Hey guys,

I havent really been doing much these past few days because we had a week off of school this past week.  It is their spring break of sorts.  Although from Sunday to Wednesday i went on a ski trip up north with Filip and some friends from school.  It was quite an interesting experience to say the least, so you guys will be hearing about that. oh, and i have pictures!..

Anyhow, Sunday afternoon, we left our house here in Nymburk to travel north about an hour and a half to a hill called Rokynice (pronounced Rockynyitce).  So we get up there and there was really no snow, so we were all skeptical of the conditions.  Anyway we made our way to our little cottage where we were staying and when we got there, the first thing i noticed was that everything was built oddly.  I couldnt put my finger on it at first but eventually i came to the conclusion that the cottage was built for people quite a bit smaller than we were.  The ceilings were only about 5 and a half feet high and all the doorways were even smaller, about 5 feet.

In the bathroom the mirrors were set really low too.  You would look into them and all you would see is your chest.  I have no idea why everything was built so small but it was interesting.  Its quite inconvenient i might add considering you hit your head on everything there.

The cottage had 4 rooms in it which someone could rent out, like we did.  We of course had the crappiest one, but thats besides the point.

Anyway, we had 5 guys on the trip, and only four beds in this tiny room to sleep in.  To say the least, we all were really cozy when we went to sleep. 

It also had one small table where we all ate our meals and sat, a tiny little wood stove thing to keep us warm, and an area to hang wet clothes that also coincidently had the single stove where we could "cook" food.

attempted toast:

We didnt really do much cooking though.  For food, we had like 5 loaves of bread with several pounds of meat and cheese to last us the trip.  Oh and we had about 50 hotdogs. Take a look..

this is about half, that we ate the first night.. For drinks, we had a grip of Kofola.  Kofola is some sort of really cheap Coca Cola knockoff that doesnt taste very good, but we had a ton of it and it is cheap.

One thing i have to make a note of is the bathroom that we had there in the cottage.  This was by far the highlight of the place.  It had the smallest doorway of the place, so every morning when you needed to make your way down to brush your teeth, you were accompanied with a nice little bruise on your head to add to the many you've already gotten.  Once inside, you'd notice that you were stepping in some sort of disgusting dirty water.  Why is that you would ask yourself?  In the bathroom there was a shower head where you were somehow expected to "clean" yourself.  The thing is that underneath this cleaning device, there was no place for the water to go.  No drain, no canal, no nothing.  Only on the complete other side of the bathroom was there some clogged up nasty drain for the water to run down, therefore the water seeped all over the place until some of it managed to find its way to the drain.

Ok now on to the skiing. From our place its about half a kilometer walk in ski boots to the nearest lift up.  So once we get up there, guess what greets us?  This...

Ive skied in the east, ive skied in the west and ive skied in Europe and i must say that skiing in Europe has gotten sooooooo out of hand.  Waiting in line for an hour to ski 800 vertical feet of slush is retarded.  After about 45 minutes of waiting i got to about here.

And then after another 10 minutes, you know what i was greeted with on the lift? this

and i was stoked

So then, after dodging gapers like no other, i managed to get to the main lift to take you to the top.. BUT, wait another hour long line.  After an hour i got to here

Oh, i forgot to add, that this whole time it was on and off drizzling rain and on the top half of the mountain there was fog so thick that you could barely see 20 feet in front of you.. Let me tell you that it is a rush flying through fog in slushly crappy snow trying to dodge millions of gapers and at the same time get pounded with rain.  here are some more pictures just to show you the intense lack of snow and immense amount of people.

this is the bunny hill..

This is how our routine went for the two days that we skied.  Let me tell you, it really made me dislike skiing.  I wouldnt even call this skiing.  I know that now i appreciate what i have in colorado much more.  Its much closer to nature, no lift lines, no rain, no crowds, no lack of snow.  I have taken it for granted these past few years but this has opened my eyes to how good we have it.

So on the third day we had to pack all our junk up and head out to go back home.  That was quite the feat to clean up everything that we had, and get it back to living quality. Here is how it turned out for us.

Pretty good if you ask me.  From there it was a bus ride and two train rides back home.  The bus portion of the trip was something to remember though.  At first the bus rolled up and it wasnt the nicest bus i'd seen...

This picture makes it look like a Rolls though.  Anyway, when we get on the bus, within the first 200 meters of going, the bus driver slams on the breaks and in the middle of the street comes to a complete halt and procedes to tear this lady a new one about how she isnt allowed to eat on the bus.  It was quite hilarious, he totally unloaded on her asking her

"What the hell are you doing lady? Cant you read, i have a sign that says this isnt a restaurant on wheels, its a bus.  Put the food away or get the hell off my bus!"  I got a kick out of it, but the bus driver was a prick.  Then we walked through a few little towns carrying all of our stuff and eventually made our way home.

And here are some pictures of the kids who came with us..

Honza and Ryla

Filip

Kendy

Yours truly with a czech version of a hotdog. (burned hot dog in a hamburger bun with mustard. i was stoked...)

And thats it for this update.  I hope you liked it and i'll be updating again shortly on my whereabouts so expect something... enjoy yourselves ladies and gents. im out