Grand Stary Smokovec

... higher than the Polish part.

There is a special railway designed to bring the mountaineers to virtually any place they want, and its network connects all the High Tatra towns like Tatranska Lomnica, Smokovce or Strbske Pleso. What's more, there are a few cable cars that take you directly into the heart of Tatry without any effort, like: Lomnicky Stit (over 2500 metres over the sea level), Skalnate Pleso ...

... sme zopar tyciniek. Chceme ist do potravin, no mame smolu, je zatvorene.

Obchadzame Hnilecke vrchy smerom na Sykavku, kadial oficialne pokracuje cervena Hnilecka cyklomagistrala. Za Hnilcom sa vsak cesta meni z asflatovej na lesnu. Ideme lesom a lukami tesne popri zeleznici a potoku. KRASNE ! Vona ihlicnateho lesa nas sprevadza aj tu ... a v lese je prijemne vlhko, zeby tu prsalo ? Je aj dost mokro, co si hned obidvaja odskusame padom do blata :)

... 321;apszanka Pass, a village of Rzepiska or Przełom Białki, a gorge of the river Białka.

The best time to visit Bukowina is mid August. Around the 15th, a famous festival takes place here. It's called 'Sabałowe Bajania' and it's all about the traditional music of the mountains. People wear traditional clothes and the weather is really nice: it's warm and it's not pouring with rain.

The Tatra Trip to the Tery House
Saturday
I opened my eyes to the twilight surrounding me, feeling the damp settling over the tent. It took me a while to realize where I was, and judged from the light around that I still had a couple of hours of sleep. I put my head down, closed my eyes, only to open them back up again, to Szabolcs's “Wake up! We're leaving in ten minutes”. He shook the tent gently, and moved over to the next one where Laszlo was sleeping by ...

Arrived here on Labour Day (a bank holiday Friday) to a party atmosphere of flag waving at a parade where the USSR flag was borne along and a group of people shouted support for Fidel Castro. All very exciting, especially as we saw it on the local news later that evening (unfortunately the camera angle wasn't wide enough to catch two bemused Brits looking on with interest!). Went for a walk the next ...

The train ride to Stary Smokovec was beautiful, out from the rolling hills of Slovakia into the foothills of the Tatras, it made my lunch of bread and peanut butter that much more enjoyable. Stary Smokovec is a town at the base of the mountain - much of a starting point for adventures in the Tatras, a resort if you will. Very nice hotels and ski shops everywhere, I had to prepare myself to spend a bit of extra money on accommodation for a night to rest easy for the trek ...

Tue 22 May Caught a morning bus to Poprad, then the electric train to the High Tatras town of Stary Smokovec. The Tatras are part of the Carpathian Mountains and make up part of the border between Slovakia and Poland. I had read that there was a bad storm in 2004, with winds reaching 140-180km/hr, that had damaged some of the lower forest, but I didn't imagine it would be as bad as it was. On the train up to Stary Smokovec the majority of the trees were knocked ...

With a bad first impression of Poprad as we pulled into the station, we consulted the "bible" which advised to stay in Stary Smokovec, a village 30min away by electric train in the hills. Thank you Lonely Planet as it was lonely. Went for a brief foray into the Mts, saw ragin river tumbling over rocks and back down via funicular railway. Mts very beautiful and ideal for hiking hade we more time. Tried the local plum vodka with sprite which went down nicely and made ...

... would have been fascinating with no audio tour. The rest of the day was spent hiking up the Sucha Bela trail. This trail is fairly well-known because portions of it consist of steep ladders, steps, and chains. It was a little nerve-wracking, I'm afraid of heights and don't normally do well with ladders. But the trail was fun, and the views from the top of the trail were gorgeous.

... a lot of very cheap beer. We also get a lot of dumplings and cabbage, which has led to some serious repercussions in a small tent late at night (Note: Phil & Net, I will fumigate it upon our return!). On the downside, there is a clear divide between the Slovaks and the Roma and as a result we have had very little interaction with any of the Roma population for a whole host of reasons we know nothing about. The Roma 'problem' will presumably last for ...