My Last Weekend of Summer

View from the watchtower

For our last weekend of summer break we went on a family trip to the mountains. We went to Krkonoše (Giant mountains) for a weekend of hiking and hanging out with the extended family. I got to meet two of my host dad's three brothers, one of their wives and their three kids, and Robert's mother. We arrived a bit late on Friday night after a long drive in the rain with Robert, Zora, and their niece, Štěpána. We had a lovely dinner with the family followed by a little bit of unpacking, and ending the evening with hours in the bar downstairs. I got to know my host parents' niece and nephews better than the rest of the family since they are a bit closer to my age. While we were at the bar I got to try a drink called borčak, which is basically freshly fermented grape juice (no, it's not quite wine yet).

The next morning we got up at 8:30 which felt early since we went to bed around 1am. we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant and then got ready for our day of hiking in the rain. We all got bundled up for the foggy rain, and I was a bit bummed there was so much fog that we couldn't see any of the beautiful views. As we set off on our little adventure all of us were soaking wet immediately, but everyone still seemed happy. We walked down the mountain for awhile, and then switched over to another trail that cut across the mountain. We walked down paths that were made out of logs that were raised up a little bit so that we didn't have to walk through the peat moss and muck. We stopped at a little hut that looked like a tree house to take a few pictures and have a little chocolate snack. Then we continued on our way to a pub. At the pub we all hung up our jackets so that we weren't so wet going back, and we started to warm up with drinks and lunch. After an hour or two of hanging out, out of the rain, we decided to pack up as start walking to a viewpoint watchtower. As we walked back towards the hotel and viewpoint, I think we could all agree that it was raining harder than it had been before lunch. Once we got the the watch tower we all took a moment to remember Robert's father who passed away earlier this year. This was a special place for the family since the watchtower would have been torn down if it weren't for Robert's dad. Sadly the watchtower wasn't open to go to the top that day due to the bad weather and low visibility, so we went to another pub that was nearby. At this pub I got to try a non-alcoholic mulled wine, and bramboráky (potato pancake... kinda). Robert's older nephew, Kryštof also taught me how to stack drink coaster into towers. After more snacks and drinks at the pub we headed back to the hotel for dinner. In total that day we hiked 8,8km (5.6 miles), but I think we spent more time in pubs that out in the rain. After dinner we were all exhausted, but we decided to go to the bar one last time before we left the next day. At the bar we played a game about Czech music, and even the family wasn't able to guess most of the songs so we changed the rules a bit and I attempted to read the questions every once in awhile. As we played I continued to work on my newly learned skill of building coaster towers. I began to build a bigger tower and eventually ran out of coasters so I started stealing all of the coasters from all of the tables in the bar. In the end I had most of the coasters and I built a triangular tower that was taller than me when I was sitting. Then I slowly counted all of the coasters (in Czech of course) all the way until I got to 56! We began to play janga with my tower until finally when I took one out and it fell down, we called it a night and went to bed.

The next morning we got up around the same time for breakfast before we packed up the car. We could tell that the weather had cleared up quite a bit so we went back to the watchtower so that we could go to the top this time. We climbed up all 106 steps of the tight spiral staircase to the top where everyone had to stop and take a minute to catch their breath and get rid of the dizziness. The view was amazing! You could see a lot of the surrounding mountains and villages down below. My host dad pointed out some of the mountains that mark the Polish boarder that was a lot closer than I had imagined. We took some family pictures and many pictures of the views before heading back down the stairs. Then we all hiked down the mountain to meet Robert, who drove all of our stuff down the hill. It was about an hour of hiking down a couple of hills that are ski runs in the winter and some other paths that cut back and forth across the mountain. Hiking down hill seemed like it would be easy, but honestly it hurts your legs just as much. This weekend I hiked more that I would in a month in the US, but it was quite fun! Once we were down the mountain it was time to say our goodbyes and start our drive home. As soon as we go in the car and started driving I fell asleep. My host parents woke me up as we drove into the city of Kutná Hora. This city produced one third of all of the silver in Europe in the 13th century. We stopped here for lunch and to go see the giant beautiful church. We had lunch at a cute little Italian restaurant, and then we made our way to and around the church for pictures. After we walked around the whole church we stopped and got some ice cream before the rest of our drive. I got good ol' strawberry ice cream, and I think it was some of the best ice cream I have had. Everything is better in Europe though, right? After amazing ice cream, I slept the rest of the way home. We had a small dinner and then talked about how the next day was going to work since it was our first day of school!