Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday were spent locally in Truskavets. Although the town isn’t very big there was enough of it for me to explore.
Onto this fancy water then. “Naftusia” as it is known is special water that’s come up through the rocks I believe. However it does go via a laboratory to make sure it’s ok. There were only 2 types until a couple of years ago and now there is a third. They have names which are “Maria” “Sophia” and “Spring number 3” as the third doesn’t have a friendly name. Here’s the english portion of the sign inside with more information
In Truskavets there are 2 places you can drink the water. They’re about a 15 min walk away from each other and one is about twice the size of the other. Excuse my spelling, but they’re called “Briviats” sort of sounds like the Russian greeting for hello “Priviet” but with a B instead of a P.
These 2 places open 3 times a day for 2 hours at a time. 7-9am, 12-2pm and 5-7pm. People come during these times, fill up their fancy little cups or even normal bottles and then drink it. You have about 150ml, wait about 30 mins and then get another 150ml. Some people just have 1 type, most have 2, and some have all 3. They have distinct tastes and you can even choose to have them warm (Most common) or chilled.
As mentioned earlier, you’re not supposed to let the water touch your teeth as it is really bad for the enamel. So people mostly use straws or these fancy cups. The cup I bought is a traditional one, but it’s small. They do bigger ones and ones in different styles, for example there was one I saw which was a cat sat upright and you drank from its tail. Pretty cute.
There was also this poster on the wall with a photo of another cup and how to drink and fill it:
This is what it looks like inside. Once again I apologise for the photos but I didn’t want to use the flash and be a tourist. It is pretty clean inside and a proper meeting place for people as they hang out
