Day #1 - Trekking the Malá Fatra - August 2017
Veľký Rozsutec, Malá Fatra
Sobota (Saturday), 19. augusta 2017-- (excerpts from my journal The Pressburg Diaries)
It's overcast today and somewhat cooler as we start Zuza's birthday and set off for the Malá Fatra in the north of Slovakia. She frantically packed her things. I'd already packed and only had to transfer some of my things into a larger backpack. Planning ahead pays off. We were a bit rushed, and as a result, we took a taxi to the train station. We made it to the station with five minutes to spare, so there was no time to buy any water or snacks to take with us. We had reservations, which was good because the train was filled to capacity. But we were unlucky with our carriage; the air-conditioning was broken. All the other cars had it, which I confirmed as I walked through about six of them in my socks. I found the dining car and was able to buy some water there. Some passengers were lucky to be seated next to windows that opened and so they could seek relief from our mobile sauna. This helped quite a lot until the train passed a field in the countryside and suddenly we were invaded by the foul odor of manure. I made another trip to the dining car for another sandwich because Zuza had eaten mine. Once we were on the other side of Trenčín, I was in untravelled territory. Eventually, we passed through Púchov and our car got stuffy again. Slowly the train wended its way into the mountains until we came to Žilina.
I'd been to Žilina before, in 2001, but I approached it from the other side. Here we got off the train and immediately bought our return tickets and reservations for the next weekend. The bus station was right next door, so we hauled our packs like mules and waited there forty minutes or so for the local bus that would take us to Terchová where we would change to another bus. The skies showed signs of darkening clouds here and there as the fifty-minute bus trip took us through villages and pastures, to Terchová. There we hopped off the one bus and clamored on board another local bus to take us to Štefanová, where we had reservations at a mountain inn.
On the road to Terchová
It was raining lightly, just mountain drizzle, when we arrived in Štefanová at about two in the afternoon. Immediately after disembarking from the bus, we were greeted by a nice view of mist-covered granite mountains, trees, and the wonderful fragrance of woods and mountain air.
We checked in, unpacked, and had a bite to eat in the inn's restaurant. We both had risotto and I gulped down two beers with it. I'd earned them, sweating it out on the train and lugging a heavy backpack. We decided to brave the drizzle and do a short hike (which in Slovak terms really means just a walk), up to the end of the road, past graceful wooden houses painted black, each with their own quaint garden, to a meadow below mist-coated mountains. Sheep bleated here, and the tinkle of bells around their necks was the only sound to compete with the rustle of the breeze.
Now in the meadow stood an old caravan which looked as though it'd been abandoned by the circus long ago after it left town. A man with a hat and galoshes stood on what passed for the porch. Now the drizzle had graduated to rain, and you could hear it falling into the tall, whispering trees above. Some dogs barked a welcome. Zuza understood this man produced a kind of sheep cheese and he was selling it. She started up a conversation with him.
"Started raining yesterday," he muttered, exhaling cigarette smoke and casting his eyes skyward.
They chatted a bit more and then invited us inside his caravan. He hoisted a basketball-sized chunk of freshly produced cheese for Zuza to inspect. She sniffed it and approved, and the man sawed off a portion and sold it to her.
The sheep cheese seller, Štefanová
The rain thickened. We decided to turn back towards the pension. Inside our room, a breeze came through our balcony door and an open bedroom window. It was getting cold, too. Zuza knitted and I sketched the view of the woods and mountains from the open window.
I took a short nap, then we were back in the restaurant downstairs for dinner. I wasn't particularly hungry, but the food was good anyway, local specialties and homecooked. We brought back upstairs a bottle of red wine and a slice of blueberry cake.