Prague, Czech Republic - part 1

Then I have been in Prague, Czech Republic for 6 days, with my mom this time.

Day 1: A bad start.

From the airport to the hotel there was no direct bus so we had to take a bus and then underground. On the subway there were conductors who stopped us and were going to look at the tickets. The tickets were in Czech and it turned out that we had bought senior tickets at half price. We asked if we could go out and buy new tickets as we had bought the wrong one, but we were not allowed to and we had to pay a fine! Actually, we should have paid a fine of 2000 czk, but were paid 1000 czk, which corresponds to approx. 500 Norwegian kr. It was still incredibly sour as we bought tickets in good faith and offered to buy new tickets. The day was a little ruined because of that. 

Then we walked from the underground to the hotel Residence Bologna where we should stay, booked through  www.booking.com We paid 5267kr for to people at the hotel for 6 nights.

We walked in circles and in circles before we found the hotel, but we still arrived an hour before the hotel started checking in. So we left our bags in the hotel and went and had a look around the city while we waited. Ate ice cream among other things.

Then we finally got checked in a little sour and disappointed after the fine in the subway. The hotel room was very large, and it was clean and tidy there. Here we are the ones who have messed with our stuff a bit. Our things is everywhere.

The only drawback was that there was a smell of smoke in the hotel room. We don't know if it pulled in through the outside window or if people were smoking in the hotel room.  Because of my asthma, I got a little bad from it and coughed and coughed. But all in all it was a great hotel room, with plenty of space, fridge, nice bathroom. The location of the hotel was fantastic as it was walking distance to most things, such as the National Museum, the old town, the town square, and the shopping streets. 

Day 2: Shopping, museum and old town.

Today we first went to the old town, where they had a small market. As well as having the medieval astronomical clock that is housed on an old town hall. What we didn't get to see, but which is on wikipedia if you google the clock, it says that when the clock strikes the hour, two hatches open above the clock where the apostles pass by within.

Then we went to an illusion museum called Illusion Art Museum Prague  https://www.Prague.eu  here you can buy tickets. It costs 139kr for an adult, and is slightly cheaper for a student, as long as you can show a student ID.

This is the first museum in Prague dedicated to illusions and art alone. Where they bring to life historical technologies. It is possible to interact with many of the exhibitions. You could see the illusions a little better if you took pictures of them, so they encouraged us to do that. Some of the pictures were made of cameras and shoes, and laundry supplies.

Over here, you will see some pictures from the Illusion Art Museum. The two middle pictures are the same image, but one is seen from the front and the other from the side, so you can see what they have pictured. In the last picture is Mom interacting with the art, as was possible to do in many of the pictures.

Then we did some shopping before we went to relax at the hotel again.

Day 3: Kutna Hora

We took the subway to the central station and trains on to reach Kutna Hora, where we were to look at the bone church. This church, or chapel, is decorated with 40,000 real skeletons. When we got off the train, we started the GPS and went to find the bone church. By the time we had walked for over an hour and a half at the end, we had of course come to the wrong church which was Sant Barbara's Church (St. Barbara's Church online). It is located at the other end of the map of Kutna Hora, than the train station is. It was a nice church with great views and large area. But because of closing time in the bone church, we thought we didn't have time to look inside the church, so we asked for directions to the cemetery/bone chapel, and got a map with us. It turned out that we had walked an hour and a half the wrong way and that the church/chapel was not far from the train we took to get there. So we took the bus back, the same way we had come from. 

Here are some pictures from fra St. Barbaras church and the area around.

After arriving at the bone church, we went to the information desk and bought tickets to enter the chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures there, but if you google you can see what it was like there. To be perfectly honest it was a bit dissapointing, had expected more rooms. The room wasn't that big, but the atmosphere was a bit special when you thought what was hanging around you. There was a big room with skeletons stacked on top of each other, chandeliers and more, which was cool, think they've managed and made this with bones. There was also a bunch of bones that seemed to just be thrown in as well. 

It was of course very special to walk in and see lots of skeletons, bones and skulls built into a chapel. What was a bit of a bummer was that I thought there was more to see, one side they were still  building in the bone chapel, while we were there, when we went back out someone was laying flowers on a grave, so I kind of felt like we were disturbing them. It is a tourist attraction, but it is also familiar and dear to those who have them buried outside or inside the church. The picture below was taken from the doorway. Wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the church, but if you google the bone church in Prague, some pictures will pop up there.

Some info about transportation and discounts:

You have to buy different tickets if you take the regular train or the express train. Due to a lady we talked to, we were told that we could download an app and buy tickets on it, which helped us a lot on the rest of the trip. That app was called pid litacka and works on just about every mode of transport in Prague, except the express train. On the express train you have to buy your own ticket, we didn't know it until we were already on the train so we bought tickets there.

For those who are students, it pays to say that they are students as you get a discount both with transportation, at museums and more. In most places, they ask you if you have a student ID, so it's a good idea to bring that as well.