XX | Bring Me The Horizon

  21/10/24

3:00am wake-up to catch a 6:10am flight to Poprad, Slovakia. I’m shocking at getting good sleep as it is, I think I had about 2 hours of actual sleep before I had to get up to catch my bus from Cambridge to London Stansted. I was fortunate to get a hold of a window-seat on the plane to see the cracking sights of mountains that were on display as we were landing in Poprad. It was the first smooth flight I’ve ever seen where people were clapping when we landed. I had to laugh at that. The only time I’d ever seen that was when I landed in Wellington from Dunedin one time some years back, in what was a very brutal weathered journey - one that definitely warranted a round of applause! This was all great, but the rest of the day mostly turned in to a shambles…

I arrived at about 9:00am. I wasn’t impressed at the €25 taxi I paid for a 5 minute journey from the airport in to the Poprad bus station. For whatever reason there weren't any other means of getting out of the airport, from my understanding anyway. I know taxis are rip offs… but bloody hell! Next up I needed to travel from Poprad to Štrba. I was a little confused at what Google Maps was telling me, as none of the bus routes were matching to what maps were saying. I thought bugger it, wing it. I took a bus in to Štrba, but the bus ran its course way before I thought it was meant to stop. I hopped off at the end of its route, then realised I needed to get to Tatranska Štrba, not Štrba itself. It was close by, but there was no suitable way of walking there. I looked at the bus times at the bus stop, and the next bus to Tatranska Štrba wasn’t for another 2 hours from that stop. This stop wasn’t in a very interesting area, so I thought screw it - may as well bus back to Poprad then bus directly to Tatranska Štrba from there to kill time. I did just that, and thankfully made it to Tatranska Štrba from Poprad this time round.

I got to my hostel at about 3:30pm. I wasted so much time to get to this bloody place, that shouldn’t have taken that long. The idea was to explore the lower mountain area on this day, but that plan fell through. I was very tired and was ready to rage-quit. Seeing as it wasn’t long until dark, I decided to stay inside and get on to the mountain tomorrow. I kept thinking how useless and crap the public transport here was originally, as the buses I took weren’t in line with what I saw on maps. 

Turns out I’m a big dumbass, and blind… to be fair I was very tired!

I didn’t realise until my third day in Slovakia that I was looking at train times and routes, not buses. I thought I was looking at a bus icon on Google maps, but turns out it was a fucking train icon! I didn't even realise trains went out that way! I know the difference between the icons, but I was too bloody blind to see it. It didn’t help with the train station being right next to bus station on the map. Turns out the bus routes weren’t on maps at all which was odd, although the times seemed to conveniently line up with the train ones that I was keeping tabs on! I could have caught a £0.90 ticket train from Poprad and gotten to my hostel in less than 30 minutes. I could have even caught a train following that first bus ride to Strba to Tatranska Strba, as their was a train stop right down the road from where the bus finished it's route. Instead I took hours to get to my hostel! I can laugh at this now, but I was so pissed off with wasting so much of this day from making mistakes originally. 

The Hostel I stayed at was quite different. It's basically an apartment with several bedrooms dedicated to a few different types of dorm rooms. There was a a female dorm downstairs, a mixed dorm (which I stayed in), and two private rooms up stairs. There were three girls that stayed across the duration I was there, and one Australian bloke on the first night. We all kept to ourselves really, I didn't even bother trying to get to know them as they barely acknowledged me even greeting them. Some people are funny like that in hostels, they're either eager to get to know you or they seriously don't give a shit. Either way, in a small hostel like this one - the least you can do is say "Hi". I didn't really give two shits either way though, I was there to climb a mountain - not to try and get to know people who clearly didn't want to be known.

22/10/24

You know how I said I didn’t get much sleep on the night before my flight? Well I got too much bloody sleep this time round. I crashed early at about 8:00pm, and didn’t wake up until 10:30am! I didn't consider setting an alarm because I never get that much sleep. The idea was to leave the hostel at 8:30am then walk around the mountain. I ended up catching the train from Tatranksy Lieskovec at 11:30am, which was conveniently next to my hostel. From there it was an 8 minute journey up to Strbske Pleso. It was beautiful up there, and very clean. There were several restaurants and cafes open, along with small tourist shops. I really appreciated all the wooden statues of the types of animals and plants that are based in the mountains, they were really well crafted. I wish I had taken photos of them. Originally I planned on taking the chair-lift up the mountain, and then walk down it. It was a sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky - it would have been great. But considering that it was 12:30pm by the time I got to the beginning of the track, I figured that I’d possibly be cutting it pretty fine with getting back before dark. I opted to walk up the track and see how I went, and possibly take the chairlift back down if I were to make it. I prefer walking up mountains anyway, it's much more exciting and rewarding. From the beginning of the track, I'd say that I made it up to about 1/4 of the way up it before deciding to turn around at an appropriate time. It was a good call looking back now, I probably wouldn't have made it off the track before dark. Wouldn't have been ideal to walk in with only my phone-torch on me. I would frequently stop at areas where the mountains looked picture-esque, and around the small lakes and waterfalls. It was all beautiful, and the weather couldn't have been better. I was a bit bummed out that I accidentally slept in and didn't do the full walk, but at the same time - I was very excited to get back out there tomorrow and make a full day of it.

23/10/24

I didn't sleep in this time! Was up at Strbske Pleso at about 9am-ish, ready to tackle the High Tatras properly this time. Although the scenery was much different today, because of all the mist and clouds! Despite not being able to see as much past the clouds at certain times, this day was the best day by far. I bought a nice cappuccino to enjoy before starting the walk, and stacked up on water and snacks. I blasted through the parts that I had already seen and walked through yesterday, to get to where I was last at. I did actually plan on going up the chair-lift today, but considering that you could barely see anything through the mist and clouds - I saw little point in spending €25 on that experience. This hike actually turned out to be incredible, and as I progressed further along the scenery would change along the way. For much of the first quarter of the walk, I was mostly walking on a dirt track through the the bush. After about an hours walk it started to open up more, hear streams not long before seeing them, and all of a sudden you're surrounded by mountains. By the time I reached this waterfall, the second-third of the journey turned in to more of a rock-hopping/rock-climbing experience. I bloody loved this. I was so excited. As I would ascend higher in the mountains the mist and clouds would break apart more frequently, giving brief clear openings of some quality scenery. The surrounding mountains up close, the small lakes and mini-waterfalls. It was all very dreamy. The best part about all this is that I barely saw anyone on this walk, I felt like I was on my own most of the time. It was so quiet as opposed to yesterdays experience when the sun was out. The peace felt incredible. As I was approaching towards the the highest possible walking point of the mountain, I couldn't see anything beyond the rocks within my vicinity, everything else was lost amongst the white. I took a photo of myself in front of what should have been a mountain behind me, but it was just a pure white background! Once I climbed to the top using the chains bolted in the rocks, I began to descend down the other side. Now this was purely rock-hopping for a good while at this point, I think quite a few people tend to turn around before this point and with good reason. I partially do wish it was sunny because I couldn't see what was in the distance on this side of the mountain, but I can't argue with the mystique that todays weather provided. It added to the element of surprise when I'd descend from higher ground. I was partially stressing out due to not knowing how long of the walk I had left at about 3:00pm. There weren't any signs about to let you know where you were at. None of the signs or websites had an estimated time for the tracks, nor did I bother to ask anyone because most Slovaks know very little, if any English. I basically relied on my instincts, thinking that as long as I'm walking downhill and in the direction of where I had came from, then soon enough - I'll be alright. Some part of me enjoys not knowing these things, it feels more adventurous. After more rock hopping down the other side of the mountain, and coming across more small lakes - I eventually made it to the bush, back to more dirt tracks. By this point I knew that I would be fine and should make it back to Strbske Pleso before dark. There isn't much to say about this leg of the journey because I couldn't see much beyond the bush. Eventually I finally came across a sign that said I have 1.5 hours left of the walk left going down hill, or I could go up to the mountain lodge and catch a chairlift back down. I opted to walk down the rest of the way, and made it back just before the sun was about to set. I really was hoping to see some animals from a distance on this walk, but other than some mice and a couple of squirrels - I didn't see anything. On the bright side, I'm fairly certain that the squirrels I saw were red squirrels. I've seen thousands of grey squirrels in England, but never a red one. The grey squirrels drove most of the red squirrels out of the UK due to over-powering them over food, and killing them off with a contagious virus that the greys hold but aren't affected by. So it was quite cool to finally see a couple of red ones, I'm fairly certain they were red ones anyway. 

There's one thing I hadn't done yet in Slovakia, and that's have a beer. I went to a restaurant called Zubacka where this lovely lady at the bar poured me a large pint of pilsner. I then had a beef/bacon burger and fries along with another pint. I probably should have been more enthused about trying something that's Slovakian and gone for something more exotic to eat, but I was far more interested in what Slovakian beer tasted like. Wasn't disappointed! I was basically the only one in this restaurant too, Strbske Pleso was very quiet in the evening. Most places were quite dead. Suppose they would be around this time before ski season approaches. I got back to the hostel where the fellow mute backpackers barely acknowledged me. It was quite funny, a couple of them would sit in the lounge/kitchen area and not say anything to each other for hours. Talk about wanting peace and quiet in the mountains.

24/10/24

I woke up at 6:00am to walk down to Strba train station for my 7:00am train back to Poprad-Tatry. God, I wish I used the train at the beginning of the trip too! I found a €5 taxi to get to the airport from Poprad too, clearly I got ripped off heavily the first time. The plane journey back to London ended in applause once again, certifying that this was a successful trip. The trip started out as a bit of a mess at my own doing, but needless to say - I left Slovakia better than when I arrived.

*

Slovakia wasn't exactly at the top of my list when I was looking at going on a trip. Originally I was looking at going back to Ireland. The idea was to start at Belfast, then make my way down to Galway, then finishing the trip off in Cork. I was close to booking tickets, but then I looked at how consistently shit the weather has been and was going to be in Ireland over that period of time. Knowing that, I decided to flag that idea. So I went and looked at cheap flights on SkyScanner. I was torn between going to a few countries. I thought about going to Faro, Portugal - but didn't think it looked like I would have had that much fun by myself there. I came very close to going to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I still want to go there some day, but I started to have this nagging thought in my head that I needed to climb a mountain. Scotland popped up in my mind, but without a car it would have been difficult to get to the places I really wanted to go to. I still can't believe that I haven't been to Scotland yet - it's near the top of my list! Soon enough, I saw the cheap flight to Poprad, Slovakia come about. I had never heard of this place before, so I did some research. Poprad looked pretty shit, and I thought that it was shit when I was there too. But that's not what drew me to go there. I discovered the High Tatras Mountains on YouTube, where people were videoing their walks. I thought, this is it - my mind's made up. The area was close to Poprad, and I very conveniently found a hostel to stay at just below the mountains. 

I finished the trip feeling very excited for life again. I felt very rejuvenated after feeling fairly off for quite some time. I could feel my mood and demeanour change, it's almost like I hadn't felt this happy in such a long time. This sense of freedom, not having a care in the world... I felt like a kid again racing and climbing across the rocks, skimming stones across the lakes. The peace and quiet I had, seeing the beautiful scenery... not only was I away from the noise of people, but particularly all this noise that's been going on in my head. I didn't give a shit about anything up in the mountains. The way I feel about myself, what I should and shouldn't do going forward in life. Even in the happiest moments, my mind hardly ever gives me a break. But up in the High Tatras, while those thoughts were somewhere in me - for once I felt that none of that mattered, I felt at peace. Being up in the High Tatras made me remember how I'm just an extremely small part of this world, and just how big that world is. It's important to take life seriously, but not yourself too seriously. To seek adventure... I forget that's all I've ever wanted - to feel like I've lived a number of  different lives. This trip made my next move make more sense to me, all while still trying to make sense of it all.