A ski resort through the eyes of a non-skier. Part 1. Tatranska Lomnica, Strbske Pleso,
Dear friends!
I want to share with you my impressions of a semi-independent trip to the High Tatras (Slovakia).
Of course, given the recent January voyage to Hungary, Slovenia and Italy, a trip to this small Eastern European country was not at all in my plans.
I read about the super offer of the Slovak consulate (about issuing a multi-visa) on the Internet back in December, but I (a skeptic) very little believed in such an unprecedented generosity from a western neighbor. And yet ....The risk sometimes justifies the means. The decision was taken.
The documents were collected and submitted to the travel agency, but .....It sometimes began to seem to me that very soon I would know all the hotels in Slovakia. Every morning there were new and new offers, as the reservations submitted in the evening were once again not confirmed by the Slovak partners. And everything was repeated from the beginning.
Hope melted every day and almost died, but quite unexpectedly - on February 13, Hotel Titris (Tatranska Lomnica, Vysoke Tatry) was confirmed. Even the price did not stop, although the tour had long ceased to be budget. And so the documents were submitted to the consulate, and five days of waiting for the visa to be issued were busy with work and flew by unnoticed. Extreme was always present: we received our passports 10 minutes before the train left. And it was all the same - what kind of visa is there! We considered the treasured cartoon already in the compartment, squeaked, laughed, rushed, looked forward to pleasure! And our expectations were fully justified. And Slovakia once again pleased me: not only with clean air, magnificent views of the winter Tatras (I had the good fortune to contemplate the summer Tatras in August 1993), but also with the amazing benevolence of the natives, delicious food and wine, beautiful mid-spring weather already! !
So, Day One. Tatranska Lomnica.
A small incident with confusion in the bus transfer added adrenaline, but this did not stop us from quickly enough - in 1.5 hours in total - to cross the border and check into our hotel at 11.30.
The hotel is fully consistent with the declared 3 stars. A great place to relax in the hotel after an active ski day was the Aqua Relax complex, which includes two pools, a jacuzzi, a water mushroom, pearl bubbles, a slide, as well as three saunas (Finnish, Roman, herbal), a cooling pool, relaxation procedures ( relaxing massage, several types of wraps - honey, herbal, peat). The prices for visiting the Aqua Relax complex are quite reasonable. In addition, when checking into a hotel at the reception, a gift flyer is issued for a 2-hour visit to the complex.
Active rest began literally from the first minutes of arrival in Tatranska Lomnica.
Before we entered the room, TravelSim was already ringing: a friend reported that they were going in the direction of Tatranska Lomnica to participate in the non-traditional Tatra weekend "Snow Dogs" (http://www. vt. sk/ru/zanjatija/iventy/ snezhnye-psy/), as well as climb Lomnický š tí t.
**** Here it is necessary to make a slight emphasis on the fact that by climbing Lomnický š tí t I not only "fell ill" myself, but later "hooked" several acquaintances and even fellow travelers on this hook.
From our hotel to the ski lifts about 1.5 km. But the road was still unfamiliar and took almost an hour at a leisurely pace (we were looking around on the ground).
The lift to Lomnický š tí t did not work (due to strong wind), so we bought tickets for the lift only to Skalnate Pleso (price 15€ round trip, gondola lift for 4 people). Lifting height - 1751 m above sea level.
*** Tatranska Lomnica is located at an altitude of 888 m.
Since I am at a ski resort for the first time, all the events caused me a flurry of emotions and indescribable delight!
The strong wind, the snowy shroud, the swaying cabins of the lift, the rattle of the ski runners - all this from the very first day swept us with new impressions, whirled us with a whirlwind of new emotional discoveries.
At the height we made a small photo session, having managed to freeze decently. - Not the month of May, however! - air temperature 13 degrees. And they dared to descend. But going back down was dumb: the lift cabins swayed along with the gusts of the meter, especially during technical stops. And we had a child with us. But everything ended well. Impressions from the "ascent" exceeded expectations!
Second day. Strbskepleso.
On this day, a visit to the slalom competition in Strbske pleso was planned. And we decided to try the "charm" of public transport in Slovakia. And they began to get acquainted with the Tatra Railway (Slovak - Tatranská elektrická ž eleznica), which is also called the "mountain tram".
The timetable was found at the local train station. Bought the ticket there. The train runs to Stary Smokovec every 1 hour. The ticket price varies depending on the distance. To Strbske Pleso and back - 4 euros. The ticket can be taken immediately - there and back. There is no difference - to buy along the segments of the path or immediately in both directions.
*** The Tatra electrified railway (Slovak: Tatranská elektrická ž eleznica) is an electrified narrow-gauge railway in the Tatras, consisting of two parts:
Poprad - Stary Smokovec - Strbske Pleso (29.1 km)
Stary Smokovec - Tatranska Lomnica (5.9 km)
That is, to get to the destination Strbske pleso - you need to get to Stary Smokovec and make a transfer.
The schedule is designed in such a way that trains from Poprad (towards Strbske Pleso), from Strbske Pleso (towards Poprad) meet at Stary Smokovec station, and a train arrives from Tatranska Lomnica (which leaves almost immediately after the departure of trains to Strbske and Poprad) . Everything is very logical and convenient.
Upon arrival in Strbske Pleso, next to the stations, a ski bus stop (SkiBus) was found, the interval of which is 10 minutes (the bus runs until 16.00 - in the direction from the ski lifts to the station).
In the information center (near the ticket office for the lift) they found out that we need to climb Predne Solisko to watch the competition. The cost of the lift is 10 euros (round trip). Chair lift for 4 people.
At Solisko, the weather was not encouraging: nothing could be seen at a distance of 1 meter. Melo! And not childish! Due to worsening weather conditions, even the slalom competition was canceled.
But we decided that it was not for this reason that we climbed to a height of 1850 m for so long, so that now we could just go back down. And we stomped to the local restaurant Chata pod Solisko - to warm up with local mulled wine (varene vino) or taste the local cappuccino. But cappuccino pod Solisko is not prepared, so we drank coffee with milk and delicious poppy-cherry strudel.
Then, in the same way, by touch, we went down to the lift and with a new portion of extreme - down to Strbska!
While our male companion was having fun on small slopes, we decided to look directly for Strbske pleco, that is, the lake of the same name.
The lake is small, under the ice and snow, did not make much of an impression. But the Patria hut on the shore pleased us with an original wooden interior with a fireplace, delicious trout from the same lake, special beer (which we could not find in retail outlets) and excellent service.
We went back the same way: SkiBus, train to Stary Smokovec, train to Tatranska Lomnica.
Arriving at the place of deployment, we traditionally visited the local supermarket: to stock up on a bottle of local wine (with a bird on the label) for the evening and a bottle of local Hubert champagne for the morning.
I want to note that the Slovak alcohol turned out to be of quite decent quality. Despite the democratic prices. And so we continued to "abuse" local alcoholic beverages in the above sequence in the future.
The final highlight of today was a visit to Aqua Relax at the hotel with a 2-hour gift flyer. And despite the fact that Aqua Relax turned out to be quite a popular facility not only for the guests of our hotel, we were satisfied with both the aqua zone and the bath complex.
Day Three. Poprad.
Here I want to make a reservation.
I am organizing my tour to Slovakia, initially we made plans to settle in Poprad in order to use its geographically convenient location for short trips to nearby attractions. But common sense won, it was decided to settle closer to the Tatras. And our choice was made correctly.
The road to Poprad differed from yesterday's trip to Strbske pleso only in that in Stary Smokovec we made a transfer to a train coming from Strbske, that is, in the direction of Poprad.
I confess that the town of Poprad not only did not please me, but also disappointed me. He reminded me of an ordinary district town in any of the regions of Ukraine. The nasty drizzling winter rain finally smeared the picture of perception. True, by lunchtime the rain had stopped, but the boots that were soaked through and through did not become drier at all.
And wandering around for half a day with frogs croaking in boots is a very dubious pleasure. Even in a very beautiful city. To whom Poprad certainly can not be attributed (in my subjective opinion).
Nevertheless, we reached the main square of the city - the square of St. Egidius, listening to the noon chime of the bell on the belfry of the church of St. Egidius (XIII century). The chime turned out to be surprisingly pleasant to the ear!
But the doors of the church were today (Monday) closed to visitors. Because both the church and the 19th century Lutheran church standing nearby are open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, including the possibility of climbing the belfry, where the observation deck is located.
A cup of delicious cappuccino in a pleasant cafe cheered me up. And even aroused the desire to get to Spiš ská Sobota, a remote quarter of Poprad with a Gothic-Renaissance ensemble and St. Juraj's Cathedral.
And we even took certain actions in this direction, reaching the station with the same name. But wet boots successfully neutralized good intentions and the attempt to join the Slovak culture was not successful. Okay, so we decided...
And accidentally looked into the wine cellar, which is located in the tower next to the Lutheran church. The pleasant atmosphere inside made us feel at home, and the attentive Slovak suggested trying the Slovak Frankovka. For a very symbolic price - 1.68 €. Having lifted our spirits, we leisurely (the rain had ended a long time ago! ) Wandered towards the railway station, looking at local sights along the way.
An amazing feature of the High Tatra ski resorts is that during a week or two of stay you can repeatedly meet with fellow travelers in the compartment of the Uzhgorod train, and from the transfer bus, and just with other compatriots with whom the Tatra paths have already crossed several times.
So it was this time too: meeting on the platform of Stary Smokovets with a married couple from Dnepropetrovsk (fellow travelers in the compartment) - gasps, sighs, exchange of impressions and advice ...!
Further pastime went on knurled: a supermarket, a walk in the park, the road to the hotel, a visit to Aqua Relax, dinner, Skype calls (there is free wired Internet in the hotel rooms, in the public area - a hall, a bar - free WiFi), planning the next day of staying at Slovak land.
And this evening a pleasant surprise awaited us - the sky cleared of clouds and a beautiful view of the snow-capped peaks of the High Tatras opened from the window of the room. Leaving the window ajar at night, we wanted to breathe in the crystal mountain air for the future.
To be continued.
