On Thursday we were up at 4:30am to get to the airport on time *yawn*. My flight got into Krakow just after 12, got through border control fairly promptly & ended up at Jet Bistro for a cup of tea. Using the chat group I discovered Lisa was there too so we met up and were gradually joined by others until about half the group were in the cafe! We chatted until Martin, Andy & Jan from Much Better Adventures arrived at 5pm to collect the group & set off in two minibuses on the 3h drive across to the border to our hotel in Slovakia. It was rainy & dark so we didnt get to appreciate the mountains fully as we crossed the border but we did appreciate the traditional food at Penzin Strachan where we stopped for supper! I had Strapačky (Slovak potato dumplings with sauerkraut) and kafola (traditional drink somewhere between coke and dandelion & burdock). Andy also let us try his slovak sweet potato dumplings with walnut and poppy seeds which were delicious but very filling! Refueled we headed on to Hotel u Leva in the UNESCO town of Levoča where we checked in and pretty much headed straight
I woke up in the middle of the night with sore eyes which just kept getting worse, By the time Friday morning came they were swollen so much I could barely see and painful besides. I took an antihistamine assuming it was just a bad allergic reaction to something as it was both eyes. When that didnt help Andy took me to the pharmacy next door but the lady there said I should go to the doctors so off we headed together with Jamie who wanted to see their health care in action! Luckily it was raining heavily so the planned awesome hike was postponed, instead the rest of the group headed off to Belianska cave in the Tatra mountains. Meanwhile at the hospital they checked my eyes, said it was an infection and prescribed me drops and soothing gel. I was so glad Andy was there to translate for me as I wasnt really in a fit state to play charades.... We then hedaed back to the hotel where Jamie and I crashed for the rest of the morning trying to recover from the bad night previously (the caffine in the kofola had kept her
The rain had got lighter so that afternoon we joined the rest of the group to venture into Slovak Paradise National Park to do a short hike up Prielom Hornadu canyon to the stunning Tomasovsky viewpoint, a 200m high rock shelf with excellent views over the entire area. The boardwalks and ledges were great fun & not at all slippy in spite of all the rain! After getting back to the hotel & showering to warm up a few of us headed out for supper at Kupeck Bata where I had the confit lamb shank with new potatoes then Jamie and I shared the sweet potato dumplings with poppy seeds - yum! As we were finishing the rest of the group arrived having previoiusly been playing dobble in a local bar. Jamie and I then opted for an early night as unsurprisingly we were both shattered.
