This is the view from one of the ski runs on Svaty Petr in the ski town of Spindleruv Myln in north Czech Republic. We stayed at a little family run hotel called Horni Pramen... it was at the top of the hill from the Svaty Peter chairlifts- an inexpensive taxi ride up the hill was preferred over the intense walk, uphill in deep snow! Our reservation got messed up and they didn't schedule our room for two nights so we were upgraded for free to the 3 room, top floor apartment. It had really great views of the opposite mountain peaks and ski runs. The family was really nice and we all three enjoyed our stay here.
The Krokonose mountain range, translates as the Giant Mountains- and that is what they are. As you ski down the mountain you are surrounded by giant mountain peaks, dotted with trees, covered with snow- it is really quite majestic.
In Oregon, I skied every season at Mt. Hood Meadows, where the green circles signify easy terrain, blue squares signify more challenging terrain and black diamonds implicate you as an expert skier! In Czech the red circles are easy, the blue circles are medium and the black circles are for experts! Hey, at least the colors match up with the difficulty of the hill! 
Here I am... on my favorite kind of ski day- full of sunshine, cold with no wind, and well-groomed, wide runs for short, fast turns! All you skiers know what I am talking about when I say it was a day to wear a full jacket with only a wooly and a thermal underneath, a neck gator and no liner in my helmet. Lovely day! I rented skis for the first time in many years as I have always had my own skis in Oregon. It was weird skiing on shorter skis and in basic, rental boots, but after the first run I was able to really let my ski skills show as I swiftly cruised down the mountain. (Mom, I tried 163 length and think they are perfect for me! 160 might be too short...) It felt so good. I love skiing. I enjoy the way it feels to keep control of your skis, to jump and get a little air, to tuck your body down low, lift your poles behind you and feel the wind resistance as you breeze down the last bit of the run before the chairlift-- skiing still makes me as giddy as it did when I was 10 years old.
These are my friends I traveled with. Anne is pictured above and Carrie is below- both snowboarders. We are all three traveling to Austria together in February for ski week. It was good to test out traveling together this weekend- I think we are all very agreeable and get along well- which makes the upcoming journey to Austria (in addition to skiing in the alps) something to look forward to! Anne and I are going to put together another ski adventure in two weeks so we can get in another solid ski day before Austria... All in all it was a great weekend. Tomorrow is professional development which means a full day of work at school, meetings and all but without children- so really it feels a little bit like a 3-day weekend! I hope you are all well.I will blog again soon. -- Ciao Nikki
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