Plzen - A Beer-Lover's Hajj

August 4, 2011 – Today we took a break from tourism in the traditional sense—we took a day off to visit Plzen, the place where pilsner beer was created.  As our Czech furniture friend from Karlovy Vary told us, Plzen is an industrial town. (He also seemed very confused as to why we would want to go there)  Regardless, we went for the beer.

We arrived at the bus station and began the trek to our hostel.  As we walked all I could think to myself was, “Now this is Eastern Europe.”  The streets were lined with what could be aptly described as “Soviet Bloc[k] Buildings.”  All of the buildings have hard edges, follow the exact same architectural structure, and display no sort of individuality or unique features at all.  It was on this walk that we encountered the remnants of an “Enjoy Capitalism” sign, depicted here.

The hostel appeared no better from the outside.  It was on a dilapidated street and I had a bad feeling about the situation as we walked to the door under an old sign on which the word “Hostel” had been spray painted…and spelled incorrectly.  After two rings of the doorbell, a 30-something Czech man opened the door in blue overalls.  He looked like he’d been pulled straight out of the movie Hostel.  Yet he was perfectly nice.  He told us that he’d spent a year in Louisiana learning how to “work” because he was too lazy when he was younger.  We were the only guests in the hostel—it was apparently brand new—our host had been in the back yard trying to clear it out and construct a bar.

Our first (and really only) stop for the day was at the Plzen Brewery Museum.  It was really neat.  There was an exhibit on Czech “table companies” that reminded me of our Stammtish days at Wabash.  After taking a tour of the underground tunnels that run from the museum under most of the city, we got to sample a real rarity: Pilsner Urquell—unpasteurized and unfiltered.  The difference from the normal pilsner could not have been more pronounced.  It was fantastic!  We also took in The Cathedral of St. Bartholemew, a massive baroque church that looks quite out of place in the middle of the town square, and the Great Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in all of Europe.  Yet the real adventure didn’t begin until after our tour of the city had ended.

At about 16:00 we sat down at a small outdoor patio in the town square to grab a beer and soak up our surroundings.  When we went to purchase our beer, an old guy at the bar, in perfect English, told us that we wanted a different beer (which we didn’t).  Later, he stopped by our table and we found out that he was from Minnesota/Washington (He claims both).  Not long after, we decided that we’d buy him a beer and get him to talk about how the hell he ended up in Plzen of all places.

His name was Danny, he was 67, and he’d been in Plzen for 11 years.  As far as we could tell, he and his business partner Kenny, who will enter this tale shortly, tried to start a night club in Plzen but got ripped off by a local who ran off with their money and now they can’t leave the city because they have no means to do so.

Kenny was even more of a character than Danny.  He stumbled across the square towards our table.  As some Eastern Europeans would say, “He walked like a pretzel.” (He was drunk)  He proceeded to sit down with us and do what all drunk people do—make us laugh at his expense.  Kenny was most fascinated with the fact that Kati (whose name he could never remember) looked just like Kate Middleton.

After the café/bar we were sitting at closed, Danny insisted on taking us to this Spanish restaurant nearby where Kati and I had some fantastic gnocchi.  Our next stop was at the Hotel Continental, where Danny’s friend (and Kenny’s brother-in-law) works as the bartender at a club that plays oldies every Friday night.  It was a pretty cool club, but as with most drunk old men, Danny became increasingly bothersome as the night progressed.  He started ranting about American politics, how Obama is clearly a Muslim and they’re taking over the country, and how Obama’s not going to pay his Social Security check because he’s not really a citizen and doesn’t give a damn about Americans.  Needless to say, we decided it was time to leave.  On our walk back, we stopped in a bar near our hostel for one final beer and Alex and I decided to buy a pizza.  All in all it was quite the successful trip.

Jolly Old King Wenceslas

St. Wenceslas's Crown
(Contains the Largest Sapphire in the World)

I thought I’d post a quick fact that we’ve learned through our travels in the Czech Republic that I found fascinating.  I’m sure most, if not all, of you have at least a passing familiarity with the Christmas carol about Old King Wenceslas.  Until this week, I didn’t realize he was a real person.  Yet, not only is he real, he is of the utmost importance in the Czech Republic.

King Wenceslas was once the king of Bohemia (the Czech Republic) and later made into a saint, after his younger brother killed him in hopes of ascending to the throne in his place—a dream that was thwarted before he could ever feel the weight of the crown on his head.  St. Wenceslas is the most important saint to the Czech Republic.  What’s more, St. Wenceslas often recognized as the patron saint of beer!

At this point, I should probably enlighten you about another interesting piece of beer-saint information.  One of the lesser known Czech beers that is still (sometimes) available in the US is called Gambrinus.  Gambrinus, which is made in Plzen by Pilsner Urquell, is named after the original patron saint of beer.  However, due to St. Wenceslas’s importance in the area, he is more often cited as the patron saint of beer.  That’s all for now, I just thought that we’d share that interesting tidbit of Czech history/lore.


The crown jewels of the Czech Republic (A fake shown above) are kept under lock and key in Prague.  When I say under lock and key, I mean it.  It's in a safe, in an undisclosed location, and the safe is guarded by 7 locks, opened by 7 keys, held by the 7 most powerful offices in the country.  The crown jewels are only taken out once every 5 years to be paraded around the city.  St. Wenceslas is also buried in a tomb in the Prague Castle, but unfortunately it was under repair and we didn't get to see it.


Pretty cool tidbit that means we will always look at that Christmas carol in an entirely new light.

Karlovy Vary - The Great Adventure

Today let me regale you with a story—a tale of bravery, adventure, and true heroics. 

The setting: the picturesque mountain town of Karlovy Vary, the sun is out and it looks to be a perfect day.  Alex, Kati, and myself had stopped in a back-street cellar restaurant for an authentic Czech lunch, svíčová na smetaně (roast beef with sour cream sauce and cranberries), which was quite delicious.

Then we stepped outside and all hell broke loose.  The sky was falling—literally.  The sun was nowhere to be found and raindrops the size of my fingers were pounding against the cobblestoned street.  We had left our raincoats at the hotel, well on the other side of the town.  Our only hope was to wait out the storm.  Yet we dashed from the entrance to the restaurant to the great gates of a church and then rushed down the hill to the building housing the Vřídlo geyser, splashing through the street-turned river with every step.  After sampling the sulfurous healing waters Vřídlo had to offer, we were faced with a dilemma.  We wanted to continue exploring the city, but Alex was wearing his only pair of jeans for the week and Kati, being a girl, was scared she would melt in the rain.

It was at that moment that I thought to myself, “Jackson, this is one of those moments that define your character; one of those moments that separates the men from the boys.”  In an instant I sacrificed my dryness and dashed out into the rain, up the street—trying to make it to the hotel and retrieve raincoats for all of us.  After crowning the top of a large hill I realized that I should not have gone uphill, but by then it was too late, I was trapped and could either backtrack or go even further and hope for a way down.  I decided to do a little freestyle running and jumped off a few ledges into the backyards of hotels and down back alleys until I finally reached the Hotel Romania.  Walking through the patio restaurant and into the lobby, I got a number of sideways glances.  There was no possible way I belonged in that hotel when I was drenched head-to-toe in a ratty t-shirt and couldn’t even see where I was going through the precipitation on my glasses.

Yet I put on my sandals, grabbed our coats, and made my way triumphantly back down the street to meet Alex and Kati.  Not more than 20 steps away from the hotel, the rain stopped.

Karlovy Vary - Great Day

At the Becher Museum

We spent August 4 in Karlovy Vary--a town that doesn't get nearly as much attention in the United States as it should.  You would recognize its streets from scenes in Casino Royale, and its Grandhotel Pupp set the scene for Queen Latifah's masterpiece Last Holiday. (Yes, I'm a closet Queen Latifah fan)

For decades Karlovy Vary has been the destination of choice for Russian, Ukranian, and other soviet bloc countries.  We befriended a Karlovy Varian at the local pool/spa who makes furniture and said that 90% of the residents of the town work in the tourism industry, so it is very much a tourist hub.

King Charles IV founded Karlovy Vary by accident.  He was hunting when one of his dogs fell into a hole that happened to be one of Karlovy Vary's 15 natural springs.  It's these springs that bring the tourists to the town (In addition to fantastic skiing in the winter).  For centuries people have made the pilgrimage to Karlovy Vary in the hopes that their springs would heal their ailments.  The 15 springs all have different levels of iron, sulfer, etc., and each caters to healing certain types of ailments.  The springs vary from trickles from a faucet to a full-fledged geyser that spurts 2,000 liters per minute.

The town is quite picturesque, there are two main streets, one on each side of the river that splits the town in half.  Both banks are lined with idyllic hotels and colorful buildings.  Only Hotel Thermal, a hideous concrete monstrosity, tarnishes the otherwise perfect city.  We spent the day tasting spring water and relaxing at the local pool.  The pool, although lacking in a hot tub as we had hoped, actually had a very unique feature.  One of the pools, which I've dubbed a European Massage Pool, had several stations.  One employed a powerful waterfall on the wall to massage your upper back; the next had a strong central jet to get the lower back; the third was a smaller jet used for massaging your feet; and finally there were three "lounge chair" positions built into the pool that provided a full back and leg massage.  The jets would turn on for 10 minutes or so and then turn off for about 2 minutes, signaling that your turn at that position was over and you needed to move on.  If the pool was hot, it would have been perfect, but it was still incredibly relaxing.

After a relaxing day at the spa we grabbed some pizza and then walked around the town at night, admiring the lit streets--especially the Grandhotel Pupp.  The only [slight] disappointment about Pupp is that the ceiling in the reception area was not so beautiful that it made me cry, like Queen Latifah said it was in Last Holiday.  Regardless, Karlovy Vary is hands-down my favorite stop so far.

Karlstejn Castle and Cesky Kras

Karlstejn Castle From Below

Today we took a completely different approach to sightseeing then the typical tourist would in Prague.  We left the city for the day to see a castle and hike in some remote wilderness.

Karlstejn Castle is a magnificent sight.  Located just 40 minutes southeast of Prague by train, the castle was built by King Charles IV in the 13th century as a "getaway" from Prague.

Our day began bright and early (6:30) so that we had enough time to make it to the train station and catch our 7:45 train.  After making friends with the ticket-checking lady on the train (Despite the fact that she spoke no English), we disembarked at Karlstejn around 8:40.  There were no people anywhere to be seen except for 5 other people getting off the train with us.  All of the shops were closed...apparently business does not start in the Czech Republic until around 10:00 am!  The hike from the train station to the castle itself was 20 minutes of circling up the mountain upon which the castle sits.  The castle is incredibly impressive and a perfect example of a baroque castle.  The picture (above) just doesn't do it justice.  Unfortunately, the tour of the castle was short, expensive, and slightly disappointing, but the castle was still incredible.

After touring the castle began the real adventure...hiking in the Cesky Kras National Park.  I was quite nervous about this part because we had no map and only a rough idea of where we were going.  But the hike was incredible.  Conflicting reports set the length of the trail at 8 km or 12 km (Considering how long the hike took, it was likely 12).  The forest itself looked remarkably like the Southeastern United States, yet it had a distinctively different smell to it, which I couldn't quite put my finger on.  We had our first encounter with Eastern European insects.  I thought Kati had some mud on her leg so I tried to flick it off only to find out it was a REALLY big fly-like creature that had bitten her.  I've never seen something like it before, but it appears to have been harmless and nothing to worry about. (I did my internet-searching due diligence to make sure)  We wound through the forest, up and down hills, until finally arriving at Svaty Jan Pod Skalou, a monastery that translates to St. John Under the Rocks.

Svaty Jan Pod Skalou is one of the many little-known sights on our itinerary.  St. John, fed up with the materialistic nature of the world and seeking God, wandered through the Cesky Kras forest until he stumbled upon a cave, where he began to reside.  His followers located him and began to reside in the cave with him as well.  The cave, composed of 5 rooms became a monastery.  Now, a proper monastery was built next to the cave.  It's said that the spring water from the cave has healing powers.  I don't know about that, but the cold spring water really hits the spot after a long day of hiking.  Sadly, the monastery was closed for renovations so we grabbed a beer at a nearby restaurant before catching a bus to the town of Beroun and finally taking a train back to Prague.

It was an exhausting day, but well worth it.  Kati and I walked around Prague tonight while it was all lit up.  It's quite the sight to see.  Despite my slight qualms with the city, it really is amazing.  It still hasn't quite sunk in that we're in Europe yet, maybe soon.  Tomorrow morning we're waking up early again and the three of us are taking a bus to Karlovy Vary (Where Casino Royale and Last Holiday were filmed).  I don't know how our internet connection will be there, so we may be incommunicado for the next few days.  If I have time, I'll write up some of the crazy-cool facts we've been learning about the Czech Republic and post them when I get a chance.  Until next time...

Day 1 - Exploring Prague

Kati, Alex, and I in front of Charles Bridge

I've waited years to see Prague, and I have to say that it's not what I expected at all.  The baroque architecture is unique and interesting to say the least, but it's obvious that the city is trying to "Westernize" itself to a very large degree.  Such Westernization is understandable in light of the all-too-recent (1989) revolution to overturn the ruling communist regime.  Yet seeing such desperate attempts to cater to western tourists is disappointing because of the rich and unique character of the city and the country itself.

For example, Prasky hrad (Prague Castle) is quite amazing--despite the fact that it is much more a palace and much less a castle--yet they felt a need in the 1990s to institute an hourly "changing of the guard," clearly mimicking Buckingham palace.  The only difference is that the Czech guards are in blue and not nearly as good at standing still.  A somewhat smaller version of the Eiffel Tower sits atop one of the largest hills in the city, further exemplifying Prague's mimicry of Western Europe.

We managed to see just about the entire city over the course of a single day.  Everything from the Jewish Quarter and Mala Strana (Old Town) to the castle and the very impressive Strahov Monastery.  Probably the most bizarre sight in Prague is the Metronome.  Climb any tower in the city and you'll likely see the giant red arm of a metronome, 72 feet tall, moving back and forth in one of Prague's many parks.  It's such a strange sight that you figure there must be an interesting story behind it (and there is).  The position where the Metronome stands used to be home to a very large bronze monument to Stalin.  Naturally, when Russia's hold on the area was relinquished, nobody particularly wanted to be reminded of the time-period that destroyed so much of their lives and history.  Thus, they tore the monument down and erected a giant metronome.  Why a metronome?  That's where my knowledge ends and nobody has been able to give me an answer as to where the idea came from.

Another interesting, yet very creepy, sight found along the eclectic streets of Prague is the statue of the infant of Prague (Baby Jesus).  There's an entire church built around this monument to a little porcelain doll.  Each year the doll gets a new set of robes, a new crown, and a new little orb to hold.  I don't understand this obsession at all, but to each his own.

Just as a quick note before I sign off, if you haven't figured it out already, I'm uploading my pictures as we go and if you click on the set of pictures to the left, they'll take you to my full albums that you can look at.  I do have limited space though, so I'm going to be cycling through to make room for the newer pictures as we go.

Finally in Prague!

Well, it took us far longer than expected but we finally made it to Prague.  We were supposed to arrive in Prague at 12:20.  Unfortunately, we boarded the plane in Toronto only to discover that there was a (minor) electrical problem with the plane.  As a result, we found ourselves sitting on the tarmack in Toronto for over an hour before we finally got into the air.  We arrived in Munich over an hour late and missed our connection flight.  Luckily, we got onto the next flight to Prague that left at 3:25.  The unexpected four-hour layover in Munich was oh so exciting.

Even after finally arriving in Prague, our journey wasn't near over.  We had to spend another hour waiting in line just to get a bus ticket to the center of the city, another 40 minutes on the bus/metro, and another 40 minutes trying to find our hostel in a street that refuses to put adequate maps in their metro stations and finds it unnecessary to actually label streets in a way that makes it possible to find your way around.  At least our luggage made it despite the confusion and delay.  Besides the outrageously long trip, our stay thus far has been pretty great.

Coming up from the metro in the middle of the city is quite the experience.  We entered the metro on the outskirts of town where the influence of Communism can still be seen in the monolithic right-angled architecture.  However, coming up the escalator into Mala Strana (Old Town) is like entering another world.  The architecture is incredible, much more reminiscent of the Habsberg Empire than Stalinist-mandated building standards.

Luckily, despite our outrageous delay, Alex Loucks had already arrived at the hostel and was waiting for us as we walked in.  The hostel is great, very modern, and in the heart of the city.  The three of us grabbed a quick beer and then headed out to dinner.  Czech cuisine is quite under-appreciated.  I had an incredible pork schnitzel with potato dumplings, Kati had some fantastic goulash, and Alex had roast beef with a chive sauce (A Czech specialty).

Tomorrow starts our real tourism of the Czech Republic.  We'll be taking in all of the major sites Prague has to offer.  It'll be a busy day seeing as we lost a half-day of sightseeing, but hopefully we'll get everything in.  We're in Prague until Thursday morning when we leave for Karlovy Vary.