28th Pilsen

So on the 28th of October we went for an organised trip to Pilsen (Plzeň). It was organised by a culture centre, where my SO works at the moment and they had free seats on the bus so we just had to pay for the entrance fees to several sights and not for the bus ride, which was great. Also, 28th October is a national holiday in Czech Republic (the creation of an independent state of Czechoslovakia in 1918) and most sights in Pilsen had the entrances only for 28 CZK. Also, many of these had special offers of commented tours. We arrived at 9 a.m. and our guide waited at the parking place. He showed us the historical centre.

 Afterwards we visited a Church of St. Bartolomeus located on the main square. The greatest advantage of going with this particular trip was, that we knew those who organised it, so when we didn't want to come with the group, we didn't have to. So we left the church earlier to wait in the line for other great sight. You perhaps don't know about this, but there's this French merry-go-round called Le Manège Carré Senart, which was supposed to be in Pilsen for a month. Pilsen actually won some kind of a competition for it. And the merry-go-round? It was beautiful. It played the old music and the figures, mostly insects were interactive - each of them had several levers so the visitor could move parts of the body of the creature. Unfortunately it was impossible to capture a photo that would sufficiently show the merry-go-round as a whole, because it looked like a pile of metal, so these are some photos of single creatures. As you can see, it was really cool and steampunk!

The ride lasted for like four minutes but it was exceptional. We spent almost forty minutes waiting there! Afterwards we had to hurry because it was planned to go to a Synagogue. I am very pro-Jewish (I am writing a bachelor thesis about American Jewish authors responding to the foundation of state of Israel) and I always enjoy learning something new about their religion and communities. Also, it fills me with great grief knowing that they suffered so much.
I really like the architecture of their synagogues.

 Rest of the group had a reservation for brewery museum. But me and Aleš decided to skip that one, because we were hungry. We went to a small Chinese bistro and I had Savoury and Crispy chicken with rice, which I always get when I go there. Not that I don't like kung-pao or sweet and sour sauce, but the thing is, I can cook these at home but I still haven't figured out how to make that delicious batter. We were the only ones from our group that managed to get some hot meal that day. Later we waited for the others and some foreigners were taking pictures of each other at the balcony. And I got this:

The quality is not perfect, but I'm glad I was quick enough, he looks like Captain America :D

At last we paid a visit to the famous brewery of Pilsner Urquell. We got some beer there and afterwards we saw the fireworks on the square. We returned home at night. What a trip!

The fireworks weren't very good, but at least I could practise bokeh photography