chimney cakes – The Traveling Overeducated Housewife

After my rather dramatic and explosive first night in Karlovy Vary, I was ready for some breakfast. So after I did my morning hygiene routine, I made my way down that pesky spiral staircase and got dressed. We left our bags in the sitting room, because hauling them up that spiral staircase would have been a real pain in the ass. I wonder how in the world they got the furniture in the bedroom. I’m sure it’s easily explained somehow…

We went back down to the restaurant… the scene of the pickle crime that had me barfing hours earlier. They laid out a very nice buffet, with plenty of choices. Bill and I fueled up, and then headed out to the city for a few hours. The only thing on our agenda was visiting the Home of Becherovka, a museum dedicated to Becherovka herbal liqueur, which is made in Karlovy Vary.

On our way into the city, we encountered the first of many horse drawn carriages. Interestingly enough, it was in the news yesterday that Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City has now brokered a deal to end carriage rides in New York. This measure, which has been discussed for years, has come about due to the death of a teen who was riding in a carriage in Central Park when the horse spooked and had an accident.

I have my own opinions about the carriages, but then, I am someone who literally grew up with horses. It’s important for them to have jobs. Most people can’t afford to keep horses as pets. On the other hand, there have been instances of abuse in the carriage industry. The horses we saw in Karlovy Vary appeared to be healthy and well cared for… but I am certainly no expert on this issue as it is in Eastern Europe. Bill and I did not take any carriage rides, but I did enjoy seeing and smelling the horses. I really miss having them in my life, but keeping them is expensive and requires a lot of hard work! They are wonderful company, though.

We found a paid parking lot on the immediate outskirts of the city center. I noticed some cops standing by. One of them had a cute little dog on a leash. I’ve never seen a police dog like this one…

*I’m not sure what job this pooch does…*

As we headed into the city, I instantly recognized the Teplá River, the warm river that flows through the center of Karlovy Vary. Teplá means warm in Czech, and the river is fed by the many hot springs in the city. I took some photos of the colorful buildings we encountered as we walked into the familiar environs. After almost 18 years, it was still pretty recognizable, even though we didn’t spend that much time there in 2009.

*A Mix Markt! This is a chain that specializes in products from the former Soviet Union. We have them in Germany, too.*

As we headed closer to the main square, I caught sight of a vendor who was making chimney cakes. I took a few photos for Bill’s daughter, who lives in Utah and loves them. Someday, Bill and I will have to try one. There were other things on sale, too… only I didn’t see any art.

*Except for the mushrooms, this grill smelled and looked great!*

Soon, we encountered the first of the mineral water springs, where one can taste the thermal waters. I remembered the gazebos from our first visit, which is also incidentally, where we found my favorite painting in my collection, back in 2009. I took a video of our first tastes of the water, after we bought spa cups. The spa cups are easy to find. They are sold in kiosks around the many springs.

Yes, that is a toilet. I have a very irreverent sense of humor.

Naturally, I took some photos, too… It was very helpful that the locals provided instructions on how to best “enjoy” the water. If you listen to my video, you will hear me say that it reminded of Gloucester in 1980. I grew up in Gloucester, Virginia, and in those days, the local water was pretty terrible tasting. It was full of sulfur. They have since put in a water system there, so the water is now better. My parents, fortunately, had a well, so our water wasn’t as gross in the early days of our time living there.

Karlovy Vary really is a very pretty city…

We had an appointment to visit the Becherovka Museum at 1:00, so we had to make our way to the other side of town. On the way there, I took a few more pictures, including one of a woman’s art. I wish we’d had the chance to go back and take a closer look at what she had. It turned out hers was the only art collection with paintings that we saw during our entire trip! Everybody had mass produced prints, instead of original artwork.

*I remember when beer spas were a novelty. Now it seems like they’re all over the place!*

It was raining on the way to the museum. We got there a little bit early, so we took the opportunity to use the bathroom. Then, we took our guided tour… Bill got us “exclusive tickets”, which meant we each got personalized bottles of Becherovka to take home with us.

The guide who did our tour spoke excellent English, and we enjoyed learning the history of this very special Czech drink. The museum is very interesting and well put together. I thought the exhibits were fun and engaging. And it was fun to try the different flavors of products made by Becherovka. We came home with several different bottles after our visit.

After we visited the museum, Bill and I had lunch at a local place… It wasn’t all that “special”, but it did give us a chance to people watch and enjoy some heavy local cuisine. Bill got to have some garlic soup, too, which is a local specialty in Czechia. I need to learn how to make it, because I think it would be good for when I’m sick. Sadly, I think I’m getting sick now. 😢

Once we finished our leisurely late lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel. As we walked out of the city, we passed a political rally, and stopped by the Mix Markt for some wine and a bottle of Ukrainian vodka from a producer we like.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed a body of water. I noticed a lot of people were going down to walk near it. There was also a picturesque looking hotel… but it wasn’t quite as cute as the one we stayed in…

*Our room was in the tower… the top three levels of windows.*

Since we had a late lunch, we decided to skip dinner. We enjoyed some Georgian wine in the room, along with a few snacks from the hotel’s vending machine. You have to use a credit card to use the machine. That is so weird to me, as someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s!

So ends our first full day on vacation. In the next part, I’ll write about our quick change of plans, and a visit to a Czech Globus!

On Thursday morning after breakfast, I decided that instead of walking all over the place, I’d go visit that cool looking Retro Museum. So, after doing some writing on my main blog, I headed back out toward St. Stephen’s Basilica, where I had noticed signs for the museum. Instead of turning right on the street named Oktober 6, I turned left. Seconds later, I spotted the museum. It was impossible to miss it, as the facade was in bright red. I might have thought of it as a tourist trap, but actually, I thought it was a fun museum, creatively put together for those of us who remember life before the Iron Curtain fell.

Below are a couple of photos from Thursday morning, before I walked into the museum. I didn’t get a chance to try the chimney cake, but they were being offered all over Budapest. I think I even saw a class offered for making them.

After taking a moment to listen to the many noisy children playing at a nearby playground, I walked into the museum. A man in a red vest immediately said hello and directed me to the ticket counter, where I paid 5500 forints (about $17 or 14 euros) to take a trip back in time, before most people could so easily visit Hungary.

The Retro Museum covers three floors and offers an interactive experience that allows patrons to get a sense of what Budapest was like back in the day. It took me a minute to realize that they had designed exhibits by putting them in what appeared to be mock ups of block style housing. Each “building” had little doors on them that could be opened, revealing an artifact from the communist days of yore. There were quite a few of these “building” exhibits… maybe more than were really necessary. But they did have some interesting stuff in them– schoolbooks, records, toys, books, medals, and even displays of packaged foods from that era. I also noticed they had a display about Hungary’s now defunct national airline, Malev. Bill and I flew on Malev the first time we visited Budapest, but it went out of business in February 2012.

I particularly enjoyed the exhibit about what school was like back in the day. If I had been born in Hungary, that was how MY schooling would have been. I’d also be a Russian speaker, because Russian was required learning for schoolkids until the late 1980s.

There were also some interactive quizzes visitors could take to test their knowledge. Unfortunately, most of them were only offered in Hungarian. I tried a couple of them, anyway, just to see how much I could understand. Not surprisingly, I did poorly. Below are photos from the “building exhibits” in museum…

Some of the stuff they had on display were things I remembered from my American upbringing. For instance, they had a Commodore 64 computer in there, complete with cassette player for computer games. That was a real blast from the past!

Once I got past the faux Soviet era buildings, I encountered a “TV studio”, inviting patrons to pretend they are newscasters. One lady had brought her two children and one of the kids was doing a good job pretending. I heard two older ladies singing in Russian (or maybe Hungarian) along with the music that was playing. Obviously, these were songs most kids learned back in those days, as the school curriculum was uniform across the country.

Next, there was a mock up of a Hungarian kitchen from back in the days before the Iron Curtain fell. I got a kick out of that. It reminded me of the kitchens I encountered in Armenia, right down to the old fashioned refrigerator. Actually, the kitchen was nicer than what I had in Armenia, where I lived in one of those “block style” buildings.

The kitchen led to a living room, where the two singing older ladies had made themselves comfortable, sitting on one of the old couches, watching old TV… They even had an exhibit in which you could stand in front of a green screen and try on Hungarian fashions. I wasn’t wanting to do that, because I don’t like looking at myself in the mirror.

From the living room, there was an elevator, leading down to the first floor, where the space program was displayed using cool interactive exhibits. They also had an exhibit showing other technology. There was one exhibit that I couldn’t quite figure out. The lady with the two kids kind of pushed me out, anyway, before I could determine how the exhibit worked.

And then finally, there was a room highlighting transportation. There was a car from the Iron Curtain era, as well as a “police car” that people were allowed to sit in and try to “drive”. I didn’t attempt to “drive” the police car, because the seat looked like it was made more for children! But I did watch one lady try to interact with that exhibit and heard her shriek with surprise at how difficult it was to “drive” the cop car. They also had old phone booths with recordings of jokes, songs, and newscasts, among other things.

All in all, I really enjoyed visiting the Retro Museum. I probably could have spent more time in there. I will say, though, that there was a lot of stuff in there, and it was kind of overwhelming. And some of the exhibits were a bit limited to Hungarians, and mostly understandable to people from Hungary. I noticed a lot of local people, especially of a certain age, getting the exhibits more than the younger folks. And, of course, some of it was only in Hungarian, which surprised me.

The museum has a bistro, which offers food that might be considered “retro”. I didn’t partake of anything from the bistro. It looked like most of what they were offering were variations of hot dogs and sausages, along with something called “Hungarian Fatty Bread” (yikes). They also had many kinds of non-alcoholic drinks, coffees, beers, and wines. They even offered cocktails! I do think it’s funny that “condiments” in Hungary are considered “dips”. Americans don’t consider ketchup, mustard, and mayo “dips”, and typically, we don’t charge extra for them. But, of course, I ain’t in America anymore, right?

After I visited the Retro Museum, I walked back toward Elizabeth Square. It was then that I noticed something unusual on a tree…

Yes… that is Michael Jackson. Someone in Budapest LOVES him. They made a shrine, and it has not been “molested” by anyone. I was surprised by that, so I took photos. I made the mistake of sharing one on YouTube, and got chastised by someone for “glorifying” a “child molester”. 🙄

I don’t know the truth behind Michael Jackson’s dalliances with children. I have heard the stories, and no matter what, I think that what he was doing was inappropriate. I also think that some of the blame for that lies with the parents of the children, who allowed their sons to spend nights with Michael. It would not have been a choice I would have made, myself, if I had ever had children of my own.

What I do know is that he was a huge star, and has now been dead for 16 years. And, like it or not, he was a big part of my childhood, just like Bill Cosby was. I don’t think sharing a photo of a shrine that I didn’t build is “glorifying” Michael Jackson. I just found it interesting.

I sat for awhile and was visited by pigeons who were almost completely tame. A couple of them got close enough that I could have easily touched their feathers.

Later, when Bill came back after work, we decided to go looking for dinner. We stopped first at the Ritzmajer Downtown. Hungarian Beer Bar. I was curious about the place. Although they offered food, we decided not to eat there after we had a round.

Instead, we turned down a street and wound up at a random bistro, where there was yet another excellent Hungarian gypsy music band playing. I bought another CD…

I don’t even remember the name of the restaurant (it was Rezkakas Bistro). The food was good, but I was mostly impressed by the live music. It started with an older man playing violin with a guy playing hammer dulcimer. Then, an hour later, more musicians showed up, and they moved to the other side of the restaurant. My view wasn’t as good then, but I was really impressed by the second violinist who played. He was much younger, and had real passion. When we bought the CD, the older violinist said it was his son. I was very impressed with him! I wonder if he makes love the way he plays his instrument. If you watch toward the end of the YouTube video below, you can see what I mean. His obvious passion for his music is written all over his young face.

They played everything from traditional Hungarian songs to Coldplay. At one point, they played “God Bless America”, which was very well-received, especially since it was 9/11 on the day of our visit. There were quite a few Americans in the restaurant, and they all cheered.

A sampling of the music we heard on Thursday night. I also thought the bartender was cute.

Again, the food was okay… service was a bit lackadaisical. But I really enjoyed the music. I especially enjoyed the lead violinist’s son, who really was entertaining. Unfortunately I got so emotional that I forgot to take a photo of the restaurant’s sign. But, after some sleuthing, I managed to figure out that we ate dinner at Rezkakas Bistro. According to their Web site, they are currently closed until October 1, 2025.