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Karlovy Vary06/22/2005
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Date We Were Here in Plants!
Guy Hangin' Out - Cleaning Building w/ Duster, Ha - Really!
Taste That - Are You Kidding!
We left Cesky this am to get to here early enuf so we could find O.N. accomodations which we were unable to arrange via phone...arrived at the bus stop about 7 am just as the rains came(Mari was a bit behind and got soaked, largely due to other unavoidable problems which she can relate if she wishes). Rained the entire trip until we got to town and then tried phone again but no luck, she couldn't speak any English or German. Mari suggested we just head out- it was a ways away - which we did but when we got there the gal said "no room"! I was bummed and headed out the door, Bon asked to use the WC and Mari sat down...minutes later, the lady motioned to Mari and lo and behold she had found a room for us, and not just any room, but one we could really afford! We could stay 2 nites, yeah! Keep the faith, Tim!!! Old tourist town that exists because of its hot, mineral baths and water which people have come to visit since Charlemaine(sp?), also known as Charles IV or Karl der Grosse, discovered the springs while hunting and made it popular...at any rate there are a lot of older, overweight, infirm, and generally not well folks who are wandering around this quite beautiful city(again with a "stream" running thru it, but of very inferior quality - tho we saw fish in it), drinking from "tasting cups" especially designed for the task...Mari and Bon tried drinking some and both agreed it was aweful, sulfurous and HOT! Pools and baths are boasted everywhere, and charged for of course...we took the funicular up to Diana's Lookout Tower where we had a great peak of all the surrounding country. On the way up we met a fine Turk fellow who was on vacation we guessed, he worked for a large conglomerate in Turkey as their advertizing manager, 15 yrs with them...very talkative, Muslim, and very likeable...shared pistachio candy with us and generally made us feel like we knew him all along. He was originally from a town near Kapadochia(sp?) so we told him of all our travels in Turkey and he gave us his card saying if we should ever get back to look him up and he would show us the REAL Turkey! Fun guy, I think he really meant it! Walk along the Mill Colonnade where most of the spigots of aweful stuff are we listened to a nice, rousing band performance...Mari bought a lazenske pohar(spa cup) and some oplatky(spa wafers), she's always into the tourist thing big time, ha!
Travelling by bus and train the countryside is filled with little villages of 10 to 50 houses plus we see fields of mustard, chard of all things, of course sunflowers, and most unusual, white poppies!! They are a crop, for seed, unlike the wild red ones that are everywhere.
The people are mostly athiest(40%+) and nominally R.C.(20% +), and altho they are a bit more friendly than the Slovaks, this is not saying much! They still do not smile even when you smile directly at them or for some reason have interaction with them...Mari claims that if you approach their dog(which many, many of them have, by the way...little yippy things!) and show an interest, sometimes they manage a bit of a smirk!
