Quite A Grand Adventure: Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary is a spa town located about two hours west of Prague. We went for a day-long excursion this past Friday. Established in 1350, the small town has served as a getaway for celebrities and royalty, and since 1946 has hosted the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival every summer, making it one of the oldest film festivals in the world.

We began our adventure by waking up at 6 on a Friday... I've done more fun things in my life, but it was worth it. After an early breakfast and throwing things together, we boarded the double-decker bus waiting for us outside the pension. Gotta say, the view from the upper level of a bus is pretty cool, especially when driving through Prague and Czech countryside. Too bad I slept through most of the great views.

We parked in the bus station and began walking up to our meeting place, making a bathroom stop in the bus station where you have to pay the bathroom attendant 10 Kc ($0.50) for the bathroom key. We've seen that a lot here. Many public restrooms require payment, and cafes or fast food chains often guard their bathrooms somehow, either by requiring payment (and then issuing a coupon to use should you buy something from them) or printing an access code on your receipt (if they lock with an electronic keypad).

The exciting part of our morning began at Spa 5. We divided into two groups – swimming and non-swimming. I went with the swimming group back to the pool. We were issued locker keys and towels, and once we'd gone into the locker rooms and put on our suits we had an hour to use the pool and hot tubs. They employees explained that we also had access to the saunas and that bathing suits were not allowed, but not to worry because they were separated by gender and could only be accessed through the locker rooms None of us took them up on that offer.

After swimming we got a tour of the facilities. The use of mineral water is what makes Karlovy Vary a big deal in the spa world – they are one of only twelve (I believe that's what she said...) spa facilities that are verified as using mineral water. They have all sorts of different water, mud and massage treatments for a variety of maladies. My personal favorite is what I'm going to affectionately dub The Freezer Box. It's a unit that cools to -160 degrees Celsius. You strip down except for little woolen booties and stand inside, and the technician makes sure your head is poking out the top, then it freezes your body for a maximum of three minutes. It's only available via doctor's recommendation, and it (supposedly) helps to relieve chronic headaches, lessen skin diseases, and increase sex drive in men. One of our Czech group members told us that he's received the treatment before, and that after a minute of being frozen you can breathe out snowflakes (or “snowdrops,” as he called them.) He also said that when he got out, his skin looked to him like that of a raw, frozen chicken.

After our tour we had time to eat lunch and wander around the city. Six of us (two of whom are Czech) went to a local restaurant which had been recommended to him by a friend. It was cheap, authentic, and delicious. Four of us got the lunch special, which consisted of a bowl of soup, beef goulash with bread dumplings, and a small beer, all for 99 Kc (about $5). After lunch we split up and Amanda and I walked down towards the middle of the town.

Every so often we passed special fountains that continually pump the mineral water from underground. It's supposed to be incredibly healthy for you. It's warm (you can see the steam rising from the basins). We heard it tasted like sulfur. The street vendors and souvenir shops sell small cups which people carry around and fill with the water. The handles are hollow and serve as straws. Maybe it doesn't taste so bad when you sip it through a porcelain straw. Anyway, neither of us tried it.

Mmm, warm mineral water. Tasty.

We eventually headed back towards our meeting place and stopped to get crepes along the way from a little hole in the wall crepes place. We watched the woman pour the batter onto the griddle and rake it perfectly thin and smooth, let it cook, then drown it in chocolate or Nutella or fruit or whatever topping we requested (I opted for Nutella and peaches). She folded it up and set it on a paper plate and then covered it in powdered sugar. Not that I'm incredibly experienced in the world of crepes, but it was the greatest one I've ever had.

Our final adventure was a liquor tour in the Becherovka museum. We heard a little bit about the company history, wandered through their displays in the cellar, then sat for a few minutes and watched an informational movie while the staff brought us samples (half shots) of three of their products – Lemond, Original, and Cordial. The liquors were fine. The cups were really cool. The whole thing took about fifteen or twenty minutes, so we got gelato and cheesecake at the cafe outside the museum and killed time until we left at 5.

And that was Karlovy Vary. Great food, cheap prices, spas. And really beautiful architecture. Definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Czech.  

Church of St. Mary Magdalene

Cool buildings. All of them.