Sticks and Stones

You know how some museums look really big from the outside, and you go in and think ummm where are all the displays? Yeah, the National Museum is not one of those museums. Everytime I turned a corner I as like seriously, theres more? That place is crazy big, and has like every sort of display you could think of. Seriously- anthropology  paleontology, geology, historical, photography, archaeology, botany...and the list goes on and on. It's a pretty rad place.

 
                        

I spent about 4 hours there, and at the end I was kind of just cruising through, which is easy to do when 90% of the displays are only in Czech. Takes some of the fascination away, when you are aren't sure why that sketch of an animal is so important. Some of my favorite areas:

The archaeology area: They had a lot of artifacts there, and it was so cool to start at the earliest time periods and watch how the skill, innovation, and materials used improved over the centuries.  Totally awesome. It made me think about how resourceful I would be if I were thrown out in the middle of nowhere and had to make my own tools. I think I'd be in a lot of trouble...

Looking at the position skeletons are in when they are found, is fascinating to me. It makes me wonder if they were placed that way- and if so why, or if that was the position they were in when they died. Thinking about what kind of life they might have had, and how they died is something I always think about.

The original pucca shell necklace! Only this one is made of bone.

Dice. Only saw numbers up to 6, anything more than that is just ridiculous. 12 sided die, come on guys...

Super long canoe. SUPER long.

Another favorite-  The 'Mineral Room': Ok, when I first walked in the room and looked at the first display, I was ready to go through the displays pretty speedily. Rocks and minerals, not really my thing. But shame on the museum for putting the boring display first! After I hit the second aisle I was in heaven. Such incredibly beautiful minerals, gems, whatever they are called. The colors, the textures, the sheen, the patterns...it was absolutely amazing. I could not believe that some of them were actually naturally occurring things, they were just incredible. This might have actually turned into my favorite part of the museum (Molly, you would have loved it!). It also reaffirmed my love of emeralds, and made me think of this amazing emerald ring I fell in love with in Rio... There were too many to take pictures of all my favorites, and the most incredible ones we weren't allowed to photograph. Lame.

I thought this one was awesome, it reminded me of a city skyline.

 

Anyone have any idea, why some of the displays would need to be covered? What would light do to them??

The museum is pretty awesome, and I am really glad I decided to stop by. I will leave you with this photograph of a photograph. It may be the coolest thing I have ever seen. Don't mess with hippos.