Trip log #7: Europe - Piestany, Slovakia

It's been a little too while since I have updated this blog- so I shall continue with my trip log today! :)

The trip to Slovakia was purely for business. We visited to check out one of the largest plant-science facility in Slovakia to discuss issues with our plasmids and potential partnership in their business. After all the business meetings were over, we decided to check out Piestany, Slovakia--a famous spa-city.

At the entrance to Piestany, I spotted a very unique town mascot:

The mascot is breaking his crutches in half, which is a depiction of a famous belief that the Piestany spa water heals any injuries. Piestany is known for its rehabilitation clinic and health mud massages that cost up to $150 per hour or more, and each spa houses their own physicians to check up on the progress of their patients. In addition to the elderly who come for relaxation, celebrities and sports players apparently visit the spa quite often.

After passing this mascot, I walked down a short bridge into a small spa-land (Kupelny ostrov). Though a part of Piestany, the area where the spa houses are located is somewhat isolated from the main part of the town.

As you can see, the spa house neighbors a river that passes through Slovakia.

The river was quite wide, and housed strange-looking water fowls.

Look at those swans in the river on the left. That bird on the right looks like a seagull, but not really...

As we crossed the bridge, the spa house became more and more visible... and wow!

The house was ginormous. (Yes, it says Thermia Palace in English)
Famous for its healing peloid, the harvest/maturation pond was located right on the back of the spa house.

Another interesting thing about this spa town was that the "healthy spa water" was readily available for drinking at the water fountains installed in the walls of these spa centers.

The spa water was pretty warm (at 60C, or 140F), and the spa centers ensured that the water was fresh from the hot springs. The taste? Hm.. tasted somewhat like a boiled egg.

Afterwards, we headed towards the main streets of Piestany.

These street shops had Slovakia traditional dolls and crystal vases and dishes:

After a long trip, I noticed that the power was out at the faculty housing facility due to rain. Unfortunately, I only had a card key access to the building, so I was pretty much locked out. After about an hour, a maintenance guy showed up, who did not speak any English. Luckly, I had picked up a few Czech phrases to explain the situation to let me into the building. Of course, it was about 5% Czech and 95% body language.

Due to the power outage, I had a simpler meal for the night.

The beer, Budejovicky Budvar (sold as CzechVar in US), is the original Budweiser that Anheuser-Busch company apparently got the idea from. Light and crisp lager taste, perfect with a greasy meal like those slices of salami.

That concludes my Trip log #7. Thanks for reading!

(The photo was taken per request from my parents who wanted to see my face while I was @ Czech)

Trip log #6: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Continuing from the visit to the St. Michael's, I continued down towards the center plaza of Olomouc, where various fountains and restaurants are gathered. The town square had the following:

Jupiter's Fountain (Jupiterova Kasna), or more popularly known as Zeus.

Marion Column (Mariansky Sloup). This column was built for the protection of the town. It seemed to be very common for every city in Czech to have Marion Columns with golden Virgin Mary at the top. As people pray to the Virgin Mary, she is thought to provide unending support and protection to the town or the city.

There were other fountains around the town square as well, such as these:

From the left:
1) Neptune's Fountain (Neptunova Kasna). It was very interesting to see a mix of Christianity and the Latin Mythology around the town. The explanation was that because Olomouc was the capital of Moravia (which was one of the Catholic pilgrim sites later), and that Caesar also settled in and claimed as one of his cities. A quick history/geography fact: Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while Olomouc is the capital of Moravia.
2) Arion's Fountain (Arionova Kasna). This fountain was completed in 2002. A very modern fountain, lights and decorations were once installed. I haven't had a chance to really take a look and take a picture of it, but I was lucky to find one on Olomouc's tourism website :)

Very beautiful, huh :)

Before we continue to the more center of the town square, there were a few more fountains that I would like to show:

 

From the left: 1) Caesar's Fountain (Caesarova Kasna) and 2) Hercules' Fountain (Herkulova Kasna). The interesting thing about these fountains, and the other ones around the town square, is that only the weapons of these heroes were made in copper.

The town square also had two palace buildings, now a restaurant-house type of buildings.

 

These palace buildings were a few of the oldest buildings around Olomouc. From the left: 1) Petra's Palace (Petrasuv Palac) and 2) Edelmann's Palace (Edelmannuv Palac). These Baroque-style palaces were only open by appointment, and I was unfortunate not to be able to visit them while I was in Olomouc.

Now, towards the center of the town square.

 

This is the Town Hall (Radnice) of Olomouc. The Town Hall has a tourist information center and other town-business offices. The Town Hall also houses one of the two Astronomical clocks in Czech. One is housed on the wall of Prague Town Hall.

This Astronomical Clock (Orloj) shows time of the day, time, movement of the sun and the moon, horoscopes, and other information. Sadly, the clock had to be rebuilt after the war, and still carries a communism-style mural due to the rebuilding. Unlike the Prague Astronomical Clock, the dolls do not move.

This is the Holy Trinity Column (Sloup Nejsvetejsi Trojice), the fanciest, tallest column in Olomouc. Each Holy Ghost, Angels, Jesus, and Halos are all coated with bright gold. This column, as I learned, was built in the hopes to protect Olomouc from the plague. The column also has the Disciples sculpted around. Though it seems to have a small chamber in the middle of the column, when I looked into it I couldn't see anything.

At a restaurant called Cafe Caesar right across from the Trinity Column, I ordered my first restaurant meal. I was particularly excited because this was the first meal I have ever ordered and paid for in Czech while speaking Czech. Of course, I tried to act natural and like a native in front of them. I knew I somewhat had succeeded because they talked in Czech to me instead of English. I was able to read the Czech menu and exchange a few words in Czech- but I gotta be honest: I went to the pasta restaurant because you can't really go wrong with an Italian-style pasta that is also widely available in the US. :)

 

And the greatest thing was that this awesome meal only cost me about $6 in US dollars. In the McDonald's right across from the Cafe, a Big Mac meal was equivalent to about $9 US dollars. Mostly tourists dined at the ridiculously expensive McDonald's. I could hear English everywhere haha.

See? McDonald's is truly everywhere.

This concludes my Trip Log #6. The next log will be about a town called Piestany in Slovak Republic. See you next time!

Trip log #5: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Hi guys! Thanks for coming to read my trip logs. Instead of having the logs imported straight to Facebook notes, I have decided to only import the shortened version to the Facebook so you can come visit my blog and read the posts while listening to the music. Also, blog allows for more visual editing for the ease of reading. SO, if you haven't done so, click "View Original Post" in Facebook, or visit my blog from my profile.

Remember to click on the pictures to view a larger, clearer picture! :)

Anyways, I'll pick up from where I left off the last time: visiting Church of Virgin Mary of Snows.

I walked down a street towards the center of the town from the church. Because of the tradition of having church bell towers and crosses to be the tallest buildings in town, the churches are usually placed on a hilltop or are really tall; therefore, they can be spotted from almost anywhere in the town.

Then, I visited the Chapel of St. John Sarkander (Kaple Sv. Jana Sarkandra).

According to Wikipedia (of course the most trusted source on the Internet), Saint John Sarkander (Czech and Polish: Jan Sarkander) (1576–1620) was a Polish and Moravian priest. He was consecrated in 1609, and worked in Holešov from 1616. He was accused of betrayal and tortured in Olomouc prison, partially due to his refusal to divulge what was said in confession. Nowadays St. Jan Sarkander chapel stands on its place. The original torturing rack and Sarkander's gravestone are preserved here. Sarkander was canonized by Pope John Paul II during his visit in Olomouc in 1995.

I then roamed around the town to check out the following buildings:

1) Jesuit Seminary (Jezuitsky Konvikt)

2) Chapel of the Corpus Christi (Kaple Boziho Tela)

3) Jesuit Seminary
4) Vila Primavesi
Then I visited St. Michael's Church (Kostel Sv. Michala), which sadly was not open to public. The building was huge, and the interior is supposedly a Baroque style. I couldn't imagine how beautiful it would be inside.

Though I couldn't see the inside, I was treated with a nice view of a statue with a street musician. I gave him a coin equivalent of a US dollar.

As soon as I gave the musician a coin, a very sketchy-looking guy came up to the musician and seemingly asked who he just got a coin from. Of course, being the only Asian on the street, and the musician pointing at me, I quickly realized that I needed to get out of the street corner. The sketchy guy came up to me and asked in a very poor acting (he was trying to make a crying face but wasn't working quite well) that he needs a coin to call his sick brother. Because I had seen his angry and stern face at the musician the minute before he started walking toward me like a coyote, I knew from the beginning that he was lying. I told him that I do not have any coin or any money, and that I was just passing by to go home.

Later when I asked my host professor about it, he told me that such cases are not as common as they are in Prague, but still present in Olomouc, targeting the obvious foreigners. The sketchy guy was apparently waiting for me to take out my wallet so he can snatch it from my hands. Something to be careful about if you're planning on going on a trip. :)

I think that's a long enough read for the Log #5. Thanks for reading!

Trip log #4: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

**Edit: Blogspot allows me to upload a bigger picture. Make sure to click on the photo to view a bigger, clearer picture! :)

On Sunday, I decided to go to my first mass here in Olomouc. There are total of 6 churches in Olomouc, so I went to a different church every week during my stay. One thing great about being a Catholic is that the mass parts are exactly the same all over the world--although I don't speak Czech, I felt right at home.

I went to a mass at Farni Kostel Sv. Morice (St. Maurice Church). The church's bell tower missing--which I learned that it was destroyed during a war. This church has the largest pipe organ in the Central Europe.

Wow that was a huge picture dump.. o_o;

After mass, I walked around the town and took pictures of the places indicated on the tour map I obtained from Olomouc Information Center.

Arcibiskupsky palac (Archibishop's Palace)

Terezianska Zbrojnice (Thresian Armory) - Now a Palacky University building

Kasna Tritonu (Triton Fountain) - Look at those scary fishes.

Vlastivedne Muzeum - Klara (National History Museum - Clare)

No photography was allowed inside. It was quite fun though, especially when a curator follows you around everywhere and explains things to you in mixed Czech and English haha.

Muzeum Moderniho Umeni (Museum of Contemporary Art)

No photography inside here either. Quite interesting to see all the art pieces though. I also got to walk up the stairs of the museum's observation tower to get a picture of Olomouc, but the tower wasn't tall enough to produce a pretty picture :/.

Kostel Panny Marie Snezne (Church of Virgin Mary of Snows)

This church still had a Baroque style decoration. Amazing interiors.

Very pretty. Compared to the modest interiors of Gothic churches, this church was a feast to my eyes.

The round ceilings filled with fresco is supposed to depict the sky and the heavens.

The pipe organ was situated at the back of the church.

...and this was the altar of the church.

Log #4 will stop here for a moment. I don't want my logs to be too long to read haha. Log #5 will be the continuation of my Sunday trip around Olomouc.

Bonus picture:

Pasta with salami and tomato sauce and Zlaty Bazant (Golden Pheasant), a premium Slovak beer :)