Just like Paradise

Bored with city life and holiday celebrations, we went north in search of the (hopefully) snowy mountains of Slovakia for a New Year's Eve adventure.
The trip to the region called literally 'Slovak Paradise' took us 5 hours from where we set off from in northern Hungary. There's no highway, although roads are of good quality but the speed limit is rarely above 90 km/h and we got a late start.

by Izabella Csordás

According to my previous summer experiences in Slovakia and Croatia, we decided not to make any room reservation - a mixed blessing. Upon arriving in Paradise, we sought accommodation at the foot of the High Tatras, parts of which were stripped barren by heavy storms a couple of years ago.

In addition to the bald spots on the mountains, we found heavy traffic and no vacancies. So we headed Kežmarok (Késmárk in Hungarian), but no luck there either.
Finally, several hours later we saw a roadside sign for a pension below Spišská Nová Ves. The owner, Milán, a nice middle aged man, greeted us warmly. And throughout our stay he was incredibly helpful, supplying us with information trekking routes or even nearby cities. What was really amazing for our Slovak experience thus far was, not only did he know some basic words in German (which is more commonly spoken in Slovakia than English), but he also wanted to communicate. For the first time we felt a bit of hospitality in a country where it seems neither waiters nor hotel staff are required to speak any foreign languages.

We had just over 2 days left to see something, so we visited Levoča (Lőcse in Hungarian) whose main square inside the old walls of the town is nice, with an impressive town hall, the St. Jacob's Church and the Cage of Shame (szégyenketrec in Hungarian), which was used to punish petty criminals.

We also paid a visit to Aquacity in Poprad - a newly built water park with thermal basins, steam bath, snow cave, slides and other potentially entertaining facilities - according to their expensive brochure. But it was a BIG disappointment, starting with the long queuing, heavily chlorinated water (in contrast to claims in their marketing material), and the crowded thermal basins of which the hottest (only 37 degrees) turned out to be the smallest. This disaster of a spa made us appreciate the excellent thermal water facilities back in Hungary.

But the beautiful nature scenes in the Slovak Paradise National Park (Slovenský Raj) still impressed me. We made a 4 hour-long trek starting in Čingov, enjoying the view from Tomášovský výhľad (Tomášovský look out), and went across and walked in the marvelous Prielom Hornádu (Hornád Canyon) ending up back in Čingov where we had our lunch for two at pension Lesnica for 458 Sk (14 euro) - the highest price we paid for excellent Slovakian meals and beer during our stay.

On our drive back home to Hungary we dropped in for an hour long visit to the Betliar Kaštel (Betlér in Hungarian), which stunned us with its beautiful interiors, furniture and collection of rarities and paintings. Besides the classicist and empire equipment I found the Oriental Salon the most impressive.

Our last stop was the restaurant near the castle, where we bid farewell to Slovak food with two specialties: bryndzove pirohy (big tortellini-like noodles filled with sheep's cheese) and strapacky s kyslou (noodles with boiled sour cabbage and bacon). If you're searching for Slovakian recipes on the Internet, take care: they are good but almost always leave out the bacon bits - the tastiest ingredient.

If you're interested in going to this brand of Paradise we suggest you visit the following websites and budget around 7300 Sk (220 euro) for two, including three nights' accommodation and fuel. And feel free to reserve a room at NEMO Pension, Milán's place: nemo-penzion AT stonline.sk

More information on:
Slovak Paradise
Betliar Castle
Levoča