Tatra Mountains Slovakia

Tatra Mountains Slovakia


We left Krakow early and 4 buses later we were in the High Tatra Mountains of Slovakia. On the way we left the city and continued through beautiful farm land, mountain ranges and broad green valleys. This is a very rural area that is popular for skiing in winter and hiking the rest of the year.

The typical house in these parts, steep roofs to keep the snow off. Why don't we have these at home? Because here they have storms that drop 4 metres in a day!!

A view from the bus

Welcome to Slovakia

Before I let you know a little about the area I need to back up a bit and post some food pictures of meals that we had in Poland. The cuisine was quite similar to the other countries we have visited with the pig being the king of the plate. Pork is fried, battered, breaded, minced and any other way you can think of presenting it. Here are a few examples…

The sign says it all...

Pork Schnitzel

Cabbage rolls with minced pork...the ones I make are much better.They use way too much salt!

Now back to this area, the town we are in looks like a small Swiss village with many pensions, cafes and sports shops. There are lots of ski lifts and hiking trails. I am impressed that the Slovaks are as active as we have seen very old and very young on the trails today.

Our little hotel

We started our hike early by taking the local train a few villages over then took the funicular up the mountain. When we disembarked we then started to climb higher and higher. There was snow on the peaks since August. Though they have one thing right here, in the mountains they have liquor shops where you can buy a few shots to put in your kit bag or in the case of most of us hot wine to drink on the way.

Buying our hot wine

As we went up we then had to go down so most of the hike was downhill which I find more difficult. It was also very steep and slippery so we were slow going though our guide said we made good time. The views were spectacular and the mountain air so clean.

The Tatra Mountains

A group shot,nice looking group don't you think?

Lunch time

 The slackers in the group including Don and I only hiked for 3 hours but two couples kept going and got stuck on the mountain when the lift broke.They texted Kris to let him know and he started to walk up to meet them but they made it back on their own.They were definitely not slackers as they walked for another 5 hours!  However the rest of the group vote for making it home early with refreshments on tap.

Some of the slackers, not you Jackie

We ended our evening with a farewell dinner as our leader, Kris, has to journey back home because of a family situation.He will take us to Budapest in the morning but then leave to go back to Slovenia.
We had a wonderful dinner which was both delicious and cheap and of course made of pork!

Pork kebabs,bacon, pork, sausage and onion

Our farewell supper

I am now caught up on my blog,the next post will hopefully be from Budapest.