Wargo's World: A Carefully Crafted Collection of Stuff and Other Things: It's a Dangerous Business, Frodo- Going out your Door...

Well, I've finally settled into a routine here and it is quite possibly the best routine I've had in my entire life. Every week I spend 2-3 days actually teaching which leaves me with a 4-5 day weekend. Not bad, eh? Eventually I'll have to up my schedule as this 2-3 day scheme essentially only covers rent- but since I can subsist on about $10USD/day here in Prague (including beer), the immediate need for funds is pretty low...

...Leaving so much time for activities! Duck Confit?

In the meantime, other than leisurely cooking projects, I have focused on traveling. This is the first time in my life that I've done solo traveling and it is a strange beast. This however is the subject of a future post. Right now I want to talk about hiking.

When I was younger my friends and I used to engage in an activity we dubbed "questing." This basically entailed walking through woods or prairies. Sometimes we had an objective, like trying to find a haunted cemetery in southern Illinois. Other times the idea was just to wander and enjoy being in nature. It just recently dawned on me that hiking is essentially the adult term for questing and also, that it might be my new favorite pastime.

There is something magical about being alone in the woods. It's really balancing and helps put everything in life into perspective. I had forgotten about this living as I have for the past 3 years smack in the middle of a major city. Fortunately, serendipity led me right back to the trail (I should be a poet).

I was in Bratislava applying for my visa (why I had to leave the country to apply for a visa is the subject of another post which I will never write because we'll all be stupider for having discussed it), and was searching for something to do on my last day in the city. It had rained all morning and I was in a foul mood which, when traveling alone can be very dangerous. I recalled talking with an avid hiker in Prague about the incredible hiking network in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and so decided on a whim to give it a shot.

First off, the hiking network in these countries IS incredible. There are hundreds of trails all marked several times a kilometer with a color-coded trail marker. They are really easy to follow and take you through some incredible and isolated countryside. Secondly, I've never had my mood turned around so quickly. I was singing, dancing, and heel-clicking like a fool.

Rough estimation of what I probably looked like. The hills were INDEED alive my friends...

I'm slowly starting to exchange the city-to-city hostel-type travel that I have always done in Europe for a more in-depth, under-the-skin approach. Next up on the travel agenda...

Back to Bratislava to pick up my visa and my first of hopefully many couch surfing experiences.
Off to work on a farm in a little town in Czech called Srbsko.
Traveling by plane, train, boat and possibly even hitch-hiking to the middle-of-nowhere Sweden to eat at a 3-star restaurant.
Kayaking down the Vltava into Cesky Krumlov.
Croatia.

I'll be writing several more posts in the next few days as a lot has happened since my last post. If anyone is actually still reading this... stay tuned!