The Beginning

I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here. The idea of spouting my own inane ramblings has always sounded like fun to me, but it always comes off so wanky - as it has already.

So, I'll use the excuse that I'm here to practice my writing skills, having just sat through twelve lectures on an introduction into academic writing over twelve weeks. Please correct anything you see as incorrect (preferably by Aussie standards).

If you read this, I hope the posts to come will be entertaining; the intention is for them to be mostly anecdotes I guess. If they're not entertaining: STOP READING! Sheesh.

Ah, I remember something interesting. I went on tour to Europe (England, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Switzerland to be precise) over the Christmas break between 2004 and 2005. The tour was technically a school group, though it was actually my school choir (who took themselves more seriously than just any old school choir - we did tour to Europe, after all). I was 16 at the time, and we toured for just over a month.

We started out in England, and spent a bit over a week based at a boarding school called Elstree (don't ask me where it was - if I could remember, I would have said). After England, we flew into the Czech Republic, arriving at 11:00pm local time. I don't actually remember what city we flew into-though I could find out (probably Prague now I think about it)- but I do know it wasn't the city we were meant to be staying in that night. As a result, we then had to get on a bus and drive for another hour or so until we got to the city/town of Pardubice and met the lovely people who had agreed to take us in.

All of this night time arrival stuff meant that we didn't really see any of Czech until the next morning when we all met at the school our host siblings went to. In fact, even then we didn't see an awful lot of the place - just some funny-looking churches. The fun really began when we arrived at our first touristy destination.

It was in Kutna Hora and it was a church. I'm not sure of the name of the church, we only knew of it as Kutna Hora; I now know that that's in fact the name of the whole place.

Being a group of 85+ Australian teenagers and some adults, and having provided no warning to this poor church as to our arrival, we had to wait outside for some time before being allowed in as a whole group. As we lined up outside, I was a fair way back down the line but it wasn't long before whispers of what was ahead floated back to me. I remember hearing "it's full of bones" and "that's disgusting!" a number of times and having no idea what to expect.
Eventually, we were allowed in.

A church, with Jesus surveying the whole place. There was a chandelier made out of human bones; the walls were all completely decorated in bones; children's skulls stood on pedestals - pedestals made out of human bones; there was a coat of arms made out of bones; piles and piles of bones lay within caged off areas - areas caged off by bones. It was mind-blowing and it just went on and on. I listened to people start talking in a chattering-buzzy sort of way, and then listened to the whole group go slowly silent. I watched people try to take in as much as they could at once, not in a frenzied or frenetic way, but in a slow yet purposeful way. I watched people gasp and grab their friends as their eyes moved upwards and found the ceiling and the chandelier.

We weren't allowed to take photos. If you google it, I'm sure you'll find it (see below). They told us no one was murdered for the use of their bones or anything as sinister. Apparently, all of the bones belonged to people that had been buried in the church's graveyard at some point and had had to be dug up. It didn't really matter to me.

Some people found it disgusting. I'm surprised no one threw up, really. I found it both appalling and beautiful and just for the simple fact of what it was, I will never forget it.

And so begin the ramblings. I like the idea of writing about tour: mostly because I'm scared of forgetting so much of it, but it was also mountains of fun, and great to write about. Expect more tour stories. If anything amazing happens in my every day life, I'll write about that. Gigs are likely to be a frequent topic.

http://www.norrby.dk/i_rejse/Knoglekapellet_i_Sedlec_Kutna_Hora_Tjekkiet_september_2000.jpg
http://www.fenichel.com/prague/chalice.jpg
http://www.earth-photography.com/photos/Countries/CzechRepublic/Czech_KutnaHora_Ossuary2.jpg