Trip2Slovak Paradise

It was a beautiful morning of September 29th 2013... but we don’t mean just the weather. Also those 16 a little bit sleepy, but smiling international faces excited about experiencing the Paradise at 6.00 a.m at the station. You are right! Lenka Lelakova and Barbora Korchnakova decided to organise adventurous hiking trip to Slovak Paradise.

The Slovak Paradise National Park is often described as “a magical forested piece of land in the east of Slovakia” (20 km from the city of Spisska Nova Ves), full of ravines, gorges, chasms, meadows and waterfalls. For our hike we chose the green trail leading from Podlesok through the gorge Sucha Bela which is the most popular for its rock windows, cascades, ladders and natural jacuzzis.

With the improvised waterproof protection (plastic bags on socks) and the feeling of adventurers, our French-German-Italian-Latvian-Polish-Slovak group made the first steps to face the beauty of nature changing dress for the autumn one, to jump from rock to rock hidden in the stream of water we walked up against, to balance on horizontal wooden ladders and to suppress the adrenalin when climbing the vertical iron ones, all the way making our memory remember the information about new friends disclosed during lively conversations.

After 2 hours long hike we refreshed on the top with a Slovak ‘mountaineers’ sweet’ called Horalky and continued to Klastorisko, a place where an ancient Carthusian monastery used to be. There we relaxed and took a lunch break. The path back down led through the forest and, in comparison to the first part, this was really just a walk. The day finished on a huge swing with 11 Erasmus on enjoying balancing skill improved during the hike.

Thanks to the nature and all the guys who participated- for that friendly atmosphere they created. It really felt like being in the paradise.

Author: Lenka Lelakova