Too Much Karlovy Vary

Thursday Aisling and I were supposed to go to Kutna Hora (a church made of human bones) with our school, but we missed the bus by a few minutes somehow so we just jumped on the bus going to Karlovy Vary.

A picture of Kutna Hora I stole from someone who did go.

We went to the Becherovka factory where they made everyone take three shots of samples at 10 o'clock in the morning. They went on and on about how Becherovka has healing powers and will make you live to be 97 years old if you drink the optimum quantity of two shots a day. It is a bunch of herbal oils or something with liquor and tastes like an alcoholic chai tea. Then we walked around in the cold for a long time and saw all the little faucet/fountains around town that poured the hot spring mineral water. They sold funny little porcelain cups everywhere that you would collect the fountain water from to drink. It tasted like a bloody lip.





That night (Valentine's Day) we got back and rushed off to see Don Giovanni
at the opera house. It is really beautiful and it was funny to see the wide variety in dress-- some people wore hoodies, others wore suits. Aisling and I were excited to go so we were on the dressier side, but we looked nice and didn't feel stupid or anything.

We did lots of errands Friday and window shopped at some vintage stores. We found a laundromat that, though still expensive, was easy to get to, nice, named after the owner's dog, and that gave you a free hot drink while you were waiting. Later we went out with a bunch of people to this place Chateau. Everyone was foreign-- not necessarily American, but I'm sure very few were Czech. We saw this silly band from Berlin that was fun, they reminded us of Baltimore. We got home late and the next morning we had to leave for Karlovy Vary again.

We had high hopes for Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) this time; because they told us to bring our bathing suits we thought we'd be in a sauna and hot springs living it up. We were directed by our advisor/guide to an outdoor pool that looked really hot and awesome because steam was coming off of it. We bought two hours in the pool and sauna. You entered the pool inside and then went through this little door in the water to go outside. It was freezing both indoors and outdoors and we couldn't stand it. So, we headed to the sauna thinking we would spend the other 115 minutes there. When we got there we were confronted with a sign that read: This sauna is shared by women, men and children. No bathing suits allowed."

They gave us big white sheets to wear, but we just hid our bathing suit straps and kept them on under the sheet. The sauna was tiny and not very nice. The biggest issue, however, was that the only other people in there were two big fat old men. We freaked out for a while, and decided to try to time our breaks for when they went in and went in when they took their breaks. At one point however we were stuck in the sauna way past the amount of heat I could take, because from the tiny window I could see that one of the old men was taking a shower and god knows I wasn't walking into that. It was basically what I imagine hell to be. We should have taken the speedos hanging on the hooks outside the sauna as what they were-- DO NOT ENTER signs. (Joke courtesy of Mikey). I guess we are stereotypical American prudes, but I really think we would've been okay if it had been ANY other demographic than ONLY 40+ men.

With that behind us, we have spent the rest of our weekend being lazy and cooking, cleaning, reading, listening to music and watching movies. Tonight we are making dinner then going out to one of our favorite places for dessert or coffee or something. We are slowly exhausting our meal possibilities (with only a sink and hotplate) but I think we have been doing great for what we have. Tonight we are having whole wheat pasta with pesto sauce, fried mushrooms, garlic, potatoes, and tomatoes.

I'll close with these final thoughts on Karlovy Vary-- I really liked it the first time because the buildings are cute and easter egg colored and the springs are cool. There's a film festival there in the summer and lots of celebrities come and that's always novel. However, it's also over priced for this reason and I never got to bathe in the springs-- I only got to be cold, weirded out, and overcharged for mediocre food. I'm done with Karlovy Vary.