Seven days in the life of a misguided Cossack or a legend about the difficult fate of travel agents - 3
To be continued. Start here:
We got to the hotel in complete darkness. They quickly gave out the keys and gave half an hour to settle, uncover, inflate. Then we had dinner. The hotel, of course, impressed me at first (if you are interested, read here /sk/_taryy__mokovec/Grandhotel_Stary_Smokovec-h16430-r154084.html). Entering the hall, I immediately wanted to lean my hand on some malachite column and strain the classic: “Oh, people lived richly! ".
They put me up with a very nice, calm girl who was fit for my daughter. There were both pluses and minuses in such a neighborhood, but perhaps there are more pluses. We had a two-room suite, but there was only one bed, but none of us wanted to sleep on the sofa in the hallway. Two dimensionless bathrobes were found on the bed, and two pairs of slippers were found in the closet, all of which were on the left foot : ((. The bedroom had several windows and it was pretty cool. The neighbor tried to wind something up on the batteries.
Slightly putting myself in order, I wondered what to put on? Legs, as you remember, I killed back in Kyiv. And although on the bus I allowed myself to take off my shoes at all, and walked around Kosice in sneakers, my fingers hurt mercilessly. I really wanted to put on flip-flops, but I thought that it was somehow not right to go to dinner in such shoes for dinner in a cool hotel. Yes, and sneakers, too, somehow off topic. I had to put on my shoes again. With a grimace of pain on her face, she hobbled with difficulty to the canteen (sorry, restaurant). And it's a decent walk - first to the elevator, then from the elevator through a long narrow bar, more like a corridor. There was a side door that reeked of chlorine. So, somewhere there must be a pool. And the leader of the group came in Vietnamese. She, too, managed to fill her legs to such an extent that she no longer cared about conventions.
The restaurant was full of German (or maybe Austrian) grandparents, talking loudly over a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. We were given several tables in the corner. We were not supposed to have wine or beer, but there was some water in decanters (and thanks for that). They brought some kind of soup and the second, consisting of a hill of rice, a bunch of french fries (at the same time) and a chicken leg. There were also chopped vegetables, but we ate them in anticipation of everything else.
Because it wasn't an easy day, after dinner we went to our room. Batteries warmed up a bit. But before going to bed, it was necessary to notify the relatives that everything was all right with us. There was Internet in the room, but it was not possible to communicate normally in Viber - through the word woof-woof or oink-oink. Enjoyed the messaging. She sprayed her throat for the last time and went to bed, hiding herself with two blankets (the second she found in the closet).
When I woke up in the morning, I realized that the crisis was over and I would live. Although it was impossible to call the throat healthy, I could already swallow, and the temperature did not rise. So we decided to go check out the pool before breakfast. Having dressed in bathing suits and dressing gowns on top, we went down in the elevator, and, having passed through the corridors, we got to the SPA area. They gave us towels. Several girls from our group were already splashing. Swimming the pool back and forth, I got out. I was already tired, and the smell of bleach irritated the already inflamed nasopharyngeal mucosa.
Breakfast was much better than dinner - a good buffet. After breakfast, we went to look at hotels in the Strbske Pleso resort. And the plowing began! It was clear, but the temperature was only 6 degrees, and a strong cold wind. We got off the bus - went to the hotel - ran - sweated - got off - froze. Jackets only had time to take off and put on. With a notebook under his arm, a tablet in his hands, a pen in his teeth. Then everything changes places. Hotels - one cooler than the other. Kempinski is something, but two and a half thousand per night in a honeymoon suite!! ! Better than ten days with a flight somewhere in Thailand! The place is very beautiful, with snow, it would probably be even more beautiful.
We were taken to the hut for dinner. For 6 euros we were offered the first, second and a choice of beer, tea or coffee. Well, it's exactly the same! The first was called borscht, but in fact it was a cross between borscht and Hungarian goulash. The second was the same as at the hotel for dinner - the same pile of rice, a bunch of potatoes and a leg. What kind of joke is this with a side dish, I still do not understand. I ate potatoes today because I ate rice yesterday. I haven't had a beer in over a year and, to tell the truth, I was expecting something incredibly delicious. Slovak is almost Czech! But, either I lost the habit of beer, or Czech, as I remember it, was tastier. In short, the buzz did not work.
After lunch, again running around the hotels, but already in another resort - Tatranska Lomnica. Large hotels and small villas. Despite the fact that the season was still far away, many hotels were full, and the managers could not show us a single room (to our unspeakable joy). No, I'm lying. There were a couple of people who came solely for the sake of work, and they were very upset by the lack of an opportunity to inspect the rooms. The main mass came to combine business with pleasure. As I found out later, it will not be possible to slander in the info tour. Before departure, all travel agents sign a certain bomaga with the obligation to carry out the tour program. If you do not wander around the hotels, but hang out somewhere for your own pleasure, you will be obliged to pay the full cost of the tour before leaving for your homeland.
After returning to the hotel in the evening, we went to the store, where, according to our driver, we could buy the famous Tatra tea. Seagulls were really sold there - with a fortress from 22 to 72 degrees. But the price put me off. From 11 to 17 euros per bottle! I can’t unlearn the habit of converting everything into hryvnia. The toad crushed me, and I didn't buy anything.
Dinner differed from yesterday's only in meat - instead of a chicken leg, there were several slices of beef, very tough. And the place of German pensioners was taken by the Chinese. After dinner, we gathered in one of the rooms. Everyone brought their own drink. (“And everyone drank not what he brought” Y. Loza “New Year”). I came with my cognac, but they poured me a glass of Tatra tea to try. This one was fortress 52. Cool stuff! I regretted not buying it. We had such a fun time that they called from the reception and said that the neighbors were complaining about us. After that, the people partly went to bed, and partly went to continue in the smoking room. I'm going to sleep. So I have already broken all my rules, both in terms of nutrition and daily routine! And tomorrow we are moving, we still need to fold the chumodanchik.
The next morning, after breakfast, we set off for the Jasna resort. These are the Low Tatras. But here's the paradox - as we were told, the ski slopes there are steeper than in the High Tatras, where we were before. Here it seemed to me more interesting, in terms of skiing, although it is hard to judge this in the absence of snow. The gyms in some hotels were touching. Indeed, what could be better than crawling from the slope and into the rocking chair! Eh!
A pleasant surprise awaited us in one of the hotels - the hotel manager, a very extravagant, smart girl, dragged us around the hotel and showed us from the best sides, treated the group with Demyanovka liqueur and sandwiches. In the next hotel - again a treat. Morning is done! But that's not all. We had a free lunch at the next luxury hotel. The second was a huge piece of meat. Everyone consoled themselves with only one hope that in Poland they would no longer feed us like that, and they would still be able to lose weight.
The pleasures are not over for today. After viewing the hotels, the Tatralandia water park was waiting for us. And as it turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me, it was included in the cost of the tour. The only bad thing is that they didn’t give out towels there, and we didn’t have any with us. And they were sold somewhere else. I had to get by somehow. There is also a shared dressing room. I, as an experienced nudist, didn’t care, but young girls didn’t. The water park was partly outdoors, partly indoors. On the street, the slides did not work, but there was only a thermal pool (40 degrees) with bulbs. You can stay in it for no more than 20 minutes. Still 6 outside, 40 in the pool. Cool! then we went to the slides located in the room. Nothing extreme, but either from the hot water, or on the slides, I got sick after a hearty dinner, but I got sick of something. Went to the room. There were several beautifully designed sea water pools. Bar in the middle. Our girls were already there. Cocktails cost 4 euros, beer 2. I took a beer to relieve nausea. We sat and drank, the bartender scored the cost in our bracelets. We agreed that it was already boring. 2.5 hours was enough for us. Went to get dressed. I had a strong feeling that I came here with a backpack, but it was not found in the locker. Having gone with the driver to the bus, I did not find him there either. But everything of value was in the bus. I run back. We turned to the guard. Brought my backpack. It turns out that I forgot it on a bench in the locker room before. Here is the sack! It's good that the guard doesn't eat his bread in vain!
We stopped at Tesco. We were given 15 minutes to loot. But the Tatra tea there, surprisingly, turned out to be even more expensive, and, of course, I never bought it. But I bought Demyanovka, I also liked it, but it was incomparably cheaper. Almost knocking down a deer on the way, we arrived at our new haven - the Grand Hotel. It was even grander than our previous hotel. But the plumbing was worn out. The faucet was leaking and the toilet wasn't flushing well. But from the window we could see the pool on the street, in which someone was splashing.
Came for dinner. The waiter came up and asked what we would like - meat or fish? I was already tired of the meat and I ordered fish. But almost everyone else ordered meat. They asked what kind of meat and what kind of fish? To which the waiter replied: Fish - cod, meat - neck. Waited quite a long time. They brought me first - a large plate with a small parallelepiped of something incomprehensible with a tiny cracker stuck in this substance, with something red smeared on the plate, and a bunch of something yellow. I almost don’t go to places, we are more and more in the country, but I really love the series “Kitchen”. Therefore, I immediately thought that this was some kind of molecular cuisine. Just not sure if it's cod or neck? Then they brought everyone such exact garbage. After trying, we realized that this is not one or the other, it's just a compliment. Some kind of pate, sweet and sour sauce and sweet onions. My daughter lives with the chef, when she saw the photo, she immediately said that it was caramelized onions. Oh my God, what kind of nonsense they don’t come up with! Having quickly finished with the pate, she finally waited for her cod, which also looked somehow unusual - in the form of a little white sausage. But stewed eggplants were attached to it! Om-Nom-nom. And the neck turned out to be just a chopped cutlet, and even with potatoes. And everyone envied me with my cod.
When I got to my room, I wanted to send some pictures to my family. I barely chose - solid toilets, but beds!
To be continued.
