Skiing in the East

Back in January there was some significant snowfall and cold weather, so I went with a few friends on a little weekend trip to Vejprty, Czech Republic to do some skiing. Summary: the skiing part was a disaster, but the weather on the first day was utter perfection.

We went to the Klinovec ski slopes, which apparently don't really have a lot of bunny slopes, and the ones they do have require some interaction with steep intermediate slopes. Needless to say, this situation didn't go well for me, having been off the ski slopes for 10 years and not really being a great skier back then anyways.

There was another nearby ski area called Bozi Dar that appeared to be a little flatter and more cross-country-oriented. I think that would be more my cup of tea in any follow-up trips.

Vejprty is full of abandoned and for-sale buildings that inspire the imagination and make an American Millennial fantasize about buying / fixing one up. Our hostel owner did just that (minus the fixing part..); a young woman who bought out her family's old, run-down hotel and runs it as a backpacker hostel, and manages it on the side along with her wolf tracking volunteer work. Reminiscent of The Shining? Absolutely. Cheap and warm? Sure. (Very important, as this was probably the coldest temperatures I've ever experienced in my life. Something like 5 or 8 degrees Fahrenheit in the late evenings.)

I sat out the second day of skiing after my first disastrous day, which worked out fine with the weather, which was rather white-out conditions on day two.

Praha, Gateway to Eastern Europe

I must say, Prague is a pretty cool city. All the buildings look like something out of a fairy tale, and the population is international and cosmopolitan. A very compelling advertisement for Eastern Europe.

My bro came to visit, and we kicked off the week with a few days in the Czech Republic, which was better than I anticipated. It's hard to explain the feeling, but for some reason I felt more at ease there than I do some days in Germany...

We checked out all the major tourist and sight-seeing attractions: the St. Charles Bridge (which got progressively more and more choked with pedestrians as the day wore on), the Mala Strana neighborhood, Petrin Hill, and Prague Castle.

 

On the eastern side of the river, we visited the Old Town, the under-construction Astronomical Clock in the Rathaus, and the old Jewish Quarters.

We ate some Trdlo confections, sampled beers, and I was very excited to have company that wanted to eat at vegan restaurants, so we tried out Vegan's Prague and Estrella, which were both awesome veggie places. (We didn't go to the above-pictured Hard Rock Cafe, I just thought it was a hilarious juxtaposition of Old Town architecture and new-world kitsch.)

And for extra touristy fun, we checked out a black light theater production (Afrikania) and zorbing on the Vltava. Nice weather, nice city, nice price, 5 stars.