Early Saturday morning, October 12th, my host mom and my host grandparents took me to the High Tatras. We took a scenic way from Nitra. It was beautiful to see all of the Slovak countryside and all of the little villages. On the way, my host grandma would point out any castles in the distance and try to explain the history of each castle.
Slovakia truly has beautiful nature. Since it was early October the weather was amazing. It wasn’t too cold but not too hot either. The smell of fall was in the air. We stopped at a typical Slovak restaurant on the way to the High Tatras. The restaurant was completely made out of wood and it looked like a log cabin. The walls were decorated with a lot of historic traditional Slovak decor. It was neat to see. While we didn’t eat there and only grabbed coffee my host mom decided to order some lokše which is like a Slovak potato flatbread. A couple of weeks before I helped my host mom make lokše. I was super excited to learn how to make traditional Slovak food.
My host mom showed me how to roll out the lokše into a round shape. After I rolled out the dough she put them in a pan and cooked them. Lokše isn’t very hard to make you only need chilled cooked potatoes and flour to make them. We ended up eating the lokše with duck and kapusta(sauerkraut). I can’t wait to make them at home for my family. Anyway, once we drank some coffee and ate some lokše we were back on the road to the High Tatras. Before we got to the High Tatras I could start seeing them in the background they were absolutely beautiful. I am from a flat state in the US so to be able to see mountains let alone the High Tatras for the first time I couldn’t take my eyes off them. The Tatras are truly amazing. Once we arrived we took a ski lift to the top of the mountains. We hiked around the mountains. There was a spring along the mountains. I tasted the water and it was so fresh and refreshing. We hiked around for an hour or so then decided to go back down. Then our adventures continued and they brought me to Štrbské Pleso which is near the High Tatras. You can see the mountains in the background and there is a lake and you can walk around it. It was very beautiful as well. After walking around the lake, we had a late lunch and then headed back. We stopped at an authentic souvenir stop and I got a beautiful handmade mug that said Slovakia on it. Also, my host grandma bought me a pair of fur slippers. Overall, it was a really nice day.
