Initially, I was a little hesitant about this trip. Traveling on a bus for 15 hours with a bunch of randos to the middle of nowhere Czech Republic doesn't exactly spell out fun for me. However, my friend Margaret convinced me to go with her. So seeing that I love the outdoors, this trip seemed right up alley. It was also cheap considering all the transportation, housing, and meals were included leaving it to be only $500 for the whole thing. Good price for you!
Well, so on and so forth let me tell you about my harrowing journey.
Day 1 (Sunday at 6 PM)
Margaret and I travel to Frue Plads to get on the overnight bus to the Czech Republic. I was really not looking forward to this...I despise buses. When I am not getting car sick in them I am sitting in an absolute bored stupor. Ughhhhhhh I can never sleep on buses. So we climbed on board and after 10 minutes of debating where the best place to set up camp was, I finally settled in. All 50 of us then took off to catch a ferry to Germany where we then continued our journey. After 4 hours of iPod shuffle music and the theme from 'Edward Scissorhands' (movie we were watching) playing in the background I started getting stir crazy. F this S I am going to pop an Advil PM in and see if it works.
It did. Thirteen hours later I woke up to the sun rising over the Czech mountains.....the fall colors were so pretty and it was so much warmer than in Denmark. Hallelujah! From the little Czech town we drove into, we then ascended a mountain to see Hruba Skala.
YUP. This is where we stayed! A castle. Not just any castle....a castle with a view. Real life? You betcha. The staff gave us an excellent breakfast buffet and then we started the day with some archery courses. I know youre saying really?..archery? But hey! It is cooler than you think. If we got the most points then we won a bottle of wine...sooo I got pretty competitive. We're talking Robin Hood competitive too. Fast as lightening I was, but I didn't win. I lost to a Jesus look-a-like. Figures.
After archery we did some "team building exercises" aka a bunch of games where you hold hands and and wear blindfolds. Literally, this was just one big moment of absolute confusion, but it was hilarious. The satisfaction from knowing you can make your circle into a star while blindfolded is un-paralleled. We then settled in the wine bar where we ate incredibly heavy Czech food. The poor vegetarians. Unfortunately, vegetarian translates to what in the world is wrong with you? in Czech.
Literally What Happens
So the poor things kept on getting fried potatoes and even desserts on occasion instead of the hearty meals we were getting. The staff eventually figured it out and gave them salads but I'm pretty sure the vegetarians were starving for a good 2 days.
Day 2
We woke up and did some crazy shizz. We zip-lined over a 500 ft deep gorge and then repelled off the same cliff. You know, I was really surprised I was able to get myself to do some of these things. I really do not like heights but I just took a leap of faith off a side of mountain and just hoped for the best. Though the one moment I regretted my sudden burst of courage was the rope bridge. Why..why...WHY did I get on this thing. This bridge was literally made of a rope and it just straddled you over a gorge. Fantastic. I was fine until I got 15 ft from the entrance and realized....this bridge is not stable. True you are attached to a safety harness, but making your way across a bridge comprised of two ropes is not fun. I was literally having a heart attack, my arms were shaking, the bridge was shaking...sheer terror. So for 15 minutes I tried balancing my way across that horrifying thing. Never again.
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| whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy |
After a lunch and a few breathing exercises, we then went on a 4 mile hike throughout the mountains. It was gorgeous! There were the beautiful gorges and these really high mountains. The colors were vibrant and we got to do a lot of exploring.
However, my little happy adventure took a bad turn when the night fell. Towards the end of the hike we decided to split and go back to the hotel rather than continuing on to see another castle. The guide just told us to follow the road back to the castle, well unfortunately the road splits into two different directions. So six other girls and I were lost in the middle of a Czech Republic forest in the dark. I did not sign up to be a member of the movie "Hostel." Luckily, we were all able to keep our cool. We finally stopped a car to ask for directions but for a good 30 minutes we were pretty lost.
Later that night we had this insane scavenger hunt that went all over the castle and its grounds. There were literally no rules. We had to find these messages in the dark with only candles and then piece them together to find the answer to find the prize. After finding all 20 messages which lead us through the gorges and into old houses we finally pieced it together. It told us to look under the dark knight to unlock the prize. First of all, we don't know who the heck the dark knight is and second, where we could find him before everyone else got to the prize?! So as I was walking around I am came upon a dementor-like person. Thinking this was the dark knight I tried to open its cloak but the person reached out and grabbed me which scared the living daylights out of me and then disappeared. Then I saw him unlock the door to the clock tower. I couldnt believe it, I found it! However, the rest of the groups saw me and rushed in before me. So annoyed, but I held my own! We all sprinted up this ancient staircase to the top of the clock tower to find this room filled with candles ( fire hazard?) That's when things got really competitive, like I was honestly getting ready to throw punches. The two groups up there were pushing and shoving for the first prize of 3 wine bottles, however, I saw the second prize and pulled a Michael Jordan and slam dunked the second prize from the window. BOO YA! So ended up leaving with two boxes of chocolate :)
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| Had to scale this baby. |
The next day we woke up to go caving! SO FREAKING COOL. Basically they would just shove us into a hole in the ground and tell us to find our way out without any flashlights. Not kidding, these people really have a thing with "trust." They are like "have trust in your group and your instincts, you will find your way out." Umm okay, so basically we have to army crawl through a system of tunnels in the dark and then somehow get through crack at the end that I can barely fit my arm through. Repeat the same procedure 14 times. So by the end we were all covered in dirt, but it was so cool to just trust your instincts and crawl through the dark and scale these huge walls just by using your senses. So 'Avatar.'
Later on in the day, we had lunch at a local Czech restaurant and then we went rock climbing and rappelling! It was great way to end our outdoor adventures in the Czech!
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| Fancy footwork. |
Prague.
Amazing. Beautiful. Favorite city in Europe. I want you to go and experience the majestic beauty of Prague yourself, so I won't give away the wonderful hidden treasure that it is.
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| "Hot Wine" in Prague! |
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