The fact that the "days ago" bit keeps having larger numbers put in front of it just goes to show how far I really am behind in updates. This entry will be about the three day trip we took the weekend after we got back from Germany.
We were invited to spend a couple nights at the penzion Golden Fox, which is owned and operated by some friends of mine. It is located in a small city close to the base of the High Tatras, with the nearest peak being Lomnicky Stit. In our part of Europe this mountain range is known as the "mini alps". For Slovakia, this is one of the biggest draws for tourists, and rightly so since it is really beautiful and cheaper than the real alps. This is just a little overview to give you an idea of the area we were in.
We arrived there, at the penzion, in the late afternoon on a Thursday. We didn't do much that day except to just relax from the trip and eat a good supper. The trip itself was something interesting. There were eight of us and again only one five passenger car. We packed the car full of people and those that didn't fit rode the train. I was the principle driver for the whole trip, meaning I had to know where I was going. This was a first for me since all the other trips that I have driven on were ones in which I followed someone else. I am happy to say that we didn't get lost and I actually had very little difficulty in remembering the way, even though I hadn't been through those parts a good while . Everybody, both in the car and on the train, got to see the same sights (for the most part) on the trip. The cities we drove through are really nothing great to look at, but the country side does offer a nice landscape, plus the entertainment of trying to spot castle ruins in the hills (which I try my best to do; yes, even while driving).
The second day we had a number of choices of what we could do. There were at least three mountain lakes that we could go see, each having there own stipulations. Then there was Mom's ankle that was all swollen from some kind of bite and our host's concern about having something done about it. What ended up happening was that Mom, myself, Lukas, and his mother (our host) went to a doctor friend of her's in order to figure out what to do about the swelling. After this, we went to the pharmacy to get the medicine and by then it was nearing lunch time. This eliminated one of the choices of sight seeing, which then left two. It was getting late in the day and the mountains were starting to cloud up, plus we didn't even know if there were still tickets left. Why would we need tickets for a mountain? Because you have to have them to ride the cable car of course! No really, that was part of going to one of the lakes, and if we wanted to, to go on up to the peak. It was kind of a mutual desire to take this option instead of the other one, but there was a great possibility that we wouldn't be able to go that day. We then decided, after weighing the pros and cons, that we would stay until the next day, Saturday, and go up on the mountain in the morning.
With the rest of the afternoon that was left, I and most of my brothers decided to explore around the place (the penzion's neighborhood). We found a creek nearby at the suggestion of our host, and proceeded to explore it's banks. We didn't get very far until we had someone yelling at us to get off their property, even though there were no signs, written or otherwise, that would have indicated that the brush we were clumping through belonged to anybody but the river. So, what do you do when you get stopped from going one direction? You go the other way. We walked down until we were quite out of what could be imagined as being private property, and then headed back to the creek. And what do you do at a creek? Well, we threw rocks in for a while until I suggested we put stepping stones in so we could walk across. In a matter of minutes there was no real reason for stepping stones, since everybody had their shoes off, wading in the water. We then turned the idea of stepping stones into a making a dam that would go across the creek. This was a great idea and it actually worked; we were able to lower the water on the other side by a good 6 inches.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, but up on the mountain it was a little bit different. After riding the little train from the city to the base of the mountain, we were planning on going from there by cable car; just like all the other tourists who were starting to collect there. We noticed something had to be wrong because the cable wasn't running and we found out shortly that they were not running the cars due to high wind. This was quite a disappointment, and we still wanted to go up the mountain, so we stopped there and tried to figure out a logical "plan B". Most of us were all for hiking up the mountain, but there were a couple who weren't as keen on that plan. We tried our best to make sense of walking up, and if by that time the cable cars were running again, then we would simply just ride them down. If they were not running we really would have no choice but to walk back down. Total time for the hike up was said to be somewhere around two hours (somewhere is right!) and so we decided we'd try hiking.
Mountains sure are deceiving! The closer you get the bigger they get. We made it to the "half way" point in an hour or so (I don't remember). I was rather enjoying the trip so far and I think everyone else was doing OK, if not a bit winded. The discouraging part was looking up and still seeing our goal still higher than we were and knowing that the trail was only going to get steeper. We were on a "strait up the mountain" path, but this didn't bother us. Though it meant more rocks and more stepping up, generally fatiguing the knees quite fast, we were able to conquer more ground while using the same energy as it would have taken to walk on the main, winding path (or something like that).
We kept hiking and kept hiking, going up and up, and by this time we had lost sight of our destination because of the trees and the steep incline. Everybody was starting to get tired here, unless they had already been, but we kept on going. We did finally come to the end of the tall trees, which left us with scrub pine, but more and bigger rocks. We could finally see the observatory (which was a landmark of our destination) again, but now it was quite plain that we still had a ways to go.
By this time our group had gotten quite spread out, I being in about the middle, even though we were supposed to be sticking together in at least two groups. One group had gone on ahead because they were young, energetic and had wanted to go faster. The other group, which, understandably, was the slower group (for various reasons), was getting farther and farther behind because we were now climbing on quite a steep incline. I arrived at the "top" (actually just the next cable car station) a few minutes after the first group arrived. Boy, was it windy up there!!!
Right as I came into view of the lodge/restaurant/station I was blasted in the face with sand blown by the wind. It was even hard just to stand up; you could literally just lay against the wind and it would keep you upright, much less try to walk against it. After being inside for a while and warming up (it was about 10 degrees C not including the wind-chill), I decided to head back out, without my camera bag, and try and help the rest of our group make it to the top. I had no idea how far back down the mountain they were, but I decided to hurry as fast I could (it was actually easier to jog and jump on account of the wind pushing me down). I found some of the group down where the wind had really started to pick up. Lukas' mom and sister had already headed back down the mountain because they decided it was too dangerous and to much work to make it to the "top". I knew that it was only another 15 or 20 minutes to the top so I did my best to encourage those still there to keep going. We all finally made it to the "top", but I don't know that we all enjoyed it. We found out later that the wind outside was blowing at 90 kph! No wonder the cable cars weren't running; it made you sea sick just to watch the empty cars get buffeted by the wind!
We were there at the "top" for a while. We ate what we had and drank what we didn't have (meaning we had to pay the price of what it cost to get something to drink); naturally I had Kofola. Everybody was glad to sit down and rest and I think the eating and drinking did help to revive us some, or better put, what it could revive - legs don't revive very fast. We had to start down sometime, and we decided that the sooner we got down the better, especially considering the fact that we still had to drive "home" that evening. So, after some of us braved the wind to take a couple quick pictures of the lake and view, we headed down.
Going down is always easier than going up, and this time was no exception. I think we were all looking forward to being off the mountain. We took our time and stuck together. We took breaks as often as we needed to and I think just tried to enjoy the last part of the journey as much as we could.
We finally did make it back to the penzion. Those who were riding the train home had to be whisked off to the train station, but not until after they got a pizza to take with them. The rest of us waited until the other pizzas were done and then said our good-byes and headed off.
It really was a nice trip and I am more than positive that we will all remember it - for all our own reasons of course!
Note: Some pictures used in this post were not taken by me. I have borrowed them from family members who took more pictures than I did.
