Snezka and the Giant Mountains

I climbed the tallest peak in the Czech Republic!!!! Yay for me!!!! I went to Pec Pod Sněžkou with my host family for Saturday and Sunday of this week. Pec is the ski resort town about 20 km away from Trutnov where my host dad works. We went up on Friday night for dinner and stayed until Sunday lunch. They have a small apartment in a building separate from the hotel, for when they go there to ski and snowboard in winter.
On Saturday morning we had breakfast in the hotel with another family before heading toward the mountain trails. We were going to walk to the trailhead with the other normal people, but when a horse drawn wagon came into sight Miša grew really excited, so we rode to the trailhead in style. The hike took about 3 hours to the summit, and was calf-splitting steep. I looked like the tourist as ever, taking pictures all along the way, but it was worth it. The early morning clouds were mostly gone by about 11:30, and the sunshine lit up the other mountains and the valleys. At the summit, there were TONS of people. Sněžka sits on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, are there are skii lifts and trails coming up from both sides. Everyone who had come up in our group was tired, so we took pictures and headed down the ski lift towards Pec. The bottom station for the lift was still about 1 km from town, but we used the distance to find a small restaurant for lunch. I had a typical Czech meal: soup, chicken snitzel, and apple strudle.
Back at the apartments I had time to take a quick shower and catch my breath before heading off to dinner. Yes, these people like their food. Our meal lasted the entire night, and was spread out to help digestion. We had a self-grill kind of meal, where hot stone slabs about the size of a computer keyboard were brought out and placed on top of little stoves. The food was raw bite-sized beef, chicken, salmon, and veggies. Everyone was left to their own devices to cook the food as they wanted it. Sauces finished off the meal. The going was slow, but the end result was fantastic.
The entertainment of the night was a folk dancing and singing group. There were a total of 17 people, including a bass fiddle, 3 violins, 2 clarinets, an accordian, and dancers. They danced and sang for over and hour, and it was full of sly Czech humor. I think that it would be thought of as inappropriate to hit girls on the bottom with willow brooms in the U.S., but here it is an old tradition. One dance included a horse puppet that refused to get off the ground until it was served some beer from a table of on-lookers.