I hiked up Cozia mountain on saturday and I thought I was going to die. I have hiked up Cozia on two previous occasions but this time...this time nearly killed me. "Springtime in the mountains," Janice informs me halfway to the top, "means snow." Mounds of snow, mini mountains of snow and we had to break trail and trudge through it. I am not being overdramatic. I would take one step and sink into the snow up to my knees. I felt like a weeblo those little plastic people that can't stand up or walk straight. At one point Glen (Janice's financee) fell in up to his shoulders and he is six feet tall. Every step of the five hours up "i hate hiking" played on repeat in my head. But, "Hiking," wise Janice says, "is just like childbirth, you hate the up but when you're going down you can't hardly remember it." I don't know about childbirth but she was quite right about the short memory, it was an easy downhill trek. After a refreshing lunch and tea at the cabana on top when headed down, but not before a 70 year old man came into the cabin. He also had hiked up Cozia that morning and next to him I felt like a big baby. Apparently this guy hikes up cozia nearly every weekend in every season. Mare branza (big deal in Romanian or big cheese) so i am not the big outdoorswoman that I like to imagine myself to be. We came home 12 hours later dead tired and sore. Boy did my back hurt the next day and today I am still a little worse for wear.

I come home in less than two weeks and I can hardly wait. I have started packing already.