My first and last ski adventure in Liberec, Czech Republic

Ok so let me preface this blog post with a disclaimer releasing me from any responsibility for the events about to be discussed.  I am an English speaking American in a country that apparently doesn't believe in reliable forecasts and whose websites straight up lie. (tangent… I looked up an internet café online and went on this wild goose chase across downtown Prague yesterday only to find the address dead end at a store doubling as an abandoned warehouse.  This has happened three times so far. Lesson learned- the Internet is still under communist control and is not to be trusted)

Anyway the story starts two days ago when Mallory and I get this bright idea to go skiing at a local mountain after an incredibly girly moment giggling over our shared obsession with the mountains and anything rugged and wild.  So we look up a local ski resort only an hour away with rentals, a lift ticket, and transportation under $50.  We then proceed to coerce three of our friends into joining the escapades and set out 7:00am Friday morning on the adventure of our lives (so far).

This is where it gets good…

We miss the train (of course. What good story starts with anything but a missed train) and so no problem we just take the next one.  Well the next one has hidden stops that more than doubles our transportation time to about three hours and we arrive in Liberec at noon.  But this aint Prague anymore.  It’s a much more friendly yet much more Czech countryside where all communication must be done in the most basic sign language attempts (because apparently even sign language is America specific).  Sooo about thirty minutes later we make it to the base of the mountain, which isn’t actually a mountain at all but rather an ant hill on steroids.  And from what we can see there is one lift going straight into a forest of green, lush trees full of dirt and very little snow.  But alas we are reassured that there is snow; we just have to run up this crazy little metal butt pusher to find it. And as they are telling us this they so kindly give us a discount on the ski lift ticket since apparently today is the absolute worst day of skiing conditions this mountain has probably ever seen and they are laughing at us for even stepping out of our house.  (see yesterday, the day before that, and the week before that the air was warm, the sun was out, and life was good.  But we woke up today and clouds had beaten joy and comfort at a wrestling match the night before and the earth was crying hailstorms over its loss. – ok a little over dramatic – but it truly was wet, cold, drizzly, and miserable) O and that wasn’t the only thing they were laughing at us about.  Apparently there is a direct student bus from Prague to the mountain that not only takes an hour, costs half the price, but also gives you a free complimentary cup of hot chocolate for the ride. Is that a joke??!

But the day wasn’t all bad.  I did realize that even after all these years I can still kill it on a pair of skis (Like if I was racing a bunch of 4-year-olds in snow school I could for sure make top ten) and Mallory and I had this great moment on the ski lift when it started pouring straight up rain and we looked at our mitten liners, hoodies, and water absorbing pants and just started to laugh so hard you would think we had truly gone mad this time.  It was one of those moments in life when you evaluate all you are, all you have become and you realize that in actuality your not that smart and you might as well enjoy life because at least it will make a great blog post when you get home. And last but not least, by far the best thing about this whole experience is that I met my husband.  I’m not even lying. If he had proposed I would have said yes.  If Julie Virjee is reading this let her know that she can be expecting a save the date.  I am not kidding the man working the rental shop was not only the most attractive Czech man I have sever seen but he was just straight up the most attractive man I have ever seen.  All I know about him is that his name is John and when he comes home to meet the fam im gonna take him to a dodgers game because he loves baseball, which I just conveniently found a new found passion for myself.   The only bummer about this situation is that it’s going to look really suspicious when I show up the mountain every other weekend claiming the snow is just so good I couldn’t stay away and he starts to realize that either I have no idea what I am talking about or that I am stalking him. But ill keep you all informed on any updates.

So anyway that was my day. I think the only thing I left out is that we missed the train on the way back as well, but this time it was literally just pulling away as ignorantly and casually strolled up to the station.  So we spent the next two hours sitting on the icy cold tile floor in our soaked and below freezing clothing, eating our miseries away in totally undeserved calories. 

In my book it was a completely successful adventure and totally worth the story I got out of it.