On Wednesday we headed up to Prague Castle to check out St. Vitus Cathedral, a HUGE Gothic cathedral. Now, I’ve known since my freshman year of high school in Spanish class, when we learned about Santiago de Compostela in Spain, that I’ve been fascinated by cathedral architecture. But if I’ve learned one thing about the dozens of churches I’ve seen in the past three years since I got my last passport, it’s that not only do I have a thing for Gothic architecture, but I don’t really care all that much about Renaissance, I like Romanesque, and I can’t stand Baroque.  Sorry, but there it is. As I commented to John a couple of days ago, if it ain’t Baroque… DON’T. Just don’t. Unfortunately, some really really neat churches got Baroqued over time. Fortunately, in the late 19th century there was a huge classical architecture revival all over Europe, and so some dilapidated and Baroqued churches got restored to their Gothic glory (and in some cases, completed. Heh.)

Ok, so back in an entry about Budapest, I mentioned that Matyas Church (on Buda Castle hill) is one of my all-time favorite churches. Well, I’ve decided that St. Vitus Cathedral is now in my top five. It’s absolutely flipping AMAZING. I honestly think that, no matter how many Gothic churches I’m fortunate to see in my lifetime, I’ll never get sick of them. Ever.

Cathedral from the outside. This thing is at the absolute tip of the hill that Prague Castle is on, so an already huge church looks even bigger. It's just AMAZING.

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Be still, my Gothic-architecture-loving heart...

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St. Albrecht!

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St. Wenceslas chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral. The walls are inlaid with semiprecious stones, and the whole thing dates back to the mid-1300s. It's INCREDIBLE.

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The rose window.

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Front of the cathedral.

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John, being the wonderful man that he is, didn’t drag me out of the cathedral, but after almost an hour, he started strongly hinting that maybe we should let the other tourists enjoy it too, so we left, but not until after I’d found out when the daily church service times were so that I could come back and go to a service here. :-)

On our way out of the castle hill area, we decided to walk through the castle gardens. This was a GREAT idea, because we got to see BIRDS! LARGE ONES! And we got to HOLD THEM!!

If I thought the church was going to be the highlight of my day, I was sorely mistaken. I think this was the highlight of my WEEK. Can you tell by the grin on my face? That's a peregrine falcon, by the way. And why the heck am I wearing the same shirt in every picture?

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John holding an eagle owl. He really was thrilled about this, we were just having a hard time getting Mr. E. Owl to look at the camera. :-)

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Apparently it’s a tradition at Czech castles to keep birds of prey, so Prague Castle has turned theirs into a demonstration kind of thing. For about $5, you get to hold the bird of your choice. AWESOME.

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After John pulled me off the ceiling, we headed down to the National Museum of Natural History to see what there was to see.

Main hall at the museum.

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Being the nerd that I am, I made a beeline for their geology exhibit when I saw the sign. I can’t help it — I like rocks. Maybe it’s because I have plenty in my head. Anyway, since I’m a bit of a geology nerd, I generally judge a museum’s geology exhibit (however fair/unfair this may be) by if they have a sample of benitoite, California’s state gemstone, which is found only in San Benito County in central California. Picky, I know. Usually when a museum has a sample of benitoite, it’s a very small sample, and it’s usually polished to look like the lovely blue gemstone it is. Prague’s Natural History Museum didn’t have a very pretty, polished sample, but darned if it isn’t the LARGEST sample I’ve seen… it’s just a trip to see it all the way over here. So cool!!! And to be fair, they did have quite a nice display of other rocks too, including some really neat meteors.

California's state gemstone.

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We closed down the museum and headed across the street to McDonald’s for dinner. I know I know… McDonald’s. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this here on my blog or just on Facebook, but we’ve been going to McDonald’s on this trip for several reasons. #1, McDonald’s in Europe almost ALWAYS have free wifi and free bathrooms. If we have time to kill while waiting for a train, it sure as heck beats waiting at the train station, and there’s almost always a McDonald’s near a train station. Second, their local menu is somewhat interesting. In  Krakow, I had a chicken curry burger, and I swear I’m starting a petition to bring these to the US. Who’s in? I promise they’re really good! I mean, it’s not like having real chicken curry, but to me it was quite an acceptable substitute!

So anyway, I’d been seeing ads in the metro stations for a tzatziki beef burger. I had no idea what this was, but the picture looked interesting, so I figured I’d give it a whirl. And it had these really interesting seasoned potatoes that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

The potatoes were good, but the burger… not so much. The burger had feta cheese and fresh cucumbers in it, as well as some sort of pinkish sauce that wasn’t Thousand Island, and I think that’s dried dill as the seasoning on the bun. I kind of liked the feta and the sauce, but the cucumbers and the dill… notsomuch. To be fair, I’m not a cucumber fan anyway, but even after I took them off the burger, it was still really cucumber-y. I couldn’t finish it, and neither could John. Oh well, I tried. I’m now 1 for 3 in liking foreign McD’s burgers (the chicken curry was great, but I had a McCountry in Zagreb that I couldn’t finish either. Oh well — you win some, you lose some. Even at McDonald’s.)

Seriously. Fresh cucumbers. The fries in the background are John's, by the way. He's not quite as adventurous when it comes to McDonald's as I am... which makes sense given that he's always been happy with and able to finish his meal. :-)

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After dinner, we headed to a DVD store to amuse ourselves with the cheap Czech offerings (I still think they’re pirated, but John doesn’t think so) and then we headed home. It was the perfect relaxed day. :-)

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Where we are now:

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Milo the Screech Owl, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.

This little cutie is Milo, a Western Screech Owl and a resident at the Discovery Museum of Sacramento. John’s nephews (ages 9 and 11) spent the night last night, and since it was pouring rain today and we didn’t want to do anything outside, we took them to the museum instead. It was a fun afternoon. :-)

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Costa Rica 139, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.

These are leaf cutter ants, quite possibly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

I finally finished uploading my Costa Rica pictures, and blog posts will be forthcoming (no, seriously–they will! I just don’t know when!) Right now though I’m working on more photo processing–I have the use of a micro four-thirds camera for the week (an Olympus Pen EP-1) so I’m taking every chance to play with that and see what I think.

And I’ll get those pictures uploaded too–I promise. :-)

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A veterinarian friend of mine is holding a 12 Days of Petmas roundup on her blog, and I volunteered to take Day 4 (4 calling birds, in case you don’t remember the song.) So this evening I decided to take some pictures… I’m not sending her this one, but it’s my favorite of the outtakes… The aftermath.

Cat + Christmas Tree = bad news. The white thing he's munching on is a twin of the white bird in the foreground.

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So much for that partridge in a pear tree.

Alert kitty is alert, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.

I had another post all queued up for this blog earlier this week, but it broke my HTML, and until I get around to figuring out WHY, this ridiculously cute cat will have to suffice. :-) She was sitting up on my bed, staring out the window at the birds on the telephone wire outside… So cute. :-)

Oh, and this was taken on my new phone. The color originally wasn’t great (I had to do a bit of tweaking in Flickr) but it’s nice to get something that can focus for a change! :-)

Randomness 015, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.

I went to the Sac Zoo again this year for Smithsonian’s Free Museum Day a couple of weeks ago, and took this. Isn’t he gorgeous? I love this shot. :-)

So I was there last week hanging out and taking pictures, and stumbled upon this guy, who ever-so-nicely offered to pose for me for just a moment. It’s always nice to get full-frame shots of the smaller critters… I didn’t crop this a single bit–I really was that close. So fun. :-)

Squirrel.

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Reeds in the duck pond at McKinley Park

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Look again. Maybe try clicking on this picture to see a larger version.

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Do you see it now?

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Now do you see her?

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I was walking along the shoreline at the duck pond at McKinley Park last week, looking for some baby wood ducks who will make an appearance in a later post, and somehow, the faintest bit of movement in the above-pictured reeds caught my attention. I looked, and there she was, nesting away. Neat.

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I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,

and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.

For a time, I rest in the grace of the world,

and am free.

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~ Poem by Wendell Berry

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This is generally the first thing I see when I open my eyes every morning.

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