My flat mate Jade and her mom invited me to go along with them for a weekend to this quaint little town about 2 hours outside of Prague called Karlovy Vary. It's known for it's spas, so we figured that it would be a nice relaxing weekend away from the stress of school. The trip started out just dandy, and by dandy I mean a huge cluster. We got up early to have a nice breakfast at this restaurant called The Louve down by the Mustik metro stop. However, when we got there we found that the restaurant didn't open until 9am. So, we found another random place to eat for the time being. Then we headed over to the Florenc bus stop where our bus would be leaving at 10am. As we were waiting there with the other people travelling to Karlovy Vary, I noticed what appeared to be a grandma with her daughter and young son waiting for the bus as well. I wish I had had the guts to take a picture of this crew, but I will have to do my best to describe her. The mom and son seemed to be fairly normal, but the grandma was another story indeed. She was a heavy set woman wearing high heels and a very thin, blue halter top dress which her massive boobs were about to fall out of at any minute. And she was really loud and making a scene by talking on her moblie and yelling at her grandson all while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. I'm pretty sure I jinxed myself when I thought, "I really hope that I don't end up sitting right next to this crew". Of course, when the bus arrived and we got to our assigned seats, grandma sat right next to me. I thought I wasn't going to survive the 2 hour bus ride. For two hours, I leaned my head against the window to try and get some sleep and block out this crazy family. Over the long bus ride, Grandma and mom took junior to the bathroom about 100 times. Grandma was constantly on her mobile shouting in Czech. Then things really got interesting when she took out some sausages and passed them to her daughter and grandson. Besides filling the entire bus with the smell of spicy sausage, grandma and mom talked loudly with their mouths full. Then, junior started getting anxious sitting in his seat. So, he started rocking violently back and forth by kicking and pushing on the seat in front of him. Lucky for me, his seat was right in front of me, so the rocking of his seat hit my head a few times. I think it was about that time that I heard Jade try a muffle a burst of laughter. Finally, by the grace of God, we made it to our destination. I just prayed that this group of misfits were not riding the same bus home. When I stepped off the bus, there was Jade and her mom laughing at my situation. They did tell me that I could have the bigger room in the hotel since I had to suffer on the bus.
When we got off the bus, we didn’t know exactly where our hotel was, so we hired a cab to take us to the Embassy Hotel. The thing I don’t like about cabs in the Czech Republic is that they don’t have meters like in America. You just have to bargain with the cab driver for a price. The cabbie said that he would take us to the hotel for $10, so we thought that was a good deal and took it. If course, after 2 days of being in Karlovy Vary, we learned the bus system and we were able to take the city bus for $2. Oh well, live and learn! Once we made it to our hotel, we dropped off our stuff and decided walk around and explore the town. Jade pointed out that the hotel from 007’s Casino Royal, Hotel Pupp, was located here.
We wandered down to the hotel to try and see if we could get an appointment in their spa for massages and pedicures. However, all their appointments for the weekend were full because the salon was busy with a huge wedding party. When we left the hotel, we saw how fancy this wedding was. All the men were arriving in tuxes and the women were wearing long, formal gowns. On a balcony above the casino portion of the hotel, a small orchestra was playing music for the arriving guests. It was quite a scene! Anyway, continued to walk around and we stopped at this pizza place for lunch. They guy serving us new immediately that we were Americans and he asked us where we were from. I said Michigan, but when Jade and her mom said Texas, the guy instantly lit up. “Oh, the cowboy state!”. We all laughed. It really seems that everyone outside of the US always associates us with cowboys. So, we had a nice lunch and continued our way through town. We then headed into this one building so that we could use the restroom. As I waited for Jade and her mom to return, I people watched for a bit. As I’m sitting there, I watched people come into the building, pull out of their bags these funny-looking mugs and then fill them up at these water spouts that were located throughout the building. I then noticed a small vender selling these odd mugs. So, when Jade and her mom returned, I told them that we HAD to drink this water like everyone else was doing….even though we had no idea what the big deal was with the water, we just thought it would be fun to follow along! So, we ran over to the vendor and we each bought our own mug. These mugs are odd because they are more oval in shape and you actually drink from the handle of it. So, we took our mugs and filled them up at one of the several water spouts located in the building. There were around 5 different spouts and each one was a different temperature ranging from 30 degree Celsius to 70 degrees Celsius! We learned that this water is hot-spring water which is pumped to the surface and made available for drinking through these continuous running spouts. People come here from all over to drink the water, which they all believe to be healthy and have special healing powers. Jade’s mom tried talking to these two nice Czech women about the water. They really didn’t speak English, but through hand gestures and made-up sign language, they conveyed to us that the water helps your digestive system and they drink it 3 times a day. In another area of this building, there is what looks to be a sort-of geyser which spurts water high into the air. They showed us that you stand by the geyser and breath in the vapor of the hot spring too. After breathing in the ‘healing’ vapor, we continued with our exploration of the town. Also, as I learned from my UNESCO professor, there's a special Czech drink called Becherovka which you are supposed to drink after drinking the spring water. Supposedly, it was developed to cleanse your pallet after drinking the sulfury, salty, hot-water. I told Jade about it, and at dinner that night she ordered it. We didn't realize it was served as just a shot, and not a full glass, like a beer. She took one sip and could not finish it. She wanted me to try it, so I did. It smells like Christmas cookies because of all the spices they use in it. But, it's a very strong liquor and pretty much burned my throat like gasoline.
We attempted to go visit the Moser glass factory, but when we got there it was closed, so we would have to visit that again the next day. But, we did go to the Moser glass shop and bought a few glass pieces. Since all their glass is hand-blown and hand-cut, it’s insanely expensive. I could only afford to buy these tiny little votives, and they still cost a fortune! After spending all my money on glass, we caught the bus again to head back to the main town. The bus driver did not understand English, because when I tried to purchase a 24-hour bus pass, he gave me 3-day passes instead. I tried to convey that I wanted a 24-hour pass, but he just got mad and waved me off and started driving. I was pissed, so I took the other 2 day-passes back to him and asked for my money back. That must have pissed him off, because he grumbled at me in Czech and waved his hands at me and threw my money back at me. I’m not really sure what the problem was, since there is a sign right by the bus driver that says that you can buy a day pass or a 24-hour pass. Anyways, when we finally got back to town, we were walking around we found another massage place, so we inquired to see if they had appointments available at that time for all of us to get massages. They were free, so the 3 of us made appointments. I was just getting a basic massage, but Jade’s mom got a foot-specific massage and Jade got a massage and a milk bath! When it was my turn to take a massage, everything looked normal except for the tables were really low to the ground. I think it was to mimic a Thai massage place. I had this teeny, petite Asian girl giving me the massage. OMG, she was the strongest little thing ever! She really worked me over. At the end of my massage, she even got me in these positions and cracked my back! It felt really good though and I felt like Jell-O afterwards. I felt a little awkward though, because when I have had a massage in America, they usually keep the towel over you to keep you modest. But, she just pulled down the towel like it was no big deal and I was laying there half the time topless! But, when I conferred with Jade, it seemed like she was butt-naked most of the time, so I didn’t feel so weird after knowing that!
After our massages, it was getting late, so we ended up having dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel and then we crashed for the night. The next day, we got up early for the free breakfast at our hotel. The free breakfast was amazing! There was cereal, yogurt, bread, meats and cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, sausages etc.. It seemed to be a fusion of a traditional German/Austrian breakfast and American breakfast components. It seemed like a lot of the people from the wedding at the Hotel Pupp were there at hotel too. We could over here them talking about the wedding and such. It also seemed like it was a whole weekend affair, because everyone that was at the wedding had a whole schedule to follow for the day. After breakfast, we got on the bus to go back to the Moser plant. When we got there, we did the museum portion first. It was interesting, but admittedly, a little boring too.
Once we were done with the museum, we had a tour guide for the factory portion. She led us to where they were blowing glass. This girl gave the tour in 3 languages: English, Czech and German! She took us into the plant and explained how they get the molten glass onto the pole, then they blow into the end to form a specific design. When they are done with the main piece, it gets broken off of the pole and put into cooling racks. Each team makes a different main product: big vases, small glasses, etc.. It was really neat to see, but probably the most amazing part was the fact that these guys had no safety gear!
They were all wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals because it was really hot in the plant. They also did not have any safety glasses or gloves. A couple of the guys had shades that pulled over their regular glasses to protect their eyes from the extremely bright molten glass. They also had this wooden frame with a darker piece of glass in it that they used as a make-shift eye protection that they just held up in front of their face, but not everyone was using it. And the most unbelievable part was that they were drinking beer and smoking on the job! It was quite shocking how little safety was a concern to them. We asked our tour guide about the safetey thing, and just laughed and said, "Oh you Americans, not many people get hurt, it's not a big deal". We also noticed that the women working there had very old-fashion type of jobs. None of the women worked the glass ovens. The women would carry the glass over to the cooling ovens and they would keep the guys beer glasses full and that was it. Once we were done with the tour, we walked back to the bus stop to head back to town. We didn’t have a lot of time left before we would have to head back to the main train station to catch our bus back to Prague, so Jade and her mom went to go eat at a restaurant and I decided to wander around a little. There was this building that I had seen from riding the bus, and I wanted to find it and check it out. I walked to where I thought the building was, and it turned out to be a Russian Orthodox Church. It was really amazing because the outside of the church was really reminiscent of something you would see in Russia.
I went inside, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. It was really ornate and powerful, pretty much like every other church in Europe. Afterwards, I just headed back to the main town center to meet up with Jade and her mom. By then, it was time to catch the bus back to Prague!
