schladming!

Hey! I’m not going to write much because you probably wouldn’t believe me, seeing how it’s April Fool’s and all! Last week, Damien and I are on the 22 tram from Tesco to Karlák and I have him buzz my phone. I answer in Czech and say (rather loudly, even for me), “I’m in the mountains! I can’t talk! I’m in the mountains! Bad signal! I won’t be back in Prague until Monday afternoon... at the earliest... depending on traffic. I’m in the mountains!”

The looks! The looks (and smell and feel) of pure hate I got from my fellow tram passengers! Seriously, try it. Try baldface lying in public in front of a large group of strangers who aren’t supposed to be listening to you. It’s amazing. I have never felt so terrible. Really a perverse rush. I finally had to explain to the entire tram that it was a ‘social experiment’ – I felt that bad. I couldn’t let them think that anyone could be that evil. I’m sitting this Fool’s Day out – I’ve had my fun already.

In the end, I did go to the mountains, the Alps of all mountains, for the weekend:

with Chris, Greg, Jack, Johnny and Pražák:

and kinda overdid it the first day. Given all my recent power dancing, I thought skiing would be a breeze. It wasn’t; and my legs completely gave out after a good eight hours. I still had a great time despite the occasional tangle (tango?) with the T-bar – long story short: I got dragged rather than 'lifted':

I actually skied a lot better when I was 14, much too much chagrin. But skiing is more about looking good than feeling good and no one looked more stylish than me with my glasses fashionably squashed into my (Greg’s) goggles:

And the nightlife was almost as demanding as the slopes, but we made it back to Prague alive and mostly intact – just in time for spring. I hear the beer garden is open.