On Saturday morning, we set off with a campervan to Helvetinjärvi National Park. Once there, we started our hiking tour.
During the first hour, we spent our time teaching each other vocabulary related to nature – in short, we simply asked one another about all the words that came up along the way. I now know how to say mushroom, tree, path, wood, animal, lake, and hiking in Czech.
While Lenka was teaching us the words, we quickly realized that some Czech sounds are quite tricky. Throughout the entire hike, we kept practicing the pronunciation of č (like tsch), ď (dj), ň (nj), ř (rsh), ť (tj), ž (dsch).
These were definitely the letters I found most difficult. At some point, I noticed that the less effort I put into trying to pronounce the letters or words correctly, the better they sounded – and the more content Lenka was. ^^
She also explained to us that when there is an ´ (accent mark) above a letter, that letter is pronounced long.
For me, it was fascinating to get to know the Czech writing system. I found it really exciting when a language differs from what I am used to, and you get to learn new pronunciations and systems.
After 18 km of hiking, adventurous off-road moments like balancing across tree trunks over water or climbing down steep rocks (did we maybe get a little lost at some point?), many beautiful views, and above all, great conversations and exchanges, we finally made it back to our camper.
After a well-deserved and relaxing beer, which was Czech, so we practiced the learned pronounciation rules, we headed to the lake, where we went for a swim with the perfect sunset as a backdrop. Afterwards, we grilled and happened to meet some Finns with an incredibly cute dog.
We spent the entire evening talking about all kinds of things. They explained a lot about Finnish life and culture to us – it was an unexpected encounter that truly enriched our trip, perfectly rounded off the evening, and fit wonderfully with our project goals. viihtyisä ilta!
All in all, it was a very beautiful trip where we got to know each other and two different cultures better. It was our first trip into the Finnish wilderness, and we really enjoyed spending time in the peaceful surroundings. It certainly won’t be our last adventure of this kind.
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