TRAVEL. ROADTRIP. EASTERN EUROPE.

First Night in Czechia

Escaping into nature for a new adventure

The birds are singing their last songs of the night as the frogs are starting their concert for the night. A light breeze is blowing through the trees and I can hear the water flowing in the river beneath our feet.

We finished work around 5 pm this Sunday, quickly jumped into the shower, threw the last things into the car and off we went. Where to?

Czechia.

Nothing specific in mind. Just getting out. Getting out into nature. Exploring new lands and foreign cultures. Sleeping in the car, waking up to the singing of the birds and walking in between old trails in the mountains.

The NATO is having the biggest military training event in its history and will be blocking most of Germany’s airspace for the coming two weeks. For us, working skydivers, that means we won’t get clearance from the towers and decided to close the operation during the week and hope for the best on the weekend to get some slots in between.

Therefore, we have 5 days off this week, and four days off next week. And I’m sure you don’t expect us to sit around at home in our trailer for the time being. Certainly not.

That’s why we left. With the mattress in the back of the car, two camping chairs, a small table and our hiking boots. We don’t need much more. And if we do, we can buy it in Czechia as well.

And because I couldn’t wait for Monday morning to head into the vacation, we drove after work. I had found a camping spot on iOverlander that was about 2,5 hours away and decided to go for it.

With a fuel and food break in between, we arrived 3 hours later but couldn’t get to the said spot on the lake. There was a sign saying no entry without permission.

What now?

We quickly typed ‘camping’ into Googlemaps and drove 10 more minutes to the nearest campsite marked. At 9 pm we arrived. The sun was still above the trees.

We took out our camping chairs, opened a beer and sat back listening to the birds.

We made it. Day one of our adventure.

P.S.: We didn’t last long outside. A horde of insects was trying to eat us alive. David killed one mosquito on his leg and a big splash of blood flew across his skin. It was gross. Three seconds later we crawled into our cozy home. Our safe cave, as he always calls it.

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