat as we had about a half-hour to get back to our bus. Marianne got us back safe and sound though. She told me that she thought it would be fun to travel around Europe with me. I was flattered, but I told her it would depend on what she appreciated doing, as I would want to do all sorts of artsy things like go to art museums and concerts. She didn't retract her statement though. I hope to get to know her better as the semester progresses. She and I and another girl will be rooming together in Poland this weekend. We didn't get back to Gaming until 1:30 am. On the bus ride back we watched Dennis Hoffman/Robin Williams' Hook to please the girls and Rocky II  to please the guys. (We had watched Rocky I on the bus ride there). I didn't like Rocky very much, but that's just me. He was a nice guy, but I wouldn't have been able to stand him. I enjoyed Cinderella Man a lot more, and James J. Braddock is much more my type.
Overall, I liked Prague very much, it was a beautiful city. Bit it had a more blatant, darker side to it that in Vienna was a more hidden, I feel. There was witch craft, drugs, and such which I'm sure Vienna may have, too, but at least I didn't have to look at it. The bridge was definitely my favorite, walking across it as it overlooks the river was gorgeous!

Days #27: Hallstatt

This weekend Annie and I were planning on making our Bach pilgrimage to Erfurt and Leipzig, but our plans fell through at the last minute, and so I ended up hiking in the Alps and going to Prague instead. My friends Hannah and Brian had made plans to visit the Austrian city of Hallstatt for the day on Friday and invited me to accompany them, so I decided to tag along. We would return to Gaming on Friday evening to leave early Saturday morning for the school trip to the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia.
We left for Hallstatt bright and early at 4:30 in the morning. I had to wake Hannah as she had overslept, but we were still able to make it to our bus on time. Brian took care of us and helped us get to our correct platforms. It was enjoyable riding the trains together, chatting and getting to know one another better. As we drew nearer to our destination the beautiful Alps emerged on the horizon with their snow white peaks. We drew closer and closer until they towered over our little train. We had to cross a lake to get to Hallstatt on the other side, so we took a little ferry across for a small fee.
When we first set foot in Hallstatt, the first thing we set out for was the church. There were two churches, on in the center of town, the other located slightly overlooking the town and the lake higher up the mountainside, but still incorporated into the city. The first turned out to be a sort of Protestant church, but the other was Catholic. Mass wasn't until 6:30 pm, so we wouldn't be able to go, but we went inside to look around and to pray. The church had a unique design to it, as there seemed to be two main altars in what looked like a double sanctuary. A third, modern altar had been built in front of one of them, yet another consequence of misinterpretation of Vatican II. There was a smaller side altar on the left near a beautiful statue of the Pieta. The choir stalls on either side of the sanctuary were painted with images of the Twelve Apostles. Another particularly interesting feature of the church was the Stations of the Cross, which consisted of a series of paintings along the outside of the choir loft. Hannah had the wonderful idea of singing a hymn from their German hymnal, so we found Brian's favorite hymn in German, God Head Here in Hiding, and sang it in the empty little church. It was a nice memory, as we all love that hymn and we all love to sing (Hannah was in Schola with me last semester).
When we finished we went back outside to explore the cemetery surrounding the church. The cemetery started out front, then wound behind the church and upwards, with about three levels as it climbed up the  mountainside. It was neat to see the different tomb markers- one had the name Egger on it, the name of one of my fellow organ majors back on main campus! A lot of them were marked with the image of a saint, a queen, or a princess with a sword, tower, and holding the Blessed Sacrament. I couldn't remember who she was; any guesses? There was also a neat little shrine within the cemetery depicting the Agony in the Garden, with statues of Christ and an angel with the chalice, and God the Father and several angels painted on the backdrop. Each angel carried an instrument of Christ's Passion.

We climbed the levels of the cemetery until we reached a set of stairs and a path, leading to a hiking trail to the salt mines - Hallstatt is known for its salt. We had planned on going hiking, so we spontaneously decided to follow the trail up the mountain. It wound up the side of the mountain, back and forth, back and forth. The day had started out cloudy and drizzling, but as we climbed up, the clouds blew away to reveal a cerulean backdrop of blue sky and plenty of sunshine gracing the little valley. It was a long trek, but definitely worth it! We kept looking out over the valley, thinking, "It can't get much better than this," but it kept getting more and more beautiful almost with each step. We found a spring pouring down a crevice in the mountain into the valley below.  Further up we found one of the mines, but it was blocked off, so we were disappointed. Hannah and Brian had really wanted to go exploring. The mine dated back to Emperor Franz Josef I. But we kept going. We didn't make it quite all the way to the top of the mountain, but pretty close: we made it to a bridge built overlooking the valley. It was breathtaking to look upon. It was as if God was displaying His masterpiece for us, this little Austrian valley. We stood on the bridge for a long time, admiring the general splendor. The bells from Hallstatt rang out the noon hour, so we prayed the Angelus, then sang "Eidelweis" from The Sound of Music. Brian recited Psalm 19. I didn't think of it until later, but I thought of Nahum 2:1, Ecce super montes pedes evangelizantis et annunciantis pacem. - "Behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace."
Eventually we had to leave, so we slipped and slid and ran back down the mountainside. By the time we reached the foot of the mountain, the sky had clouded again and there was a slight drizzle. We had lunch on the dock overlooking the lake. Some local ducks came over to check out our cheese and ham tortillas. Among them was a swan which Brian mock threatened with his water bottle. When we finished, we decided to explore the city and buy a few souvenirs.  One interesting find we happened upon was this series of little shrines to the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. We had to overcome a few snowbanks to look at them, but that was part of the adventure. The last one consisted of a church on top of a hill. The main entrance was blocked by construction work, so we scaled a snow bank and jumped a stair rail to get to it. Unfortunately, the church was locked so we couldn't see the final mystery, but it was worth the adrenaline rush. We had to buy food for the journey back, so we waited outside a grocery store for it to open while Brian told various stories of his sleep walking and sleep talking experiences - most of which I had heard already, but it was entertaining to hear them again. ;-) Some of those just don't get old.

Afterwards we just wandered around the town some more. The train ride back was fun, too, just to talk and reminisce over memories from previous semesters and to share memories from the fun day we had had together. It was a good day, all in all! We got back to the Kartause at around 10:30, to get up at 4:30 for the trip to Prague the next day.