Blogs from High Tatras, Presov Region, Slovakia, Europe

The snow began to fall when we were about half an hour shy of the Slovakian border. The falling snowflakes made the darkened landscape look surreal and dreamlike as they fell softly onto the windshield. I was hypnotised, but only until I realised that snow down here meant deep snow in the High Tatras. Having grown up in Australia, snow is a novelty that turns me into a 5 year old with ADHD. There is of course snow in Australia but seeing it usually requires a minimum 2 hour drive into the mountains. My excitement grew as the road rose and fell over the three small mountain passes that stood between us and Poprad. We made slow progress on serpentine roads that wound through snow covered pine forests, the only source of light coming from ... read more

One little nugget of comedy from that horrible day at Demänovská Dolina last summer has been itching ever since, which was during my conversation on the train with the hung over Leeds United fans who had come to see Leeds play Košice, when I told them "I really want to go climb a mountain today", to which one of them gestured listlessly towards the perennially majestic backdrop of the High Tatras and replied "there's enough o' them round 'ere". I had never been to the High Tatras, with no real reason or motivation to go as well as the constant fear-mongering of locals in Prague about people dying there. Last weekend, I suddenly had a realisation that my life was the most boring thing ever, spending all day on a couch teaching people (or waiting for ... read more

July 30th Sad, Sad day my last day in Zdiar, Slovakia. Going to miss the Moneky so much and all the ones inside of it. July 31th For the first time in 12 days I had to set my alarm to "early o'clock". I paid my bill and got my free t-shirt for staying way to long (but no long enough) and said my sad goodbyes. I had missed the bus but it was okay because I left alot of time before my train. After waiting half an hour another one came along. The train ride was uneventful as was the hostel. I went and ventured into my first Tesco which kind of sucked but I did find some leggings and all the other stuff on my list. I was very tired so I made a ... read more

A group of us decided to go rafting on the more rapid course today, we set out around 11:00am which we should have left earlier because the best decided to come half an hour after it was suppose to making it so that we missed our connection at the train station in Poprad. We weighted out our options and found a bus that we could catch in an hour. As soon as we were on the bus Lauren (Texas) passed right out. We woke just in time to get off the bus; we had to catch two cabs since there were 8 of us. Once there the instructor handed us our wet suits ha-ha *fits like a glove* wow very tight all over, we were then giving helmets and wet booties to add to our attire. ... read more

Chilling day... read more