Arriving to Starý Smokovec from Frankfurt is not that easy as it sounds. First, I had to fly to Vienna, where I had booked a taxi to take me to Bratislava. However, it started to snow heavily in Vienna and my flight was delayed almost one hour. After landing in Vienna and watching how the situation looked like (see picture below), I was wondering what the hell the pilot was thinking when taking us through such risks. Some minutes after landing, the airport was closed.
Afterwards, I took a taxi to Bratislava. In normal conditions, the trip just takes 45 minutes but I did not have normal conditions. We needed more than an hour and I must admit that the road was more dangerous in Austria than in Slovakia (good for Slovaks!). The taxi driver was from Serbia and we spoke a little bit. I was more interested in talking about bastketball with him, but he was happy giving me details about his life: he is geologist but, obviously, cannot find any job in Vienna, so he is driving people from the aiport in order to pay the education of his children. Unfortunately, this is not the only case in Eastern Europe.From Bratislava and together with other colleagues, we took a van to Starý Smokovec. The roads were totally snowy and driving there was quite challenging. However, our driver was extremely aggresive and fast, and during the six hours of our trip, we kept on overtaking cars and trucks. I was surprised by the amount of trucks we found in the highway; with such horrible weather conditions and from a large variety of countries.
After six hours and a horrible traffic jam in Zilina, we arrived at Starý Smokovec. I took the picture below, our hotel, the following morning, I think there is no need to add anything:
Apparently, this region is now being targeted by Russian tourists, who look here for a more economical ski holidays, since prices are not comparable to those in the Alps. High Tatras is also famous for its bears, but, thanks Lord, in this time of the year they are sleeping. I really enjoyed my two days there and I do not regret at all the long trip I had to endure. Sometimes, it was funny thinking that I was the only Spaniard in 50 kilometres...On our way back, we took a different highway, what allowed me to know half Slovakia. This is the list of the tows we passed by in the two ways: Trnava, Zilina, Ruzemberok, Poprad, Banská Bystrica and Nitra (twin town with Guadalajara, nice, isn't it?). Only Kosice and Presov were not in our route...
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