October 2016
I hadn't been to Slovakia even in transit, so for me the trip was doubly interesting. Slovakia is known for having mountains (Tatras). Shame I got a bit sick and spent almost all the time in the hotel, but overall, the trip was good.
We went by RegioJet train - very comfortable, quite fast. Had to go about 7 hours + about 30 minutes by bus to the hotel.
From Prague we left at 7:45. Sat in the very last car, which is, apparently, the cheapest :)
Despite this, every hour a conductor passed by us offering tea, coffee and apple juice.
They also gave out newspapers for free and gave everyone a small bottle of water.
Weather outside the window wasn't great, it was raining :(
Stopped in Czechia like 8 times. Lots of people were traveling, many Slovaks return home after the work week. Here, for example, Olomouc, where we'd already been.
Around - old but beautiful trains.
Fashionable station signs. Already in Slovakia.
About 7.5 hours into the journey we're in Poprad - from there a bus goes to the hotel. The hotel is in the village Tatranske Matliare. We run for the bus, because it leaves almost 5 minutes after our arrival.
Ticket for two cost only 3 euros for half an hour of travel. By the way, language barrier is almost zero, we understand everything, everyone understands us :) Note that Slovakia has euros, and Czechia has its own currency.
We arrived!
Our hotel
Shame I didn't really get to leave the hotel :(
On top of everything there was thick fog for 3 days. Only when we left, the sun came out and we saw the cherished mountains :)
Nobody wanted to sit all weekend in the hotel, so collectively it was decided to walk one of the tourist routes of the High Tatras (there are also Low ones).
In Slovakia we ended up, actually, thanks to a corporate event at my girlfriend's work. A small Prague group of 8 people after a hard journey, several shots of Slovak apple, and also cherry moonshine, and then a couple shots of Tatra tea decided that on Saturday we'd conquer mountains.
For this a tourist map was bought at the hotel reception and an approximate route was made. Then the CEO (by the way an expert and mountain conqueror) said we slightly overestimated our strength 🙃
Beautiful picture with our goal - Chata pri zelenom plese (starting point - Tatranské Matliare, then yellow trail Kežmarská Biela voda to the house, to the hut, further Velké Biele plesa, then blue back).
After breakfast we started waiting, as the weather wasn't happy at all, there was thick fog and drizzle, but by 9 am the rain stopped and we set out. Fedor stayed home due to poor health and poor homework))
Literally a couple meters from the hotel we find a small stream.
Our first sign.
On it we can see key points of various routes and time in which you'll get to them (in Czechia, for example, they write kilometers).
Made a selfie, in case anyone gets lost.
And went into the fog.
Blue fog.
Almost the whole path we were accompanied by a mountain stream.
Got to a fork.
To our hut by yellow trail approximately 2:05 hours (we go left, right goes blue). By the way, all time markers are calculated for a completely ordinary person, not some gym guy. We, as not the most athletic folks, stopping every half hour to drink water and eat some snack, were ahead of estimated time by 10-20 minutes.
Lots of little mushrooms along the way.
As it turned out, in the Tatras there are many springs, plus snow fell a couple weeks ago, so our path lay among real streams.
Yes-yes, we didn't confuse anything, this is our yellow trail, not some stream :)
Snow started appearing.
And here's mountain beauty.
Decided to make another selfie where we're all like after a shower.
Here you can see how we got wet, got wet from fog, not rain.
But let's move on to local beauties. Mountain lake.
On the shore of which we met our Slovak colleague. He's an avid tourist, so always takes with him on hikes 0.5 Jäger (holy man!). Before we could blink the cherished shot of this wonderful drink was already splashing inside us. Just what you need when you're wet, tired and freezing.
The guy went further up, and we to warm up.
Met us this handsome guy.
The dog is a real talisman of this place. They sell magnets with it and how can you resist this cutie.
The cherished warm house.
Inside we warmed up and ate. On colleague's advice everyone took tea (they pour it there into half-liter IKEA mugs) and hot raspberry - both are must-haves in such weather. I also got broccoli soup. The portion was big, but due to my hunger everything was photographed not in full.
The guys even have branded napkins.
Ate, warmed up - let's go further.
By the way, checkpoint.
Height above sea level 1551 meters (started from 915 m).
Next route point by red trail at a distance of 30 minutes walk.
Turned out that from 1.11 all paths are closed to preserve Tatra nature.
We decided that they do this more to preserve our lives))
By the way, for Czechs Slovakia is associated with bears, because they live in the Tatras.
Further we found the Linda spring.
But the water turned out to be non-potable((
Red path continues.
Along the way played snowballs and made a snowman.
Second checkpoint and beauty around it.
Here there was only benches and gazebos, so we went back to Tatranske Matliare. Returned by blue path.
One surprise awaited us on the way back, namely, a collapsed bridge.
Fortunately, nothing serious, everyone crossed it and stayed whole.
In about an hour we returned to the section that connected the blue and yellow paths.
And now just 1:15 to the hotel.
The fog gradually lifted and it seemed we were going a completely different way, because nobody recognized the road, after all everything became visible))
At 16:00 safe and sound we returned to the hotel. Everyone was happy and dreamed of a warm bath (fortunately, the hotel had one).
Interesting thing.
Slovaks are divided into two categories: those who love tourism and those who love drinking. Very often these two things are combined :D
P.S.:
on Sunday morning two things were discovered:
Beautiful sunrise
Mountains around the hotel.
