I woke up to knocking on my train cabin door. It was 5:45 am and the conductor was informing us we would be arriving in half an hour. Although this overnight train was much nicer than the last (3 to a cabin instead of 6, had AC and it's own mirror and sink in each cabin), I still didn't sleep. Overnight trains and I aren't friends. I packed up my bag and brushed my teeth and was all ready to hop off. We got off in the main town of Poprad and got on to another train for half an hour to take us higher into the mountains - specifically the mountain village of Novy Smokovec.
We arrived at our mountain lodge and met the owners. It was 7:30 am at this time and so she rushed us upstairs for a delicious breakfast. The table was full of meats, cheeses, breads, eggs, yogurt, and fruit. And then came the "welcome" home made vodka shots. That was by far the earliest my poor liver has had to deal with that (I think?).
Then it was time to settle into our rooms and take a shower. I was for sure starting to smell and everyone was just being polite and saying I didn't. Some of us decided to meet at 10 to train to a spot where you can hike a short 4km on a relatively easy path to a beautiful glacier lake up in the mountains.
We got there and it looked like it would be a beautiful day. The sun was shining - it was perfect for hiking. Along the way, Andy, our tour leader, and I decided to run little bits of the trail here and there. It's been about 5 weeks since I've ran though so running up hill in the mountains proved to be a bit of a challenge.
We made it to the lake after about an hour. It was so nice to be up in the mountains taking in the scenery and breathing in fresh air. It reminded me of being in Canmore. There was a little lunch spot there so we sat and had a beer and some snacks outside overlooking the lake. As we were sitting there we noticed people walking way way up high on a mountain across the way. We watched them for a bit and figured out how they got there. You could slightly see all the switch back paths leading up to the top. The people at the top were little dots on the horizon.
Half an hour later...we had convinced ourselves to do it. Two people bailed, but myself, Andy, Karren from New Zealand, and Sean from Australia, were all in. Fuelled by our beers, we set off.
The hike up seemed to never end, but eventually we made it to the top and the view was breath taking on both sides. We sat up there for a while and took it all in. I realized then that I really had to go to the washroom, and when you're on the top of a mountain there really isn't any private areas where you can't be seen. Luckily, there was a 5 minute window where the boys set off to explore elsewhere and I marked my territory. Not many people can say they've peed on top of a mountain in Slovakia, can they?
Once we were finally back down, we rehydrated and hiked back down from the restaurant at the lake a different way so as to reach another little village and hit up the supermarket. That took about another 45 minutes. At the supermarket we bought the essentials: beer, chocolate, and water.
Most of us fell asleep on the train ride back to the lodge. From there we didn't even have it in us to shower - it was straight to dinner. We gathered everyone else and went to a restaurant where we shared the giant Slovakia platter. Those of us who had hiked had eyes the size of tennis balls and stomachs to match. The food was delicious.
Once back at the hotel we stopped in to the main foyer and there was a huge gathering there. Many of the musicians taking part in tomorrow's musical festival hosted by the owners of our lodge were starting to pour in and enjoy the home made vodka, wine, beer, and many other spirits. We were greeted with a few more rounds of the "welcome" vodka. It had a bit of a peach taste to it, but was 52% so it also burned the esophagus. I stuck around for one more beer and then called it a night. A 5:30 am start and 6 hours of hiking all day wasn't allowing for a long night.
Tomorrow is a rest day...until 2 when the music festival starts, that is.
Snow!:
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