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Our route:

27.09.02 - 30.09.02:
  • TatranskaLomnica
  • High Tatra

    01.10.02:
  • Liptovsky Mikulas
  • Demänovska

    02.10.02 - 04.10.02:
  • Martin
  • Mala Fatra
  • Strecno
  • Terchova

    05.10.02:
  • Zvolen
  • Sliac

  •   Slovakia
    On this page, we (will) describe our experiences in Slovakia. Apart from the travelogue for this country you will also find a number of links to useful sites, ranging from general information to embassy homepages.

    Written by: Dorrit

    27.09.

    Demaenovska dolina Despite our fears the border crossing was again peanuts; it took us 5 minutes to get to Slovakia. The fog had lifted a little, which gave us the opportunity to get a good view over the high Tatra. A lovely area, especially in autumn colours. After our experiences in the Polish part of the Tatra our first goal was to buy a good rain suit including trousers. We spent the rest of the evening fighting off the coming flue on a camping place.

    28.09.

    It didn't work, Coen is feeling sick. Apart from that it has rained heavily all night and around 2 am the roof started leaking again. High time to replace the building foam we put on the roof in Denmark. We consequently spent half of the afternoon doing this, the other half was spent recovering from this exercise.

    29.09.

    The afternoon on the roof must have done Coen good, he feels a lot better now. As it is a beautiful day we will start a 2-day trekking through the high Tatra today. After a long climb through dark and mossy forest with clear forest streams and red-with-white-dots fungi we arrive at the first mountain refuge. At this height it has already been quite cold: there is still ice on the mountain lake in front of the hut and the mountain slopes are covered with snow. Inside we can order a warm meal and after a nice chat with a young couple from Bavaria we were off to the dormitory. An extremely small room crammed with bunk beds, half of which were filled with Czechs. After their first bottle of rum they started to be quite chatty and the second bottle was shared by all. Later that night I was woken up by a lot of scuffling and pattering. The others (except the Czechs who were k.o.) heard it too and since it was too loud for a mouse and too noisy for a cat the general opinion was that it must have been a rat under one of the beds. Brrr.

    30.09.

    Tatra At 7 this dreadful night finally ended. As if we all had been waiting for the first light, everyone jumped up and was out of the dormitory in no time. Except the Czechs, who had bread and garlic butter (the bits that the rat had left over?) in bed and opened their third bottle of rum. We had to drink as well, but politely refused this honour. We started off on a trail that would lead us over the top of one of the nearby mountains, but after about one hour the walk turned into a climb: along a very steep part of the rocky wall there was a chain along which you could drag yourself up. There where you had to put your feet was a layer of ice which offered no grip at all. The German couple before us had the fitting equipment for this ("Steigeisen": iron spikes you can put under your shoes, ropes etc.), but we hadn't. We managed to get to the top of the chain, but when we saw we had to scramble up the rest of the icy slope without the help of the chain we decided that this was too irresponsible and returned. Instead we chose a trail a bit lower down which offered some splendid views over the valley and the other mountains of the high Tatra. It led to the Lomnitzer Spitze, which could have been in Austria, both regarding the surroundings (mountain peaks, refuge with beer terrace and ski-lifts) and the people: there were mainly Germans and especially Austrians there. With the ski-lift we went back to the village down below and had a good night sleep in our own bed.

    01.10.

    I am starting to feel a bit lousy too, so other than a few groceries we don't really do much. We drove to Demaenovska dolina, where we want to visit the famous stalagmite- and -tite cave.

    02.10.

    I still don't feel 100% okay, but feel good enough to visit the cave, so that is what we do. Bizarre stalactite waterfalls, stalactite organs, stalagmite cathedrals and other forms in different colours, we walked through the enormous cave for over an hour. The afternoon was spent in the little village Martin with internet and French fries.

    03.10.

    Should have stayed in bed yesterday, I feel really ill now. Outside the weather is beautiful, we are parked in one of the best walking areas of Slovakia (Mala Fatra) and I am too sick to move a limb. We managed to drag ourselves to Tesco's to do some groceries but more was out of the question. Slovakia seems richer and more westernised than Poland: new cars on new highways, well stocked new shops and hyper marches that make you feel you are in France. We haven't experienced the alleged criminality here either: last night we were camping "wild" in a little village and forgot to lock the front doors. We weren't bothered at all. On the other hand you do see things like old farmers walking along the roadside carrying 5-kg bags of potatoes or farmers using their little tractor to drag along an old-fashioned hand plough.

    04.10.

    Mala Fatra We had a lovely walk through the autumn-forest. I can really recommend the Mala Fatra in autumn, it is such a splendid area. Over a delicious goulash made by Coen we discussed which route we are going take through Asia and day-dreamed about faraway places.

    05.10. - 06.10.

    We took our time to drive to Hungary. In the rather gloomy town of Zvolen we lost our way in the slums, where poor gipsies were "shopping" in the garbage containers. I really felt sorry for them.
    At the border, no one was interested in our van again and we were in Hungary before we knew it.

    Dorrit



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      Lonely Planet World Guide: Slovakia
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      Official Slovakia site

    Our top 3:

    1. Male Fatra

    2. High Tatra

    3. Demaenovska