I took a short break from the cities and took myself to the mountains for some relaxation. I found a place to stay in the village of Nová Lesná, nestled at the foot of the High Tatra mountains. The Tatras are jagged, rocky mountains without much in the way of foothills, so they rise without warning from the gently rolling hills below. Having spent time in the Canadian Rockies, the High Tatras are familiar, but small in comparison. They are no less beautiful however.

I did some light hiking of course. I never made it to any spectacular locations because I didn’t know where I was going or how long it would take to get there. I simply found a trail, which was well marked, and set off along it until I figured I should head back. Maybe there was something incredible just around the next corner, but I’ll never know. I was still hiking in beautiful landscapes, I just never reached a destination.

There are definitely huts further into the mountains, so you could go for several days walking from hut to hut. I also suspect that the huts are well stocked, as I saw several porters carrying massive loads of supplies along the trails. Presumably there was food in their styrofoam coolers, but they were also carrying kegs of beer and boxes of wine.

After so long being primarily in large cities, especially after the busyness of Prague, it was a delight to spend time in nature and in a small village. I think I’ve recuperated myself fairly well. In fact I need to have done so, since my next stop is Budapest, and I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that it will be a little bit busy itself.

Time is flying by. I’ve been in Europe for a month and a half now. I’ve seen so much. Nine different countries, seventeen ‘places’, and many a train and bus. And yet there is so much still to see. I’ve barely scratched the surface in the places I’ve been too, and I’ve yet to step foot in the Balkans. So, if all goes well I’ll be in Europe for some time yet. Thanks for reading.

And thanks for looking at the photos, which you’ll find here.

I zipped quite quickly through Bratislava on my way to more remote areas of Slovakia, but I managed to enjoy my time there nonetheless. It’s a fairly small, quiet city, which was just what I needed after the hell of Prague. Maybe Bratislava could use some sprucing up, but then it might become boring.

I was wandering the city centre with no real plan for myself, when I heard the sound of English being spoken. I had stumbled upon a free walking tour that was just about to begin, with a guide who sounded entertaining. It was a 20th century tour of the city, WWII and communism in other words. Perfect.

So I found myself walking round the city learning about the fun times of communism and seeing the beautiful Communist buildings.

The Communist government was sneaky, rather than anger people by destroying churches, they planted nice trees that would obscure the church from view. They built a beautiful central square, but made it inconvenient for gathering in, with an incredibly noisy fountain and metal benches that were either scorching hot or freezing cold. But they also had free university, if you could prove you were a good communist, and there were many clean, safe, public toilets, which fell into disrepute after the fall of communism and today have been transformed into bars and coffee shops.

The Slovakian Radio and Television building has been listed as one of the ugliest in the world. Some people are just afraid of anything that is different. This inverted pyramid with a metal exoskeleton is a very handsome building. Not only that, but those crazy commies actually built excellent recording studios inside of it. So good in fact that acclaimed film composer Hans Zimmer records many of his soundtracks there, and every country’s national anthems for the Olympic Games are also recorded within.

The Slavin War Memorial is the largest war cemetery in Central Europe (I’m not in Eastern Europe yet folks!). Six mass graves contain about 7000 soldiers of the Red Army who died liberating Slovakia from the Nazis. Liberating may be a strong word for ‘exchanging Facism for Communism’ but it’s a nice war memorial.

The city also has an old town (as usual), and a castle, but I didn’t get a chance to see much of that. You have to pay for the castle, so it’s no great loss. I’ll talk to you next time from the High Tatras. Good day.

Photos.