POLAND, SLOVAKIA – MOUNTAIN HIKING

Dates: 06.09.2019 – 15.09.2019

RIGA – KRAKOW

06.09.2019: This year we’re trying a new driving strategy. Instead of leaving early in the morning, we’ll set off straight after work in the evening. After work, we quickly gather our things. Departure from our place in Dzegužkalns is agreed for 20:00 and, with Swiss-watch precision, that’s exactly when we leave. This year’s group is: me, Madara, Jānis, Rihards, and Ģirts with his girlfriend Laura.
As usual, I get the first driving shift – the familiar first four hours. The only difference is that this time we’re driving through the night rather than early in the morning, so the roads should be emptier. My time behind the wheel passes fairly quickly. Then Baltušs takes over. Sleeping is slightly more difficult, but altogether I manage to collect around five hours during the night.
We arrive in Krakow very early. The secret to the fast journey was probably passing through Warsaw in the middle of the night without practically stopping. In previous years, when leaving Riga in the morning, we’ve reached Warsaw around lunchtime, when there are always bigger or smaller traffic jams.

KRAKOW, POLAND

07.09.2019: We arrive in Krakow much earlier than expected – already around 07:00. Since we’re about 4–5 hours ahead of schedule and our accommodation in Zakopane is only available from 15:00, we decide to have breakfast in Krakow and do our now-familiar loop through the Old Town. Breakfast eventually consists of cappuccino and two extremely filling doughnuts.
The final stretch from Krakow to Zakopane is mine to drive again.

ZAKOPANE, POLAND

07.09.2019: Not without some problems, but eventually we also find the keys to the apartment. The woman handing them over called me and mumbled an address where we had to pick them up – which wasn’t the same address shown on Booking.com. When I call again, she answers rather aggressively: “I already told you that you need to go to Nowotarska Street instead of Droga Krajowa!” Well, obviously. How did I not understand… We arrive around two, but the apartment is only available from three, so we have to wander around town for a while. The host absolutely refuses to let us in any earlier.
The real surprise comes when we realise our apartment is on floor -1, not floor 1 – something that wasn’t exactly highlighted in the description. But okay, the apartment itself is nice if you ignore the fact that there are no windows. The consolation prize is access to a swimming pool, billiards and table tennis. Although all of that is only available from 16:00 to 21:00. For three nights at Gorące Źródła Studio Centrum for six people, including tourist tax, we pay €180.
Once everyone has washed and had something to drink, we head out to hunt for dinner. The choice is obvious – we need to check whether the schnitzel at Adamo is still as enormous as it was two years ago. It is… Prices have gone up slightly, but getting completely full for €20 between two people is still perfectly fine. That’s enough for today. Tomorrow – first hike!

ZAKOPANE: HIKE 1 – CZARNY STAW

08.09.2019: Since the next few days are forecast to be rainy but today’s sky looks fairly promising, we swap our first and second days around, which means the first hike happens today. The starting point is exactly the same as two years ago – the base station of the Kasprowy Wierch cable car. The only difference is that this time we immediately turn left off the main trail. That means the hike starts with a steep climb. Afterwards comes a longer section along a gently rising, well-gravelled path leading to our first destination and lunch spot – Czarny Staw lake. We eat together with lots of ducks and a few other hikers.
The lake sits in a hollow surrounded by the Tatra mountain ridges. Rocky slopes rise on every side, and it’s slightly worrying to realise that at some point today we somehow need to get across one of them. It looks like we’re the only people continuing beyond this point. Everyone else turns back. Not especially inspiring, but we continue.
For another 15 minutes after lunch, there’s still a decent path. Then the serious climbing begins. For the next four hours, we mostly go upwards rather than forwards. A lot of the climbing involves chains and huge piles of rocks. I knew there would be chains, but I didn’t realise there would be this many of them or that they would be this steep. Still, it’s extremely interesting and impressive. Good physical condition is definitely required.
If the weather had been bad today, we would have been in serious trouble. Luckily, everything stays dry. I have a camera strapped to my chest and the climbing footage turns out impressive. We look like actual rock climbers. The views are spectacular and genuinely breathtaking. The hike is difficult both physically and mentally. After around seven hours, we see the very meaningful word “Uwaga”. There has recently been a rockfall caused by heavy rain, so one section of the trail is officially closed and we’re supposed to take a fairly large detour. That would mean we wouldn’t finish before dark, and turning back isn’t really an option either. Climbing down those chains would be a terrible idea. So, very sensibly, we decide to continue straight ahead. Ģirtiņš and Rihis, the idiots, somehow decide this is also the perfect moment to watch Formula 1 on the phone…
I have to admit it looks pretty scary when we reach the pale rock face where the rockfall clearly happened. A genuinely gigantic piece of cliff has broken off and shattered into thousands of pieces on the way down.
After almost nine hours, we reach the Kasprowy Wierch cable car, where we face a decision – take the cable car down or finish the loop on foot. We choose walking. It’s only the first day, so we still have energy. Today’s total: 25.32 km in 10 hours 26 minutes, with 1,817 metres of elevation gain.
In the evening, we’ve definitely earned a large beer and another huge portion at Adamo.

TERMY BUKOVINA

09.09.2019: After yesterday’s physically demanding hike, today is for relaxing. We’re going to the thermal pools. Out of three options, and for no objective reason whatsoever, we choose Termy Bukovina. Entry costs €14 per person for three hours. Time-wise, that’s completely enough.
Overall, it’s pretty good. Hot indoor and outdoor pools spread across four floors. There are also a few water slides.
On the longest slide, we decide to start timing ourselves for entertainment. A little competition. Ģirtiņš has clearly discovered something the rest of us don’t know because his times are suspiciously good.
We’re seriously damaging the average age statistics of the place. We’re probably about 40 years younger than the average visitor. Pensioners seem to spend entire days slowly cooking themselves here.
After all the hot baths and pools, we drive home feeling very soft and then head out to look for food. For a change, we decide we should find pizza or kebab. As usual, when looking for a restaurant without having a specific place in mind, we bounce from one end of town to the other without producing any useful result. Eventually we find both and choose pizza. Afterwards, we realise we probably should have gone back to Adamo. The pizza is weak. It’s raining quite heavily today, so there aren’t really any other activities to do after eating either. Very glad we decided to hike yesterday. Today would have been difficult up there. Back home, we organise a table tennis tournament. In the first round against Rihis, it quickly becomes obvious he isn’t seriously competing for the win. The other matches are much tighter. I win against everyone in the first round except Baltušs, but he loses to Ģirtiņš in the semi-final, so the final becomes Grobiņa versus Bauska – I’m originally from Grobiņa, Ģirts from Bauska. Grobiņa wins! In the evening, we also play a couple of UNO tournaments. Before bed, Rihis decides to fry some chicken fillets for tomorrow, but somehow manages to switch on the hob under the pot containing oatmeal prepared for breakfast instead. It burns completely, filling the entire apartment with smoke and an awful smell. Reminder – our apartment has no windows, so airing it out through the door isn’t particularly effective. Madara tries to be angry, but she’s about as successful at that as Rihis was at cooking his chicken.

ZAKOPANE: HIKE 2 – MOUNT GIEWONT

10.09.2019: Today is our second hike. We’ll walk as far as we can towards the currently closed Mount Giewont. The summit itself is closed because lightning recently struck the large metal cross during a thunderstorm and several people were killed. Repair work is now taking place, as the chains leading to the summit were apparently badly damaged by the lightning strike as well.
We start the hike as planned, but after around two hours I realise something isn’t right. We haven’t covered nearly as much distance as we should have, so we need to find a shorter route. If we don’t change the plan, this will probably turn into another ten-hour hike. For the first 2–2.5 hours, we follow a fairly flat trail through meadows, so our pace is actually good. That means the estimated hiking times shown for this trail are clearly misleading. If we’re falling behind while walking at this speed, you’d basically need to run to match them. After lunch, the climbing begins. For a while, we’re literally climbing up through a flowing stream. Boots are definitely useful here. At the highest point we’ll reach today, we rest for around 20 minutes next to an “Uwaga” sign telling us that continuing to the Giewont summit is forbidden. From here, we can also see the route we would have taken if we hadn’t shortened the hike. Good thing we shortened it… That looks pretty challenging too.
The first 40–50 minutes of the descent come with a fantastic panorama. We go down serpentine-style stairs between two mountain peaks. Once we’re back down, we take a little time to recover. Then we need to get ready to drive to Levoča in Slovakia. Hike completed in 6 hours 30 minutes. Exactly 19 km covered and 1,054 metres of elevation gain.

LEVOČA, SLOVAKIA

10.09.2019: It’s around a 1.5-hour drive to the small Slovak town of Levoča. My turn to drive again. Arriving in Levoča, we refuel ourselves with food from Lidl.
We find the accommodation without problems. The owner has even reserved a parking space right outside the door using a traffic cone. Nice. She’s extremely friendly and tells us which restaurants to visit and which ones are better avoided.
The accommodation is spacious. Technically, the house contains two apartments, but the second one is empty, so basically we have the whole two-storey house to ourselves. Ģirtiņš and Laura sleep upstairs, while the rest of us stay downstairs. The apartment costs €17.50 per person per night, which is more than a good price for a place like this.
Once we’re settled and washed, we head out to find the restaurant recommended by the owner – Reštaurácia Kupecká Bašta. It’s built directly into the wall surrounding Levoča’s Old Town. Sounds exclusive, doesn’t it? Yet a Kozel beer costs €1.20 and a glass of white wine 70 cents. The food is relatively expensive compared with the drinks, but still cheap overall, and it’s simple but very tasty.
By the time we finish dinner, it’s already fairly late, so we only make a small loop through the Old Town before going home. We walk as far as the town hall and the “Cage of Shame”, where thieves, prostitutes and women caught walking around town alone at night were once locked up for public humiliation and people could throw things at them. The cage turns out to be larger in real life than it looked in photos.

ŠTRBSKÉ PLESO: HIKE 3 – RYSY

11.09.2019: Today is theoretically the main hike of the trip – from Štrbské Pleso to Rysy, the highest peak in Poland. The theoretical plan is five hours there and another five back.
We leave home at eight and can start hiking around nine. The first hour follows a flat but rocky trail with constant views of the highest peaks of the Tatras ahead of us. At Popradské Pleso lake, we take a short break before the serious climb begins. There’s a small hut near the lake where people sometimes leave supplies, and if you carry something up to the mountain hut, you can get tea, beer or coffee for free. Literally working for beer.
There are a crazy number of people for a mountain trail. To be fair, the weather is perfect for hiking today – warm and sunny. Together with everyone else, we move steadily forward in a long line.
A strategically useful overtaking manoeuvre happens at Veľké Žabie Pleso lake. Most people stop there to catch their breath, while we keep going. Around 15 minutes later, the chain section begins and a traffic jam forms. Because we overtook most of the group at the lake, we barely have to wait. After the chains on our first hike, this one feels like a walk in the park.
After the short chain section, the trail becomes basically one giant pile of rocks all the way to the summit. In other words – just keep climbing. On the way, we also pass the mountain hut mentioned earlier.
After around 4.5 hours, we reach the summit! Ahead of schedule. Even though we’ve seen loads of hikers all day, it’s still surprising that there are probably 40–50 people on the summit at the same time. We find ourselves a little spot and eat lunch. There’s no reason to rush because we arrived about 30 minutes faster than planned, so we can spend that extra time sitting and resting. After the sandwich, we FaceTime Mum, take plenty of photos and slowly prepare to head down.
It’s slightly “boring” that we have to return along exactly the same trail we came up, but the view in the opposite direction is completely different, so there’s nothing to complain about. Going downhill is much faster and after 3.5 hours we’re already finished.

DOBŠINSKÁ ICE CAVE

12.09.2019: Today’s hike is supposed to be shorter, so after Baltušs hears me telling Ģirtiņš about a nearby ice cave, he says we absolutely have to go. He Googles some photos and it looks great. It’s not much of a detour and we have a relatively free morning, so off we go to Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Only three tours are organised each day. We arrive at the car park around 20 minutes before the first one. The parking lot is literally in the middle of nowhere, but of course there’s still a lady sitting there collecting €3.50 for parking. Ģirtiņš and I quickly power-walk uphill for around 15 minutes to reach the ticket office. There isn’t much time, but everyone successfully arrives just as the tour starts. Tickets are moderately expensive – €7 for students, €8 for everyone else, and if you want to take photos it’s another €10 per person. We buy one photography permit for the whole group. No information is provided in any other language. The tour begins when the world’s most bored-looking guide arrives. In clear and beautiful Slovak, she tells us something and then we enter the cave. The tour lasts around 30 minutes. The cave itself is also fairly underwhelming. Okay, intellectually understanding that there are thousands upon thousands of cubic metres of ice around us sounds impressive, but in reality the poor lighting makes most of it look like dirty walls. Unanimously, we rate this as the weakest attraction of the trip. Next up – Slovak Paradise National Park.

SLOVAK PARADISE: HIKE 4 – VEĽKÝ SOKOL

12.09.2019: We start and finish the hike in the tiny settlement of Píla. Again – a small village in the middle of a forest, yet there’s still an old man sitting there collecting €3 for parking. Immediately after leaving the car park, there’s a sign saying “Appropriate hiking boots recommended.” Rather tellingly, only those wearing proper boots finish the trail with dry socks.
At first, we walk around 45 minutes along a simple forest trail until reaching the start of the Veľký Sokol route. It begins beside a small spring that later becomes a little river. From there, we constantly zigzag back and forth across the water, jumping from rock to rock. A little later, various wooden platforms and ladders begin. There are loads of interesting obstacles. You have to constantly watch your feet so you don’t slip and fill your boots with water, although you also want to look up every now and then. The wooden steps are wet and water flows across them, so caution is needed. The best section is where we climb roughly 20 metres up almost vertical ladders beside a waterfall.
The planned trail length was supposedly 4.5–5 km one way, but there’s a catch – apparently that’s 5 km in a straight line. In reality, we move in endless curves, jumping around rocks, and one direction ends up being around 10 km. And obviously, we still need to get back. Navigation on the return journey doesn’t go particularly well. Small arguments start in the group, everyone is tired, and the rest of the day towards Košice isn’t especially cheerful because of the mild tension.

KOŠICE, SLOVAKIA

12.09.2019: We drive to Košice in about the same silence. Our apartment is fairly close to the main square. It’s nice – three rooms with a terrace overlooking the Old Town. On Booking.com it’s called Rooftop Apartment I. Two nights cost us €170.
Since the tension in the group hasn’t really disappeared, I say there’s no point in everyone going to a restaurant together in this mood. Madara and I go to the shop for dinner while the others head to McDonald’s. Nothing you can do. Every trip has its little crisis.

DOMICA CAVE

13.09.2019: Today there’s only one proper attraction, followed by a relaxed walk around Košice without any specific goals. We start by driving towards Domica stalactite cave. It’s around an hour away, and theoretically we can also add Hungary to our list of visited countries because the route takes us through it for around 20 minutes. Looks like there are quite a lot of Roma people in Hungary… In one of the small towns, lots of people are very slowly sweeping leaves around their yards despite the fact that it’s supposedly a normal working day.
Prices at this cave are identical to Dobšinská Ice Cave, including the photography fee. This time we skip the photo permit – at least legally. Even though the guide only speaks Slovak, here they at least hand out sheets with information in English. The good lighting probably deserves a lot of credit for the experience. Shadows from the stalactite formations fall at all kinds of strange angles, creating a really cool overall view. The tour lasts around 45 minutes. If I had to choose between the stalactite cave and the ice cave, I would definitely recommend the stalactites.

KOŠICE, SLOVAKIA: EVENING

13.09.2019: Back in Košice, we’re pretty hungry, so we try one of the restaurants recommended by our host – Camelot. Tripadvisor seems to rate it fairly well too. It has a medieval theme, but there are very few people inside. We assume that’s because it’s lunchtime.
Well… There’s only one beer option – Pilsner Urquell, which is Czech. Food is unusually expensive for this trip. Madara and I spend €35 between us. Not great, not terrible.
Ģirtiņš orders an appetiser for €4. When it arrives, it looks quite funny. One sausage and a tiny green decorative object.
Moderately satisfied with lunch, we keep walking. While wandering through the streets, we notice a Tatra Tea tent. There’s a street food and wine festival happening in the city these days, so the streets are full of all sorts of things. For €1–1.50, you can taste different Tatra Teas – a locally produced strong spirit, probably technically a liqueur. Considering the alcohol content ranges from around 20% to 72%, it goes down surprisingly smoothly. Me, Ģirtiņš, Madara and Baltušs warm ourselves up with the tasting, and after a few shots you can noticeably feel the tension in the group disappearing. We also buy several bottles to take home and give as souvenirs.
We go home to drop off our purchases and rest for a while. With a few beers, we organise another UNO tournament.
In the evening, we head out again. Laura stays home to rest and Rihis goes for a run, so the four of us head into town. We get some local craft beer of mysterious origin from the street festival and sit next to Košice’s supposedly famous musical fountain, but it doesn’t really impress us. We wander around a little more, eat a kebab, but everyone is feeling slightly soft by now, so after walking along Hlavná Street, the main street of Košice Old Town, we head home.

LUBLIN, POLAND

14.09.2019: Today is the final full day of the trip, although around 5–6 hours of it have to be spent driving from Košice to Lublin. Baltušs starts the drive and Ģirtiņš finishes it. I get a free day today. The city looks surprisingly large. Road infrastructure is excellent, but there seem to be suspiciously few cars around. I quickly Google the population of Lublin and organise a competition. Baltušs guesses 1.5 million, Ģirtiņš 1.1 million and Laura 1.3 million. Madara isn’t allowed to participate because I’ve already told her the answer. Correct answer – 300,000! Looking at the city, you’d expect considerably more people.
We park in the courtyard of our accommodation, where the entrance gate is maybe 20 cm wider than our van. Everyone quickly showers and eats something, then we head out for a short loop around town so we can officially tick Lublin off.
The Old Town reminds us quite a lot of Riga Old Town. We don’t really go much further. By now it feels like practically every city has its name displayed somewhere in the centre in huge illuminated letters. At least it gives tourists somewhere to take photos. We walk along what appears to be the main pedestrian street – Krakowskie Przedmieście – as far as Lublin Castle. The walk doesn’t last long because everyone is hungry. We choose Restauracja Browar Lublin.
Relatively expensive for Poland, but still cheap compared with Riga. Polish cuisine and portion sizes are operating at full power. I’m pretty sure some toilet seats are smaller than Ģirtiņš’s pork schnitzel. Its thickness is equally impressive. He still gets through it surprisingly easily. Completely full, we slowly head home. Group selfie beside the Lublin letters. Back at the apartment, a few more beers, another UNO tournament and time to pack our things. I’ve barely unpacked anything during the trip anyway, so I don’t have much work to do.

LUBLIN – RIGA

15.09.2019: We leave around 08:00. On the huge six-lane motorway this early on a Sunday morning, we’re practically alone. I get the first driving shift. We basically drive the entire way without interruptions or any incidents. Before the Lithuanian border, I spend the final Polish złoty at a petrol station on a few Tatra beers. Better to have Tatra beer in a bottle than złoty in a pocket, where they’d probably just get lost somewhere.
Around 20:00 we’re back in Riga. We drop Madara off at home so she can reorganise herself and then come pick me up with the Ford at the Sarkandaugava Circle K, where we’ll return the rental van. We’ve rented from BonVoyage for the third time now, and if we need a van again, we’ll use them again. Genuinely good service. Meanwhile, the rest of us quickly clean and organise the van. We drop off the Ģirtiņš delegation, then Baltušs, while Rihis practically lives next to the rental point anyway.
Trip completed! Poland welcomed us warmly once again. Slovakia exhausted us, but we found and reached every summit and every attraction we had planned. Time to start planning the next trip.

Total trip costs:
Total cost: 2442 EUR.
Per person per day: 46 EUR.