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| Ice Melting Duck Pond |
Dreary, raining, overcast day so I pretty much stayed inside between my treatments which consisted of paraffin hand treatment, water massage bath and tissue/lymph-drainage massage. And then I had lunch at Cafe Prestige which is a fairly large restaurant on the main avenue where they have a pre-fixed lunch menu for 4 Euros with soup, main course and dessert.
I was at the Harvey Hotel spa for sauna/steam and pool and got to read more of my library book which is always good. And the men's sauna club was absent today with the exception of one man who was in there for almost 2 hours, crazy.
There are lots of friendly people at that hotel as well and one women in particular, Griselda, who was trying so hard to communicate in English and practice what she learned when she was in school years ago. She's 78 and has a daughter my age and a son 16 years older than her but I couldn't quite get across in English that I was surprised by the immense gap between the first child and her second. Thankfully I've got a few words and gestures I use that gets any basic conversation moving forward like pointing to my left hand's ring figure for marriage or using the word "kinder" and making gestures for a baby in the arms or height references for different ages of the kinder (children.) I've also taken to saying "Ciao" instead of goodbye and everyone, no matter which language they speak seems to understand that word.
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| Park Across from Hotel Harvey |
This morning after breakfast the sweet restaurant staff were practicing their English and so excited to do so. One women who it turns out is from Poland wanted to know if it was okay to say to a person "good appetite" when you serve them their food. I said it's find grammatically as far as I know but it's not something you would normally say to a person. I would, even in America, just say "buen apetit" and most people will know it means your wishing them a good meal. I never really gave it any thought that we don't have an expression in English for that. I guess she could just say "enjoy!" and that would also be fine.
They just don't get enough English speakers here, it's very unusually. I think there are more in Karlovy Vary and that's not a large number. Here, if there are five English speaking guests in this whole town I'd be amazed.
I left the spa late around 6:00pm so I had to go quickly and had my Glauber I water cure and was up to my room to put my stuff away and at my table for dinner by 6:15pm which worked out well. Dinner ends at 7:00pm so you really need to be there by 6:30pm at the latest. And it's so funny I can't seem to get my dinner order right. They leave me a list of choices at breakfast but they're all in German or Czech so I usually just pick some that kind of looks familiar or what I've checked with the others is not a lamb or veal. But usually I gets something totally different so when I think I'm having fish meat shows up or when I thought I had a hot fish dish I got an assortment of cold fishes with butter and egg. Well it's not about the food here so it's fine but I am getting a kick out of it and today I had completely forgotten to check my dinner off so they surprised me with pork with cheese and potatoes. I wasn't in the mood for pork so I had a few bites and then cut up the rest into tiny pieces and brought it out to the cats outside. The staff at the hotel are all animal lovers and they have 3 parakeets, a terrarium with snails that eat cucumbers and then the kitties out side that have at all times during the day 4 different bowls filled with everything from kitty kibble to leftover meat, cheese and fish. I've tired to make friends with the kitties but they run and the black one just hissed at me. But I think it's so great that they take such good care of them and they even made a nest for them when it's cold with hay and a warm marble box with a whole cut out for them to get in and out.
Fortunately I have new people to share my table so I'm not sitting alone. It's a lovely couple from the north of Czech but originally they're from Palestine He, Armen, came here 12 years ago to study medicine and is now a cardiologist in the small Czech town where they live and he brought his wife, Ghiadha 3 years ago after getting married and they now have a gorgeous little girl Padyria who is 6 months old and so sweet and well behaved.
And a lovely couple from Plzne, CZ who I've seen several times in the lounge at night using the internet gave me their business card for their hotel the Pension Beseda and Restaurant, 330 25 Blatnice 43, Blatnice u Plzne, CZ (tel: 420-377-881-604. They seem so nice and I'm sure they have a great business so if you're in Plezne look them up at http://faitstanislav.sweb.cz/nemecky.html or at email: faitstanislav@seznam.cz.
So that was my day, not eventful at all but very nice.
