The Road to Budapest - Day 12

1/04/09
We had a bit of time to explore the town again for the few hours before having to leave. I wandered around the market square for a little while to check out some the local decorative items – they were selling strange looking sticks of coloured wheat-like plants, which I later found out were for Palm Day. They also had a fresh produce market outside of the centre of town – they sold plump looking fruit and veggies, strange cheeses and meats. The ladies selling the goods wore scarves over their heads tied under their chins – it looked quite cute. I bought a few bits and pieces for our travel day ahead and then gave my remaining change to a busker in the park.
Our bus journey into the Tatra Mountains was quite long but the scenery was amazing once we got out of suburbia. We passed villages nestled in snowy valleys, with the large snow covered mountains of the Tatra’s soaring up in the background. One village that we stopped in to change bus was deep in snow. The roads had been ploughed and large mounds of snow bordered the roads and pathways. The next bus trip was a bit hairy – it was a small bus, totally full so our bags had to go in the aisle way. The road was narrow and windy with a snow border. The driver sped his way rounds the bends and sharp corners and it was actually better to not look at what was ahead! This bus took us the Poland/Slovakia border. Antonio took us along a pathway that had been cleared, even though we had to under a gate and past a sign with a big red cross on it – he said that this was the way they always went and wasn’t sure why they had blocked it off. We followed the cleared pathway for a while with our luggage until we got to the last 5 meters before the bridge – the snow hadn’t been cleared there! We could either turn around and go back and then follow the road around, or we just go through the snow for the last little bit – we decided to keep going!!! It was hilarious. Antonio went first to leave some foot holes for us to use – his is about 6 foot 4, so his legs are quite long ... I had to nearly do the splits to step into the holes he had created, until I just gave up (in fits of laughter) and just pushed through the deep snow carrying my bag at chest height to keep it dry! While we waited for the next bus to take us into the Tatras, a cat came running along the road meowing as it came – I think it just wanting some company (there isn’t much at the border, other than the now un-used control centre, a bar and a handful of other buildings/houses). It snuggled up to us meowing, it jumped onto my bag for a pat and then sat at the door to the bus after we boarded – it was so cute. We bit the cat farewell and then took the nice slow bus ride to the Tatras.
As we got closer to our hotel you could see the devastation to the countryside from the tornado-like storm in 2004, which destroyed a lot of the area. The trees were gone and only a few shoots were coming through. It looked quite sad compared to the scenery we had already seen along the way. I was a little disappointed when we reached our little town – it wasn’t snow covered like all the towns and villages we had just passed – bummer. The town was very cute though and they backdrop of our accommodation was amazing – two large snow covered mountain peaks – absolutely beautiful.
For dinner that night we went to a bar/restaurant in the village – it was very cool. It was filled with heavy wooden furniture and the lights were set into old wagon wheels hanging from the ceiling. The best thing about this place was the price of the food and drinks – extremely cheap! The meals and drinks for 4 people (salmon steaks, chicken dishes, goulash, many beers and many wines) – once converted to 37 Euro!!! If we had known how cheap everything was, I am sure we would have eaten and drunk a whole more than we did!