Friday and Monday were days off in Netherlands which means a long weekend. The last thing on Earth I wanna do is to spend long weekends in Netherlands. So I started looking for cheap flights and on Thursday I found relatively cheap tickets to Budapest from Eindhoven. Another friend of mine decided to join me and the plan was to go to Higher Tatras in Slovakia.
A night in Budapest
So we took the bus to Eindhoven from Amsterdam and from there and took the flight to Budapest. We were there at 21:00 or something. We checked in hostel, had a bit of chit-chat with ladies at reception and asked them for a nice place around for Goulash. She told us a place, we went there and I ordered Goulash. Goulash is Hungarian dish but Bulgarian do it better. I didn’t like the Goulash at all. After eating, we went to see the Budapest from Citadel. We went to hill and here are some pictures
Traveling through Slovakia
Then we came to hostel and slept, we had to wake up early in morning to catch bus to Bratislava and then take train to Tatras. I remember the bus stop from last year. Anyway, we got into bus and after 2 hours or so, we were in Bratislava. We had sometime to kill before we get into train so we walked around a bit. Later we got into trains and after 5 hours, passing through lower tatras, we were in higher Tatras.
We got off of train at Štrbské Pleso, a small town famous for skiing resort. We were staying at a hostel in Popradske Pleso, which is a lake more than an hour hike from train stop. We started hiking immediately as it was an hour before it gets dark. In the beginning of hike, we met people but after 30 minutes of hike, it was just us, snow and voice of mountain.
We spent the night at hostel and also had nice dinner there. We went outside at night but it was too dark and sky was completely cloudy so not much do. We came back in and went to sleep. Next morning we woke up, grabbed breakfast and decided to hike to Sedlo pod Ostrvou.
As usual, I wasn’t well equipped for so much snow. When we started hike, it was snowing. As we got up, trail started to disappear and became very steep. My shoes were slipping, so after a bit of hike, we decided to return.
Later we returned down and hiked back to Štrbské Pleso. We hiked through a different trail this time and the views as usual were amazing
I have an online friend from Slovakia and he’s also into hiking and he suggested me, based on my location, time and lack of proper gear, to visit Predné Solisko. We took the lift from Štrbské Pleso and from there, we were supposed to hike 2 hours to get there. Again, my shoes were not good enough so I had to return half way from summit.
Later, we went to pizza near ski lift and had a crappy pizza with beer. We decided to take lift back down as we had to hike back to hostel. After 2 hours or so before it got dark, we were in hostel. We came back in rooms and had chit-chat with our roommates. They were Czech mountaineers. After having dinner at kitchen, we came back and tried to sleep. I was having sleep issues for quite sometime already so couldn’t sleep. I went back in lobby and sat there for long time.
Goodbye Snow, Hello Sunshine
Next morning, we were supposed to go back to Bratislava. My friend Samarth insisted that instead of hiking, we try to arrange a vehicle. He asked the guy and reception and he told us that he can hook up us with the guy who brings bread. We said, yeah sure. The morning he came very late and train arrived together with us. We took the trains and we were in Bratislava after 4.5 hours. Weather was sunny here. I cycled last year from Bratislava to Devin Castle last year and I suggested that we do the same. We rented the bikes from same shop as last year after lunch and started cycling.
We returned to city in a couple of hours and before getting to bus, had some time to kill so we roamed around again in old town taking pictures
After that, we went to station to get bus but it turned out that we were at a wrong station. Anyway, we ended up taking up taxi from Bratislava to Budapest together with another guy who missed bus like us. We went to airport and slept there as our flight was in morning. Later we went into plane, and we were welcomed by brutal winds in Netherlands.
Abby On Travel 