Slovakia: A High at the Tatra

The mountains beckoned me again. After the great trip of Ladakh, I set my next target as the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia. It was one of the most prominent mountain ranges of Eastern Europe and is often referred to as the Alps of the east.
An added incentive was the fact that my colleague in the bank (or should I say counterpart) Maria (henceforth referred to as Maja) hailed from that area. Her home and family hailed from a town in the midst of the Tatras mountains. She readily agreed to take us around the mountains and as soon as the weekend arrived, we booked out tickets and set-off for the east towards Slovakia.
This was going to be an all-boys trip and bound to be a rough one since we would be mostly in the mountains with nature. We set off by train on Friday night from Prague towards Poprad Tatry in Slovakia, a town at the foothills of the Tatras. Being a Friday night we could not get bookings in the sleeper compartment and had to settle for normal sitting arrangement. We carried beer with us so that we get some good sleep since we had a hectic Saturday ahead. But what can a mere one beer do? I did get some sleep but don’t think that was enough. We reached Poprad Tatry at 5:30 AM and as instructed by Maja we proceeded to buy the tickets for our onward journey towards Stary Smokovec. This was a narrow-guage train going up the hill into the mountains. We boarded the train at around 6 and were in Stary Smokovec at around 6:30 AM. Maja and her friend Marek met us at Stary Smokovec station. They had driven down from Prague the previous evening and reached at 2 in the morning. We were all booked at Hotel Magura so we boarded a bus that would take us there. The bus was packed to the maximum and I was all but squashed. It was a long journey about an hour towards the end of which we finally got a place to sit. The location of the hotel was beautiful with a great, scenic view of the mountains. All of us checked into 3 rooms.
Just as I thought of a good rest in the midst of nature, Maja announced that we are already late and we would have to head for the mountains by 10. The hotel provided breakfast and that too an amazing one with scrambled eggs.

We took a quick shower and started off on the trek at around 10:30 AM. It felt great at the start moving through the greenery. Then slowly the torture started as the slope became steeper. It was a wonderful sunny day so there was a large no. of trekkers moving up the slope following the trail. I started struggling far too soon and fell behind within the group. I still somehow moved on but it became worse and soon I thought it was getting a bit embarrassing. Surely I could not be that bad to be grounded right at the start. Even Jagadeesh in our group was struggling but that was more due to improper shoes (he was wearing those formal shoes which you wear for a corporate presentation which was definitely feeling out of place in the middle of the Tatras). I wondered what was wrong. My shoes were in top condition and so was my ankle. Only the next day did I realize that it was mainly due to the lack of sleep the previous night. As I was left behind Marek has to act as the shepherd and get the tail-end of the group up to our destination. As we went upwards, each time I looked back I could see our hotel shrinking and slowly and disappearing into the distance. After lot of struggle there was some respite as I finally reached our first target Kopske Sedlo. The rest of the team was already there around 20 mins before.

At Kopske Sedlo – 1825m

Kopske Sedlo was at a height of 1825m. Marek told us that we are around 1000m at the hotel so we climbed a height of around 825m during the trek (around 2500 feet). Just as we thought that the toughest part was over, we realized that it was just half the journey. We would go further up and then descend and then proceed further to a cottage. The view at the top was breathtaking. The hotel was reduced to the size of your nail and the winds threatened to blow you away. The scrambled eggs for breakfast had been digested by that time and in order to refuel, we had some too-good potato Danish cooked by Maya’s mom. Once all the eating and the photo sessions were done we proceeded with the trek. The wind was truly blowing hard and we had to make that extra effort to avoid getting blown away. We soon climbed to a height of 1933m. The mountains looked even more breathtaking and the place was full of trekkers with full trekking gear (needless to say, we didn’t have much). During the whole trek from the hotel, we all had to adjust our gear according to the position of the clouds and the steepness of the slope. When the sun shone or the sweat started flowing due to the steep slope, the jackets came off. I even had to borrow a t-shirt from Marek since it became too sweaty and I only had a full-sleeve with me. The walk through the rocky terrain seemed to be never-ending. We were heading towards the cottage Brnčalova Chata. Each time my foot landed on the rocks, I thought how much more to go. After a long walk, we reached Brnčalova Chata at around 4:30 PM.

Brnčalova Chata

It felt like heaven and even more so since we planned to be there for the next 1 ½ hours to regain all the energy along with a full-fledged meal. It was blissful to just sit there and enjoy the beer and the Slovakian goulash. I could no longer feel my legs since they were numb. Finally when it was time to go we wondered if we could get a vehicle from somewhere to drop us to the hotel. That was not to be and we had to walk for another 1 ½ hours to the bus stand from where could board a bus for the hotel. We started our walk. It was 6 PM and already dusk. This was mainly through the forests. I had read prior to this trip that wolves and bears are part of these forests. I just hoped that they wouldn’t pop up to say ‘Hi’. We passed a milestone which said that the bus-stand was one hour away (It meant that it was a one-hour walk). Marek and Maya told us that the bus was at 7 PM and it was already 6:10. If we miss the bus, it would mean another long walk to the hotel. So the only option was to speed up walking and cover the one hour route in under 50 mins. I just thought that things couldn’t go worse. Here I was just dragging myself and each
time my foot landed on an uneven rock, it felt like my shoes were crying for mercy and now we had to speed up and cover a 60 min walk in 45. However, the very thought of missing the bus brought the much needed energy and we ended up finishing the walk in 45 mins. By this time most of us were ready to hit the ground as we waited for the bus. The bus was as expected crowded and we found a seat only towards the end of the journey. This was followed by another 1 km walk from the bus-stand to the hotel. Once I reached my room, I was in no position to stand and I immediately crashed. I thought of taking some rest and then proceeding for dinner. Thankfully I was woken up on time by Kelwin. The last thing I wanted was to miss dinner and a drink. We had a good dinner with the group and a peg of Ballantine scotch. We sat and chatted for a while after which it was being increasingly impossible to keep my eye-lids apart. I went back to my room and crashed.

Approaching 1933m

I woke up next morning at a decent 9 AM. I thought the hangover of the previous day would still haunt me but it felt magical. There was no pain whatsoever and I could never feel that I had done a herculean 25 km+ trek the previous day. As the same time just hoped that the Sunday would be not as tough as the Saturday. It was not planned to be. Yes, Maja told us that would be walks and climbs but not as long as it was the day before. We had the scrambled eggs breakfast and walked briskly to the bus stop to catch the10:30 bus to Stary Smokovec. The plan was to visit Maja’s sister’s cottage – Zamkovskeho Chata. We were picked up by Maja’s friend in her car from Stary Smokovec and dropped at the point up to which you can drive – Hrebienok. We walked from then on. I felt a lot better and realized that it was the sleep which made a huge difference between Sunday and Saturday. This would turn out to be the best part of our trip. Around 45 min into the walk through the forest, we reached a cottage Rainerova Chata. This was a museum which displayed all mountaineering material used by the brave sherpas of the region over the years. Sherpas here frequently
carry the ration from the city to the cottages where tourists frequently visit (Maja’s sister Jana’s cottage was once such cottage). We took a break there and sat down to have some drinks. The uniqueness of the cottage (Chata) lay in the fact that it did not have any electricity. It was running on gas lanterns. The whole setting gave someone like me goose-bumps as I could not in my wildest dreams think of visiting a place like this. We had some hot drinks and resumed our journey towards Zamkovskeho Chata. It started raining and the trek became all the more fun. We walked through rocks which were now wet and soon through

Zamkovskeho Chata

waterfalls. Climbing up no longer seemed difficult. And then right in the middle of nowhere was located the Zamkovskeho Chata, the cottage run by Maja’s sister Jana. It looked like an Oasis in the desert. One look was enough to leave you awestruck. We were all wet by the time we reached there. So just about got rid of out wet jackets (Maja put them all in front of some heater) and then took our seat in the section exclusively booked for us. It felt like bliss. It was about 1 o’clock and we planned to spend the whole afternoon there relaxing. We met Maja’s dad along with Jana. Soon the drinks arrived along with the Goulash for me and Kelwin (rest of them were either vegetarian or non-beefers). Maja’s dad specialized in preparing cocktails made of red and blue berry. They were fully ‘home-made’ by her dad, good enough to be patented and branded and one shot of it would give us a good enough kick. All of us took shot(s) and realized that. This was followed by tea and coffee to feel more warm and then followed by another round of chilled drinks. Marek entertained us with his tricks with the coasters (I am not good enough to describe that in words so a video is available for the same). In the midst of the tea, coffee and drinks there was another surprise on our way and that was in the form of black souvenir t-shirt of the cottage (chata) which was gifted to us. The hospitality shown by Jana and her staff was stupendous and won our hearts to the core. It was and would be definitely one of my most memorable moments of a lifetime. As the dusk settled in, we had to leave. None of us wanted to but there was no other option. Before leaving, we checked the rooms in the cottage on the first floor. The rooms were small and cozy. One room was permanently reserved for the Sherpa. We started our return at around 6 PM. Maja’s father also joined us. He was super-fit and had absolutely no trouble in climbing down through the rocks. His bicycle was parked at the Rainerova Chata from where he cycled up to the point the car could reach at Hrebienok. We covered the trek in good time and were now met by Maja’s brother Andre at the Hrebienok. He took us back to Stary Smokovec and the fun was still not over. The bowling alley was booked for us and we spent the rest of our time in bowling along with sipping chilled beer. What can I say? Things were getting better and better. The clock then struck past nine and we reluctantly pulled ourselves to Stary Smokovec station from where we boarded the train to Poprad Tatry. A lot of last-minute good-bye snaps were clicked and a glorious memorable trip was over – one of my most fascinating till date.
We reached Poprad Tatry and boarded our train to Prague. This time around we had sleeper births booked. So I was really looking forward to the journey. It was similar to the AC first class coupe in India except that it was 3-tier. In addition there was a wash-basin and some complementary cookies to munch. In the midst of all the excitement one important thing slipped our minds. And that was the dinner. It was too late so we relied on some snacks along with the complementary cookies. We reached Prague in the wee hours of the morning and headed to office at 9 AM.