It's been a long but eventful past two days. I didn't get the chance to update yesterday, but since it was the last full day at Hruba Skala, I going to try to write down in detail because I would say it was my favorite part of the whole adventure trip.
We knew it was going to be an early morning, as we had to be in the bus up a little further north than we were staying to get to the site. That day, we were actually going to climb on real rocks! I was in the group that went climbing first. The bus dropped us off towards the center of the quaint little town near Hula Skala, the dry rocks, which coincidentally weren't that dry because it had been misting a bit over night. I thought we would be dropped off directly at the site, but to my dismay, we had a trek, but at this point you'd think we would be used to it, since the trip is called Czech Trek.
From a distance, and if you just sang the song, from a distance, so did I, we could see a series of boulders, I thought to myself, hey! That's cool, unknowingly that really far rock was exactly where we were heading not to mention what we were climbing. We got to the base and everybody freaked out when we saw what we thought we would have to scale. But, we didn't really have to, there was a ladder that lead towards the top of the rock where we were going to climb. And from that height we could also repel. That was my first time ever climbing outdoors, it was fantastic, and the view was again breathtaking. Then we got to rappelling. I loved rappelling from the day before and was excited to rappel again. But holy moly, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done. To get to the platform, if you can even call it that, first you had to harness yourself to the safety rope. Then follow the guide to a very narrow path on the rocks, only to find yourself at the edge of at least a 40m drop. By far, it was scarier than yesterday's rappel. I then got harnessed to the rappelling line and had to walk over it so that it was on the correct side of me. Even that I did with much caution and apprehension. Then, it was time to start. I could barely look over the edge, let alone think of going down it. The guide told me to put my right foot up on the side of the rook that is just over the edge. I said, there?! He said, yeah right there. Did I mention how funny all of the instructors are, they are always fooling around, definitely made a difference in the atmosphere. Anyway, I managed to get my foot onto the rock, and then he told me to extend my legs all the way. Omg, omg, omg. What?! Why do I have to extend my legs. I extended my legs plenty, but apparently it wasn't enough. Slowly, but surely, I got there. Then the guide, Thomas was his name, told me to move my right foot again. I did. And then my left, and before I even knew it, I was over the edge and rappelling, too afraid to look down, so I was completely focused on my feet and where to put them. About a third of the way down, the rocks dip in so that there is no way your feet can touch the rocks, at that point you are just dangling in the air hanging by a rope. That was the best part, no worries of crashing into anything, or falling. And the view! It was awesome.
After three hours of that, we went for lunch and met up with the other half of the group. It was a traditional Czech meal, soup of course was served, and then a stuffed chicken with cauliflower mashed potatoes and lettuce. The best part, guaranteed hot chocolate. I'm pretty sure that was everyone's favorite part of the meal.
Now, it was our turn to do the cave expedition. I expected to be crawling through caves the entire time, and people made it seem like a series of caves that we're connected to one another. But it wasn't really the case. Again, they put it in a form of a scavenger hunt. Kind of. The premise was that we were lost in the woods, and we would have to find the clues to get out. It lead us through the woods into different caves, up and down the hills, over small cliffs, and into muddy areas. We had to crawl at some spots and climb others. It was awesome and I think my favorite part of the trip.
Out guide for this part was really cool too. While we were waiting for the other grou pt o finish, because my group had a 10 minute head start, he talked about what he does for work, and apparently he's a carpenter, and he is going to build a straw house over the summer with heat pumps, so environmentally aware. This particular conversation topic got him going about the direction that the world is going in and the awful repercussions of joining the EU.
I think the best part of this day is that it was a culmination of everything we have done the past few days.
Dinner was amazing, and I completely knocked out afterwards. I manage to shower very quickly before going to dinner, it was a feat in and of itself.
That brings me to today. We finally got to Prague! And about an hour before scheduled. We arrived in the city around 930.
Sarah and I began our journey by grabbing our luggage to try to find our way to the hostel. Let me tell you, cobblestones may be beautiful, but not only do they mess up your luggage, they beat your feet too. Although not too bad. We must have walked at least 2 km to the hostel, and asked 3 people directions. The saving grace is that our hostel is literally right next to the Charles Bridge, a popular tourist destination. So we dropped our belongings off and began our explorations.
On the way, we walked through old town square, and got a free coupon for hot chocolate from a chocolate factory worker who apparently likes Justin Beiber. I guess he has the fever too.
We walked in the opposite direction of the Charles Bridge and doubled back only to meet up with some other students from the trek. It was a fantastic surprise. More people to hang out with. We walk back in the direction opposite of the bridge because we knew we would be taking a walking tour later in the afternoon. I bought a caramel macchiato from Starbucks, this time it was only 6 dollars for a medium size, grande? Anyway, things are so much cheaper here in Prague. We then went on an adventure to find the Petrin tower, a lookout tower that looks exactly like the Eiffel tower, just not as tall, but sits at the same height because it is on a hill. There view was amazing and the journey up was amusing. We didn't have too much time, so we skipped the paths and literally trekked up the hill. I guess we went done with out adventures from the previous day.
Around the tower is a large park, filled with groves of trees that you could just frolic through, and frolic we did. There were also children's park areas that at least I couldn't resist playing with.
Then we went on the walking tour, saw a lot of amazing building, the John Lennon wall, a love wall, but got drenched in rain because I was I'll prepared for this weather.
We finally checked into the hostel and took a brief break. Then went to dinner with Emily, a friend I met during the trek, but Sarah already knew from her program. We had an extravagant dinner in which we did not expect to be so expensive, but it was delicious and worth it.
Finally, what might have been the highlight of the day, was the ice bar. What is an ice bar you might ask? Literally a bar made of ice. We had twenty minutes to enjoy ourselves in there and did we. The cups were made of ice, the bar was made of ice, and there was a throne made of ice as well. It was fun.
I still have to update the last two days, but for now this is it.
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