Slovakia blog …
This Slovakia blog hopefully shows that Slovakia is fantastic – it’s full of castles and mountains and lovely twisty-turns roads! It’s like being in northern Slovenia, or Garfagnana in Italy! The people are outrageously friendly – if only everyone was like those we found in Krásnohorská Dlhá Lúka (see later)! And there’s thousands of caves, including an ice cave! Oh, but the storms!!!
Mountains at last!
Having spent what seemed like an ages in flat countries – all the way since we left Norway really, save for South Poland – we were eager to see mountains again. So Slovakia was really quite high on our list of places to see. Although Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Czechia were each special in their own ways, we were keen to replace the big skies with the small, and the long range views with the ‘in your face’ tall views!
And we weren’t disappointed! Almost as soon as you enter Slovakia from Czechia, it all changes. The low lying hills immediately become forested tall hills, which very soon become fully fledged mountains that people ski on! And the laid-back & relaxed way of driving that we’d gotten used to in Czechia, immediately becomes replaced by the frustrated, get-out-of-my-way madness that serpentine mountains roads generate!
Beautiful Slovakian views
Slovakia is a beautiful country – let’s not mince words! It has some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe – views that you have to stop for, to take it all in – regardless of whether it’s on a motorway or not (not really!).
The sheer height of the some of the mountains, and how steep they are straight from the roadside – just a wonder to behold. Its no wonder that there are ski resorts all over the place. This was also great, as it meant that, as we were out of season for skiing, all of the accommodation was cheap – like really cheap 😉 Plus you get to stay in alpine-like villages in the sun (or rain!)
Beautiful plains
That said, the mountains are not everywhere, there are beautiful plains hills in large parts of the country, that lead to the Tatra mountains in the north and the Low Tatras in the west. The south is mainly large hills covered in forest that very much reminded us of Garfagnana in Italy (another place we love).
As a matter of fact, we found the Low Tatras National Park more exciting in the north west than in the famous Tatra mountain range. This surprised us, as the Tatra were were so spectacular in Poland – more so than in Slovakia we thought! However in the the north west, you are completely surrounded my the sheer vastness of the mountains and forests – all of the roads are mountain passes which are enormous fun to drive around.
Friendly Slovakians
We got lost several times, due to the number of roads either being renovated or constructed from scratch. In our experience not many people speak English in Slovakia – actually hardly any, in fact practically zero! Quite a few speak German though! We found that a big beaming smile, sign language, and as a last resort, a translator app, helped a lot! The smile is the most important thing!
Time after time, you could see that people were desperately trying to understand us, and were keen to help – they had all the patience in the world – such a nice place!
Krásnohorská Dlhá Lúka
The best example of this was on what turned out to be our last day in Slovakia – more on that later! We’d booked accommodation in a small village near the border with Hungary, as Košice and Bratislava were both suffering from torrential rain, so we thought it pointless to pay lots for accommodation only to sit indoors. And a wet tent in the car we did not want!
We found the village, but the three SatNavs that we have all took us to different places within the village, none of which were the right place. I was standing outside the car having a look around and I saw a random woman sweeping the leaves just outside her house. So I put the smile on and approached her. No English, but German! I explained in my pigeon German what we were looking for – but it appeared that her German was worse than mine!
So she got on the phone and called her son! A few minutes later, her son arrives, and explains in his basic English; which was pretty decent by the way; all of the directions to the house – including what car will be sat outside! Impressive! It was a long list of instructions. I hoped I could remember them all! Lots of handshakes – thank you!
Super friendly Sovakians again!
So I got back in the car to turn around. As I did so, the woman called me over – gesticulating to her garden?! Well its turns out that her husband was loading two little kids onto an ancient motorbike – without helmets I should say! – and was going to take me to where I needed to go! Awesome!
So off he goes with the tots on board at 15 mph! I duly followed him across the twisty roads, and lo and behold – there was the car his son had mentioned – outside the house! The husband dismounted, got the kids off, and went to the house – explained that I was lost (I’m guessing!) and that here I was! Lots more handshakes – thank you! Really! It seemed like nothing to him, and the tots enjoyed the ride! Just lovely the people of Slovakia – genuinely so!
Dobšinská Ice Cave
I must mention the caves before I forget – there are literally thousands of caves, many of which are super important apparently – and because of this they’re not really open to the public! There are a number that are, although they’re very limited in number – like less than ten I think! Each costs about €10-€15 to enter, plus €5 parking, plus €10 if you want to take photos. Now if you’re like me and you can’t visualise anything, photos are a must. But to me €20 + parking per person to go to a cave seemed a bit much. Maybe that’s just me – I’m no geologist after all! Plus, not everyone likes being underground in my family 😉
However the ice cave really was great! To get there is quite a steep ½ mile (1 km) walk through the forest – everyone was sweating at the top due to the 29°C heat! But there is practically no wait once you have a ticket. They do claim that there are tours in English – although there have to be at least 40 of you! So all tours are in Slovak! You can scan an app though, for more info! Plus you have to wear a green sticker if you’ve paid for photos – which almost immediately falls off once you enter the cave – hilarious!
Freezing cave
Anyway, so everyone was sweating after the short hike and it’s exciting. Then the door to the cave opens and bam! – you’re hit by this freezing cold blast of air – just brilliant! I loved it – it was cooling me down instantly! Once you descend the stairs – it becomes apparent that you are actually inside a massive block of ice with only the ceiling as rock. So there are ice stalagmites everywhere and the ice is many metres thick.
Apparently it never gets the sun, and so is permafrost I think! Its great – wear a jacket! Tours last about half an hour and your photo sticker will fall off constantly due to the cold. And your camera lens, phone lens, glasses will all steam up – I kept closing my camera and holding my hand over the lens. Most people gave up and wasted the €10 on photos it seemed! Damn cold – excellent!
Slovakian castles
Oh and the castles! So many castles! Who knew? And the fact that they’re mostly in tip-top condition, despite their very ancient age! Amazing! Many of them really do look Slovakian, but many really wouldn’t look out of place in England, Scotland or Wales. A great example of this is Spis Castle. Currently not open to the public (at least most of it isn’t), due to it being slightly dangerous and thus it’s being shored up – it truly is magnificent.
Almost all of the castles we saw can be seen from many miles away from major roads, so each one can be viewed for ages without actually paying to visit them – great idea!
Storms in Slovakia
Right where were we, oh yeah, so this turned out to be our last day in Slovakia! No, we weren’t in trouble with the police again! However this wonderful little village that we’d picked near the Hungarian border, turned out to be the epicentre for a vicious storm that started a couple of hours after we arrived, and didn’t stop until after we’d left! It was literally like being inside a thunderstorm – absolutely constant lightning all around, and the booming sound of thunder the likes of which we’ve rarely experienced before!
No sleep again – this was the second night of storm … we thought the previous night was bad, until we experienced this! Not only was the sound so loud, and the lightning flashes so bright and constant, but it was pouring down with hail stones most of the night too! It really was a little like the end of days – genuinely concerning! All of the dogs in the area were going berserk, barking all night – incredible!
Floods in Slovakia
I checked the roads in the morning, and all were under severe flood warnings. But hey, we’re from Yorkshire – we’re used to floods – think York, Doncaster, Ilkley etc, which flood regularly. It was very similar! Roads out, property damaged, trees fallen, people’s gravel drives ending up in the middle of the road, fences down, wood piles fallen into the road – you get the picture! The tiny becks were torrents and it took an age to get out of the village and surrounding area.
The thing is that Košice and Bratislava were looking no better weather wise for a number of days forwards, whereas eastern Hungary was faring a bit better. No point sitting in the rain, when sunshine in Hungary is only 4 hours away! So we left, and here we are in Hungary!