S turistami do raja

Kategória:

Kronika

It is good when you can start your weekend on a Friday afternoon in a train heading mountains. It's good when you're accompanied by people who like hiking. A perspective of going to paradise is also very good. Taking these three altogether we were about to have a great time.

We: 3 Slovaks, 3 Poles and 1 Spanish took a 13:55 train to Poprad. With each kilometer the views outside the window were better and better :) We got in Poprad a bit late, but the train to Vydrink was waiting for us anyway, so we were lucky. Then we took the bus to place where we were to spend our first night. Wooden ranch had homely atmosphere, so homely that on Saturday morning, when we should leave the place, the local cat (I'm not sure whether it was macka or kocur) decided to run inside and hide under the stairs, behind different stuffs... It took a while to get it from it :)

When we started our walk, the deeper in forest we were, the better were the views. Slovak Paradise is amazing. We went along Hornad river, where were some funny/scarry technical aids like footrests and ladders. There were lots of great rocks around, mostly limestones, I think. They made wonderful landscape, with gorges and streams. Then we went through Sokolia Dolina (Falcon Dale). To reach Zavojovy Vodospad (waterfall) we had to be brave ;-) and overcome several high ladders. In higher places there was a lot of snow, so we could leave our footprints (or “stopy” which is quite funny for me). That was a long day and at the end of it probably everyone, including me, dreamt of taking their shoes off and eating something warm. The dinner got us some extra power to play “Saboteur” (don't know how but the same person happened to be the saboteur almost all the time). Later, some of us had even more extra power to play “dobble”, communicating in all the languages we speak :)

On Sunday we wanted go to local church for Holly Mass which started at 9:45, so we could sleep quite long. It was Palm Sunday (Kvetná Nedela or Niedziela Palmowa). On that day we have colourful Easter palms (palmy wielkanocne, palemki) in Poland, which is different from Slovak willow branches.

After the Mass we continued our journey. We went north-west, along Palcmanská Maša and started our hike to Havrania Skala. During walk we passed green meadow with crocuses, then rocks with frozen icicles (“cencul” in Slovak, in Polish “sopel” ;-)), a lovely stream, caves and snowy hills... When we reached the peak we could sit and simply admire the view. We also „signed up“ in a memory book as UPeCe Bratislava – Slovensko+Polsko+Spanielsko with a drawing of us (with one long person ;]). Then we walked down through Stratensky Kanon (Canyon Stratena) to village Stratena, caught a bus to Poprad, then took a train to Bratislava. Michal left us in Zilina, the rest of group went to Bratislava. Happy and relaxed, we got off the train, and while slowly walking to the bus stop some of us cried „It's our bus, run!“. And so we run, with big backpacks on our backs, why shouldn't we?

For me it was really a good time. I'm glad I met new people and I saw wonders of Slovak Paradise. Thank you for taking me with you :) I hope we will see on some path soon!

Aga