Karlovy Vary: Bohemian spa town

Girls in my age for sure used to play Barbie dolls when they were kids. This time, I went to a luxurious spa city which is like a setting for a classical novel with pastel-colored buildings along its river bank. Literally feeling like a barbie girl in a barbie world,but in a classic girl series. 

Taking the bus at 7:30 AM from Florenc, Karlovy Vary is just nearly 2.5 hours from Prague, being one of the most visited cities in Czech Republic. I know this place after (again) watching the @realhonestguide vlog run by young czech locals. Thanks guys for (always) giving the good recommendation! It was cloudy but having the sunshine peering through the gloomy clouds brought a different sensation of travelling. It is not always sunshine but a little bit of rain, isn't it ?

This time, my travel partners varied, not Mariana nor Olenka but with Fatima, Abby, Hluf, Getachew, Astghik and Albertus who are also my classmates in this master. Actually, at the beginning it was only Astghik and me, but suddenly more people said yes and booked in the last minute. So yes, the more, the merrier! This town gave me the same feeling as when I visited Monaco: very touristic and destined for rich people. I am really grateful that I have this opportunity to visit this kind of magical and fancy city in a very young age (even I could not buy nothing yet haha). 

We descended at Karlovy Vary bus Terminal, which is quiet far from the tourism center and we were like, what? Why is this super disappointing and far from the pictures in google?! But after having pizza for brunch, asked the map from tourism center, we discovered the real Karlovy Vary. So, basically all the tourist attractions lied along the Ohre river so we did not really need a map to explore. I really like when I do not have to use GPS on my phone to check for the places. 

Dvorak Park 

Despite the cloudy weather, this park is beautifully green with Sadova Kolonada as its background. We strolled around the garden and then tried the spring water. It tasted super duper metallic that I spitted it out directly. Well, I am sorry that I don’t like it. They said this water could heal many diseases. I did not really read each description of each water spring. A lot of people queued to take this water with their tumblers and special cups. Along the river, we could find stalls selling the unique shaped cups to drink the hot spring water, as a sign that you literally have tasted the real one from Karlovy Vary.

I love this photo!! Hahaaha

St. Mary Magdalene Church 

It was placed in a high point after the river so the placement was kind of breathtaking. Its position near a very active hot spring also created a multiple beauty effects. However, we could only see the interior of the church through a glass wall from the main entrance, more than that it was firmly locked.

Mille Colonade 

This well-designed building also serves as hot spring water source. Fatima and I bought a duck burger and home made fries. It was her first time tasting duck. (I was more excited than her!) It was not good, but the fries were awesome. Lots of seniors (mostly Asian tourists) were here around the city maybe in the hope of being healed.

Grand Pupp Hotel and Diana Tower 

Karlovy Vary is also famous of its film festival being one of the oldest festivals in Europe. This Grand Pupp hotel was the setting for James Bond - Casino Royal. I even looked on its trailer now while I am writing this post to see what part of the hotel are being used: mostly the room and the restaurant. I also googled the booking price which is min. 152 euros per night. Well, the design was fancy but old. But from the outer part of the lobby you can already tell that this place is “something”.

Just behind this hotel was the funicular to go up to Diana Tower. I don’t know how it was called Diana. It cost 90kc to go up and down, so well.. we are here already here so, up we went. The wind was so strong and the tower was just so-so. The only special thing was that they said Goethe has been here. Well.. another thing was, I got quiet a good view of the city which was literally tiny pastel-colored dollhouses. Around the tower there was cafe and also a butterfly garden, not included in 90kc so we did not go inside. Besides, I already have tons of butterfly gardens in Indonesia. It started to rain again so we went down again by the funicular. 

And then we tried to look for St. Peter and Paul Cathedrale and I was so sure about my map and lead the way as usual but this time I got wrong and we have walked so far. I was kinda mad towards myself. It turned out that both places have same name but the other one is just for the monastery. So we walked back to Vridelni. I am so sorry guys for making you walked this far.

St. Peter and Paul Cathedral

People are tired but I wanted to check all the places, in addition, this place is on the way back to the bus stop. I mean, it was not that hiked either, so why not? Along the way we found lots of castle-like houses like in Hotel Transylvania but in very smooth and light colors. Russian embassy was also a cute building. I was impressed all the way. There was also a spooky house with a ticket to explore. Land of vampire... The weather that day also matched with the whole city and scenery. However, I am also curious on how Karlovy Vary will look like in summer. 

But this one is more mysterious than the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice. It has blue accent and look different from the one in Nice, also maybe because this was located in a high contour. I wanted to see how it looks inside but there was a ceremonial took place at that moment so it was not opened for public visits. Well, I don’t know if in normal day you can visit it or it would stay private. We quickly grabbed mcdonalds then took the bus back at 17 and I don’t know why it felt faster to go back like maybe 2h only to Prague. 

So, in Karlovy Vary we mostly can find a lot of crystal, jewelry shops and local-designer boutiques along the way. For sure, it is a comfortable place to go shopping in a honeymoon or with your beaux-parents. To summarize, it was truly a nice, condensed and memorable one-day trip! If you wanna stay in Prague for 2 weeks, definitely a place to go (I recommend for romantic purposes, for family trip with kids, it is not really suitable unless you travel with parents or beaux-parents.) Please do consider this city :) 

Another spring water

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