SS II

I know it's been frustrating for you not to know whether our trip to Slovakia was in the end a fiasco or not...but here I come with more news.

Second day as I said we decided not to pay a full-day ticket for the bad conditions of the main slopes and to try the night skiing conditions to a third slope near-by that we have only seen one night whilw walking through the resort. This was going to be more cheaper too, almost half the price of the day-long ticket.

It was the most inspired decision we took during the trip. It was cheap, nor crowded and if you were fast enogh you could get there before the rest of the people and "taste" the slope among the first. Very interesting and new sensation. The slope was about 850 m long but quite demanding. We came to life again! Our trip looked like saved...by the night skiing.

We were happy and we used to ski at night. The feeling was great, the slope seemed to be all ours.

Our programme was clear. In the morning, after getting-up (that was almost always at noon) we went wandering the surroundings, the city, the shops and one day we planned a trip to the thermal aquapark in the area.

This is a local monument for those who died during the communist era. The glass walls were spinning around when you touched it.

The small city by night. The benches were practically frozen (here -10).

The Valley it is actually streching between The Low and the High Tatras. Jasna, our resort was on the Low Tatras. But the landscape is splendid. It is perfect for skiing, for hicking and also for bathing in the sun or in the Liptovsky lake (frozen at the time we visited) or the thermal lakes. It was fun! The water was +38 degrees in the swimming pools (very crowded by the way) and outside there was at least - 8 degrees. AND THERE WERE PEOPLE BATHING OUTSIDE! Good grace! Brevheart was a little child compared to these people.

Anyway in the morning we went to the swimming pool and in the evening we went skiing...hm! what a marathon, huh? But it was great. we really felt we were getting again our good shape :).

One day we realized that all the slopes were being opened, starting from the top of the mountain (almost the top) and to the valley. Wow! Finally what we expected! One ambitious man (Peter) proposed to wake-up at 7 in the morning and be at the slopes at 8, to spend all the available time skiing (until 15:30). First seemed to be impossible to achieve but we all had an ambition and we did it. It was great to ski in the morning onto untouched snow.

Images speaks for themselves. Here was the top of the slopes from where you could choose your own personal trail.

Day-skiing turned out very challenging as in the afternoon there was plenty of ice on the slopes and we "had" to fall for the fun of the situation and the spectators. Artificial snow (as most of it was artificial) it's ok but you feel that something is missing. And artificial snow it's not so resistant; it turns into ice very very quickly. Anyway we found a natural slope for beginners and it was a real blessing. Here behind Peter.

Some of us (see the picture above) even leared how to fly....as there were plenty of flying boards on this slope. we had fun anyway, especially when the same character :) wanted to have an extreme adventure by crossing betweend two slopes through the bushes and untouched deep snow layer. Now here we had the greatest time. We were somewhere between the two ski-lifts, in the picture, where you can see the bushes (aprox. where the plane "hits" the mountain, but a bit lower, where starts the mts vegetation). We survived but having NO control at all of the ski. When reaching the slopes we were like Tarzan descending from a tree...everybody looked at us like they've seen some Himalayan conquerors...hehehhe.

Well, our conclusion was that we will be back one day, but maybe on February or March when hopefully there'll be plenty of snow. It is worth it. At the time of our trip ti Jasna the cliff slopes remained closed, as a safety measure, but I think they are the best. Soon to experience that too.