Carlsbad Caverns of Alcohol

Karlovy Vary AKA Carlsbad AKA Becherovka land.

We spent Saturday in Karlovy Vary, a town about two hours away from Prague. The attraction was the Becherovka factory. For those of you who don't know, Becherovka is an extremely popular liqueur in Europe. Or... That's what I've heard. ;)

Karlovy Vary is actually a very beautiful town. Ty and I both agreed that it felt like home. It's nestled in a valley between two forested hills, and there's a river that slowly flows through the city.

 It's close to Germany, which to Ty would be absolute paradise. So I guess you would say we were in... *bursts into song* "Almost paradise! How could we ask for more?" (If you don't know this song, you are missing out and can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc40EasXz18)

We started off the day by visiting a shop that sold different kinds of rocks and crystals. There was so much variety it might as well have been a museum! It was so interesting, that Ty and I almost had to figure out how to ship a $75, twenty pound rock home... good thing we got out of there!

There were cute shops all over town with fresh fruit or bread. 

And one shop that truly tested my self control. The one with the giant ice cream cone. This is the before picture. The after picture was too scary to be posted on the Internet! (Can we please have a moment of silence for the unfortunate giant ice cream cone that is no longer with us?) But of course, I will always carry it with me; in my heart, and definitely in my thighs.

Because of that poor ice cream cone--may it rest in peace--we walked two miles to the Moser glass factory for a tour. I'm not exaggerating. Two miles. But it was a beautiful walk.

Moser is a famous name in glass production. His production survived through the communist era, and Moser is still training more students in the art of glass making.

If you don't believe glass can be art, Czech out (Ha! I'm at it again!) this sculpture in front of the work space. It's much more artistic than that scary lion thing we saw in Ceske Budeovice.

When we walked inside we realized glass making is serious work. People stand in front of furnaces of 1,300 degrees Celsius. For you Yankees that's 2,372 degrees Fahrenheit. (Ha, I say Yankee like I didn't have to look up that conversion on Google.) The furnaces were so hot that it could turn balls of glass several inches in diameter into dripping bright orange liquid.

There's actually two things I want to point out about this picture. First, the ball of molten sand. Ouch. Can you imagine the kind of injuries that could be inflicted? Second, do you see what that guy is drinking?! Beer! On the job. Around 2000 degree furnaces and what might as well be lava. Obviously this room is really hot. So hot it took about two minutes for me to break out in a sweat, so I can only imagine that working in there would be trying to say the least. On the tour they said workers are required to drink a large amount of water as well as four beers a day. Can you imagine? Dream job: stay in the heat and drink four beers a day! Unsurprising Czech thing to do. They work based on commission, so depending on how much they sell and how expensive everything was in the gift shop, working could be pretty fun!

Here's a vase they were making at one station. The glass was not colored orange, that's just how hot it was at that point. 

This is a fountain in front of the factory. More beautiful art. Could you imagine making something like this for everyone to see? The tour was really interesting, and I definitely have a new found appreciation for those not-plastic things I usually end up breaking.

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Now, Czechs love their liqueur so much that they actually sell 200 liter bottles of Becherovka. Okay, that was a joke. This is just a life-size model, but I hear sometimes there's a "call to prayer" and thousands can be found kneeling in front of this sacred Czech symbol. (Also a joke.)

Still, how can one pass up a "selfie" in front of such a respected monument?!

And yes, I'll toast to that.

With time to spare between the tours and our bus departure we decided to explore the town some more. Again, it was absolutely beautiful. I wish we would have stayed a night just so we could walk around and take in some more of the city.

This statue must have heard my thoughts, and enjoyed  mocking me. 

These statues were much kinder.

You can't see in this picture, but ducks would flow down the river and ride down the spillway like it was a slide. They didn't even have to pay a bill to do it! (Duck humor! I just quack myself up!)

The city didn't really impose on it's surroundings. Nothing was leveled out; they simply built along with the hills and the river. It created a very beautiful scene.

Another great thing about Karlovy Vary was the cobble stones. In Prague, wearing a good walking shoes is paramount. The stones are uneven and sometimes missing. In Karlovy Vary, the stones were not just even, they were artful.

I'm sure the horses that drew the carriages appreciated it just as much as I did.

Even though I didn't get to ride across the city in a horse drawn carriage while fanning myself with a folding fan and shading myself with a fancy parasol, I had a lovely time. It was definitely a day I won't soon forget!

Thank you for reading! 

Love Comes in Different Packaging

Ty and I are super blessed. It's that simple. We have loving families, we're on an amazing adventure, we are healthy, we are safe, we have each other, and we are loved. Seriously, sometimes when I take a step back and look at my life I can't believe I even complain about anything. I mean, I'm writing this post from PRAGUE!

The nicest feeling in the world is to know you are loved, and I wanted to dedicate this post to some people who showered love on us the other day by sending some packages!

Four very large packages of love! One from my brother, and another from Ty's family.

They sent us Velveeta. If you couldn't tell by my creepy/intense/in love face, we were VERY deprived!

This is the box my brother sent me. Dakota, you are AWESOME! He even included canned chili and salsa. If you didn't know, the Czech Republic doesn't really do chili or taco seasoning like we do in America. So, THANK YOU!

Dakota also sent me a lovely letter, and an even better drawing. If any of you didn't know, I have a very artistic family. My sister, Savannah, and brother, Dakota can draw just about anything you ask them to. I think Dakota could become a famous comic book writer. :)

Now, meet Ty. Ty likes thin mints... a lot.

And he likes peanut butter even more. 

Ah, the love between a boy and his preservatives!

Yum!

Thank you all so much! We love you! 

The Land of Enchantment (AKA Budweiser Budvar)

On Friday, Ty, three other K-State students, and myself boarded a train reminiscent of the one that departs from Platform 9 and 3/4. We sat in our compartment and readied ourselves for what could possibly be the most epic day trip of all time!

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Our train didn't really look like the Hogwarts Express--although we did have our own compartment--and it really wasn't going to be the most epic day of all time... But we did get to see where the magic happened.

I'll begin my story at much too early of an hour (before noon) at the the train station.

This is the gang! We spent our ride chatting and hoping the some lady would come by and sell us candy... Too bad she just yelled at us in Czech to get our feet off the seat.

After two hours, we arrived in Ceske Budeovice. (Pronounced "Chess-key Boo-day-oh-vits-ah")

You can see it below on the map I stole from Google Maps. 

Once we got there and started walking around, I felt like everyone was celebrating opposite day, and I didn't even know it. I'll explain more in the pictures.

All of the houses would be some really dank color, and then out of nowhere, there would be one super bright house! I'm pretty sure there's symbolism in here somewhere, but you'd have to ask an English teacher to be sure.

Oh, and apparently these people decided to mow their roof. I think they overdid it though, because there's no grass left.

People just weren't on the same level we are in America. (Haha, get it? Situational comedy.)

Instead of your typical public service colors (red, blue, white) they decided to think out of the box. Because an ambulance just can't save lives without being turned into a psychedelic florescent van. 

And in the midst of all of this craziness, we stumbled across a very nice car--which Ty would be ashamed I don't know the name of--sitting outside of these rundown apartments. Ty had to stop and ogle it for a while before we could move on!

But, prepare yourselves for the creepiest part of the whole trip!... A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just let you see the picture...

 

...

Once we moved on from that sordid experience, we decided to utilize retail therapy! 

Doesn't Ty look positively smashing in his new glasses?!

But, just as we were getting over the whole, creepy-Mr. Bean-on-the-back-of-a-mini-cooper incident, we ran into this statue. 

Can you imagine what the sculptor was thinking? Like "Hey, a huge lion head isn't enough. I want to see breasts... but like 10. Pair it with monster legs and some unnecessary fat rolls, because that whole beautiful woman statue thing is just overdone. Yeah... that's it... PERFECT!" Then, I imagine the "artist" stepping back and doing that whole Italian thing:

Except maybe not wearing the chef's hat... Or maybe he does wear the hat, because he's crazy.

Because some things just can't be unseen, and we'd already tried retail therapy, we moved on to aroma therapy and smelled some beautiful flowers. Ty always asks me how I see these little beautiful things. My secret is: I just walk reallllly slow. :) The perfect speed to take everything in. 

However, I definitely didn't have to walk slow on the tour to see the astonishing amount of beer produced here!

Czech people are very proud of Budweiser. They are very quick to claim it as their own and announce that it was originally made in the Czech Republic. I mean, who can blame them? It's a really good, popular beer! So we paid about 60 crowns to attend a tour of the Budweiser Budvar factory.

On our way out to the brewery, we walked by the shipping ground. 

There were big tubs. This room was really hot because these were basically big fermentation tanks. The rectangles on the left in the white wall had steaming hot water running through them.

Then we went down a damp hallway.

They took us to a room where they hold the beer to let it age.

Here Ty is by an old fashioned aging keg. They don't use these anymore, but it was still pretty neat!

They even let us try a thimble full of beer. (I call this a thimble because Czechs think you're being a wimp if you have half a pint of beer instead of a pint.)

After seeing the process of making Budweiser, they let us into the factory where they package all of the products. 

This is every teenage boy's dream. A wall made entirely of beer. What more could they ask for?!

This machine was interesting because it basically played tetris with the cases of beer. It shoved each one into place so it formed a perfect block.

These were giant bins full of bottle caps.

Have you ever seen so many beer bottles in your life?

We haven't, so we decided to do the classy thing and take a picture in front of the giant pile of alcohol!

 Once we were done at Budweiser, we bought our souvenirs in the gift shop and decided to explore Ceske Budeovice some more. We found our way to town square where there was a big cabbage market going on. It's called a cabbage market here, but really they sell everything from jewelry, to clothes, to actual cabbage. It's definitely a fun place to buy souvenirs!  

I had to admire the gargoyles on one of the buildings. 

The fountain was beautiful, and I feel really blessed that I was able to experience Ceske Budeovice with my man by my side. 

Thanks for reading!!

PS. I'm still behind on posts! More to come later! :)