Hello friends!
Allow me to post one last memory from autumn before we dive into the Christmas/winter mood. I would like to tell you about one amazing Sunday I had with my dad and boyfriend.
First, a little background. My home country - the Czech Republic - is well known for its beer. The importance can be seen just by looking at the type of beer called Pilsner: Pilsen is a city in Czechia that produces one of the most famous beers in the world. The consumption of beer per person is the highest in the world in this small country (yes, even more than in Belgium or Ireland) and there's a whole "beer culture" around. That includes small, local breweries popping up everywhere around Czechia including the region that I come from - the Beskydy mountains and their surroundings.
And that's where our story begins. My dad and his friends came up with something they called "the beer trail" in the mountains. There are two versions of the trail: the longer one, which includes climbing two mountains and visiting 5-6 pubs; and the shorter one, which only includes climbing one mountain and visiting 3-4 pubs.
My dad had been talking about taking my boyfriend there for a long time. I thought they would do it while I was staying in the Canary Islands for six months but they never made it so, in the end, I could join them too.
It was a beautiful October day, one of the last warm & sunny days this year. We started the tour with coffee as my boyfriend & I are big coffee freaks and we really like to make a fresh pot in nature. So as soon as we stepped off the train, we took out our gas cartridge and moka pot, and made some delicious coffee straight away. Then we started walking towards the mountain. At its foot, there was the first pub. So we had the first round of beer... at 10 am.
The second round was at the top of the mountain. It is rather a popular spot and on this beautiful October weekend, it was crazy crowded. They even opened a second bar! There, we also had our second coffee and a snack, and we ate and drank with a beautiful view of the highest mountain of the range.
Then, we started walking down as there was the first small brewery right under the mountain. It was also quite crowded but we managed to sneak to the last table for beer round 3. Unlike in the previous pubs, this place had multiple beer choices (as they made it there themselves) so we took 3 different types and did a small beer tasting.
After that, the last phase of our trip began: we had to walk 5 more kilometers to the last brewery. Fortunately, it was just by the train station so we wouldn't have to walk much further after the last stop. The last brewery makes my dad's all-time favorite beer so we stayed for two rounds of pints instead of one. We had nowhere more to go, and we also bought some food specially curated to go well with beer: lots of cheese, fries, and spreads on fresh bread. When we left the brewery, it was already dark. We were super tired as we walked over 15 kilometers and drank 5 pints of beer each, but it was one of the most amazing and unforgettable experiences I had this autumn.