Grand Stary Smokovec

... more traditional food like baked cabbage with meat. <br><br>A route which I especially recommend, and which I do more or less once every 2 years, is a trail to Chata pri Zelenom Plese (literally: a house next to a green lake). It takes about 3 hours to get there, and the walk is not too taxing even for a beginner. It's a peaceful place with a lake, a cosy hostel and the mountains. There are a few trails than ...

... sme zopar tyciniek. Chceme ist do potravin, no mame smolu, je zatvorene. <br><br>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 :)<br>

... 321;apszanka Pass, a village of Rzepiska or Prze&#322;om Bia&#322;ki, a gorge of the river Bia&#322;ka. <br><br>The best time to visit Bukowina is mid August. Around the 15th, a famous festival takes place here. It's called 'Saba&#322;owe 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. <br>

The Tatra Trip to the Tery House<br>Saturday<br>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 &#8220;Wake up! We're leaving in ten minutes&#8221;. 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 ...

... in Budapest by the time we get there. By the way, we have been having a beer with most evening meals, and they have been great. We heard the Slovaks like real strong beer - 12% alcohol - but we thought there would be normal ones (5%) as well. Nope. Slovak pubs and restaurants serve 12% beer or it is soft drink. And it comes in 0.5L glasses. No second rounds here for us. Cheers hic Phil and Cathy

... It is so interesting. and the language is beautiful...I could listen to it all the time. Andrea and Drahus were so accomodating and made me feel so at home. That is what i love about them. I couldn't thank them enough. And I think they like the Chocolate and digestives I took them ;o) Overall, one of my favorite trips so far. now I only have to write a one credit paper, and then I'm off on my Tuscan vacation next weekend..... only 17 more days now. I'm not sure how I feel about that...