Being the accounts of a certain teenage girl

Every city has something that it’s famous for; in Plzeň it’s the beer, in Prague it’s the churches and cathedrals. For the city that we visited today, Karlovy Vary, it’s the water. Near the northern border of the Czech Republic, nestled in a wooded valley lies the scenic town of Karlovy Vary.  This town sits on a natural hot spring that is said to have special health effects to those who drink it. Back in the 17th century when the royal families would take their summer tours of Europe Karlovy Vary was on the list. They would stop here to recuperate from the trials of traveling and to soak in the minerals of the “magic water”; exactly why we decided to take the trip.

We arrived in Karlovy Vary after battling through semi-standtill traffic and made our way to where the springs meet the surface. The water comes up from the ground in drinking fountains that are located in various spots of the town though they are mostly cluttered together. Each of the fountains are different and depending on which one you drink from determine the temperature of the water and the kind of minerals you take in.

The proper etiquette for drinking from one of these fountains is to buy one of the mugs that were available for sale in one of the many knick knack stores lining the town. It’s looked down upon to bring your own glass (They’ve got to make money some how ) These mugs ranged from sizes a little larger than thimbles to mugs the that could double as beer cups. The one thing that they all had in common was this straw-like attachment so that you could sip the water that you collected from the fountains. Grandpa bought this really cute pink one for me to use that happened to fit perfectly into the pocket of my jacket (it was a sign!) I was genuinely excited to sample some of this legendary water and was a bit impatient when I had to preform the customary mug-washing to get rid of the dust and any other unwanted small things. As I took a sip from my souvenir mug my tongue was greeted with an onslaught of tastes, and not many of them good. The water is, of course, made of all-natural minerals and is heated by volcanic activity which also adds a sulfuric taste so when you drink it the water kind of tastes like blood; salty, warm, and tasting of metal. The first sip that I took almost resulted in a spitting up. I was amazed how some of the older people present drank it like it was a coke or a soda, not some heated cocktail laced with funky-tasting minerals. Barely anybody I saw drank it with a grimace on their face, me not being one of them. Keeping in mind the mythical properties, I choked down two mugs of the stuff I wondered what magical health changes I’d witness in my body.