Source : Traveller
I remember stepping off of the lift that took us up the mountain on the first day and seeing this sign. It is the little things like this that excite me when I'm in a different country.
We followed the sign and did a little hiking the first afternoon to get us prepared for what was coming the next day. Finding this waterfall was amazing and we were able to stop, explore, and fill up our water bottles with fresh glacial water!
After we spent some time exploring the smaller mountain we went back to where we were staying in a small town. Here is a picture I took of some of the scenery around the area.
I have no idea how these arrangements were made, but we ended up staying in the house that the Slovakian Ice Luge team stays at during the months that they are in training. Here is a picture of the view out of the window from the room that I was staying in.
They opened up the Luge practice track and taught us how to Luge! So Fun!
Here I am getting ready to go down the track.
Crazy story. Obviously we were in Eastern Europe, for those of you not obsessed with looking at maps (weird thing I do...constantly have to know where I am geographically) here you go for reference.
Source : Worn Through
Picking up where I left off, we were in far Eastern Europe (Slovakia on the border of Poland). Here communism is something of the recent past. I could go on for hours discussing Communism because the professor that took us to Eastern Europe was actually born and raised in Slovakia during Communism and his stories were horrific. When your job has no possibility of being taken away from you, customer service is non-existent. I never believed how bad this could be until I saw it first hand. After our first evening of hiking the mountain and trying out the ice luge, we all went to walk around the small town that we were in and find a place for dinner. We walked in to a pizza shop that was EMPTY. I'm talking at least 25 tables that sat 4 people, and maybe one of them had a family sitting and eating. When we walked in our professor asked if we could put the tables together so that the 12 of us could eat together. The guy's answer..."no".
We take for granted in the United States that we EXPECT our needs to be accommodated. Customer Service at it's best would suggest that "the customer is always right". This is one of the first things I learned at my very first high school job working at Ukrops. It is a staple in our society. Not the case in some place where business and meeting other people's needs is not a necessity. No opportunities for promotion or demotion. Crazy to see the theory of Communism and the mind-set in practice. These people were in no way going to inconvenience themselves to help us out. We left (my professor more than pissed off) and when we talked about it at the next restaurant that we actually ate at, my professor told us about the emotions that came back to him when he was treated that way. It was an awesome opportunity to hear someone's first hand experience of living under Communism then getting to experience life in America, which he talked about so passionately.
The next morning we got up bright and early to head off to hike the big mountain.
About to start the hike!
At the end of the hike.
I can't even describe the scale of how huge these mountains are.
Enjoying a beverage after completing the hike. This trip was like beer boot-camp in a week! Awesome memories made hiking in Eastern Europe. Experiences that I will never forget.
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