High Tatras Part Two

 Wednesday 

I hiked alone today as Jake still has a cold and everyone else wanted to just hang out in town after yesterday’s hike.  I decided on hiking from Tatranska Lesna up a river to a chata (hut), about a 2 hour hike one way and not particularly steep. On the train I realized I had forgotten to bring my water bottle, but I figured I could buy a bottle of water at my stop. However, I was the only one to get off at the Tatranska Lesna station, and there is nowhere to buy anything at that stop, just a school of some sort.  I decided I’d hike to the closer waterfalls and then turn around and come back.  The trail is well marked and goes along a rushing, boulder-filled river.  It seemed as though there had been a lot of downed trees due either to beetles or a storm some years ago or both, but it was still very pretty.  The hike started through a little aspen grove that reminded me of NM hikes.  It was nice to be on a trail with so few people! I saw very few animals though.  A few chickadees and a tiny viviparous lizard. The viviparous lizard often gives birth to live young and is (according to Wikipedia) the northernmost non-marine reptile species.

There are supposed to  be 7 waterfalls, but as there are so many little cascades, it’s hard to know what’s being counted as a waterfall in most instances.  After about an hour I wasn’t feeling dehydrated at all, I’d found a few handfuls of berries, and looking at the map, I was closer to the top of the hike than I expected.  So I continued uphill and got to the large upper fall where the trail forks.  Lots more people up here. From there it’s about 10 minutes walk to one of two huts that have food and drink for sale.  I went to Bilikova chata, which is very close to the top of the ski slope tram.  It seemed closed, but it turned out they were serving food on the lower deck that had a nice view of the mountains. Chatas vary quite a bit in how large and elaborate they are.  Some are hotels and serve hot meals, others really are more like a hut that sell some beverages.  The ones that aren’t accessible by vehicle have supplies carried in by hikers who are paid by the pound. They are also paid to carry out the trash and recycling.

I walked back to Stary Smokovek along the hiking trail that parallels the tram, about 2.7km.  Back in town, I called Jake and he met me at ItaBu Bistro for a very good burger and sweet potato fries.  Later in the afternoon I meandered around town looking for postcards (turns out the tourist info office is the best and pretty much the only place to find them), seeing some of the historic buildings, having coffee and cake at a Cukaren café, and sending a couple postcards from the local post office.

Neal had a good experience with the local dentist.  There’s a very modern office in an apartment building in town and he stopped by first thing in the morning when it opened and got an appointment for early afternoon.  Laundry turns out to be VERY expensive at the only laundromat in town according to Judy.

Thursday

 It was raining in the morning and determinedly cloudy most of the day.  Jake decided to be up and about today though so after breakfast we all got the train to Tatranska Lomnica. I did see one large deer from the train.  We were hoping to be able to do a hike or take the ski lift up, but it was too cloudy for the ski lift, and the Info center didn't have any easy hikes to recommend.  I went in part because I wanted to see the botanical garden, and so we all went there instead!  The garden is a few acres and the highlights are the rock garden areas.  They seem to be all planted with native plants, and most of the areas featured plants that favor dolomitic rock.  I was a little surprised by this as I thought I had read on a sign on our second hike here that in this particular part of the Tatras the rock was mainly acidic granite. Although I downloaded the online audio guide, I couldn't get it to play in English.  The garden also has plants for sale.

We had lunch at a cute little restaurant featuring Slovak food.  A lot of the décor was old skis and ski boots.  The town seemed larger than Stary Smokovek and maybe a little more upscale.  Late afternoon Jake and I walked west on the multiuse trail that links all the towns/resorts together and you realize how close a lot of the train stops are!  We walked west two stops past several more turn of the century villas.  There are also lots of modern buildings.  And a cute little ski school for kids. We had a decent dinner at the Japanese restaurant in town.  Although sushi was on the menu, we stuck with the cooked seafood in ramen bowls and rice bowls.