It was early morning. I got up.
Dressed. Made some breakfast. Made sure I also awakened my roommate, because of
reasons :D. And off I went. In the darkness till the train station.
Bought a ticket and the journey could start. After 2,3 h I went to a place that
was actually colder than Trnava 2,3 h before. It was only about 9 degrees by Celsius.
The beginning of
the trip looked like a walk for grandmas. Big trail, no cliffs, no nothing
interesting. And then finally things started to appear. Some stairs up, some
iron chains at the side of cliffs to move on. Already started to get a bit more
dangerous. Because all it would take is a small slip of your feet and you would
fall down some 3-4 m against rocks with water. Buts it’s not like that
dangerous either, no one has been so clumsy to actually fall there. Even 12
year old kids where going before us up the mountain.
The nice trail
stated to take a form of not so nice. It became more rocky, and slippery with
fallen leaves and muds all over the place. So we went up the mountain for a
couple of hours like that. We were in the shadowy part of the mountain so the
temperature was low all the time.
And then it
happened. We reached a nice looking field, with no trees around and some cliffs
at one side that to me looked like we did it. We are half way of our journey.
And the view from there was amazing. One huge mountain on one side and one even
bigger on the other side.
But the
celebration didn’t last long for me. As a beginner in hiking I made the first
mistake already before getting in the train. I didn’t take any spare t-shirts.
So what happened is that I got sweaty on the way up, and then it started to get
windy, a great combination to catch some cold. It wouldn’t be so bad if we had
now started our journey way back. But ohh noooo. It turned out this was only
10% or our trip. WHAAATT. We spent some 2 or 3 hours walking up the hill and it
was only some 10% of the whole journey.
I had to make a
plan of how to not get sick. So I took the shirt off, wore a sweater directly
on my skin and tied my black t-shirt at the back of my backpack to dry it. And
as pirates sailing under a black flag we went on.
And it started to
get only harder. The trail began to be more steeper and steeper, and at some
point I had to already use my hands as well to get up. But I didn’t expect the further
journey. We actually went till the very, very top of a mountain. It was like a
dream. I felt like I had conquered Everest. Yes it was only 1600m, there are
twice as big mountains not far as well, but it was my first. And I went all the
way up on my own. Must admit it was scary at some point on the top. Because you
look on the right and it is a 300m drop at least, you look on the other side
and it is 500m drop at least. I was on the very top of the mountain. I could
see things on both sides of it. I carefully started to make every step up
there, because all it takes is one unlucky step and you might as well be
dead.
Now don’t get me
wrong, I wasn’t going on any really dangerous mountains, there were as well
those 12 year old kids on the top already finishing eating sandwiches. But
never the less.
The view from top?
Outstanding. It was cloudy so we couldnt see far away, but we could see how the
clouds crashed against the mountains, went up in the air like a wave blasting again
rocks and then falling again back down beneath our feet. The best place to
chill.
The way back? Even
deam steeper than way up. For some 45 min my hands became an extra set of feet.
All the time I had to use also hands to get down in order not to slip. And I finally
found out what tiredness means. Legs started to shake by every step of the constant
tension. When we finally got down the mountain on some plain grounds another challenge
appeared. Muds. But a lot more than before. And now we had to go down. It was
more like sliding down. Every 5th person we met had some mud stains on the ass
of falling.
I thought I will
be the next one as I didn’t have the right shoes, and right clothes. But I
survived without a single fall. It was a near miss a lot of times, but I didn’t
fall.
When we were
finally down, sitting at the restaurant eating delicious local foods I
realized......I want to do all over again.
