Mountains in Central Europe.

I had planned a trip to Livigno, Italy, but some stuff happened, and I spent 5 days in the Czech and Slovak mountains instead.

My friend, Repa, invited me for a touring ski in the Tatra mountains in Slovakia. The day before, we had a Christmas party for the student organization BEST. We left the party around 11PM, and at 4:30 AM we were ready to for our trip. We changed cars, met a Repa´s friend, Honza, and left.

After 4 hours of driving, we arrived at a parking lot for a Popradske pleso and left some clothes there, because it was a place to stay. The price was about 18 EUR per person in a shared room. We got some breakfast and went to the Rysy peak. The first half was easy, the middle part required ropes, and the last part was quite nice for downhill skiing. Unfortunately only Honza achieved Rysy, while Martin and I preferred to stay under because, to be honest, I was lazy. The way back took us under an hour and was a nice downhill adventure That evening we took a sauna and hot tube, and the price was nice: 7 EUR each. It was a great feeling: exhausted body, sauna, amazing view, and cold beer.

The second day we wanted to go to Vysoka, another nice peak. At the beginning, everyting was ok: clear sky, a little bit windy. But after 80 minutes, everything changed to very windy and cloudy. We realized that achieving the peak would be risky, so we climbed up the hill for a nice downhill and went back home.

This was my first touring ski trip in real mountains. Before that, I used to try touring ski only it ski resorts. I look forward to my next touring ski trip, but it will be in 4 months, because I am moving to New Zealand.

The second half of my skiing holiday took place in the Czech Republic. I took my cross-country skis and had 2 hours drive to Jeseniky. I left my car in Cervenehorske sedlo, put my skis on my feet, went to Petrovy kameny, and enjoyed an amazing sunset on Praděd. On the way back, I had a stopover at the mountain hut Svycarna (cool hut, with 150 years of history). I bought a night there and had a tasty dinner [first course, boruvkove knedliky (blueberry dumplings) and second course, goulash). They only had 2 guests, so the staff hung out with us, exchanging international experience from traveling, etc.

As I returned to my car the next morning, I realized my friends were supposed to be somewhere around, so I called them and discovered that they were only 6 km away from me. I went to a few places, and met up with my friends after about 3 hours. I had not seen Jarda for 2 years and Libor for a few weeks. It was a great meet up, and I did the same thing that I had done the day before with them. We stayed in a different mountain hut called Barborka. We were the only 3 guests there. This is not normal, because during the busy season all the accommodation capacities are sold out. We had a huge dinner and great chat and went to bed. The next morning we said goodbye to each other and continued back home, but my route was different.

To sum up this trip: even though I did not go to the Alps, the Czech and Slovak mountains were even better; I met friends and many interesting people.