The next day we fast found out that there is no flat spot in Slovakia. Either we were rolling fast down (in the beginning it was frightening to let the bike roll fast, but soon we learned how to handle the heavy bikes in the turns of the roads) or trying to make our way up on the mountains. In Poland we were almost dead after our first hill which lasted 3 kilometers, but surprisingly fast we got used to the mountains and just accepted that the spiral roads have always at least 10 more turns, than hopped. We were our own superheros after each uphill. It is amazing feeling to know, that the hight of the mountain would not kill us, but the speed. Of course, there were moments, that either one of us or both of us got tired. During this times we made stops more often. The heat that we had was normally 38 degrees in shadow, so we were soaked with our own sweat. The heat also takes big part of the energy and the amount of water we were drinking was bigger than I have drank ever before. During our normally day, we drunk at least 10litres of water per person.
Because of the heat, we started to woke up before sunrise and cycle until Midday, have a brake and continue in the evening. This worked with us, since both of us are morning persons. How refreshing it is to have morning coffee with the rising sun on the mountainside. And how luxorious it was to feel chilly while rolling down the mountains without any traffic or people in the villages.
I wanted to see Tatra mountains, so we headed towards the high peaks on the horizon. During our first day in Slovakia we cycled over 70km, even though the first 30km was uphill. In the beginning we we were both checking our bikes to see, if there was something wrong, because it felt that the bikes did not more as they used to. When we looked behind, we found out that we had been climbing up slowly but surely since the morning (or since we crossed the boarder into Slovakia). So the slow speed was not because of bikes but becouse of the foot of the mountain.
We got to east side of Tatra mountains, found another beautifull mountain natural pool river (it was giving even massage) and put our tent there. We enjoyed amazing homemade strawberry jam in the evening. I had gotten the jar from Poland from beautiful family, and had saved it for special moment. Thank you, it was so good! :) We had heard that there were lot of bears roaming around, so we decided to "hide" our food away from us in the evening and hang them on the tree.
We found our food in the morning untouched and after heavy breakfast, we pushed our bikes out from the forest and continued biking. After 2 min of cycling, I asked Lauriina if she would like to hide the bikes, and have a short walk up to the closest peak. I love my sister and her flexibility and
willingness to jump to destiny unknown without having second thought, so before we realised we were climbing the Tatra mountain. What a create decicion. No words to describe the beauty of high Tatras. It has been one year, since I have been on the mountains last time and how happy i was to share the special moment with my sister! The climbing was not easy and we were stupid not taking food with us, so after 5 hours, we had to turn and go down.
From High Tatras we continued to another national park with our sour muscles (first time during the trip) . We decided to have a day of there and go to walk into the park called Solvenki Raj for one day, and leave our stuff into the camping site. After spending a week wild camping, we got shocked with huge busy camping site and regretted our decision. The next day, after we got back from our 9 hour hike on the national park, we were wordless. For nothing does the place carry out the name of paradise of Slovakian paradise. Just stunning canyons, beautiful forest and happy sister times. Just to mention, lesson learned and we had enough food :)
We were both stunned with the beauty of Slovakians nature, but we had had not that much interaction with the locals. While traveling alone, I got used to meet and make friends with local people everywhere. Either it is easier to approach to traveller who is alone, or we were so happy together that we made kind of closed circle. Eventually in Brenzo, we met group of super friendly guys. We got to see the night of meteorite showers with them at the hillside of Brenzo, and went to stay at Martins place. The next day we continued with Martin to Polena National park.
Just pure gratitude towards Martin, not only to plan, but also to show us such amazing national park. We were both with my sister pushing the bikes up the steepest parts of the mountains as read faced as possible. There was no way we would have managed to cycle the rocky super steep uphills, but once again we made our way as superwomen. We were not allowed to camp at the place where we had planned, so we cycled through the forest in a tiny path, with our headlamps towards plan b. Two words: adventure and happiness. With big smiles on our faces we got to the tiny hut, and we made the bed comfortable with the brunches of spruce. The next day it was time to say sad good byes to Martin and continue towards Hungary.
Thank you to Martin (who planned our way all the way to Hungary), we had beautiful ride to the boarder. We stayed the last night at the mountain side, where we saw both the sunset and sunrise. What a way to say good bye to Slovakia. In Slovakia, I could had stayed longer just to discover the beauty of its nature. Unfortunately, I was in rush to go to Budapest and reach my plain to Finland. This is also reason, why I have not updated the blog. I had to prepare myself for a conference, where I had an honor to speak. During my last days or week of the trip it took all the extra time in the evenings, so I had no time to write the blog.
Currently I am in Hungary and my sister is back home. Learning to cycle alone again, feeling lonely, knowing this feeling will pass, being happy at the same time to be on the road again. Feeling so grateful to have a such a wonderful sister and being able to share a road with her. She is absolutely light of life. How grate it is to miss such special person and to be able to share such special memories.
Here is taste of Slovakian music: http://youtu.be/2oZKgddmJAQ
And this song for today: http://youtu.be/Qtb11P1FWnc
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