Blog

I left the Wild Elephant hostel early to take the tram for what should be a wonderful 60th day(!) on the road. But Mama said life is like a box of easter chocolate, you never know what you gonna get…

The train I’m taking this morning goes from Bratislava (fun fact: pronounced Bracislava), on the westernmost edge of Slovakia, all the way to Košice, on its South-East end, passing close to the Polish border at the North, where I’ll stop. It’s the first train that requires seat reservation that I take in weeks, and I managed to fuck it up. I booked for the wrong date. I tried with the controller to get a new seat, but it wouldn’t work, so she told me nicely that’s it’s alright, whatever.

However, two hours later, another controller came in, and despite my explanations, even with the help of a nice lady translating, I think we didn’t understood each other, and she made me pay the full 16 €. Grrr… I was already not in the greatest mood, as I was struggling to wake up today, and that didn’t help.

I was so unfocused that it’s only when I saw the train depart from the Štrba station where I dropped off that I had a shattering realization.

I left my small Eastpack bag in the train.

YOU ABSOLUTE FCKING IDIOT! How can that happen after two months of near-daily train taking?! Universe, that is not a fun April’s fool!

Slightly panicking, I still gather myself and try to contact the customer service twice. And twice, as soon as they hear English, they cut off. I run to the booth. Do you speak English? Yes. Great. I explain the situation, and the guy was super helpful. He called himself, and within minutes, I got told that my bag had been collected and will wait for me at the Poprad station, which is coincidentally my destination for tonight. Ďakujem Sir, you are a LEGEND! 

Relieved, I give up on the scenic detour that I wanted to do through Tatra NP, Slovakia and take the next train to Poprad. Soon reunited with my lovely bag (which contained all my food, filtering bottle, phone charger, camera and tripod, and a nice TM pin gifted to me by Petr in Czech Republic barely a week ago), I headed to the airbnb. 30 min walk under the heat, I arrived in sweat. I thought I was done for the day, but I somehow got the great idea to check the weather for tomorrow.

And that’s where this looser day changed. Weather is shit tomorrow, so if I want to see the High Tatra mountains, it’s today. So I gave up on the hike, and just will do with a few train rides. Six of them to be precise.

From Poprad station, there is a very cool upper platform, high above the ground, which is 90 ° compared to the main Bratislava-Košice line. This is exclusively for the electric train network that goes up the mountain, to the numerous train stations of Vysoké Tatry. These links all the ski resorts and habitations of Vysoké Tatry.

I first dropped off at the « Stary Smokovec » station, and changed for a Eastbound train towards the « Tatranska Lomnica » terminus.

I had a few minutes to walk around the station of this very cute village, before boarding again in the opposite direction.

Again at « Stary Smokovec », I took a longer ride towards the Western end of the line, at the easy-to-pronounce « Strbské Pleso ». To the North were the impressive, sharp, snow-covered Tatra mountains, but I must say the ride was a bit underwhelming when it comes to get good views over them.

Anyway, I had an hour there at sunset to watch the summits disappear in the night, eat quickly a few fries, and back in a train to the South.

It was pitch black when I was back in Štrba, this time holding my bag tight. I’m going to have PTSDs from this.

One final train to Poprad, the eighth for today (a new record, and ninth countring Bratislava tram!). I hike back to the airbnb, fall into the bed, and spent an hour of very appreciated chat with my old friend Kamel, who should join me in Montenegro in about a month. Exciting stuff!