So my lovely Belfry Bats, let me tell you about the time that I and my companions were denied entry to a church for looking too evil. I guess in a weird, backwards way, it could almost be considered a compliment. Guess it means we're nailing the scary look? But sadly what it was was a disappointing day-trip to Kutna Hora.
Goths and alternative people be ye warned, you are not welcome at the famous Bone Church.
We set off in the morning of this very hot day from Prague to the nearby village of Kutna Hora, famous for its Sedlec Ossuary; a chapel decorated with 40,000 human skeletons. We all made our hair extra big and our outfits extra fancy because this trip was the reason we went to the Czech Republic to begin with. While walking to the chapel from the bus station, we were randomly accosted by two extremely rude policemen who wanted to see our passports or IDs. They wouldn't say why, but they wrote down our names and let us continue.
The most offensive part of this day came when we were queuing up to visit the Ossuary, and the ticket salespeople straight away said we weren't allowed in because they didn't like how we looked. They waffled about how it was a Roman Catholic establishment, a place for pilgrims, I hardly remember what they said now, I was in such disbelief. Meanwhile streams of tourists from Asia went in, most of whom one would assume are not Roman Catholics.
I'm hard to offend, but when someone assumes I'm going to do something shitty, based on zero evidence, I get very upset. Which is probably natural. Eventually the director of the establishment came down and explained that it is not the decision of the ticket salespeople, but rather the church as to whether or not we should be allowed inside. So she said we could enter, provided we took no photos. Everyone else was allowed to take photos, but not us. Um, why?
Suddenly she started speaking in an old language, wide-eyed, placing some kind of... thing on each of us. Whether she was blessing us, or protecting the place from our evil, ghoulish vibes, I don't know. Afterwards I approached her to thank her for granting us entry. I said I wanted to shake her hand. She said, I would love to hug you, but - and then said the scary spell thing at me again. I'unno.
Thing is, I had visited this Ossuary on my own seven years ago. I looked much then as I do now so, pfft. So, since we were the only people disallowed from taking photos on this extremely stupid occasion, here are the photos I took myself seven years ago:
Video
Here's the video I filmed outside the chapel in lieu of being able to the make a vlog about the place itself. This is what a waffly, angry, upset me looks like:
That's bullshit. You and your friends should of been let in with no problems.
ReplyDeletecafelastrange.com
Inorite?! We were there for the same reason as all the other tourists, laaaaaame :(
DeleteHell, they should of paid you to enter. XD
DeleteThis coming from the church of ritual galore! If I was there I'll let you come in with me. I wear a pentagram and I have been in a RC Church and no one bat an eyelid (mind you it was hidden in my jacket)
ReplyDeleteI don´t know if you will read this, but I think I can understand the whole situation beyong religious parameters and maybe to make it easier to you.
ReplyDeleteI am from Spain, but I have been living in Bucharest (Romania) for the last 2 years. It took me some time to get people´s attitude towards alternative people. At the beginning, I thought it was all about prejudice (of course there´s a good dose of that), but the truth is more complex and mostly about their politic heritage.
People from East Europe were under the control of Comunist dictatorial systems for a long, long time (mostly the 20th century). The Czetch Republic is no exception. As a consquence of this awful situation, adults were re-educated and children were brain-washed to become model citizens. What does it mean? Basically, people were forced to erase any individualism, becoming working bees of a prolet mechanism. Being different usually meant becoming suspicious of treason and, consequently, they could be sent to "re-education camps" which were nothing but Soviet concentration camps, very alike to the infamous Nazi ones...
At the late 80¨s and early 90¨s the system collapsed and most countries became politically free BUT the harm was done. Individualism was erradicated: nowadays, people still fearing, unconsciously, any sign of difference. That made you prone of going to jail, or even worste, being tortured OR/AND killed. People (specially young people) start showing some shy symptoms of modernization but reverting a political trauma can take a good deal of time (sometimes a whole generation) to heal.
All this said, I am very sorry you experienced the worst side of East Europe.
I have experienced the "blessings" on me, but I try to be patient and to understand they belong to another generation. Nevertheless, I have never been banned from any public building because of my looks.
I sincerly hope there are no more negative experiences during your trip.
And if you ever decided to travel to Transylvannia, just let me know.
I live there!