Karlovy Vary

So I just got back from Karlovy Vary about 2 hours ago. The town is so beautiful! It's a quaint little place that seems right out of a fairy tale, minus the huge sprawling castle. It was a good relaxing and peaceful couple of days.

When we got there Thursday, Anna and I just walked around and tried to familiarize ourselves with the town and find some lunch, which seemed like an ordeal. I believe it's the off season for this little place so not a lot of people were around and so it was kind of empty. Eventually we did find a restaurant, an authentic Czech one that was really good. After that we went back out and to the building where they have the main geyser of a hot spring. It shoots up to about 12m and is really hot. While there we also bought a little cup that seems a must in this place so that we could try some of the cooler hot springs and drink some. We tried the 30 degrees Celsius one since it was the coolest and, let me tell you, I'll stick to my bottled water. It was rather salty tasting, but Anna and I sucked it up and drank a couple sips. So now we can always say that we had water from the famous Karlovy Vary springs. After that we went back to our hotel and took a nap and then took an excursion at 8 to find sosme dinner. The attempt to find food, again was rather hard, and we had to walk a while to find a little pizza place to eat at. It seems this town closes at 7 or 8pm which is crazy after everything being open really late in Prague.

Friday was our spa day at Zamecke Lazne, a world-renown spa. It was fabulous! Four hours of bliss! First we had out full body massage which, as my first experience, was a pretty good one. It felt so good! Then we had oxygen therapy, so we had tubes in our nose to give us some extra oxygen and stimulate our brain. Following the oxygen, we took a dip in the fancy thermomineral pool that is from a hot spring itself. It was really gorgeous inside the building, the pool was all blue and teal and green tiles and just amazing. And there were Corinthian columns and cute little alcoves and tables and just so fancy! After our dip, we had our other "procedure" some sort of hydroptherapy where we walked in hot water for a minute then cold for 30 seconds, and the cold was COLD and the hot was HOT. But after we got used to it, it wasn't too bad, we just couldn't wait to get into the hot water after our dip in the cold one. Apparently this helps circulation. Then we just chilled some more in the spa, listened to the relaxing music, saw them draw all the curtains so the place went dark and then played some storm soundtrack and had a bit of a light show then water from the spring topped off the water in the pool. After watching that it was time for our pearl bath which was basically sitting in warm water while jets massage you for 15 minutes. It was heaven. And that was our time in the spa. Definitely worth the trip to Karlovy Vary!

After the spa we went to Albert's the grocery store and bought crackers and cheese and salami and just had our own chill dinner so we wouldn't have to go on another hunt for a restaurant. And then we enjoyed buffet breakfast this morning, hopped on the bus and came back home.

So now we're back and relaxed and ready for the busyness of Prague. But the change of pace was definitely welcome. Amsterdam next weekend! But first another week of classes... until later, ciao!

I've included some of the pictures from Karlovy Vary, I hope you enjoy! =)


our lovely hotel room, much bigger than I expected
Church of Mary Magdelen, the building that houses the hot springs, road shot
Church of Mary Magdelene, a whomping-willow like tree, the river that goes through the town
The famous Grand Pupp Hotel, and a view from the bridge and one from up above
some of the fairytale-esque buildings
The main hot spring and me trying some of the nasty water
Anna takes a stab at it, and the springs where you can get water, the temps ranged from 30 Celsius to 70 Celsius
The typical drinking cup for the springs and some pretty buildings
a beautiful gazebo type promenade, a fun hat, and steps on the river
a famous hotel (I don't know the name), a Washington Monument look-a-like, and more fairytale buildings

more of Mary Magdelene Church, and from the inside; it was beautiful, and these are all illegal pictures =) a fountain outside our spa, an ad for our spa, and the front door of our spa (pictures werent allowed inside)
Leaving the city we found the Becherovka museum and these lovely ladies and I just couldn't resist

Change of plans...

So there were no spots left on our bus to Budapest so we couldn't work it out, sadly. So instead Anna and I are going to go to a little town just outside of Prague called Karlovy Vary. It's famous for it's spas, its hot springs, its Becherovka, and its International Film Festival. Also Casino Royale and the Last Holiday were filmed here. So we're sad that Hungary fell through but excited about our little trip to this relaxing spa town. It'll just be a one-night trip so it's not as long as Budapest, but we should still have some beautiful pictures from this place as well =)

Here's it's wikipedia page if you want to know more about it.

Hungary for Budapest!

We're going to Budapest this weekend!!! Woooooo! Get ready for some awesome pictures! Although this means I may be a little late updating, so be forewarned. I'll be gone Thursday through Sunday. Wish us luck! =)

TV TOWER BABIES!

That's mine and Kayla's new favorite phrase. So since Friday not too many things have happened. Kayla and I decided to get on the metro and ride to the end of the line on Saturday so we did and then we get to the end and what do we find? IKEA! It was huuuuuuge and had so many awesome things so I got a new duvet cover that is nice and pretty to replace my boring drab one that I was provided. Our new bedding instantly lightens up our space, it's wonderful!

After dropping off our purchases it was back to the metro and we went to visit the famed TV tower with the real babies. And by real I mean, the metal ones that are actually climbing the tower. It was rainy and deserted so we figured the tower was closed so we couldn't go up it. We'll save that for another time, but it was cool to see in person. It's so tall!

After that we wanted to try one of the traditional beer halls, one of the most famous but when we got there it was already closed. Sad day. So we may try to go there tonight. It's called U Fleku was supposedly built in the 1499? I may have to fact check that...

Today, we went to the Jewish Quarter to see the Old Jewish Cemetary and some of the synagogues in the area. The first building we went into, the Pinkas Synagogue was possibly one of the saddest things I've ever seen in my life. The walls were covered with people's names who died in the Holocaust and included their date of birth and date of death. It's so sad to see what happened to so many people, and to see names of little kids who only lived 4 years before their life was snuffed out. Sad stuff. The rest of the buildings though were older and more of a history of Jews in the Czech Republic. We saw the Old Jewish Cemetary which has around 12,000 tombstones but is probably home to many more bodies. The first body laid to rest there was in the 1400s and the last I think around 1750. So it's crazy old.

That's about our journey's so far. I think next weekend we may try to go to Budapest, so that should be fun! Hopefully it will work out. The exchange rate is even better in Hungary, so Wooooo! =)

But here are some more pictures of our travels around Prague, get ready for a ton!


this is the dinner that Kayla and I had to settle for after we couldn't eat at La Casa Blu for fear of being rude. Yummmmmm
this was our yummy ice cream that we found, a little on the expensive side but so good


hanging out with some friends and roomies a xxlong hot dog from one of the street vendors; I ate it all...
It was Lindsay's 21st birthday so some of the girls ordered this huge margarita. Insane!
random sites on the street and Bee's a vegetarian restaurant we found in our guidebooks that is really good
the dancing lady that is on the side of the National Theatre
a boat restaurant, the Dancing building nicknamed "Fred and Ginger", a different view of the river
Getting ready to go around town! This is our metro stop and the video that tells you what not to do on the metro... apparently that includes swinging on the poles
The TV tower!!!!
A Jewish cemetary we found that was near the TV tower

We also found this little children's daycare/school

Wall graffitti
A restaurant from the quidebook that we probably can't afford and then some Communist-era housing
The steep escalator down to the metro, scary!
My new bedding! My space is all homey now!

Finding new places is always a treat in Prague, and long straws are just too much fun to play with

a graffitti drawing near Tesco (makes me wonder how they manage to do these things) and Kayla getting her own xxl hot dog
Some of the Old Jewish Cemetary
The Ceremonial Hall and Maisel Synagogue