Tatras

Slovakia 
High Tatras- Ždiar

14/10/13- 18/10/13

This is Wally

Ždiar, a little alpine town nestled in the Tatra Mountains, was the perfect place to get away from civilization and back to nature. It look us 3 long days of traveling with night stopovers in Zagreb and Budapest because Bosnia and Croatia have recently cancelled a lot of their long distance train lines due to low passenger numbers. A friend recommended we stay at The Ginger Monkey, a small, friendly hostel in a little cottage. The hostel also has 2 pets; a dog named Wally and Kevin the cat. During our 4-night stay we met some cool people and hiking buddies.

view to the mountains from the hostel

In snow season Zdiar is a ski town but in off-season it is the perfect base for hiking in the Tatra Mountains. On our first day we explored some of the shorter hikes around our hostel with some of our new hiking buddies and Wally the dog. During our walk we observed some of Wally’s strange habits, like digging up and barking at rocks, licking them profusely, barking at them again and then carrying them in his mouth. He also likes plastic bottles, children’s toys, sticks and pieces of wood. The hostel has a large selection of 80’s style ski jumpsuits that we tried out on our afternoon walk, very warm and highly fashionable (see picture). Wally was filthy from swimming in puddles from the recent rain so we gave him a shower when we got back to the hostel. He was not impressed.

one of our views over the Tatras

Thirsty?

afternoon hike in style

shower time

It was pouring with rain the next day so we decided to spend the day indoors relaxing, watching movies and napping. In the afternoon, it started snowing on the tops of the mountains and we were very excited. 

through the clouds

During our stay we sampled some Slovakian food at the nearby restaurants as it was dirt-cheap. We mainly ate at the only restaurant that we knew was open, as the others tend to close whenever they feel like it in off-season. We sampled specialties such as pork neck, potato pancakes and sheep cheese with dumplings. We also tried the local spirit, Tatra tea. This flavoured liquor can be between 27%-72% alcohol and can be drunk on ice, neat, with lemonade or in hot tea (our favourite)

mountains on our last morning

When we woke up on our last full day the weather was perfect for hiking and the snow was still on the mountains so we decided to do the 7 hour  hike over the peak with a few guys from the hostel. We tried to get rid of Wally but he wouldn’t go home so we gave up and let him join us, turns out he loves snow too. It was a tough, uphill, 3 hour climb to the summit but once we got to the snow line I was even more motivated to keep going. We reached the first peak at the perfect time. We were above the clouds and had a beautiful view of the snow capped mountains with light fog adding to the atmosphere. After a quick snack we hiked to the next peak to continue the track, which lead down to a lake and then the next town, where we would catch a bus back to Ždiar. On the way as the snow got thicker we saw a heard of mountain goats and Wally had fun chasing them. Once we made it to the second summit we were graced with yet another panoramic view for about 10 minutes before a thick fog engulfed us in about 10 seconds flat! At this stage we were a bit unsure of which way to go as our directions were pretty crappy. We walked on what we thought was the right track but were then greeted with a cliff face so we walked back to the peak. After trying a few other ways in the fog we decided to head back down the way we came as we wanted to make it back before dark and could not see more than 5 meters in front of us. On the way we saw met some Czech hikers who offered us some Metaxa a Greek brandy, which warmed our bellies. The walk back down was very slippery, our feet were soaked and our legs were sore so we were glad to make it back to the hostel for a hot shower. We were a bit sad that we missed out on getting to the lake but glad we got to see some amazing views and didn’t have to try to get Wally on the bus back to Ždair.

yummy snow

 

lost in the fog

 Next stop, Poland

-       Leah