{"id":5031,"date":"2020-08-03T17:39:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T15:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5031"},"modified":"2020-08-24T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T07:29:55","slug":"walk-in-the-woods-to-a-brewery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5031","title":{"rendered":"Walk in the Woods to a Brewery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s mid-summer and we have grown weary of many things. The COVID news is perpetually bad. The numbers in Prague and the Czech Republic are growing daily. And somehow, as if we live in one of Stephen King\u2019s dystopian novels, not only are we forced to hear Donald Trump\u2019s voice every day, what he says has bearing on the world\u2019s events. What hell is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, we decide to escape it for the day by walking through nature. I love nature. I mean, sure, I don\u2019t really like wasps or hills or the sun or cows who have a bit too much attitude for future steak or rocks or not being able to have pizza at a moment\u2019s notice, but nature\u2019s great. What makes it better is that we are enjoying nature in the Czech Republic, which means that all along the places where people enjoy nature there are pubs filled with pickled cheese and tank beer. And best of all, we\u2019re not only hiking through nature, we\u2019re hiking through nature to a brewery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

But still, we\u2019re in nature. I find a wee difference in the mentality between stomping through the nature of my local park and stomping through the nature outside of the city. I know it\u2019s a short hike and not the K-2, but that doesn\u2019t matter. We are walking outside of the city. We are in the haven of wild animals and the elements. Our ears become more attuned to the sounds of nature, our hands become more sure, and our eyes narrow against the sun (or, more accurately, the sunblock).      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The walk is from the small village of Roztoky to the smaller village of \u00dan\u011btice, where we will stop for lunch and beers at the brewery of my favorite beer. The day is hot, but there\u2019s a lot of shade. It\u2019s flat and along a pleasant stream. We have seen two lizards (or possibly one very fast and dedicated lizard), several ducks, three airplanes, another X (oddly), and a horse. We believe that we have been in tune with nature enough to enjoy beers and fried steaks free of guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hector the Lizard <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time we reach the village about 90 minutes after setting off, I feel like Gus McCrae leading a band of Texas rangers through hostile land. I am sweating and swigging on occasion at my water bottle. We bite into a pistachio granola bar and when Burke asks where we should go, I point with my titanium walking stick to a sign that says: pivovar (brewery). We follow it until we\u2019re crossing a bridge over a brook with the brewery in sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my best outdoor guide voice, I say: \u201cOooh, they have those nice little misty things to cool us down. Oh and remember, we need to google the closest bus stop for later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Shangri La with Beer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We sit outside in the brewery\u2019s garden. Nature has been defeated for the day, aside from the pesky wasps who seem to like my gul\u00e1\u0161. We take some pictures and slurp down some well-earned beers. Excursions like this one are relatively common for Czechs. They ski, hike, canoe, rock climb, and their trail often ends at a pub. It gives an awful lot of insight into why the Czechs love their outdoor sports. It\u2019s perhaps the best possible reward for a walk in the woods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s mid-summer and we have grown weary of many things. The COVID news is perpetually bad. The numbers in Prague and the Czech Republic are growing daily. And somehow, as if we live in one of Stephen King\u2019s dystopian novels, not only are we forced to hear Donald Trump\u2019s voice every day, what he says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/115806385_922474031580434_9094524113431095749_n.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1j9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5036,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions\/5036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}