For those who have heard of "The Bone Chapel" in the Czech Republic, this was my time to see it. Knowing little more than the fact it was indeed a church covered in human bones, I scurried my butt off to Kutva Hora, a town about an hour from Prague centre and first explored the pretty little town before battling increasingly freezing temperatures to get to this random, tiny church plopped kinda in the middle of nowhere.
Surrounded by a graveyard that for years was believed to be able to decompose bodies in 3 days (hence was quite popular), this chapel was adorned floor to ceiling with decorations from human bones in, I guess, an attempt to celebrate and honour the dead. Not sure how the relatives of the people whose bones were used would feel about that, but since no one seems to know or admit who they are, I guess that's not a problem.
I took plenty of photos, cos you know, honouring the sacred and the dead and all that doesn't really count when you have paying tourists, right?? At least I took my flash off... Will post them up later.
By the time I got outside again it was FREEZING and of course when I got to the tiny station populated mainly by Asian tourists, I discovered the next train to Prague wasn't for over an hour. So after some smart maneuvouring on my behalf (getting pretty handy of these train lines, I must admit), I got myself back to the city a little quicker and grabbed my bags from the hostel luggage room to try and find this sports hall for the Buddhist retreat.
Well, that turned out to be a bit more of a mission than first thought. After some mislaid directions (thanks Google Maps), I got tram after tram and then finally found myself connecting with a bunch of other people with sleeping bags and mats, and walking into a big sports hall full of regular looking, suspiciously not stereotypical Buddhist types. And so this amazing experience began...
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