My Cross-Country Experience in the Czech Republic
Learning to cross-country ski was not on the list of skills I expected to learn whilst completing my Turing Scheme Placement with CapacityUK in the Czech Republic.
Just a short coach ride from Prague, we travelled to the Jizera Mountains situated close to the Polish border. Having never skied before, all four of us were very excited (and nervous!) On our arrival we met our guide and picked up our skiing equipment from the ski rental at the bottom of the mountain – we were ready to go.
Like Bambi, we all struggled at first, taking small steps and falling over a lot! Only 2 minutes in Joel fell, landing with his full body weight on his wrist. We all went silent; we knew it was bad. He had broken his wrist only 5 minutes in! And just like that, Joel’s trip to the mountains was over before he knew it; back to Prague for Joel and off to A&E. “A shaky start” was an understatement!
The rest of us attempted to make our way up the beautiful mountains. We were slow to start but soon gained confidence, enjoying the views of the tall snow-coated trees and glistening trails we adventured on, laughing the whole way.
Once we reached our turning point, we stopped for lunch. Turns out cross-country skiing is so exhausting so we needed to fuel up for the journey back down. It was much steeper on the way back than we realised, making the return journey really fun. By the time we were on the flat again, we were like pros, speeding along to make it back to the pub on the mountain in time for a well-deserved Czech beer and yummy Goulash.
After a sleepy 3-hour coach journey home, we arrived back in Prague where we saw Joel with a shiny new cast on. He was keen to hear about our adventures to which he replied “we’ll have to go again”. Five weeks later, Joel's cast is off, and we are all planning our next skiing adventure… perhaps we might dabble in some downhill skiing next time!
Next time though, I will definitely wear more layers and maybe hire some ski trousers from the rental - you get very cold legs when you're constantly falling in the snow!
Our host company Artykel helped us organise our trip, with a group of other newbies to skiing. The experience was only £40 and included travel, equipment rental and our instructor - I would defiantly recommend to those going on placement in Prague!