August 25th, 2011

We left Banská Bystrica on the 10am train towards Dobšiná, a village near the world-heritage Dobšinská Ice Cave, and also the entry to the southern end of the Slovak Paradise National Park (Slovenský Raj Národný Park). We were originally planning on heading to the park few days earlier – after finishing the Low Tatras hike and before heading to the High Tatras. But our plans changed when we couldn’t find a place to sleep in Telgárt, and ended up in Poprad with the rest of our hiking buddies. Turns out, this was actually a stroke of good luck.

Remember the ice storm that hit the High Tatras as we were sipping beers and munching on halušky in Tatranská Lomnica? Turns out, this same storm headed next to Slovak Paradise and caused a significant amount of damage, especially in the village of Stratená, where we would find ourselves tonight. In this village, many roofs lost their shingles due to the heavy hail. But more disconcerting to us was hearing on the news that the storm also claimed the life of a hiker in the Slovak Paradise Park. The hiker got killed when a large number of trees fell “all of a sudden” on top of him. We were quite glad to be learning this in the warmth of my dad’s living room instead of experiencing it first hand in the park.

By the time we set off to the park, the storm had passed, and we were treated to a mostly wonderful weather over the next few days.

The train to Dobšinská Ice Cave and the village of Stratená (meaning Lost). The trail into the Slovak Paradise park follows the valley.

From the train stop for the ice cave it is about an hour walking to get to the cave entrance. This includes climbing a fairly significant hill. The cave is absolutely spectacular. Not sure why, but I decided no to pay the extra few euros for a photo pass and thus don’t have any pictures from the inside. But you can get the idea by searching on Google. It looks sort of like the Superman’s Cove. It’s cold on the inside (obviously), about -2^oC. The cave has only a single opening on top, which allows the warm air to escape. The cold air gets in during the winter and keeps the cave cold. The ice features continuously melt and refreeze so the cave never looks the same twice.

From the cave we started heading on the blue trail towards the village of Stratená, which made the news the day before due to the storm damage. This was also the best place to spend the night before heading into the national park. Unfortunately we started heading the wrong way, and realized this only once we were most of the way down the steep hill. Crap! Then as we passed the cave and finally started moving towards Stratená, a thunderstorm rolled in. At least it seemed like it will, as we kept hearing troubling rumbling in the near distance. So again, we headed down the hill, towards the road and a restaurant, we figured we’ll ride the storm out there. But the storm never came, and we decided to continue walking to Stratená on the road. The road to Stratená is also the way the red route of Heroes of Slovak National Uprising takes as it crosses the entire country. This hike was quite rough on my feet – my feet were still sore from having to walk back to my dad’s house the day before in sandals from the swimming pool, and this long walk on pavement did not help.

Sign advertising a room for rent in the village. This is where we stayed. The land lady was really nice and just 3 days ago became an owner of a new kitten.

We didn’t have any ideas as to where to stay, but luckily, finding accommodation in the village was not hard at all. Several houses advertised Ubytovanie (lodging) and “Zimmer Frei” (room available, in German). We stayed with Anna H. The grandpa was in the front yard as we passed by, and went in to call the lady when we asked about the rate (I noticed that in Slovakia it’s often the women who control the purse). She offered us a room for 10 Euro per person per night. Right after we came in, a Polish couple also came in and took a room in the attic. The funny thing about Slovak grandmas is that they are so similar. Talking with this lady was just like spending time with my grandma Terka. She started telling us how we are lucky to travel when we are young, and how important it is do travel while you can, since you never know what will happen. Then the conversation shifted to the various ailments and ills of the world. Later on, the Polish guy came talking to me. From my limited understanding of Polish, I realized he was saying one of the lights in their room doesn’t work and he wanted me to fix it. After I explained to him I am also a guest and don’t live in the house, he felt bit embarrassed. I guess he thought I was the lady’s grandson. We had a great dinner that night at Penzion Šafran on the other end of the village. I had a greasy but absolutely delicious kapustnica and strapačky (saurkraut halušky) along with a baked pork shoulder. Alex had a pea soup and a stuffed chicken breast. Then on the way back we stopped at the Hostinec u Starej Krčmy (Inn at the Old Pub) for some beers. The TV was showing “Superkombat!”. It was some Romanian guy against an American. The Romanian was throwing many punches and totally dominated the first 2 rounds. Then he took a single hit, went down, and was done. I am sure he became a national disgrace.

August 26th, 2011

This was our room in the guest house. The green trail was in a pretty bad shape.

Scenery on our way to Kláštorisko, including steps along the final steep section.

The next morning after breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed up the green trail to the park. This first section was in a rough shape, I guess it doesn’t get much foot traffic. We arrived at Občasný prameň (Occasional Spring) just as some hippie chick appeared out of nowhere with her dog. They probably live in the woods. The rivers here were crystal clear. From there we continued on the green, red, and green trail again to Kláštorisko. This main crossroad in the park is named after an old kláštor (monastery) that used to stand here. The final approach on the yellow trail is very steep, which is also why the monks chose this place. It was very difficult to get to the plateau on which the monastery stood and hence it was not attacked easily. Kláštorisko is one of the few places where you can spend a night in the park. As we found out earlier, on the hike through the Low Tatras, in Slovakia you can’t just camp anywhere the way it works in the US. Instead, you must stay at designated locations, which often means staying in a hut.

The lady running this place didn’t want to rent us one of the 8 or so huts, despite most being empty. She was making up some excuse about the shower not having hot water. I think she just didn’t want to deal with guests (attitudes like this are a remnant from the socialist times and are still quite common with the older generation). Only after pleading with her for about 30 minutes and explaining we walked for 7 hours to get here, she finally relented. The hot water worked fine, by the way.

We dropped off our packs in the hut and then headed back to the restaurant for beers and Kofola. Alex also ordered buchty na pare and fried cheese. It was really weird seeing Alex eat so much on this trip. He told me later that it was a really strange feeling for him too, he was constantly eating but also constantly hungry. Maybe he just really liked the Slovak food

Alex having one of his many dinners, and me double fisting beer and a Kofola.

This is a picture of the Kláštorisko restaurant and the view from our hut.

These two pictures are just for fun. I generally make small fixes to images before posting them by adjusting “levels” in Gimp (free Photoshop alternative). This improves the contrast which is especially needed for photos from my point-and-shoot Cannon (the pictures from this trip came from the Nikon DSLR purchased in part thanks to your donations.) The above picture was bit beyond repair so I just started playing with some of the options. Here are just two examples of some image manipulations: drastic change in levels, and thresholding. I particularly like how thresholding can identify feature in the image that may get lost otherwise. I’ve actually used this in the past for work-related image analysis, trying to find data in images that was not visible with the naked eye.

Prielom Hornádu (Breach of the Hornád River)

Slovak Paradise National Park is home of some amazing flora and fauna, just see below. But that’s not what makes this park famous. Instead, it is its various rugged via ferrata routes. The next morning we took off to conquer probably the most famous one, Prielom Hornádu.

Some amazing flora and fauna we saw along the way.

This giant fly landed on Alex’s leg and wouldn’t come off.

A few more nature shots

We started our adventure by heading down the yellow trail towards the blue river route. The blue route follows the Hornád River as it makes its way through the deep canyon. The route in many parts consists of flat metal planks attached to the side of the rock. These are not particularly difficult, but in some places are quite high above the surface of the water. This route also goes both ways (some more difficult trails are one-way only) so occasionally you have to squeeze two people on a plank that looks to be barely wide enough for one. And there were a lot of people here! We Slovaks love the outdoors and it shows, even though many of the people here were Poles (and Czechs in the Tatras).

We made a loop out of our trip, and at Radosť we took the yellow trail that follows the cliff above the river. We thought we’ll get some neat views from up here, but this was not the case. Even though on the map it appears the yellow trail may be following near the edge, most of the trail is in a forest with no views. We made our way towards to Letanovský Mlyn (mlyn means a mill). There a group of gypsy kids was running around the bridge and making a lot of ruckus. One of them, a 15 year old girl, kept asking us for money for her baby. We got out of there as quickly as we could. We got back on the blue trail and did the second half towards our starting point. We took the green route back. This section was much more interesting, as it had few ladders along the side of a waterfall – this gave us a taste of what to expect the next day.

Alex slept in the hammock the first night. I now bivy-less had to settle for our moldy cabin.

Much of the blue trail is like this, you walk on these metal planks attached to the cliff. At some particularly tight spot you can end up with a traffic jam. In the first picture Alex doesn’t look too happy having to wait for a bottleneck to clear up.

The left picture is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. I ended up taking about 20 shots until I got one just right – I wanted to capture the hey in detail over a blurry background of sheep. We ran into this flock on our way up towards the yellow trail.

The sheep from above, with the village of Spišská Koliba in the background. Later on, on the way back to Kláštorisko, Alex spotted this tree hanging over the river and had to go walk on top of it. Crazy! (click on the image to open the full-sized version)

Here are few photos of the Kláštorská Kotlina (kotlina means ravine) through which the green route goes. It contains several ladder and chain reinforced routes the Slovak Paradise Park is famous for.

I tried to capture the steepness of the terrain with the first photo but I don’t know if the photo does it justice. The second picture is just me playing with ultra-fast shutter speeds to capture the actual water droplets in a waterfall.

This are the ruins of the monastery. It dates back to 1299. We walked around after getting back and relaxed in the large grass field.

Suchá Belá

The next morning we took off for another day hike, this time up Suchá Belá (Dry “white-one”) which is another famous trail in the park. This trail along with the one from yesterday have an entrance fee of 1.5 Euro per person. I suppose these are similar to the fees collected at American national parks and help with the maintenance. Seeing the heavy traffic, I am sure the fees come in handy. This trail is really nice but don’t expect much solitude here – it was quite crowded! Throw in the ladders and chains and Alex said his first impression was of an amusement park.

Shots of wooden bridges used to cross the creek.

Here is one of the first big ladders (click on the image for the full version). This one wasn’t particularly bad since it wasn’t very steep. Also a neat canyon.

The trail then continues along metal planks and is supported by chains.

Some of the later ladders are quite steep and intimidating. Like this one. Alex flew up this ladder, I was much more cautious (despite having climbed most of the US highpoints, I am no fan of heights!). The second picture shows the view from the top of one of smaller ones. There is a ladder between the two sections of planks. My biggest problem was transitioning from the ladder to the planks since once you get to the top there is not much to hold on to.

After we got back, we treated ourselves with delicious instant goulash. I brought few of these packets back with me to the US, and they are really great for hiking.

After we got back we made some soup and headed back to the restaurant for beers, Kofola, and Alex’ daily fried cheese. I was feeling pretty lousy today, didn’t sleep much, plus my feet were really bothering me. I suspect it was due to a combination of walking on pavement in my hometown and on the way to Stratená. We walked on the blue route to Čertova Sihoť, which supposedly was the place where the hiker got killed few days ago in the storm. We found a spot with some sort of a cross on the trail, but no obvious sign of downed trees. I finished all my food today, except for one packet of oatmeal. This was our final camping day so this was fine.

Later on we headed back to the restaurant, we mainly wanted to know what the commotion was all about. It was “after hours”, after the day hikers had left, and the workers were on the porch drinking and talking. We started talking with them and later stopped by the hut in which they were staying. One of them was trying to heat up a large kettle of goulash over the fire. The wood was wet so it wouldn’t light. He poured some alcohol on it, but that didn’t help either. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a car appeared. An old man, maybe in his late 70′s got out right next to us. All he said was “You need to blow into the fire”. Then he got back in the car, and the car drove off. It was completely surreal.

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August 23rd, 2011

This was our hike #2 in the High Tatras. We checked out of the hotel in the morning and headed to the nearby train station. Just as we were getting ready to board the train, I realized my backpack was missing the bivy that used to sit outside! (A bivy is basically a waterproof sack for sleeping. It is sort of like a tiny one-person tent but without the poles.) I called the hotel, but they did not see it in the room. This was a bummer, I bought the bivy just before the trip and got to use it only twice before losing it. I started to like the little guy. I takes a bit getting used to, but there is no better feeling that falling asleep among tall grasses looking at the stars. I must have lost it on the bus to Poprad, along with my hiking pole.

We took the train to the village of Starý Smokovec where we took the zubačka (fernicular) to a peak called Hrebienok. From there we continued on the red route to Skalnaté Pleso. The red route in the High Tatras is similar to the magistrála in the Low Tatras in that it’s a long trail that follows the entire mountain range. However, due to the more rugged nature of the High Tatras, the red trail generally follows the low valleys, and exploring the true beauty of the High Tatras requires trips along the side trails that take you to the majestic high country of mountain lakes and sheer granite cliffs.

Scenery along the red route from Hrebienok. This area still had quite a few downed trees (perhaps from the storm few years ago), but some of them were transformed into neat chair.

A brook and a waterfall along the way. The name of this waterfall is Obrovský, which means “huge”.

Here I am outside Zamkovského Chata (Zamkovsky Chalet), one of the many mountain huts dotting the High Tatras. These huts provide shelter for overnight hikers, similar to the huts where we stayed while traversing the Low Tatras. Just past the hut you get a beautiful view into Studená Dolina (Cold Valley).

The red trail to Skalnaté Pleso is really busy. Alex called this part “Disney Tatra”. There were people everywhere plus way too many kids on school trips. The Skalnaté Pleso mountain lake is popular because it is the base of a cable car up to Lomnický Štít. This cable car is extremely popular, and given the fact there is only a single car going up or down, the tram gets sold out days in advance. Such was the case today. But it was cloudy anyway, so we probably wouldn’t see much (unless the peak was above the inversion). We had few beers at the tram restaurant, and then headed down to Tatranská Lomnica on another tram. We managed to get down just us a storm rolled in. This was the first major storm we encountered on our trip. The downpour, lightning, and hail the size of quail eggs made us real happy to be sitting inside the Grill Pub. We had bryndzové halušky there. They tasted good but the dumplings were about an inch long! We sat on the patio, in the only seat that was not getting splattered on from the rain pounding the street.

This is another hut, Skalnatá Chata (Rocky Chalet). This one is located just below Skalnaté Pleso (Rocky Tarn). This is from where you can ride a cable car up into the clouds to reach Lomnický Štít.

The tram to Tatranská Lomnica is much easier to catch – it runs continuously and there are multiple cars.

We were planning to go to Červeny Kláštor (for rafting down the Dunajec) next but we were feeling a bit pooped so we decided to head back to my hometown of Banská Bystrica instead for a little rest. We got back at 7pm. While waiting for my dad to come get us, we ventured to the Koliba restaurant near my dad’s Kazačok pub. This was my first time there and it was quite neat. The middle of the restaurant has a fire pit in which the possibly actually cook the food. But it was really hot inside so we took a seat outside. The food was really good, although it was also quite pricey. I had some greasy but really deliciously soft stuffed meat.

August 24th, 2012

Next morning, after pillaging the empty fridge for moldy cheese and old mustard to go with sausages we got dropped off at Kúpalisko, a large outdoor public pool. Pools like this are quite common in Slovakia and I remember spending many summers here. It was really nice and relaxing. Much more than the one in Poprad, and cost only 3 Eur instead of the 17. Plus the girls were much cuter here .

The next morning we left for Slovak Paradise National Park. But that’s a topic of another post.

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To celebrate being done, I decided to bake one of my favorite Slovak pastry-shop cakes called punčové rezy. This translates to punch slices. Now, I don’t claim to be a great cook, but I am definitely a better cook than a baker. One of my goals for this this year is to get better at baking so you will see a lot of cakes coming up. Sometimes they will turn out better than other times. This one is in the so-so category. I blame too many eggs. The recipe I followed did not specify the size of the eggs, and I, without even thinking about it, used large eggs. The resulting cake has bit of a consistency of a quiche, not the crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture I anticipated. Hence, when you do this cake, either use small eggs, fewer eggs, or more flour. I weighed all my ingredients on a kitchen scale but also included volumetric measurements. These come from online convertors, so I don’t guarantee their accuracy. Also, you may want to divided the dough ingredients into two groups: one containing 2/3 of the total amount, and the other containing the remaining 1/3. This is because you will be baking 3 layers, one of which is red. I did this “by eye”.

Dough: 15 small/medium eggs, 300g (1.5 cups) crystal sugar, 300g (2.4 cups) all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, jam, red food coloring
Syrup: 400g (2 cups) crystal sugar, 1.5 cups water, rum
Icing: 200g (1.8 cups) powdered sugar, 4 tbsp hot water, red food coloring, lemon juice
Prep Time: 2 hours, plus overnight in the fridge, and another few hours for the icing to set

Layers

Start by separating the yolks from the whites. Add 200g (1 cup) sugar to the yolks.

Whisk the yolks (this is delicious!) and gradually mix in the flour mixed with the baking powder. You will end up with a “Nilla wafer” dough, piškótové cesto.

Next, separate (approximately) one third of the dough into a separate container. Mix in few drops of red food coloring. You can also alternatively separate the yolks prior to adding flour and mix in the color. Whisk the remaining sugar with the egg whites until you get stiff peaks.

Gradually mix in two-thirds into the yellow dough and the other one-third into the red dough. You will end up with a liquid dough.

Next line a deep baking pan with parchment paper or grease well with oil. Use a pan bigger than 11x7x2 which is unfortunately all I had available. This gave me a cake that was too tall. Bake the yellow dough first. The recipe I followed did not specify the time or temperature so I baked at 350F for about 30 minutes, until the inside was done. Cut the yellow dough into two halves. Next bake the red dough. I constructed a “half-pan” that matched in size one of the yellow layers.

Punch

While the dough is cooling, prepare the punch syrup. Mix the sugar with water and cook until the mixture becomes liquid. Let cool (be careful this liquid is very hot even when not bubbling!) and mix in enough rum to make it tasty and liquid. I used about one cup. Then soak the red layer in this punch.

Assemble the Cake

Join the individual layers with a jam of your choice. I used a mixture of raspberry and black currant. Drip the remaining syrup over the top yellow layer. Cover, weigh down, and let sit for at least 12 hours in a cool place.

Icing

Prepare the icing once the cake sets (the next day). Blend the icing sugar with the hot water, few drops of red food coloring, and one half of a squeezed lemon. Spread the icing on top and again let set. Finally cut with a wet knife. Enjoy!

My cake ended up quite dry and thick, sort of like Nilla wafers. I suspect this was due to not enough flour / too much egg. Hopefully you’ll have more luck with yours. Have fun!

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Ingredients: whole trouts, butter, sides (such as potato and vegetables)
Prep Time: 40 minutes

Preheat the oven to 400F. Rinse the trout (pstruh), pat dry, and place on a baking pan along with about half a stick of butter (maslo). Bake for about 30 minutes. In the mean time, prepare your side dishes. I used boiled potatoes (varené zemiaky), but mashed potatoes or fries are also popular. I also steamed some green beans (zelená fazuľa).

About 20 minutes into baking I opened the oven and spooned the melted butter over the fish (ryba). Continue baking until it is flaky.

And that’s it. Another popular side is canned fruit (or fruit compote, kompót). Enjoy! As a little aside, this trout was almost completely bones-free (the spine was removed at the store). Since we now have seedless melons and grapes, I guess we can also have boneless fish…

Speaking of green beans, you can use them to make a delicious green beans soup.

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After completing the 5 day hike, we took a bus to Poprad, a town in the foothills of the High Tatras. High Tatras (Vysoké Tatry) form an imposing border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. While the views in the Low Tatras are dominated by grass-covered hills and snaking ridge lines, the High Tatras offer vistas worthy of California’s Sierra Nevadas. In fact, our hike very much reminded me of the 16-day backpacking trip in the California wilderness along the John Muir Trail that I took with friends back in 2007 (when I still had hair).

August 21st, 2011 (Sunday)

But before we would put the hiking shoes back on, we needed some much needed rest. After a night in a real bed in the Tatra Hotel and the included buffet breakfast (where we ate some 3 hot dogs, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, a yoghurt, and numerous pastries each), we decided to spend the day relaxing at Poprad’s Aquacity. One of the first things that any foreign visitor to Slovakia (and to a large extent all neighboring post-communist countries) will notice is the general apathy about upkeep. In order to get to this park, we had to walk along some run-down garages covered in graffiti, and take a sketchy foot path under a bridge. Since Slovakia does not have a sea, water parks like this are common throughout Slovakia – and well visited in the hot summer months. This one was no exception, despite charging a rather high fee by Slovak standards, some 17 EUR per person for an all-day pass.

The picturesque Poprad town square

It’s quite interesting to people-watch at places like this. It was really crowded with people of all shapes. One thing we noticed was that the stomachs of Slovak guys are sort of like the rings in a tree trunk – you can estimate somebody’s age by the size of the overhang. We Slovak guys tend to be (as Alex called it) skinny fat guys: they have skinny legs and arms, but a big belly. The same seems to be true about the girls. They are very cute at the young age, but then all of a sudden balloon up and cut their hair short. Another curiosity was a really hairy “Russian-bear” character parading around in tiger-stripped speedos. At the park we grabbed some beers and langoše and relaxed in the water. The park also has a nice cafeteria which actually serves decent food. We had Hungarian goulash there. From the park we headed to the picturesque downtown Poprad. Since it was a Sunday, many shops were closed, but this did not extend to the town square restaurants. We passed a group of folks singing by the historical Church of St. Egidius and then stopped by pizza at the CafeRAZY hotel.

August 22nd, 2011

The next morning we took a bus to Štrbské Pleso, a resort town in the High Tatras. The word pleso means a tarn or a mountain lake. The town is named after an equally named tarn the town sits next to. This town contains many luxury hotels, including the Grand Hotel Kempinski. It is also the starting point for a large number of hikes. If you enjoy challenging hiking you will find yourself right at home in the High Tatras! You can easily spend few weeks here exploring the various trails. There is even a High Tatras version of the Low Tatras magistrála. We contemplated hiking up Rysy, but settled for the “yellow” loop, which you can see on this map. This circular route goes up Mlynická Dolina (dolina means a valley), crosses the Bystrá Lávka saddle, and returns through the Furkotská Dolina.

This is one heck of a hike! One thing you will quickly notice while hiking in Slovakia is that the level of difficult for a normal, stroll-in-the-woods type of hike is much higher than in the US. While in the US you may find switchbacks, in Slovakia you will go straight up. And while you will hardly ever have to take the hands out of your packets on US trails, chains and ladders make a common travel companion in Slovakia (such trails are called via ferrata). This trail is no exception. About half-way up the first valley you will arrive at the vodopád Skok (waterfall Jump). Here you will encounter the first set of chains. These are not particularly challenging. The view from the top of the waterfall is amazing. You can see all the way back to town, and can even see the prominent ski/bungee jumping platform.

These are some of the amazing views you will get as you make your way up Mlynická Dolina. The second peak is Solisko. You can take an aerial tram up to the ridge line from town.

Here is the waterfall Skok. The trail, protected by chains, goes up to the left of it. You will get a nice view from the top.

This waterfall is fed by the first large tarn (pleso) you will encounter as you make your way up the valley. The trail follows this general stair-case pattern: you climb up a headwall, then arrive at a flat land with a lake. The final tarn is called Capie Pleso. Here the trail veers left and heads for a “saddle” on the ridge. It really is more of a notch than a saddle. This is where the trail gets rather sketchy. There are several chains leading to the top and the route is rather exposed. Getting to the saddle requires you to basically pull yourself up on chains. But the view you get from the top is absolutely spectacular. The other side looks much more like moonscape, with a large mountain eye, Vyšné Pleso (higher tarn) peeking back at you. This area really reminded me of the Sierra Nevadas. Alex, the climber he is, decided to make his way up the rock formations to the absolute top, while I sort of hang out and hoped not to fall over into the abyss. This section is intended to be one way (the way we came), but in reality there were few people making their way up from the other side. We descended into the valley and then continued down the Furkotská Dolina back into the shrubs (kosodrevina) and finally an evergreen forest (ihličnatý les). We met up with the red-blazed magistrála, which we took back to town.

Here is a view of one of the several tarns you will encounter on this hike. The second picture shows the trail and some hiker.

As you make your way up, the scenery will become more and more alpine. Trees will turn into shrubs, which will turn into grasses, which will finally give way to mosses and barren rocks.

Along the way you will also encounter a memorial dedicated to mountain rescue team which perished during a failed rescue attempt in 1979. The second photo is a look back at Capie Pleso from the route as it starts making it’s way up to the saddle.

And here are two shots of what the ascent up to the saddle looks like. Right before you get to the ridge you will get to a section where you basically have to pull yourself up on chains.

But the scramble is totally worth it – the view from the top to Furkotská Dolina is absolutely astounding. Not too long later you will find yourself back among vegetation and bubbly mountain brooks.

Along the way we found another beautiful fly agaric, or red amanita (muchotrávka červená). Don’t eat these. Although not as toxic as its deadly cousins, the white and green amanita (known as destroying angel and death cap in English), they can still mess you up. The trail back to town still shows evidence of the winter storm that struck Slovakia in the Fall of 2004.

In Štrbské Pleso we took a metro-like electric train back to Poprad. It was really nice and much better than the bus from the morning. An elderly woman from Košice sat down next to us and starting telling us about her handiworks. She is part of a team of grandmas that get together to make handicrafts and then she travels here to sell them to tourists. She had a variety of items: crocheted cloths, Christmas decorations, Easter eggs, table cloths. But I wasn’t too impressed with them. The Easter egss were just painted, I am used to seeing them decorated with hot wax or pieces of straw. She also carried an assortment of herbs for ailments like headache and “women problems”. Alex ended up buying few Christmas tree angel decorations.

Štrbské Pleso from which the town took its name. The second picture is of Alex drinking the super popular Cola drink Kofola right before we boarded our train back to Poprad.

We returned back to the High Tatras the following day. But that is a topic of a future post. Continue onto our second hike, Hrebienok to Skalnaté Pleso.

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