writebrained, rightbrained

High Tatras, Slovakia

We spent two days in the high Tatras mountains on the Slovakian side, and so far these are among my favorite of the trip.  We stayed in a gorgeous ski and hiking lodge with two incredibly well-preserved and active owners.  Stana goes running or biking every day for two to four hours, and Yala just got back from vacationing in Croatia.  We arrived via overnight train and by 7 am they had a hearty breakfast (and plum brandy shots!) waiting for us on check-in.

A group of us did a relaxing, easy hike up the mountain, including a dip in a icy, pristine mountain lake, which we later learned was not permitted because it was the source of the town’s drinking water!  Our lodge host laughed it off, saying that it wasn’t a big deal and that in that region, a little irreverence towards authority is encouraged.  We now partially understand the consternation in the hikers we encountered near the lake, as we gestured to them about swimming in it — we hadn’t understood a word of their Czech or Slovak, and thought they were more concerned about what route to take back to the bottom.

The food here was worth mentioning.  Manuel, our Italian tour guide, took us to a delicious restaurant, which made very authentic thin crust pizzas in their imported wooden pizza oven.  In fact, I led a group back the next day for lunch, all the while admitting to ourselves that this was the height of touristic laziness.  But that could also be interpreted as a compliment to the food, or our general weariness with meat and carbs, which is what all the “local” restaurants have specialized in so far on our journey.  We also went to a fantastic Slovakian restaurant which primarily served grilled food where I had a fantastic grilled trout.  I sampled the local variation of the Swiss “alpine macaroni” which I like to cook for friends on snowboarding trips in New England this past winter.  Yum. 

It was nice to have one last big group dinner, because tomorrow we head for Branislaw and Budapest, and our lovely tour group will split up.  Half of us are heading home or are doing the Balkan “loop”, a one month trek through Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia; while another half are continuing to Istanbul with us, or even beyond to Cairo.  I’ve loved traveling with this group, which is mixed in age, nationality and occupation.  Australians dominate, but there is one Brit, one Canadian, and us.  There are three teachers, two policemen, one lawyer, and two couples.  I find the two couples absolutely adorable: one pair is older and married for thirty years with five grandkids, and the other are just graduating university.  Everyone has been really nice and laid back, which is such a pleasure when you’re on a potentially stressful adventure tour like this one.  It will be sad to see some of them go.  Ghabby and I gave all our leftover Czech coins to Glenys for her grandkids to play with, and we’ve already planned an annual reunion on their farm in Australia, if you can believe it.