Slovakia - Zdiar (High Tatras Part II)

Day 194 - Friday, August 3

Friday, I took a bus less than an hour down the road and across the Poland-Slovakia border to Zdiar, Slovakia, home to Ginger Monkey hostel. Zdiar is a small town at the foot of the Tatras mountains. Friday it rained for much of the afternoon and I was still recovering from the long hike the day before, so I just relaxed.

Day 195 - Saturday, August 4

Saturday, the weather was nice in the morning, so I joined up with one of my hostelmates, Sandy, and set out for a 7-hour hike up and over a a saddle between two peaks close to Zdiar - nothing too difficult, as I was still a bit sore. The first 3 hours or so of the hike, up to the saddle were nice. A few photos:

From High Tatras

From High Tatras

As we were getting to the top of the saddle, I could hear thunder in the distance and some very large grey clouds were heading our way. We had been moving pretty slow, and with the rain approaching, Sandy insisted that I not wait on her and go ahead. We agreed to meet at a hut a few hours further along the trail for lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the hut before the rain set in. And even more unfortunately, it wasn't just rain, but also hail. A short video of this unfortunate situation: Of course, I had not prepared for this possibility and had no rain gear. After about 15 minutes in the hail and heavy rain, I came across a small shelter. But, by that point all my clothes, my socks and my shoes were already saturated and there was only room for about half my body to get out of the rain, so I kept moving.

From High Tatras

When the sun finally came out, I tried to take some pictures, but there was no way to get the water off the lens of my camera because everything I had at that point, including everything in my bag, was soaking wet. And this was the result:

From High Tatras

From High Tatras

I finally got to the hut at about 3:15. I was very excited about the prospect of a warm place to dry off and some warm food. Small problem though. I hadn't brought any money with me. I realized this fact as I was walking out of the hostel, but Sandy said she could spot me so I didn't bother to get any. Also, the hut wasn't exactly warm, and it's not like I could take off my wet clothes because I didn't have anything else to put on. So I just sat there. In my wet clothes. For 2 hours. Apparently Sandy had headed down the wrong trail and then had to backtrack a good bit. When she got to the hut at 5:15, there was no longer any time for food because it was still a 2+ hour hike to the end and the last bus came at 730. We made it to the bus on time and got back to the hostel for a much needed shower. It was during the process of this shower that I realized that what I thought were a few mosquito bites from the hike were in fact, one of about 20 bites all over my body, the unmistakable work of bedbugs. Ugh! Really?! Again?! As further evidence of the bedbug infestation, there were a couple of other girls at the hostel that had woken up with lots of bites but seemed to think it was mosquitoes getting in through open windows at night, even though there weren't really any mosquitoes to speak of. I also found a dead bedbug on the floor of the room. The best part - I had already booked two more nights...

Day 196 - Sunday August 5

It rained again Sunday, so that meant no hiking for me. I nursed my bedbug bites and just relaxed at the hostel. It really would've been an awesome place to stay if not for the bedbugs. Here's a couple of photos of the front porch of the hostel and the view from the porch:

From High Tatras

From High Tatras

Sunday was also the last night for a couple of people that had been living and working at the hostel for a little while, so we went out to celebrate and were promised a good time at the nearby outdoor disco, except when we got to the disco, they refused to play any music with english lyrics, played 2 very weird songs, to which 2 people danced and then shut it down:

From High Tatras

After being convinced that Budapest was a better destination than Bratislava as I made my way toward Slovenia, I joined 4 others from the hostel in getting a train to Budapest on Monday.