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Published: August 30th 2015
Wow, what a trip. So many pictures sum it up quite well but you can also read on 😊 (sorry, it is only one blog entry and therefore quite long). We went to Slovakia by car and stayed in Horny Smokovec in the High Tatra Mountains. We arrived in the evening, and it was foggy and rainy. When we passed the Polish/Slovakian border, the street was suddenly very wide and no cars around except a jeep that was behind us for quite some time. I have to admit the situation was a little bit spooky 😉 The mountains were covered in clouds.
On the first day the weather did not change: still a lot of clouds and some rain. So we went to
Strbske Pleso to see the lake and the ski jumping hills. We climbed up the ski jump and had a very nice view, at least of the lake. For me, as I am afraid of heights, it was scary to look down the ski jump: it was quite steep and windy... Strbske Pleso itself is more or less an assemblage of hotels and souvenir booths, but it is a good starting point for hiking trips.
The weather did not change on day two, so we hiked just a little bit. We started in Stary Smokovec and walked up to
the hill Hrebienok. On our way, the rain became heavier, so we decided to wait underneath some trees. A group of three women passed us. They told us something in Slovakian, which we did not understand, but some minutes later we realized what they meant! Since the rain did not stop we went on uphill and only 200m further there was the cable car's upper station and a hostel! But the fog made it invisible to us. If we had known we were so close, we would have had some dryer clothes. Oh, well. Our next station were the
Dlhý Vodopad and the Vodopady Studeneho Potoka (waterfalls) and the Rainerova Chata. That's it for day two, the rain forced us to return to our holiday home.
The first "hike" was possible on the third day: a trip up the
Malá Studená Dolina (valley) to the Teryho Chata (cabin). We saw some
weird blue snails: neither do I know why they were blue nor have I seen this color on a snail before. The
Jungle?
Part of Hornad Canyon in the Slovake Paradise.color made them look a bit unreal and strange. Never mind! The path was mainly stony, that's why our feet and knees hurt at the end of the day. The last part were serpentines on a debris flow. From up there, the mountains offered a great view on the valley. You could really feel the power of the former glaciers that formed the Tatra valleys! Talking about "ice", there was still ice/snow in the tarn next to Teryho chata. The air was also much colder than down in the villages. Once we reached the cabin we looked for the toilet. We found it, but the flushing was broken.
So all the girls formed a chain, one filled a bucket of water for the next one. A funny nun was also waiting there. Although we did not speak the same language we had a lot of fun :D After enjoying our lunch we decided to go back "home". With fascination we watched the nun continuously hike downhill. She was very fast which made her
the "flying nun" for us.
The fourth day was relaxing, we went from Strbske Pleso to
Popradske pleso (lake), and had a good lunch
Strbske Pleso
... on our first day. The weather was still foggy and rainy. in the Popradske Pleso Chata (chicken Schnitzel and filled, sweet dumplings). The self-service there was quite strange: we ordered our meal and waited until we can pick it up. We looked through our maps, and finally my mate said: look, isn't that our meal? Yeah, indeed it was, but no one told us it was prepared! Neither did they show our number on the display board, nor did they tell us in person. I know it is self-service, but come on, this specific procedure was strange... We went around the Popradske Pleso and saw quite some climbers in the surrounding mountains. Downhill we took the street, we walked faster than usual because we wanted to catch the train. A group in front of us was probably demotivated, because first, they ran downhill, then they realized that they might not make it to the station in time and then they walked very slowly. Our strategy was good because we arrived at the train station 2 minutes before the train departed! Luckily 😊
Challenge on day five: a
hike up Slavkovski Stit. For quite some people that's nothing because the path is quite doable. Why was it a challenge
for me? I am afraid of heights and usually I do not trust the stones underneath my feet (and probably my shoes, but they proved me wrong)! On our ascent we met some other Germans, actually the first Germans we met on our holiday...But they hiked the Tatra Magistrale and we wanted to go up the Slavkovski Stit. There was also a couple with a mid-sized dog who wanted to go uphill, but they realized that the stony path was not made for the dog and returned. The point where I was close to going back home came when we had to traverse a tilted stone plate, maybe 2,5m in height. There were nearly no points to put my feet on. I am quite short (1,57m) so it was challenging for me to get up there. Afterwards, I wanted to go back home.
No, I don't want to go up anymore! Ok, other hikers might laugh about me, but that specific passage demotivated me. But my mate told me: "Ok, let's go a bit further, if it is too frightening for you, we will go back. Look, the path is becoming easier." And it got better. The path was quite
nice, we had to pass quite some debris flows and rocks, but it was indeed easier for me! I don't know why, maybe the brain told itself: ok, you managed the first obstacle so you can do it?! We also got off-track unintentionally and had to pass big boulders with crevasses between them. For some reason, my brain did not care! We had to go on anyway to get back onto the official track again. Sometimes we thought: look, there is the peak. Then we realized, that there is another peak higher than this "peak" right behind it. All in all: the ascent was quite long and got longer the farther we went. After around 4,5 h we arrived at the peak: an amazing view was the reward! It was already 3 pm, and we went downhill to the hill Hrebienok. We did not use the official trail from Hrebienok to Stary Smokovec. We wanted to take a shortcut. All in all, we ended up in some "valley" with high grass and no established paths. We followed a logging road where it was possible. Finally, we reached the main road, luckily. Although the way back was longer than expected, we
arrived at the holiday home at 7.45 pm.
The next day (day six) was relaxing: the Tatra Electric Railway took us to
Poprad, where we did "sightseeing", shopping, and had a delicious goat's-cheese-meal. We recharged for the next day (day seven) when we started in Strbske Pleso and hiked up the
Mlynicka Dolina (valley), passed the
Vodopad Skok (waterfall), and ended up at the
Capie Pleso (lake). A more or less easy hike. A funny thing happened when we started in Strbske Pleso: a little boy, maybe four or five years of age, and his grandparents were in front of us.
He wanted to carry a stone (maybe 10 to 15 cm in diameter), so he picked up one (it looked heavy) and walked on. His grandparents took it away and he was sad. So he picked up another stone, and again, his grandparents took it away. I do not know why he wanted to carry these stones... Long story short: he was not allowed to carry this stone and was very sad about this situation...
We also "met" the history of the Tatra Electric Railway: on day eight we went to Stary Smokovec
to see
the Kometa. The oldest railway wagon was more than 100 years old but was still in very good shape. The veteran's club is taking care of it. From Stary Smokovec we walked to
Tatranska Lomnica. There we enjoyed an ice chocolate in the Cucraren Bobco, delicious. We sat there and saw people pass by. It was such a relaxing day! We strolled through Tatranska Lomnica and let the time go by. The Kometa was our transportation of choice back to our holiday home. What an enjoyable ride that brought us 100 years back in time 😊
One more "place to see" is the
Zeleno Pleso (green lake, which is actually blue). On day nine we planned a trip to this lake. The starting point was Tatranska Lomnica (where a wastewater pipe bursted on that very day, the town's center smelled very bad). The path was mainly well prepared and only the last parts were rockier. Even some mountain bikers did the last part, but most of them walked their bike. An interesting vehicle overtook us: an orange powerful off-road vehicle, which brought mountaineers down and things like potatoes, rice, flour, and also planks up to
The point of decision...
do we go further or do we go home? We took the second option... the Chata at Zeleno Pleso. Its wheelbase was very high and it was nearly as wide as the path. The Zelene Pleso is a jewel, and the cabin next to it makes soooooo delicious pancakes! They were served with jam, berries, and whipped cream, I admit I am a sweet tooth 😊
Zakopane was our destination for day ten. The STRAMA-bus picked us up in Stary Smokovec, and it took a 2-hour-drive to reach our destination. We strolled around the
market at the Gubalowka and the shopping road Krupowki. In the middle of the street there were little booths that sold stuff that looked like buns or pastries. So we asked one of the sellers what it was: no pastry at all, it was cheese. We tried it and it was tasty. And, of course, we wanted to have a look at the
ski jumping hill. We wanted to go up (and down) the hill by cable car and tried to talk to the cashier. Our Polish was too little to tell her what we wanted. No one spoke English, or Spanish, or German, only Polish. The cashier was a bit grumpy, and communicating with gestures did not
work. So we walked back to a shop cashier where we bought a Zakopane CD some minutes ago and asked her for help. Actually, we just wanted to know whether the cable car brings us uphill AND downhill (because we had only little time to go to the ski jump and walking would have taken too much time, moreover you have to buy a ticket anyway to get close to the ski jumping hills). Well, she was very helpful and so we bought a ticket for the cable car (hoping that it also brings us down again). The view over Zakopane was great and one could also see the masses of tourist cars in the parking lots! Zakopane was very crowded although it was a Tuesday. One reason might have been the start of the summer holidays in Poland. To enjoy the afternoon we sat down in a café / bar and had Cappucino / Radler. Getting the Radler was not easy: the waiter/bartender did not know what it was. And maybe he thought we did not want to have an alcoholic beverage, because
he offered me Sprite (?), although I told him it is a mixture of beer and lemonade. In the end, he filled a beer mug half-full (but charged a full beer mug, whatever) and gave me a bottle of seven up. He was like: do what you want, mix it, whatever, I don't care. Ok, some waiters in Eastern Europe are somewhat grumpy... All-in-all Zakopane was a nice one-day trip, but I would not spend my whole holidays there.
The next days were relaxing (days eleven/twelve): we spend a day in the
spa of the Toliar Hotel in Strbske Pleso - swimming in the salt-water pool, saunas, tepidarium, ... and rain outside. It was the first day of rain after the very hot days (temperature over 30 °C). The other day we visited Tatranska Lomnica again, had some very, very good lunch in the Grill Pub, and visited the
Ski Museum. We especially loved the "gadget" which helped skiers to stay on their skis:
they could neither fall forwards nor backwards (but maybe sidewards?? 😉 ). It was even patented!
On the last day we went to
Slovak Paradise by train (only 1,56 € for the return ticket). We exited at Vydrnik, walked 3 km to Hrabusice and some more to
Podlesok.
Third day: hike to Teryho Chata
And here you can see weird blue snails on our way... The
gorge Biela Sucha with its four waterfalls was so different from what we saw in the Tatra mountains: no rough mountains but a lot of plants. A lot of ropes and metal ladders lead the way uphill. Sometimes the ladders were slippery so good shoes are recommended. The gorge with its steep walls and rock crevices was very beautiful. On the top of the hill there are the ruins of an old monastery, the over
700-year-old "Klastorisko". Downwards we chose a trail along the
Hornado canyon, interestingly we went downhill but the river flow into the other direction (for us it looked like flowing uphill). The trail consisted of paths, of metal steps and stairs (see photos), and was quite adventurous. And we met the same people 3 times (on the train, uphill, downhill), the same thing also happened in the Tatra Mountains where we met the same people several times.
On the way back to Berlin we visited the
Beliansky Cave, a 2 million-year-old solutional cave made of pure and unpure limestone. We also stopped at the Slovakian/Polish border to take some pictures of the former toll bar. The spot also offered a nice view
on the Belianksa Tatras. Next to the streets on the Polish side, every now and then, there were booths that sold cheese and jam and other goods. My travel mate wanted to have one of the big cheese pieces and asked me to stop. So I left the road, but I was still a bit too fast and hit the brakes. Unfortunately, the ground was bumpy and I was happy that I did not damage my shock absorbers. But in the end, everything was fine and the cheese was very good! A good ending to a nice hiking vacation 😊
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