exploring more of the czech republic

Yesterday I went on another trip with the ECES program. Our first stop was Levy Hradec, specifically The Church of Saint Clement.

Levy Hradec is known as the place where Christianity began in Bohemia. People have lived at Levy Hradec since the 7th century, and the Church of Saint Clement was built in the 9th century. The building has been rebuilt twice, but the original rotunda stands (preserved by most recent additions protecting it). We walked around the cemetery surrounding the Church of St. Clement. I am always so taken by the cemeteries here. In Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Sabina describes Czech cemeteries as gardens and it's true. They are absolutely beautiful.
Many of them are old and huge, namely the Municipal Cemeteries in Prague. Most graves include a headstone but also a slab over the coffin. Families come and plant flowers and bushes and light candles. Many of the graves have glass boxes to hold pictures/candles/urns/etc.

After Levy Hradec, we ventured to the city of Melnik. This land was inhabited by Slavonic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries. Of course, there is a castle/chateau here (apparently the main difference between the two is that castles have fortresses while chateau's are surrounded by gardens.

While we were there the owner of the castle showed up!! He was an aristocrat, for sure. I wanted to take a picture of/with him but I was too nervous to ask. He was a stately man, wearing a khaki double-breasted suit, dark brown leather shoes, and round tortoise shell framed glasses. He had his hair parted down the center and it flipped out a little at the ends. He also had a mustache. He spoke fluent English- almost without an accent at that! He told us about how his family owned 15 castles and how he had dropped by to check on the restoration of one of the facades of this chateau. After we toured through the chateau (my least favorite of them all so far- and the least ridiculous as well- no inlaid wood ceilings or anything!!) we got to go down into the wine cellar. Apparently one of the princesses (Princess Ludmila c.867-921) that inhabited the castle was serious about her wine. Also, within the family it was a tradition that on your 18th birthday you recieve 5,000 litres of wine that is 18 years old. I promise. I can't even make stuff like that up. That is a LOT of wine. I can only imagine renaissance BYOB parties, ha! We got to taste some of the wine made on the premises. YUM!

This is Gina and Mark tasting some wine!



Last night I ventured to a club called FUTURUM with some friends. It was 80s/90s night which was very fun, especially because not all of the music was American- they also played French hits from the 80s and 90s!! I like dancing, I had a lot of fun yesterday.




Well, hope you all are doing well!!

xoxo