Sunny Slopes and Slivovitz: Magic in the Mountains

Do rubriky Okénka napsal Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky (Pondělí, 14. listopad 2011)

I don’t get out of Brno much. In fact, I rarely set foot out of my office, even on weekends. Most days, my biggest form of exercise is going down three flights to Krmitko and back again. So by the time Reading Week arrived on the FSS calendar I was ready for an adventure. A good friend and colleague of mine suggested I come out to visit her in the mountains. Wouldn’t it be nice, she said, to take a two-day “trip” in the Beskydy? Now, when Americans say they are taking a “trip,” this usually means in the comfort of the family car or on a smooth jetliner. It doesn’t mean walking out of your house with nothing more than a pair of sticks and a backpack full of Tatranky.

Walking anywhere in this region meant hiking, and hiking inevitably meant hills. Hills scare me. Or more accurately, they scare my heart and lungs, which are housed in the classic middle-aged, sit-in-the-office-all-day academic’s body. But my friend had promised me a number of “escape” plans, with strategically located bus stops and alternate ways home. Although I did not tell her, I seriously expected to have to use one of them.

Shockingly, my legs managed to carry me up more than 13 kilometers, including one shortcut that involved walking directly up a ski slope. (I’m not sure I would have agreed to that one without a half-liter of Radegast 12º in me!) The majestic, colorful and leafy views at the top were well worth it, as was the comfort and hospitality of Chata Vsacký Cáb, perched at nearly 900 meters.

The next day we trudged another 15 kilometers along the ridge and then down the hill. Somehow, I had survived the self-imposed assault on my body and I was pretty pleased with my (now limping) self.

So the following evening I attempted another form of bodily assault, this time via a steady stream of homemade Slivovitz. I expected to pay for it the next day with the typical hangover and a drunk’s regrets. But the Beskydy had worked their magic once again – I never reached that “uh-oh” point of drunkenness and I was perfectly fine in the morning.

Now, as a sociologist, I know that correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. It could be merely a coincidence that I survived both “trips” so well. But for now I remain convinced that Moravian mountains cause magic – at least for this believer.