1249 day of war

Hello, friends!

We’re back from the trip, and unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
On the day of departure, the weather forecast already showed rain, but we couldn’t postpone the trip—tickets and hostel spots are really hard to get during this season, and we had booked everything a month in advance. We set off hoping the rain would be light and that we’d still be able to hike in the mountains.

The train left at 4 AM, and during the ride, the sunrise brought sunshine and clear skies, giving us hope that everything would turn out well.
However, when we arrived, Vorokhta greeted us with rain that lasted the whole day.
We put on raincoats and walked around the town anyway. Rain in the mountains turned out to be much tougher than in the city: trails got washed out, there was mud and puddles everywhere, and it was hard to move around.
We found a path to the river nearby, where some cats had gathered, and I realized that even if nothing else worked out—we had found lots of cats, and that was good enough.

The rain kept getting heavier, and even with our raincoats, we were soaked. We spent the whole evening in the hostel trying to warm up, and the weather forecast only kept getting worse.

The next day, there was a storm warning, and the rain was extremely heavy. I had never seen such rain in the mountains before. Hiking in that kind of weather—let alone climbing a mountain—was impossible.
After walking a bit in the rain, we started to feel unwell, so we decided to try going out only during brief moments when the rain eased up.
Overall, we were only able to wander around a bit nearby and never made it to the mountains. It was really sad, because we only have 2 days off a year, and we ended up stuck in a storm with no chance of hiking.

Nastya was very upset, and so was I, but I tried to make the most of the time.
I managed to run to a local cheese dairy and bring back some sheep cheese, and we spent the time at the hostel warming up, eating, and missing our cat.

On the third day, the rain stopped—an hour before our train.
It felt symbolic, and I tried to treat it as an experience and not let it get me down.
We still got to walk around, change the scenery a bit, forget about the war, and spend our time differently from usual. Even though we ended up getting sick, it wasn’t entirely a bad trip.
We saw the mountains, met some cats, ate cheese, and I walked around with my camera—so now I’ll be posting photos from the trip. It wasn’t all bad.

I hoped I’d get some rest at home after we got back, but a few T-shirt orders came in, so I’ve been working every day since we returned. There’s not much work right now, so I’m grateful for these orders.
Overall, I didn’t get the kind of impressions I was hoping for from the trip, but I did gain some experience and managed to take my mind off everything for a bit.
I realized that sometimes just a walk in the park or a trip to a local lake can be enough to unwind. That’s what I plan to do once I finish all the orders.

Thank you all for your support!
And thank you as well for your help on BuyMeACoffee—it really helps right now.
Thank you so much!