Monday, August 20: My family and I woke up at 4:40am to take a train around 5am to the Slovak High Tatry mountains to hike for the day. It was my first time on a Slovak train, but wasn't anything unusual. The train was about 3 hours, followed by another 20 minute train to Štrbské Pleso, a lake to which we will start our 7 hour hike. The view of the mountains was beautiful and I couldn't wait to go up. My host family explained to me that we would hike 1.5 hours to a waterfall, then another few hours up the mountain until we climb over the peak to the other-side. From there, we'd go back down the mountain and eventually take a cable car back to Štrbské Pleso. (By the way, Štrbské.... typical Slovak word with only one vowel haha!) Anyway, the first hour of the hike was through the Tatry pine forest. There we ate many wild berries and felt water from the mountains. The water was freezing! Since it was all from the mountains it stayed cold all year round. Eventrually we hiked through the forest to the actual rock terrain, and then to the waterfall where we had "lunch." Past the waterfall, you must climb above it, literally on a cliff, where you hold onto a chain (definitely wouldn't be legal in USA). It was so cool to do this. The next few hours we climbs higher and higher up the mountain stopping at three glacier lakes in the mountains (usually to eat more). At one of them, we saw a Kamzik, a rare Slovak mountain goat. At the final one, we were pretty much surrounded by a bowl of mountains which made the loudest echo I've ever heard. I screamed "Milujem Slovensko" (I love Slovakia) at least three times!! It's hard to type this, cause just reading and even seeing the photos I attach below will be nothing compared to the true beauty of this place, but it was unbelievable. After the last lake, we climbed super steep terain, right up the mountain. To cross to the otherside of the peak, we once again, had to pull ourselves up with chains. The view was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. From there, we hiked down for another two hours. While hiking down, you could see the entire valley between the High and Low Tatry. Another weird thing about Slovakia, it rains in only short areas at a time, so when it rains, you can see the entire rain storm falling from a distance (Ill attach a photo below.) But through the mountains we could see a rainstorm over half the valley. At the end of our hike, we arrived at a mountain restaurant where I had mountain tea and a type of chicken haluśki (like Slovak gnocchi). In this restaurant was probably 50% Polish people, making me feel so at home haha! My brother, sister and I all decorated a full page in the visitors book with my welcome note from USA! When we finished, we took a cable car down to Strbske Pleso and walked around the lake. The view from there was probably the most beautiful thing I've seen in my entire life (not even lying). There were wedding photos taking place for 4 different brides, with 3 of them being Polish. Shortly after we went back down to catch our train home for the day. Another weird story, after we boarded the train, we were walking looking for a seat, as I notice a boy who looked just like an Australian exchange student in Slovakia who I'd talk to. We were both staring at eachother, until says "wait, are you Nick?" It was probably the most random encounter in my entire life haha! We talked about exchange and the district until he had to get off. The next two hours of the train I spent with my host mom and siblings talking and having fun. I love them so much, they are the best family I could have asked for. After our long day in the Tatry, my host mom told us she had another day off work tomorrow, so we'd get up at 7:30am to take another trip to Bratislava (the capital)! Tuesday, August 21: Today we woke up early in the morning to catch our train to Bratislava. The ride was about 2 hours and went by very quickly. First we went to the presidential palace whcih had an exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact's invasion of Czechoslovakia. Then we went to the Bratislavsky Hrad (castle.) On the way there, my brother saw some boy from his school (who I'd met at the archeological dig) which was another random encounter. As you can tell, Slovakia is a very small country, and it's quite common to see people you know in all parts. We walked with them to the castle, then parted ways. We didn't go inside cause it was too long of a tour, so instead we walked around the grounds. It was so beautiful and had a great view of Bratislava. From there, we went to Stare Mesto, old town. It was a typical central European old town and so beautiful! We walked through, got ice cream, then headed towards the UFO bridge crossing the Dunaj (Danube). We went to the top to get a view of the whole city. Bratislava itself is a very tiny city but still beautiful! Following the bridge, we went to Aupark, a huge mall, for the apple store to fix the old iPhone I gave to my brother (it won't accept his Slovak simcard). We had lunch there at McDonalds, which I was intrigued about what to buy. I ordered some chicken sandwich thing with french fries, and realized there was no condiment station so I asked the cashier for ketchup. She charged us 20cents for it and handed me the smallest packet of ketchup I've ever seen. This was the biggest culture shock I'd had since arriving. A McDonalds with no ketchup??? It was so funny. After, we went back to old town where I bought some souvenirs and a Slovak flag! We took another train home, and the old man next to me was looking at porn on his phone, so uncomfortable haha! I'm absolutely exhausted but it was such an amazing two days! I am so lucky to have this family and experience.
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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