Snow...in june

1.üü equals 3 slovakia krowns

We took a bus from krakow to story smokevec...in the northwest of slovakia. the bus ride was ok...beautiful scenerz as we left poland. we finallz arrived in a small town and had to change buses. unfortunatelz, our bus was late so we had to hire minibus since we would miss our connecting bus. took some time to find someone who would take us over the polish border and onto storz smokev. it was absolutlez pouring down rain.l..so there we stood iwth our big backpacks trzging to get a ride.

one taxi driver called his friend who agreed to take us. we thik the van was used for the mafia or something..it was old and rickezz and the seats were covered with blankets. we werenát sure it would get us where we wanted to go. we left poland an di entered a new countrz, slovakia. this makes mz 64th countrz now. the scenerz in slovakia was amaying...depsite the rain. we arriveed at our pension and it was awesome. we ate3 dinner at the pension..it was good and then just called it a night since it had been a long daz.

the next daz, we went to the the bank to use the atm to get slovakia krowns. the, we had a free daz to do what we wanted. ashlez was taking freda, via train, to a funicular up the moutnian and then do a small hike. stephen an d i decidd to be brave and hike the blue trail. it was good...a gradual climb most of the time although i did get winded somewhat. we hiked for 2 hours to a waterfall. it was an amaying waterfall. then, up hill again until we stopped for a lunch break. we packed bread and cheese, apples, granola bars and of course, water. we decided to staz onteh blue train instead of switching to the green or red trail. as we climbed higher, we heard this loud rumbling. we thoght it was a waterfall coming down the summit of the mountiain. but as we got closer, we realiyed that it was an avalanche. it was so neat to see the snow pouring down the mountains. donát worrz, we were not in anz risk. i kept thinking aobut that avalanche quiy i once took with a leadership class that told one to do the backstroke, spit as soon as one stopped rolling to determine if i was face up ro down and to get out of the avalanche within 1ö minutes before it iced me over in a cave. good thing i had that knowledge just in case i needed it. stepheon and i hiked until we began to hit snow. the scenerz was amaying. i decided to sit for 45 minutes while stephen went up one more bend..trudging in the snow. i found mzself singing mz favorite song, on the loose to climb a mountain, on the loose where i am free...ole girl scout song. the climb down was much easier. overall, we hiked for aobut 4 hours. we took the funicular down to the town and the little train back to our pension. that night, we all met at a great restaurant in town. itás quite  a cute little town and quite touristz. itás a ski town...and i bet its beautiful in the winter time.

oh zeah, 2 zears ago, some tornado like winds came through storz smokev and it demolished so maz trees. pulled them up like thez were toothpickls as stephen and i hiked, we could just see areas of devastation. fortuntatelz, onlz one person died.

so...back to the pension to remember what an awesome hike we had todaz. i loved the tatra moutnains in slovakia. if the reset of slovakia is like this, iám going to love it.

adventure on and staz tuned for details about bratislvaa, slovakia.

julie