Ep.9: My First and Last Weekend Hike

In this week's episode, I am talking about my weekend hike in Low Tatras that I barely survived.

Also, you can find the vocabulary and comprehension quiz under the transcription!

(Česky: Najdete seznam slovíček a krátký kvíz porozumění pod přepisem)

Link for the episode:

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková and I am an English tutor and I created this podcast for students of English at intermediate or upper intermediate level who want to get better in their oral comprehension. You can always find the transcription of the episode vocabulary list and comprehension quiz in the nodes of the podcast. So if you want to get the most from this episode concerning your language journey, definitely check it out.

Today I will be talking about the one time I went hiking for the whole weekend in Low Tatras. Low Tatras is a mountain range located in Slovakia. And as you can already guess if you listened to any other episode of my podcast, of course, something had to go wrong.

I think it was the year 2021 when I and my boyfriend decided to go hiking for the whole weekend. I was pretty excited because I love hiking and I love mountains so it was the perfect combination. But as the weekend was coming, the weather forecast didn't look the best. But we said to ourselves "We are not made from sugar, we can handle it"... And so we went. It took us a few hours to get there by train and bus but our adventure began. I was already quite irritated because I was very tired since I didn't sleep well the night before. So I was not the happiest when we got off the bus and the first thing waiting for us was a ski slope that we had to walk up. A ski slope is the place you go to ski in the winter so naturally it is very steep and in general quite difficult to walk up.

It was slowly starting to rain so of course I was not the happiest about it. On the first day, we walked for only three to four hours and therefore it was quite manageable. But when we came to the mountain cabin there was also our accommodation, my boyfriend wanted to hike up and nearby mountain. You know, to see the sunset. I really didn't want to go because I was very tired but I wanted to get the most out of this trip so we went. I think I don't have to say that we saw no sunset as it was extremely cloudy and on the way back down I was praying the whole time as it was a very wet path (path it's a different way for away or a small Road) and it was getting darker.

Finally, we got back to the accommodation and when to sleep. Unfortunately, we were accommodated in a room with more people who were snoring the whole night. And if some of you know me, you will know that snoring is my biggest pet peeve (but beef is something that makes you really angry or something that noise you a lot). So I couldn't sleep the whole night.

On Saturday we had a plan to walk for around 8 hours, which was quite intimidating for me (intimidating means that it made me scared) and the weather was not getting better. When I say that those were the longest eight hours of my life, I am being serious. The wind was so strong, that I had to use all of my energy just to walk straight. I am a small person so the wind was literally swaying me to the sides and the rain was whipping my face all the time. Approximately after four hours, my boyfriend could see the desperation on my face. He asked me: "Will you be able to continue? Can you walk further?"

I appreciated his concerns - this means that I was glad that he sees that it is difficult for me- but I looked around me and asked him: "What else is there for me to do but to continue?" - this means there is nothing else I can do except continuing walking because we were in the middle of nowhere. Middle of nowhere is a place that is far away from other people's houses or cities...there is nothing around. And so we continued. I think I don't have to say that our pace (or our speed) wasn't very fast. Because of the weather, every step felt difficult.

Finally, we arrived at the next cabin. I was absolutely exhausted. And the thought of doing the same the next day was making me want to cry. We had around 8 hours of hiking in front of us and we had to go quickly because we had to get a bus. I knew that it was impossible for me to do this. I found my ceiling. A ceiling is at the top of every room- but here is a metaphor. I asked my boyfriend if we could walk down the mountain range the next day instead of the planned hike and just go home. I knew that it was not as difficult for him as it was for me and that here really wanted to finish it but I also knew that there is no way I was doing this again.

Of course, he agreed, and after another sleepless night (sleepless night is a night where you don't sleep- I couldn't fall asleep because we were sleeping in a room with 20 other people and at least three of them were snoring. I don't think I had ever been so tired before this trip. But on Sunday we headed out and went down the mountain range. What I didn't know was that it was also about six hours of hiking anyway, because it was so far away from any city or town. But at least it was down the hill.

After six hours, we got two a small, very small town where we waited for a train for a few hours. I was so happy to go back home and sleep.

Because of the weather, there were almost no people on the whole hiking route, which is very uncommon because Low Tatras is very popular among hikers. So that was also one of the signs that it was not the best time to hike there.

Since then, I have been a little scared to go on a hike that would take more than one day. It is two years ago and it still lives in my head. I told to my boyfriend that if he ever wants to go on a long mountain hike, he should go with his friends. Now, I would be able to go again for a weekend hike but probably not longer. Even though I love mountains, I don't think I was made for this.

Have you ever gone on any weekend hikes or longer? Do you have any funny stories connected to that?

I would be very happy to hear about those so feel free to send me a message on my Instagram where I am @dajinka73!

And here we are at the end of the episode once again. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don't forget that you can find the transcription, vocabulary list, and comprehension quiz in the notes. Please please give this podcast a five stars rating on the platform that you are listening to this, since it's the only way for me to get feedback and making these episodes takes me a lot of time.

That is all and I will see you next time, bye-bye.

VOCABULARY LIST:

mountain range

• a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground
  
• pohoří

weather forecast

• prediction about the weather
  
• předpověď počasí

can handle it

• be able to manage it
  
• umíme to zvládnout

irritated

• annoyed
  
• podrážděný

ski slope

• a hill you can ski on
  
• sjezdovka

steep

• rising or falling sharply
  
• prudký

manageable

• possible to do
• zvladatelný

pray

• to speak to God
  
• modlit se

snoring

• sound some people make when they sleep
  
• chrápání

pet peeve

• something that annoys you
  
• něco, co tě velmi otravuje

straight

• moving in one direction only
  
• rovně

intimidating

• something is intimidating when it makes you scared
  
• zastrašující

sway

• move from one side to another
  
• houpat se 

whip

• beat, especially as a punishment or to urge them on
  
• šlehat

concerns

• worries
  
• obavy

middle of nowhere

• far away from civilization
  
• uprostřed ničeho

ceiling

• a top of every room
  
• strop

sleeples

• without sleep
  
• bez spánku

route

• path, road
  
• cesta

among

• situated more or less centrally in relation to (several other things)
  
• mezi (3 a více věcmi/ lidmi)