Trip log #6: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Continuing from the visit to the St. Michael's, I continued down towards the center plaza of Olomouc, where various fountains and restaurants are gathered. The town square had the following:

Jupiter's Fountain (Jupiterova Kasna), or more popularly known as Zeus.

Marion Column (Mariansky Sloup). This column was built for the protection of the town. It seemed to be very common for every city in Czech to have Marion Columns with golden Virgin Mary at the top. As people pray to the Virgin Mary, she is thought to provide unending support and protection to the town or the city.

There were other fountains around the town square as well, such as these:

From the left:
1) Neptune's Fountain (Neptunova Kasna). It was very interesting to see a mix of Christianity and the Latin Mythology around the town. The explanation was that because Olomouc was the capital of Moravia (which was one of the Catholic pilgrim sites later), and that Caesar also settled in and claimed as one of his cities. A quick history/geography fact: Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while Olomouc is the capital of Moravia.
2) Arion's Fountain (Arionova Kasna). This fountain was completed in 2002. A very modern fountain, lights and decorations were once installed. I haven't had a chance to really take a look and take a picture of it, but I was lucky to find one on Olomouc's tourism website :)

Very beautiful, huh :)

Before we continue to the more center of the town square, there were a few more fountains that I would like to show:

 

From the left: 1) Caesar's Fountain (Caesarova Kasna) and 2) Hercules' Fountain (Herkulova Kasna). The interesting thing about these fountains, and the other ones around the town square, is that only the weapons of these heroes were made in copper.

The town square also had two palace buildings, now a restaurant-house type of buildings.

 

These palace buildings were a few of the oldest buildings around Olomouc. From the left: 1) Petra's Palace (Petrasuv Palac) and 2) Edelmann's Palace (Edelmannuv Palac). These Baroque-style palaces were only open by appointment, and I was unfortunate not to be able to visit them while I was in Olomouc.

Now, towards the center of the town square.

 

This is the Town Hall (Radnice) of Olomouc. The Town Hall has a tourist information center and other town-business offices. The Town Hall also houses one of the two Astronomical clocks in Czech. One is housed on the wall of Prague Town Hall.

This Astronomical Clock (Orloj) shows time of the day, time, movement of the sun and the moon, horoscopes, and other information. Sadly, the clock had to be rebuilt after the war, and still carries a communism-style mural due to the rebuilding. Unlike the Prague Astronomical Clock, the dolls do not move.

This is the Holy Trinity Column (Sloup Nejsvetejsi Trojice), the fanciest, tallest column in Olomouc. Each Holy Ghost, Angels, Jesus, and Halos are all coated with bright gold. This column, as I learned, was built in the hopes to protect Olomouc from the plague. The column also has the Disciples sculpted around. Though it seems to have a small chamber in the middle of the column, when I looked into it I couldn't see anything.

At a restaurant called Cafe Caesar right across from the Trinity Column, I ordered my first restaurant meal. I was particularly excited because this was the first meal I have ever ordered and paid for in Czech while speaking Czech. Of course, I tried to act natural and like a native in front of them. I knew I somewhat had succeeded because they talked in Czech to me instead of English. I was able to read the Czech menu and exchange a few words in Czech- but I gotta be honest: I went to the pasta restaurant because you can't really go wrong with an Italian-style pasta that is also widely available in the US. :)

 

And the greatest thing was that this awesome meal only cost me about $6 in US dollars. In the McDonald's right across from the Cafe, a Big Mac meal was equivalent to about $9 US dollars. Mostly tourists dined at the ridiculously expensive McDonald's. I could hear English everywhere haha.

See? McDonald's is truly everywhere.

This concludes my Trip Log #6. The next log will be about a town called Piestany in Slovak Republic. See you next time!

Trip log #5: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Hi guys! Thanks for coming to read my trip logs. Instead of having the logs imported straight to Facebook notes, I have decided to only import the shortened version to the Facebook so you can come visit my blog and read the posts while listening to the music. Also, blog allows for more visual editing for the ease of reading. SO, if you haven't done so, click "View Original Post" in Facebook, or visit my blog from my profile.

Remember to click on the pictures to view a larger, clearer picture! :)

Anyways, I'll pick up from where I left off the last time: visiting Church of Virgin Mary of Snows.

I walked down a street towards the center of the town from the church. Because of the tradition of having church bell towers and crosses to be the tallest buildings in town, the churches are usually placed on a hilltop or are really tall; therefore, they can be spotted from almost anywhere in the town.

Then, I visited the Chapel of St. John Sarkander (Kaple Sv. Jana Sarkandra).

According to Wikipedia (of course the most trusted source on the Internet), Saint John Sarkander (Czech and Polish: Jan Sarkander) (1576–1620) was a Polish and Moravian priest. He was consecrated in 1609, and worked in Holešov from 1616. He was accused of betrayal and tortured in Olomouc prison, partially due to his refusal to divulge what was said in confession. Nowadays St. Jan Sarkander chapel stands on its place. The original torturing rack and Sarkander's gravestone are preserved here. Sarkander was canonized by Pope John Paul II during his visit in Olomouc in 1995.

I then roamed around the town to check out the following buildings:

1) Jesuit Seminary (Jezuitsky Konvikt)

2) Chapel of the Corpus Christi (Kaple Boziho Tela)

3) Jesuit Seminary
4) Vila Primavesi
Then I visited St. Michael's Church (Kostel Sv. Michala), which sadly was not open to public. The building was huge, and the interior is supposedly a Baroque style. I couldn't imagine how beautiful it would be inside.

Though I couldn't see the inside, I was treated with a nice view of a statue with a street musician. I gave him a coin equivalent of a US dollar.

As soon as I gave the musician a coin, a very sketchy-looking guy came up to the musician and seemingly asked who he just got a coin from. Of course, being the only Asian on the street, and the musician pointing at me, I quickly realized that I needed to get out of the street corner. The sketchy guy came up to me and asked in a very poor acting (he was trying to make a crying face but wasn't working quite well) that he needs a coin to call his sick brother. Because I had seen his angry and stern face at the musician the minute before he started walking toward me like a coyote, I knew from the beginning that he was lying. I told him that I do not have any coin or any money, and that I was just passing by to go home.

Later when I asked my host professor about it, he told me that such cases are not as common as they are in Prague, but still present in Olomouc, targeting the obvious foreigners. The sketchy guy was apparently waiting for me to take out my wallet so he can snatch it from my hands. Something to be careful about if you're planning on going on a trip. :)

I think that's a long enough read for the Log #5. Thanks for reading!

Trip log #4: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

**Edit: Blogspot allows me to upload a bigger picture. Make sure to click on the photo to view a bigger, clearer picture! :)

On Sunday, I decided to go to my first mass here in Olomouc. There are total of 6 churches in Olomouc, so I went to a different church every week during my stay. One thing great about being a Catholic is that the mass parts are exactly the same all over the world--although I don't speak Czech, I felt right at home.

I went to a mass at Farni Kostel Sv. Morice (St. Maurice Church). The church's bell tower missing--which I learned that it was destroyed during a war. This church has the largest pipe organ in the Central Europe.

Wow that was a huge picture dump.. o_o;

After mass, I walked around the town and took pictures of the places indicated on the tour map I obtained from Olomouc Information Center.

Arcibiskupsky palac (Archibishop's Palace)

Terezianska Zbrojnice (Thresian Armory) - Now a Palacky University building

Kasna Tritonu (Triton Fountain) - Look at those scary fishes.

Vlastivedne Muzeum - Klara (National History Museum - Clare)

No photography was allowed inside. It was quite fun though, especially when a curator follows you around everywhere and explains things to you in mixed Czech and English haha.

Muzeum Moderniho Umeni (Museum of Contemporary Art)

No photography inside here either. Quite interesting to see all the art pieces though. I also got to walk up the stairs of the museum's observation tower to get a picture of Olomouc, but the tower wasn't tall enough to produce a pretty picture :/.

Kostel Panny Marie Snezne (Church of Virgin Mary of Snows)

This church still had a Baroque style decoration. Amazing interiors.

Very pretty. Compared to the modest interiors of Gothic churches, this church was a feast to my eyes.

The round ceilings filled with fresco is supposed to depict the sky and the heavens.

The pipe organ was situated at the back of the church.

...and this was the altar of the church.

Log #4 will stop here for a moment. I don't want my logs to be too long to read haha. Log #5 will be the continuation of my Sunday trip around Olomouc.

Bonus picture:

Pasta with salami and tomato sauce and Zlaty Bazant (Golden Pheasant), a premium Slovak beer :)

Trip log #3: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

** Tip: you can click on the photo to view the larger version of it. Also, I recently moved my journal entries to Blogspot. To prevent double posts on Facebook feeds, I have deleted the old Facebook feeds.

 It was the first weekend in Czech that I decided that I should take some time to explore around Olomouc. I took a bus down to the central part of the city and just began walking around with a Town Guide map in my hand.


I tried this "instant pasta" that I got from the mall the day before only to find out that it tasted pretty bad. The noodles won't cook fully, and there was not enough sauce to have the pasta covered in the tomato sauce as pictured. But hey, I was hungry, and I ate it to the last piece of pasta haha.

Czech republic, like very much of Europe, is predominately Catholic.

-Saturday-
My first stop was Dom Sv. Vaclava (St. Wenceslas Cathedral), located in the East of the town.

Beautiful, no? It was really tall, too.


Entrance to the Cathedral. *edit I did also go into the catacombs of this cathedral, but photography was not allowed. The catacombs had a huge stone altar, a couple of bishops' garments, and a huge stone cross. I felt the weight pressing down upon me as I walked around the catacomb.

Now, a picture dump of the inside of the Cathedral:


The Cathedral has a gothic-style structure of tall, square pillars and modest internal designs.

Virgin Mary


I think this was St. Wenceslas..


Altar


Eucharist


Pipe organ


Virgin Mary on the wall of a Jesuit building across cathedral

The Cathedral is connected to Premyslovsky Hrad (Premyslovsky Castle) which is now an Archdiocese Museum. I heard that the last prince of Czech was murdered at this very location.

Premyslovsky Hrad


Extension of the Premyslovsky Hrad


Arcidiecezni Muzeum


A statue in front of the museum


Unfortunately, photography was not allowed the inside of the museum. The museum was filled with royal jewelry, archbishop's (the royalty were often the bishops and other higher position clergy members) canes, rings, and so on.


Trams and buses like this roam around the City/Town of Olomouc.


The small stand updates the time when the bus will arrive. It is exact to the minute- very convenient. I wished MARTA was as punctual as these Czech buses.

After a quick tour, I stopped by at the Center Plaza of Olomouc.

And of course, I had to eat something while I was at the plaza.

I had a cup of espresso and a scoop of ice cream with one of my host professors. The espresso came with a small coffee, a glass of water, sugar, and milk. To this day, I'm still not used to that tiny handle of espresso coffee cups.


They had gelato. Yum!


Another family was eating a meal here.

After all that walking, (yes I foolishly walked home instead of taking the bus- but I think it was worth it since I got to see a lot of things on the way home) I was exhausted. As I prepared for the lab presentation to take place the day after, everything was still dreamy. I couldn't believe I was going to live in Czech for 2 months.

I realized I needed to learn Czech as quick as possible to survive. :)

The log #3 ends here for now. Hope you enjoyed reading it!