Hora, in blog format

Pilzen and Kutna Hora

As part of the ECES program, we had the option to attend two free day trips around the Czech Republic on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both days we left the Kolej around 8:30 and got back late in the evening (past 6 both times). Tuesday I went to Pilzen (or Plzn, or Pilsen... I've seen it spelled too many ways that I'm not sure which is right) where the famous Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus beers are brewed. These beers are honestly some of the best I've ever had - Gambrinus is my favourite, it's so good that I can drink it without feeling that disgusting bitter taste Molson Canadian leaves in your mouth. And to top it all off, in most bars/restaurants/cafes you can buy half a liter of this beer for under 35 CZK ($2 CAD). Before I get into further details about the beer and its brewery, I want to tell you what we did the rest of the trip in Pilzen. First we visited a Jewish Synagogue, the second largest in Europe and third largest in the world (pictured below), which was built in the early 1890s. Back then there was a large Jewish community living in Pilzen (which had quite a messed up history - for several hundred years the King only allowed one Jew to live in the whole city...), but by the time World War 2 had ended and the Communist regime began, there were only 100 Jews left in the city, and no complete families remained. Today only a small part of the synagogue is in use, the rest is decaying on the inside due to little maintainance.

Pilzen synagogue
Afterward we visited a brewery museum, where like most places in Europe I found, you had to pay to take pictures. You know how cheap I am, which is why I don't have any pictures of the place. It was really interesting though, it explained the history of beer and how it started out being brewed by the Egyptians, then migrated to Europe over time, the ingredients used in beer, and the tools used over the years to make it. What was really interesting about the museum is that most of the items on display are not behind any sort of case or rope, you're allowed to pick everything up and look at it, even try it out! After the museum we were showed around the Pilzen town square a bit, then we went for lunch. The pub we went to for lunch was cool - each table was numbered and had its own tap where you poured your own beer! There was a touch screen panel at each table and you chose a number for yourself before you poured your beer so they knew who to charge. What was even cooler was a big projected screen where it showed the top 10 beer-drinking tables. I imagine this would be highly entertaining when all the tables are full on a Friday or Saturday night, trying to keep your table at the top! The only complaint I had with the place was that it took them about an hour to get our food. I think that's because it was a Tuesday afternoon and it was a bar, not a restaurant, and they probably only had one person in the kitchen, and there being fifteen of us must've been quite stressful.

Pilzen Town Square

Pub Unique
The final stop was then the Pilzen Brewery. That was really fun, they showed us everything, from how they created the malt and roasted it, when the added hops to create the bitter taste, what makes beer light and dark (dark beer is made from malt that's roasted longer), where and how it ferments, how they check when it's done, and even how it's bottled, canned and shipped. The coolest part of the whole thing was going through the enormous cellars (which were built in the mid 1800s) that were so big that someone got lost and died down there. At the end of the tour we got to taste fresh beer, poured straight from a barrel where it had just finished fermenting and was ready to be shipped. It was really good! They also explained that in Europe it's rude to not give out beer without 2 or 3 cms of foam on top - this is because the foam is meant to keep the fizz in the beer and to keep it from going stale. Plus, the foam here doesn't taste like absolute crap and the beer is more than drinkable.

Pilzen Brewery
If you want to see the whole Flickr set from the trip to Pilzen, click here. Yesterday we went to Cesky Sternberk (a castle) and Kutna Hora (Hora in Czech means mountain). The castle was pretty cool but I've seen cooler. I think the best part about it was that they sold hot wine and sausages which were really good.

Cesky Sternberk

Hot Wine Cauldron
Kutna Hora is a city that during the medieval ages competed with Prague as the most important city in the Czech Republic, but once the silver ore in their mines began to dwindle they lost much of their prestige and today it's a small city. It is however rich in history and culture. They have many old buildings, and one of the largest cathedrals I have ever seen, St. Barbera's. It was absoutely enormous inside, and its size and decorations are absolutely awe-inspiring.

St. Barbera
The final stop during the trip was the so called "Church of Bones". This is a medieval church in Kutna Hora that is decorated on the inside with over 40,000 skeletons (or bones, I don't remember). The bones belong to plague victims from the middle ages, and it's one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life. I would recommend anyone visiting the Czech Republic to see this place, it is absolutely incredible.