Friday, October 3, 2014

Up CZUCC

Because it was there...and no where else the Commies would let them go;
Dozens of members of the Czech Union of Chimney Climbers scaled the 60-meter- (200-foot-) tall chimney of a former textile factory one recent Saturday — a hobby they do for thrills and incomparable views.
....It started as the Soviet-era dream of a teenager — Vladimir Randysek — who gazed out from his home at a 140-meter high Prague chimney for years, thinking how liberating it would be to climb it.
Though not as liberating as going west, but there were those walls, land mines, border guards with machine guns...
In 1981, he and three other friends decided to make the dream reality. What was supposed to be a single adventure poking fun at Communist authorities turned into a regular pastime.
Gradually, it attracted more enthusiasts who consider their hobby "a way of life."
Today, more than a thousand members of the union make sure that a chimney is climbed every single day.
So the chimneys don't get lonely?

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