Popradské Pleso

Picking up from the last post, I'll continue with last Sunday afternoon, when we took a train to Ružomberok for another basketball game in the women's Slovak finals series.  This time "our" team had more than they could handle, so they lost the series 3 games to 1.  It was incredibly physical.  But the two Americans played well, and afterwards we got a chance to talk to them both.  It was fun surprising them with our American English!!  

Our school week Mon.-Wed. was fairly normal, but then Thursday was Slovakia's national Labor Day holiday, so we had a day off school.  The weather looked good, so we decided to go hiking in the High Tatras.  

We rode to Štrba on the "Horalky" car!!  (It's the brand name of a famous and delicious wafer-style snack bar  here in Slovakia.)  

From Šrba we continued on a cog train up to Štrbské Pleso (a mountain lake).  Since we'd been there a few times before, we had chosen a new route up into a mountain valley (behind Tim) above Štrbské Pleso to another smaller lake, Popradské Pleso.

Every time we go on a hike, I always scout around in the woods for a walking stick to use going uphill.   We see many people using fancy, lightweight, collapsible ski-pole-style walking sticks, but I always figured it was an unnecessary expense.  But today, Tim decided that new walking sticks should be my early Mother's Day present.  I was excited!!   :-)  

We had seen these ski jump areas before from down below, but they looked even scarier from up on this trail!!  The World Championships were held here once.  

And this is a glimpse of Štrbské Pleso from the trail above the lake.  

These rocks next to our trail were just begging to be climbed!

The views of the mountains were so beautiful! 

At every bend in the trail, there were new vistas to be seen.  

This photo ended up being too bright, but at least we're both in it for once.   LOL!! 

A mountain stream came right out of the hillside next to the trail, and this cute little spout and roof provided us a refreshing cold drink of spring water!  

Farther along into the valley, a footbridge carried us across this rushing stream.  

We always love getting to one of these typical trail markers telling which color trails to take, what the destinations are, and how long you can expect to hike to reach the next landmark on the trail.  Of course, we always mentally add about 1/4 more time because of all the stops we make for photos and to just admire the views!!  In a lot of places the trails are rocky, and you have to look down for secure footing, so we always take time to stop and look around to appreciate the grandeur of God's creation!!  

Popradské Pleso was still nearly covered in ice.  

There was a trail all the way around the lake, so we did the loop as soon as we got there.  The hotel on lake's edge looked really romantic.  

The farther we got around the lake, the deeper the snow was.  It was all melted down at the lower elevations, but I got to make a few snowballs, and even a mini-snowman up here! 

We really enjoyed our hike up into this new spot in the High Tatras!!  

We offered to take a picture overlooking the lake for another couple, so they took ours too.  For some reason, it almost looks like we've been 'photo-shopped' into the scene, doesn't it?    LOL!!   I promise, this is legit!  

We were a little cold and very hungry by the time we got up to the lake and  around it, so we went to the restaurant had some of Tim's favorite soup - kapustnica.  (sauerkraut soup with sausages and potatoes - yum!)  We had also brought along some snacks, so we enjoyed our lakeside meal in the mountains!  

It's hard to see in the picture, but there's a switchback hiking trail zigzagging up the middle of this picture, going all the way up to the top.  Someday, when the snow is gone and the trail is open again, it would be fun to go up there!!  It's incredibly steep, but it looks do-able!!  

We stopped for a rest and an apple on the way back - what a view!!  

And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we were getting pelted with small hail!!  So we found a little shelter under some pine trees to wait out the squall.  Crazy!!  

It hailed for about 10 minutes, and it accumulated a little where it didn't land in puddles and melt.  We ended up finishing our trip down again in some light rain.  Oh well!!  

This is the track for the cog-train that goes up the mountain from Štrba (along the main east-west train line) to Štrbské Pleso, up into the High Tatras.

Friday we were back at school, though a lot of kids were missing since the dormitory was closed as of Wednesday night because of the holiday.  What???  We were shocked that the out-of-town kids had nowhere to stay, so they were given a free day.  It sounds like this coming week will be the same, since there's another national holiday on Thursday the 8th, and the dorms will be closed again.  Evidently a lot of other schools have Friday off completely, but not us!   

We had a complete run-through of the Drama Club play after school Friday, and it was fun to see the whole thing come together.  The kids are doing great!!  The performance is this coming week, so everyone is really excited about it!!  

Saturday morning we got a little impulsive, and on a whim decided to take the train to Martin and visit Matt, our American lector friend there!!  Matt was flexible enough not to mind our spur-of-the-moment plans!

Matt and Tim in front of a beautiful blossoming tree on the square in the center of Martin. There's also a giant zmrzlina (ice cream) advertisement, which is typical out front of ice cream shops on the pedestrian zones.  It was too cold for a zmrzlina that day though!  

A close-up of this flowering tree --- the blossoms look like Christmas tree shaped cones of flowers which are white with some pink edging in the center.  I haven't been able to identify it yet, but we've seen a lot of these trees blossoming lately.  

We ate lunch at this Czech restaurant which had great food.  

Usually I have Tim imitate the poses of statues for photos, but this time, Matt took the picture for us so we could both imitate statues!!  Tim is Janošik, the Slovak 'Robin Hood', and evidently, I am some adoring admirer.   :-)  

This is the sign on the train station in Martin.  All towns have a town crest displayed in various places, and I thought this one was neat.  It is St. Martin (for whom the town was named), and he was known for his charity and generosity.  Legend has it that he cut his cloak apart with his sword and gave half to a beggar, as shown on the crest at left.  

Our train ride home was so pretty.  This is a country lane lined with flowering trees.  

And the canola fields are in full bloom now as well - such a bright lemon yellow color even on a cloudy afternoon.  

That's all for this post.  It has been quite chilly the past couple of days, and windy too.  We've been spoiled by our warm spring weather recently, so we hope it returns soon!!