Dinner in Harmonia

I don't know if I've mentioned this previously, but Amy and I have decided that Harmonia just does not exist.  There are no signs of a village to be found, and we've hiked quite a bit around the area.  But, the school is supposedly on the outskirts of Harmona, thereby the Title of Today's Blog. 

Before I go any further regarding dinner, I want to share a story that I forgot to mention in my last blog regarding our adventures in Brno.

Although the Czech Republic is 70% atheist, there are a surprising amount of beautiful churches in the town. We popped our heads into several while walking the town. One such church is a Capuchin Monastery. The monastery holds a crypt below ground, and Josef found the prospects of going through this crypt to be quite exciting.

Personally, I could have foregone that type of excitement, but I certainly did not want to dampen his fun when he had so generously offered to take us on this excursion.

Little did I know what to expect when we walked through the heavy door towards the crypt. Inside there are skeletal remains on display throughout the crypt. Apparently, very important people of the town are in the coffins, where the lids have been removed and a glass cover has replaced it.

I opted not to examine anything too closely as it just creeped me out. When we got to the final room, I was surprised to see so many skeletal bodies lined up in a row on either side. Since the Capuchin monks took a vow of poverty, they were to have no possessions, including a coffin. So, when they died, they were put in a coffin that was specially made so that the bottom slid off. The head of the deceased was placed on two bricks, the bottom of the coffin was removed, the body slid off, and the coffin was then put together to be used again. 40 bodies lay with their heads on brick, lined up in rows behind a glass wall. There are openings for ventilation in the walls of the room.

On the wall there was an inscription written in Latin:

What you are, we once were; What we are, you will be.

Nice to know, don't you think?

Needless to say, I was rather anxious to leave the crypt and move onto the other sites of Brno.

Now, onto today's adventures. We began the morning in class, learning about the rules of Slovakian verbs. Quite a lot of rules, and even more exceptions. Way too much to try to absorb in a day. While in class, we learned that there was a last minute excursion set up to see the Slovak Museum of Ludovick Stur in Modra, along with the Ceramics Museum. Well, who would pass on that opportunity?

So, even though it meant skipping out on “Konverzujeme”, we opted to go. The museum is located in Modra center, but the two people who were in charge of our group decided to take the long way into town, through the vineyards rather than on the road. And what was really interesting, was that they needed to stop along the way and ask a woman working in the fields where the museum was located. I'm still trying to figure out how someone who works for this university in Modra doesn't know how to get into the town.

In any event, the story of Ludovig Stur was told, with the guide speaking in Slovak, but, luckily, there was a small amount of English written on the boards. So, we learned the importance of this man in the beginning stages of Slovakia's search for independence from the Austrian Hungary Empire.

Then, we moved to the ceramics museum which held some very old pieces of Modra pottery behind glass.

With Amy and me being on our own, we opted to buy a frozen pizza at the grocery store for dinner. There is a toaster oven in the kitchen. The biggest problem that we have is lugging whatever we have up to the school from town. The bus comes once an hour, but we can often be back in our room before the bus will show up.

So, tonight, for dinner we feasted on pizza and wine from a local vineyard that is only a stone's throw away. Josef clued us onto that one. Believe me, it is great stuff. We didn't even bother tasting any wine. We just went in and asked for the wine that Josef's mother had given us for dinner.

As you can see from the top photo,  we are quite happy with our choice.

Na Zdravie!!