Wednesday, December 12

praha :: day 5 :: karlovy vary, u fleku aka best beer in the world

monday, we get up early and wait for our tour bus to pick us up so we can make the trek out to karlovy vary, a beautiful little "spa" town 2 hours outside of praha. it is known for its "healing" mineral/spring water and famous wafers. the tour bus is very inefficient and makes several circles within the city to pick up other tourists. our tour guide is bad, explaining the old town and new town areas like this: "over here, is old town. it is oldest town. and here, is new town. it is newest."

as we get further away from praha, it starts to snow.

our first stop is the becherovka factory/museum. obviously one of those stops a tour group picks so you can spend money. we go inside and are told the history of the herbal liquor, and the guide yells "no photos!" while taking us through the cellars to see barrels where this is stored.

at the end of the museum tour we have our becherovka tasting. pictured above is the museum guide. she is very mean and yells at you to hurry up and finish your drinks so she can pour you the next one and get you the hell out of there.

while watching a short film on the history of becherovka, we sip 3 different kinds, each tasting worse than the first.
after getting liquored up in the morning we walk through town to go to lunch. it starts snowing/raining again...but the town is breathtaking!




these are some of the "springs" from which you can drink the mineral water. some are as hot as boiling water!


lunch is at the hotel thermal, and it sucks. the food is blah - i would rather have skipped it and found a local eatery. by the time we are done with lunch we only have 2 more hours of free time. we are given a ticket to the heated pool but no one actually has time to take the dip in the mineral water.

so instead we race back through the town to look at all the springs and shop. this is me sprinting.

several little stands along the road sell hundreds of these little cups. they come in all colors, shapes and sizes, but each has a little spout from which you can drink your water.

we buy boxes and boxes of these delicious wafers. they are the size of your face! the vanilla ones come toasted. it's thin, crispy and airy. the inside seems to be filled with sugar but somehow it's not overwhelming.

after a 2 hour drive back into prague, we go to dinner at this tiny fish house listed in lonely planet. of course, dinner starts with a beer.


this fried carp is very tasty but it takes nearly an hour for them to bring all our food!

after dinner we walk to the famous u fleku pub down the street. it's nearly 10:30 and the place closes at 11, but it's still packed! it's famous for a special brew that you can only get here. it's sort of a dark beer, but it tastes amaaaazing; i don't normally like dark beer either.




this is the u fleku beer, above. i am still kicking myself for not buying some to bring back. i have 2 of these in 30 minutes!

after dinner we stop by a bar on the way back to the metro and have more beer. of course!

our last stop is KFC by our house for some chicken strips and mashed potatoes. for some reason there is a bowl here called "fuller creamy". we're not sure what this means but the picture looks delicious?