The morning began with snow but amazingly by afternoon there
was no new snow on the ground in the city but the trees in the distant
surrounding forest where beautifully dressed in it. I had a busy day with a salt cave in the morning,
a hydroxy bath in the afternoon followed by a physiotherapy massage which
turned out to be about easing muscle and joint pain and worked amazingly on all
the sore places from my long walk on Thursday and I think mostly from when I
slipped and fell. But now I feel amazing, she really worked out all the
soreness and I’m back to my happy self.
I got some walking in around town and got some great detail
shots of some interesting buildings in town including the 1886 built Metropole
which is at the top of a short hill behind my hotel and the building always
catches my eyes when I walk by. I think because despite its run down appearance
it’s still so beautiful with great architectural details like statues of Satyr (a half man/half goat figure.) There is a lot of
goat references around this part of the world and in fact the goat statue which
sits atop the Deer Leap look out is directly above this building on the
hillside.  |
| Pink Building desperate for repairs. I love at the very top the two face sculptures above the windows |
Near the Metrople, just down the walk a bit is
a pink building I find fascinating because it’s in such bad shape but again so
beautiful in its abandoned state. There is lots of construction going on in the
city center area so hopefully this beautiful building is on someone’s renovate
list.
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| Spořitelna Building - Notice the two frog sculptures over the arched doorway |
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| Spořitelna facade details |
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| Spořitelna Facade |
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| Spořitelna Door detail at the bottom |
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| Doors at Spořitelna |
Then there is the large grayish stone building
across the bridge from my hotel with the word “spořitelna” in stone
across the top. Spořitelna means “savings bank” in Czech
and the building is a great example of Art Nouveaux architecture here. I love
all the details and from my spa pool area I was able to get pictures of the interesting
top embellishment which looks like two copper snakes intertwined around a
traditional Art Nouveaux design. I like the doors on the front of the building
and the top part is being refurbished now and each morning I see men out there
with a crane doing work.
The park across the street which is also next to the theatre
still has its coating of snow and I love the dropping tree on the corner.
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| Spořitelna Top Detail |
I got a nice picture of my pink hotel. My room is on the 3rd
floor first one on the left. There are only two rooms facing front on each
floor so I’m lucky to have all those great windows and even a balcony which is
locked, I think partly because it doesn’t look that stable when viewed from
below.
The geyser in the Vridelni Kolonada (Hot Spring Colonnade –
The main colonnade building where most people’s drinking cure prescription is
from) is out of commission at the moment, they are working on it. You can see
the circular pit of the fountain through the glass windows of the modern
building that is now the Vridelni Kolonada. It once a few hundred years ago was
a gorgeous building similar in architectural details like the Castle Colonnade
just behind it. I’ve included a picture that I took of the Geyser in 2008
during my first visit to Karlovy Vary.
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| Vridelni Kolonada Geyser under construction |
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| Picture from my visit in 2008 of Geyser spouting as visitors looked on |
I took some other pictures at the spa, of the swimming pool
and of the wool hats placed on a shelving unit near the entrance of the sauna.
The first time I’d seen one of these which reminded me of a Fez worn by the
Shriners minus the tassel, was in the Russian/Turkish day spa in lower Manhattan.
I was told then that the Turkish sauna which is one of the hottest, can singe
the hair or at the very least dry it out and I suppose if you’re a bald man oh
my goodness could you do some serious damage to your scalp. I thought the first
day I was at the spa that they were there as decoration but yesterday I was in
the sauna and a woman walked in wearing one of them. She was a very, very large women and very nice but it was a little funny to see this white woolen
hat on her with ear flaps and I guess it was the contrast with her tiny bikini
that she also wore. Yes, I said tiny bikini on a very, very large women of
about 60 years old. But you know I think it really is great that women can be
so comfortable in their own skin. What you’ve got is what you’ve got and at
least she’s here trying to get healthy so why not wear what makes you happy and
her husband was with us and he seemed happy so
it’s all good as they say.
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| Sauna Hats |
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| Spa Pool |
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| Castle Colonnade at night although generally not green . The entire structure is painted bright white wood |
Because I was going to 6:00pm mass tonight I thought I’d
have dinner at the Jessenius Hotel restaurant which is just down the promenade from
my hotel. It’s where I stayed in 2008 and I loved it. It’s more expensive than
my hotel now so I didn’t stay there this time but I’m glad I got to go back and
have dinner. It’s fortunately a very casual restaurant with exactly the same
furnishings as four years ago and incredibly inexpensive only 11 dollars for a
very nice dinner of soup and then beef with a strange but tasty brown sauce
that also had sweet whipped cream on it and these bread dumplings that is quintessentially
Czech. I went just down a few doors for ice cream afterwards since I still had
45 minutes before mass and I wanted to go back to the Elephant Café again. I
went only once that I remember last time I was here with a lovely Russian women
who was celebrating her birthday, I think it was her 70th and her
husband who was a retired Russian teacher and poet was not the least bit
interested in go so she asked if she could take me to celebrate with her. I
actually had to look all this up on my blog from that time and the memories
started to come back. That’s what’s great about these blogs they come in handy
to remind of you little events like a simple dessert with a nice older lady on
her birthday.
I went to St. Mary Magdalene Church at 6:00pm and it was
pretty packed. The priest started off mass by doing ashes for those who didn’t
get them on Wednesday. I didn’t even realize they did that but I guess it’s
only a few days afterwards and it may be difficult for many people to get there
on a Wednesday evening. I am starting to recognize the regulars. There were
several people who were there on Wednesday night including that elderly women
with the severe limp. I’m surprised she doesn’t come to any of the three
earlier masses either at 8:00am, 10:00am or 2:00pm since it’s so cold out and
so dark at 7:00pm when mass is over but maybe she just likes to have something
to do on Sunday night.
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| Mill Colonnade |
I went for a 25 minute walk after mass around the city
trying different water spouts and just trying to walk off the heavy Czech meal,
not to mention the ice cream. I am feeling the results of the program already
and it’s only been one week so I must keep up on the exercise especially if I’ve
eaten a bit more than planned. Although I skipped lunch I was so busy going
from treatment to the sauna to the swimming pool, etc. so it wasn’t so bad to
have a nice dinner.
I tried to get some night shots on my walk but my camera
just doesn't want to cooperate but at least you get an idea of the city by
night. The walk is also nice in the evenings because the stores are still open
and to window shop in Karlovy Vary is perfect. The man town center promenade which
is on both sides of the river is lined with unbelievably expensive shops for
clothing, china, ski equipment and apparel, baby clothes, shoes, handbags and
jewelry (lots and lots and lots of jewelry.) So I just admire the stuff in the windows like
I’m strolling through an eclectic outdoor art gallery and although there are
some clothes that I just would love to go and try on I know they are completely
beyond my reach financially as well as size wise so for now it’s nice just to
admire the beauty of fashion and the glitz and glitter of all those incredible
jewels. I do wonder though where the Russian people who come here got all the
money to spend. For some reason I still think of Russia as a poor country but clearly it's not which is nice to know.
Several Czech people I’ve met have mentioned how wealthy the
Russian people are who come here but I guess because my last visit I was here
for the first two weeks during the middle season and a week when it became low
season in November and now I’m here totally during low season so I’m not seeing
the really wealthy people who would do most of the shopping because they, I’m
sure, would come during the high season when money wasn’t an issue. So when I
walk around or look at the people in the spa or those we saw at the Sanssouci
Resort I see mostly very casually dressed, not ostentatious or showy people.
It’s all very interesting to be in the Czech Republic seeing
real Czech life like when I was out with Nicola or when I went to the Czech
play the other night or even when I walk to the other part of town where the
tourists don’t usually go and just watch as people go grocery shopping to the bank
or Post office or just spend quality time with their kids at the playground and
even at church and then the rest of the time be totally immersed in Russian
culture and on the rare occasion German. Although I’ve noticed in the last week
there are many, many new visitors staying from China and Japan. They just arrived
a few days ago on big busses and some for just the day and others seem to be
staying at the Grand Hotel Pupp. But overall it’s Russian you hear spoken
everywhere, the food is geared for the Russian palate and life is all about
making the Russian guests happy enough that they’ll spend money. |
| Bridge near Mill Colonnade |
And since I mentioned Czech life above I’m going to share a
very interesting bit of information that I learned yesterday when Nicola was
telling me that she is petitioning with the government so that when she gets
married and takes her husband’s last name that she doesn’t have to add ová to
the end of it. Let me explain because I was confused as well and this is what I
learned. The Czech language doesn’t have Mr., Ms., Miss or Mrs. So to distinguish
between a man and a women the women must add ová to the end of the father’s
base name. So I looked up on line and found this “As in English-speaking
countries, Czech females traditionally receive their father's surname at birth
and take their husband's name when they marry. However, the names are not
exactly the same; the endings differ to fit into the Czech language's systems
of gender adjectives. For example, the tennis players Cyril Suk and Helena Suková
are brother and sister; Suková is the feminine form of Suk. Because
gender-marked suffixes are essential to Czech grammar, Czechs will usually add
a feminine suffix to the surnames of foreign as well as Czech women. Thus,
American actress Julia Roberts would be Julia Robertsová in the Czech press.
Science Fiction writer Ursula Le Guin appears in Czech translations as Ursula
Le Guinová. This phenomenon is not universal, however. In recent years, there
has been lively discussion whether or not to change foreign female surnames in
public use (such as in media references etc.). Supporters of abandoning this
habit claim that adding a Czech female suffix to a foreign surname means
deliberately changing a woman's name and is therefore both misleading and
inconsiderate, whereas traditionalists point out that only by adding the suffix
can the name be used as a flexible feminine adjective within a naturally
sounding Czech sentence. Although the discussion continues, the majority of
newspapers and other media still use the "adopted" versions.” For Nicola and Jacob she can petition to have the letters omitted if she can convince them that she and Jacob plan to work in other EU countries like Germany, Austria or Switzerland (where her sister is now working) because they don't have that ending and it would be confusing if she did on her passport, etc.
Now it got even more interesting when doing my online research
of the ová and found that the specific name a parent gives their child in the
Czech Republic, especially those given them in the Communist Era, is and was regulated
by the government but just not as much now. “ In the past, parents were not
allowed to choose just any name for a child. This has changed, although it is
still common to choose the name from the name day "calendar" and any
highly unusual name has to be approved by a special office. The original list
was the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, but many changes were made to
reflect the present-day usage of names. The name day is commonly of less
importance than the birthday to Czech people and is celebrated just in some
families. However the name day celebration can be held together with friends or
co-workers of the same name and in this way it can grow in size and
"importance". The proportion of the population that celebrates name
days is falling; the name day is nowadays more likely a reason to celebrate for
the sake of celebrating, or for giving a present to somebody one loves.”
When I looked name day up online I also found on Wikipedia
the entire list of names per day. I found Nicola or Nikola on November 20 and
since she was born in 1988, the year before Communism fell here that she must
have been born that day. But when I checked on facebook she is actually born on
December 24 which should be either “Adam” or “Eve” according to the list. So I
went back and re-read the information I found and realized that you don’t have
to pick the name that is assigned to the day they are born like Italians used
to pick the name of the saint whose day is celebrated on the exact day the
child is born. No, in Czech culture you just have to choose any name from the
name’s day list and then that child grows up celebrating, in the case of Nicola
, her name day on November 20th as well as her birthday on December
24 and in her case Christmas Eve as well.
And “During the Communist era, parents needed a special
permission form to give a child a name that did not have a name day on the
Czech calendar. Since 1989, parents have had the right to give their child any
name they wish, provided it is used somewhere in the world and is not insulting
or demeaning. However, the common practice is that most birth-record offices
look for the name in the book "Jak se bude vaše dítě jmenovat?" (What
is your child going to be called?), which is a semi-official list of
"allowed" names. If the name is not found there, authorities are
extremely unwilling to register the child's name In the Czech Republic, each
day of the year except national holidays corresponds to a personal name.”
All so interesting and makes you thankful you can just name
your kid whatever you feel like in the States without ever having to explain
why. And are then, if one thinks this through, millions of Czech people born
before 1989 who have one of less 400 names if you take into consideration that
there are only 365 days in the year and of them only a few had more than one
name assigned for a specific day.
I looked up Debra or tried to find a Czech equivalent and
could only find Doubravka whose name day is January 19. It kind of looks like Deborah
which would have been the biblical spelling and since the name list has
religious origins I think this choice makes sense.
