One's dream another's nightmare...

Have you ever had a dilemma about how to celebrate your birthday so that it is way different than usual and you don't have to worry too much while still making awesome memories?

If so, this story can give you a great example of a unique birthday idea. Although be careful, it is not for everyone, as it might have some challenges as well...

It all started with just simple jokingly sayings, that I should celebrate my birthday with a public hike event, as it was happening on the same day as my birthday, although after a few months of joking around, I actually started thinking about it more seriously, and the next thing I knew, I was buying tickets for the mass hike happening on December 2nd in Anykščiai.

While this was a simple walk for me, because I've already done more than 4 of the longer distance ones before, this 20-kilometre hike was going to be a challenge for my friends...

As our car pulled up in the parking lot early on Saturday morning, I was already feeling the excitement, even though it was freezing outside.

The registration was a bit unusual, to say the least, because the moment the registration coordinator saw my name and birth date on the computer screen, she ran around the place quickly, telling everyone to sing happy birthday. Therefore, I had an unexpected birthday song presented to me by the whole staff and some participants in the hike as well.

After the whole performance and having our bracelets put on, we were ready to hike.

Me and my friends after the registration

The first few kilometres were easy enough because the adrenaline of the excitement was still kicking in, although as we moved on, my friends already started to complain a bit, and we still didn't even know what was waiting for us...

After a few steeper hills and steps of strays, the first challenge presented itself to us. It was a huge descent of a hill covered in full ice...While there was a rope that we had to grab while walking down, my friend still managed to slip, although it wasn't that bad, and she was back on her feet after a second. As we moved closer and closer to the landing, the rope was gone, and now it was time to walk without it. I would say we were lucky enough because we managed to come down with only a few minor trips after this, although it could have ended a bit different...

While this part was done, there were still some harder parts as well as about 11km to go.

After just about 3 kilometres, we encountered an ice-covered monkey bridge... Our group managed to walk through it without many problems, although the people behind us dropped their phones off of it. But little did I know, just after I stepped off the bridge, I slipped...While I didn't fall off the hill, I still hit my arm pretty badly...

The moment before the ice-covered monkey bridge

The other 6 kilometres were pretty quiet until we walked into a que of people linning up. We didn't know what was happening or what was waiting for us...But after about 20 minutes of slow moving, we finally reached the 'problem'—it  was a downhill without any steps. This was the easier problem out of 3, which we surpassed without any slipping or falling.

My dog during the hike

Now, after 2 more kilometres, we were finally at the place where we started—the start and finish zone.

Even though this event did have some challenges and might not have ended very well for some people, I would still do it again in a heartbeat.