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It's our final night in Prague, and I'm convinced that I have come down with the worst flu that you can possibly catch. I'm shivering, I'm aching, I can't breathe, my head is pounding, glands throbbing and the key symptom - I'm whinging and complaining to the point of manic tears. "I'm dying, I'm dying".
Yep, I definitely have man flu.
After parting ways with Ben and Gem, we checked into the hostel then went out for a Thai massage and dinner. The massage was great although a little too intense for my flu ridden body, not too sure it was the best idea. That said you would not believe the number or volume of cracks she twisted out of my neck and spine after two and a half months travelling with 15kgs on my back (plus the extra 5 on my belly and thighs ;-P). Incredible! She giggled with sadistic glee.
After walking home in the rain I was beyond ready for a hot shower and warm bed...so when the water came on ice cold, and again when I spilt cold water all over my bed and trackies, I did the reasonable, adult thing and burst into tears. Told you - man flu.
So after a horrible nights sleep, I groggily joined our tour group the following morning wishing I'd had a couple of days to recover - but still incredibly excited for the adventure ahead! Poland, Slovakia, Hungary - bring it on! But first, we had our last couple of stops in the lovely Czech Republic.
After making an effort to meet a few people with the standard traveller small talk (where are you from, where are you going, for how long...and if we remember - what's your name?), we climbed on the bus. The first day of a tour is always a little tentative - like the first day of school it can be a bit nervewracking...but I got instant good vibes if only for the fact that no one visibly cringed at my germiness. A good start!
First stop was the town of Kutna Hora to see the famous 'church of bones'. The story behind this place is that the priest working there way back in the day went off to find a fancy relic, but slipped into the pub on the way and spent all the money. So instead of a golden toe or the like, he brought back a handful of dirt from the holy land and sprinkled it over the church grounds, making it a very popular burial site. So popular, that eventually bodies had to be exhumed and stored in the chapel itself. It's estimated that the chapel now contains the bones of up to 40,000 people.
Eventually, in the late 1800s, a woodcarver was commissioned to pretty the place up by creating sculptures out of the bones - so now it is decorated with bone chandeliers and bone coats of arms - thousands of skulls with their empty eye sockets staring me down and reminding us of the impermanence of life (or at least, that's the intention). Mostly I just felt slightly creeped out and pretty fascinated at the sheer number of the bones. Plus we totally got to touch some bones...only afterwards did I ponder whether I might be in some way superstitious or morally abhorred by this. I think not, though...
That night we made our final stop in the Czech Republic, in the town of Olomouc. Can't tell you a real lot about this town as I slept through the orientation tour and only made it out to dinner where I accidentally ordered my soup in hollowed out bread, which in effect is just soggy bread. So much winning. Ugh.
Luckily we had a beautiful hotel to rest up in, and wonderful tour mates who politely ignored my snuffling snot face and chatted away to me throughout their much nicer dinners of goulash with dumplings, or the slightly odd traditional Olomouc dish of steak with fresh cream and cranberries.
So despite the man flu (surely you are now convinced by the level of complaining in this blog), the tour got off to a good start and only went up from there to be an incredible 8 days.
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