While waiting for Tomas at the Vienna airport, I was feeling a bit anxious. I had high expectations for this centerpiece in my trip to Europe: seeing two of my favorite people, going hiking with them on a trip they had organized, including a stay in T’s family cabin. Finally T rolled into the terminal with his white skoda, clearly having no trouble recognizing me. (maybe because I was stretching my quads… who else does that at the airport haha). When he stepped out of the car and I remember saying “I’m going to cry…” as I grinned at him and gave him a huge hug. On the way back to Bratislava, we talked about many things; at that point it was still difficult for me to believe that I was indeed in his car, driving to sleep a night before taking off to the high Tatras.
Friday morning he gave me a tour of his office and the training center for the air traffic controllers, which by the way is actually quite a sophisticated system, I could only try to imagine how an airport like JFK operates,
Later, we took a covoiturage to meet Karol. Seeing him for the first time in 3 years was also very heartwarming. It was like getting reunited with a long-lost brother. Then we were off with the two of them and a friend of theirs Eva to T’s cottage. we spent the night there, once again sleeping a mere 5 hrs. all groggy and slow-mined, we took off for the High Tatras. What I was about to experience is one I will never forget.
The landscape was like something out of The Lord of the rings: tall rocky walls, small waterfalls littering the scene. Going up, there weren’t too many people, and it took a while to warm up to the rapid elevation gain. Soon enough, we were shedding layers, sweating and in some cases leaving some smelly “angel sighs” behind. climbing to the first pass was mostly snow free, but after this pass where Poland is visible from, the snow became more common and the steepness of the trail, sometimes covered in snow, became more and more hazardous. But we watched out for each other, and marveled in the landscape and majestic nature surrounding us. Next stop: a full night spent in a fully-booked lodge-type building. The plan was to sleep “Slovak style”… to be continued ..