September 20, 2014--Day 8--Saturday: By Dad and Carly

(Carly)

Sorry for the slow updates. I felt sick on Day 8 so I left it to my family to blog, and they still haven't really gotten around to it, so here I am again. Dad wrote most of Day 8's summary on a Word doc, so I'm gonna post that, but put in some of my own stuff too.

(Dad)

This morning Laurel and James and the boys went to Brno for a district conference.  Evie stayed behind to be our tour guide for the day.

After getting dressed and ready, we headed to Prague Castle.  Before we got there, we found some kind of market celebration in the gardens.  There were lots of little booths with vendors selling souvenirs and food.  They had a huge spread of various cheeses, and lots of wines and beers.  It drew quite the crowd.  The girls found a little stand that was selling these small ceramic birds that make the most authentic bird chirping sound you have ever heard.  They were blowing them all day and making people look around for who was carrying a bird.  We took lots of pictures and watched some children singing and dancing in traditional costumes.\

(Carly) (Also, they saw some kind of bird show.)

Then we went inside the castle walls and took a tour of Golden Lane.  Tradition says that there was a back alley along the outer wall where everybody piled the trash.  The guards who had to watch the castle asked the king if they could build some homes along that wall so they could both guard the castle and be nearer to their homes and families.  The king agreed if the guards would first clean up all the trash.  So they did, and then they built this incredible network of little hobbit homes underneath an armory with lots of indoor lookout points along the top of the wall for the guards to use for defending the castle.  You could almost picture the mother of the home sending their kids up the stairs to get dad for dinner.  “Just a minute!  The Germans are attacking again!!"

After Golden Lane we went to the royal castle and toured the ballroom and saw some royal jewels and really old royal furniture. 

We then left the castle through the main gate that goes to Charles Bridge.  We stopped along the way to buy some fruit and snacks to keep us going.  Eating has not exactly been a high priority during the daytime.  Usually we stop for food when we are so starving that we can’t enjoy what we are doing otherwise.

After eating, we ran down the steps that Tom Cruise runs up in the movie, and over to a creepy modern art exhibit with a bunch of bronzed babies with no faces.  They were the size of small elephants and really weird.

Then Evie guided us onto the right trams and we headed back to home base.  When we got off the bus, Ashley and I went back to the castle market for a bird whistle for Carly (and for more cheese).

(Carly)

At 4:00, when my family still wasn't back, I took it upon myself to attend a baptism downstairs and represent the McConkies who were in Brno. I made myself get off the couch and I threw on a skirt and cardigan and went down to the chapel as soon as I could hear the meeting starting.

It was such a beautiful service. It was all done in English, thankfully, because Will, the man getting baptized, is from the United States. The hymns were all in Czech, though. I tried to sing along in English but it was really hard to remember the words with everyone else singing something different.

The talks were given by members and missionaries, and they were so sweet. You could feel everyone's love, both for Will and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There were so many people there to support him in his decision, including his wife, who is very pregnant and due to give birth any day. I was proud of the speakers for not just giving rote talks and saying cliched things. They all spoke about Will's specific circumstances and explained how the Holy Ghost can help him be a father and stuff like that.

Evie showed up just in time for the baptism to be performed, and then we sang a few songs while Will got dried off and changed. To conclude the occasion, Will bore his testimony. He told about how he'd grown up in a largely Mormon community and seen the good examples of his friends. He said he'd investigated the Church before, but never with diligence and true intent. But once he had a pure desire to know the truth, he contacted the missionaries and dedicated himself 100% to study and prayer. Now he knows without a doubt that this is the true gospel of Christ.

His wife is apparently not at all interested in the Church, but she still seemed so happy for him, and I felt so much love and peace there in that chapel. It was wonderful to be there.

When I went back upstairs, my family was home. They were all exhausted and had put in the first Chronicles of Narnia movie. Once that one was over, they still didn't feel like moving, so they put in Prince Caspian. I was feeling better at that point and also feeling like stretching my legs, so Dad and Sarah and I went for another walk down to Charles Bridge (our favorite haunt, it seems). 

It was still very crowded with tourists despite the later hour (apparently early morning is the best time to go, just FYI), but most of the vendors were packed up and gone. There were still a few street performers, our favorite being a crystal glass player. The performers' music gave us a kind of soundtrack as we looked up at the beautifully illuminated castle and other buildings around us. The different lighting transformed the city into a new and unfamiliar place. A huge flock of seagulls circled around in the dark overhead, like a flurry of ghosts. 

We went into a few shops that Sarah had liked on the family's walk earlier today. One had a huge selection of wooden toys, which got Sarah and me reminiscing about our childhoods. Sarah got a kind of Rubik's cube she's always wanted, and Dad got a wooden "Memory" set for future grandchildren visits. 

After exploring a bit more, we went back home and the girls were on to Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I'd never seen it before, so I happily stayed up late to watch it with them while the parents went to bed. 

September 19, 2014--Day 7--Friday: Kutna Hora

(Still Carly. My sisters don't have my same kind of patience for writing.)

We had a fantastic day today. We had Laurel all to ourselves again today, and there was a maid coming to clean the house at 9:00 AM, so we left the house at like 9:15, which was super early for us.  Laurel drove us out to this smaller town an hour away called Kutna Hora. It was such a cute little town, and so tranquil compared to downtown Prague--way fewer tourists, and way more trees.

Our first stop was the famous ossuary. It became a very popular burial ground at the height of the Black Plague, thanks to some priest who sprinkled the area with dirt from Jerusalem. So when the bones became overabundant and the ossuary became overcrowded, someone commissioned the ossuary church to be ornamented and decorated WITH PEOPLES' BONES!!! There were skulls stringed together like Christmas garland, huge goblets made of bones, a coat of arms made of bones, and a massive chandelier that apparently contains every bone you can find in the human body.

I love Wilson's face in this one. :)

It was...difficult to describe. The thought of going there was kind of revolting, but I was morbidly curious. Being there was fascinating but also super creepy. It was dark and dank inside, and just so far from the idea of a nice Christian cathedral. I can't imagine actually feeling peaceful enough to pray in there. And I kept thinking like, how was this ever an okay idea?? How did the creators not just squirm in terror, fearing vengeful spirits whose remains had been turned into freaking decorations?? I mean, those were all PEOPLE once. When the Resurrection happens, that place will just be a boring stone building again, I guess. Ugh, it was weird. But at the same time, I'm really glad we got to see it.

Laurel wanted to get that out of the way first so we could have a happy, un-creepy rest of our visit. So after that we went deeper into the town and explored. First we got lunch at a cute cafe next to a big imposing cathedral. Laurel had been there before, and it ended up being perfect. Since we were a large group (I forgot to mention that Wilson was with us, too--skipping school with his broken finger) we got to eat up on the covered roof by ourselves. It was private and sunny and breezy and we could hear the organ being played in the cathedral. It was nice. The food was good, too. Lots of meat and fried potatoes. And Laurel was so excited to show us the self-cleaning toilets in the women's room. It was adorable.

After that, we went shopping some more. First we found some more cute wooden toys for Jackson (and I now have a renewed appreciation for how spoiled I've been as the first grandchild, now that I see how much my parents think about him). Then we found an amazing pottery store (Ashley was in heaven) and I wanted to buy everything.

Then we headed to the Kutna Hora castle. The castle itself is kind of typical of any large European government building, but the location is beautiful, on top of rolling hills. It's such a quiet little town. When you walk by the castle, there's a part where you pass a bunch of statues, and all you can see is forest, castle, and statues. You can easily imagine that you're living in the 1400s.

But the crown jewel of this town was its castle cathedral. Okay, we thought the Prague Castle cathedral was gorgeous, but this one was like ten times better. Not only were there way fewer tourists, none of it was blocked off and we got an up-close look at the most amazing altars and stained glass I've yet seen. It was so much sunnier than Prague. So much more inviting. The stained glass wasn't as complex and impressive as Prague, but it was just as beautiful. An besides the stained glass and elaborate woodwork on the altars, the walls were painted with murals and even the ceiling had coats of arms painted there. You just have to see it. My descriptions and even our pictures don't do it justice. That's my favorite cathedral so far.

We took another million photos there, both of the interior and the exterior, with its impressive gargoyles and flying buttresses. The setting sun provided awesome lighting, and we got several great family photos there.

To wrap up our epic outing, we found a gelato shop for a quick dessert. Then we sadly started our drive home, and got back around dinnertime. We watched "Sound of Music" with George and Hyrum while James, Laurel, Dad, and Sarah grocery shopped.

When the adults got back home, Dad gave the McConkies a gift for being such great hosts--a beautiful blue jug from that pottery shop in town. Laurel had been eying it, and she loved it.

The parents then went out to dinner (so you'll have to ask them how that went), leaving us kids to fend for ourselves. So we all had waffles at the branch's/missionaries' Friday game night downstairs and stayed for a round or two of foosball. It was very fun.

And...that's about it. :)