Salt versus Skulls

For a trip that lasted two weeks, it sure was a whirlwind. There were two utterly indescribable highlights from both cities I visited...which I will, of course, endeavor to describe below. I couldn't resist trying to compare them, but in the end both teams played hard, and in a battle no one should win, who can win? I should also mention that both of the highlights were not in their respective cities proper, but short trips outside the environs. Without further ado:

PRAGUE HIGHLIGHT: THE SEDLEC OSSUARY
The Sedlec Ossuary is actually in the former second-largest town in Czech[Republic]oslovakia, Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora is beautiful in its own Bohemian way...but I didn't go there to enjoy the town. Make no bones about it, I was headed to the hippest joint in the place: a chapel decorated with the remains of an estimated 40,000 plague victims. Needless to say, my jaw dropped as I toured the inner radius of the chapel, and I got a bit of playful ribbing from my friend about how many pictures I took. The story of the place is that "Henry", the abbot of the Cistercian Monastery in Sedlec, went to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage and brought back some official Holy Land soil, and so the chapel cemetery became quite the desirable place to send the dead. However, when the plague struck the sheer number of bodies got a bit overwhelming, and in 1870 to "get the bones in order" an intrepid carpenter , František Rint, decided, in keeping with the chapel's “Baroque” fashion, to decorate the church with the bones of the dead. I don't think I can do this place much more justice in words, so please just admire these photos. The whole place is morbidly breathtaking and totally enthralling, and the beauty of something like a garland of human skulls makes it very difficult to wrap one's mind around the fact that they are actual human remains, which has the surprising effect of making the chapel more of an aesthetic experience than a spiritual one. At least, that's how it was for me. I also could hear John Cleese yelling “LOOK AT THE BONES!” in my head for much of the time, which was rather irreverent, but seriously--just look at them.






KRAKOW HIGHLIGHT: WIELICZKA SALT MINE
Why was the salt mine so awesome? Well, for one thing, it was the first (and likely the only) tour I've ever been on where I've been invited to lick the walls (whether this was facetious or not is unclear due to my guide's completely emotionless delivery of his well-rehearsed English patter about the mine that did not change in tone for the two hour duration of the tour). Secondly, while the mine itself is an unbelievable testament to the human addiction to salt, and is an unfathomable labyrinth of complex tunnels, carvings, chapels, salty lakes, and the like, it also boasts not one, but TWO ridiculous music-and-light shows on the tourist route. You know, to make it interesting. Out of the many tours you could get carted around on in Krakow, it's hard to dwarf how much this one rocks. The mine is definitely a good pick and I'd recommend you ax questions of your guide in order to get all the information, lest you be shafted. You'll learn that the mine also has a bit of meta-tourism going for it, because inside it has carved tributes to the famous tourists that have visited (Copernicus, Goethe, Chopin, Pope John Paul II, and more!) in addition to antiquated and currently unused tourist attractions like a subterranean ferry across one of the salty lakes. Sodium, baby! (Unfortunately due to being underground I have few to no good pictures. The final picture, of the salt-crystal chandelier, is from Wikipedia, taken by Andrzej Barabasz.)



In retrospect, the obvious answer to the question of which is better is simply...both. Who will carve a bone chapel inside the salt mine, though?