One of the weekly occurrences I have gotten used to during my time here in Prague is seeing my Facebook feed flooded with pictures of the most popular cities of Europe taken by other people on the program. Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London: European staples that I was told by numerous people that I just HAD to visit during my study abroad and missing them would be a tragedy. Certainly these cities are appealing, but I have approached my travel plans a bit differently. Not only are these cities more expensive than the lesser known, further east cities I have been traveling too, but they are also cities that I have a better chance to come back to in the future.
However, even after traveling for a few weekends in the first half of the semester outside of the Czech Republic, I realized that there is just as much to explore here within a few hours of Prague and the experience is much more authentic than any tourist trap plagued city. With this in mind, I spent the second half of the semester traveling close to home and I believe I have benefitted from a more authentic experience. I may not have seen as many old churches or castles, but I have gained a new understanding of Czech history that has changed the way I understand this country, its people, and the world more generally.
My first trip outside of Prague to another part of the Czech Republic was to Kutna Hora, a small town an hour from the outskirts of Prague that was home to the richest silver mine in Europe between 1400-1800. After donning hard hats equipped with small flashlights and questionable white robes, we were led 300 meters down into the mine where we snaked our way through passages that had been used to access veins of silver by serfs over 500 years ago. I am not a tall person, but even I was uncomfortably doubled over for the majority of the tour.
After escaping back into sunlight, we visited the other main attraction Kutna Hora has to offer, a 500-year-old church that is constructed of and adorned with human bones from victims of the Black Death. Kutna Hora was acutely affected by the plague and lost almost 90% of its population. A blind monk, who was rumored to be suffering from some kind of insanity (understandable in those conditions), decided to cope with the situation by methodically disassembling corpses and constructing intricate sculptures from the individual bones. All told, historians estimated that the church contained bones from over 5,000 bodies with possibly many more buried or lost due to time.
The best part of the trip to Kutna Hora however, was learning about available slots on an overnight trip the next day with a Czech buddy to her family’s cabin in the Southern Bohemia region. Evan and I decided to sign up because hiking was promised. What we decided as a last minute trip became one of my favorite couple of days of the semester so far.
The cabin was about an hour and a half south of Prague by bus through rolling green hills separating dozens of small towns. Unlike our previous trips outside of the city, this route did not take us along a major highway and the difference was immediate. Instead of seeing advertisements for large corporations, there were only houses, farms, and the occasional family run restaurant or corner store. Jana, the Czech buddy, told us about how the land, about 5 acres with a small cottage, barn, and small wooded area, had been taken from her family during the Communist collectivization of farmland. Thankfully her family just used the cottage as a summer and vacation home, and the structures were all kept intact. After the fall of communism, there was a realignment of sorts trying to return all the land to the original owners. Jana’s family’s share of the land grew slightly and now they have the rights to half of a muddy pond at the edge of their property. One of the only positives I’ve heard from Czech people about the communist times, but hey, it is a nice little pond.
Our first hike of the trip was to a local restaurant with an old wooden fire tower that offered a complete view of the Bohemian countryside. We spent the evening cooking in the antique kitchen which was powered by a large wood burning stove that heated the water tank, stove, oven, and the entire house. Evan and I put our cooking skills to work by helping prepare a family recipe that we have made a few times since for our friends. Jana and her boyfriend who joined us on the trip, filled dinner with lots of stories of growing up and visiting her grandparents at this house and she described how she experienced the Czech Republic change from the beginning of her life.
The rise of capitalism and multinational corporations is one of the biggest influences to her. She said when communism fell and was replaced by some level of competition in business and industry, the country experienced a kind of national confusion. Many people had to find new jobs, which was both a challenge and blessing in her eyes. Some people were able to find careers they actually enjoyed, some people relied on government assistance after being laid off.
That night was the first night I had seen the stars in almost half a year. It is one of my greatest joys, looking straight up on a cloudless night where your entire vision is filled with stars except the very edge where the horizon bends out of view. This gave me time to reflect on living in the city, something I anticipated would be the biggest adjustment for me. I have grown accustomed to walking just five minutes in any direction before arriving at a grocery store. I have developed a taste for durum kebabs and I think of any commute longer than 20 minutes as a long journey. In a strange way though, Prague feels less crowded than CMC. It took a few weeks, but as soon as I realized that the thousands of other people I see every day are completely irrelevant in any way, I think I understand the appeal of cities a bit better.
We spent the next day hiking from town to town, about 12 km in total through fields and replanted forests. After touring an open air museum with preserved buildings from the region during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, we took a short nap on the side of a trail in a farmer’s field. Apparently this is a totally normal thing to do, which was confirmed when we were passed by two other hikers who offered a friendly “Ahoj” as they passed. Our trip ended after stopping for a refreshing beer from the local brewery.
Even though we were outside of Prague for just over 24 hours, the trip was the most authentic experience with Czech culture for me this semester. Interacting with Jana, hearing the stories of her and her family, and actually living in their shoes for a night, was much more effective than any museum or guided tour. I thoroughly enjoyed leaving the city for the weekend and was able to experience part of the Czech Republic that is often overshadowed by Prague and its fancy churches.