The weather forecast was not so good today with rain expected at some time. We took the train to Stary Smokovec, changing onto another train to Strbske Pleso, a major resort at the western end of the Tatras. We came out of the station to be faced with a huge construction site. The borders of the National Park stop at the edge of the lake here and that means that hotels can be built south of that. And they certainly are being built – at least four massive hotels are in the final stages. One of them is a modern monstrosity, looking like a giant piece of Toblerone and extremely ugly. The others were going to be very pleasant, based on traditional architecture and looking pretty despite their size.
We walked around the lake, admiring the exceptional views of the Tatras that were clearer than any day so far, despite the forecast. We then took a footpath away from the lake and made a great discovery – wild raspberries. The walk was rather a slow one as I kept disappearing into the undergrowth in search of that wonderful fruit. Jane was quite abstemious but I couldn't get enough – they were so tasty with that tart sweetness. “The Low Tatras are much clearer now” said Jane as we were returning to the town and the distant rumble of thunder answered immediately – Jane and her big mouth! Fortunately, the thunderstorm appeared to be on the eastern end of the Low Tatras.
Returning to the town, we caught the train back to Stary Smokovec. The weather was definitely worsening and the cloud was obscuring most of the mountains, coming down almost to towns at their base.
On Thursday we had spotted that a hotel close to the station had a jazz group tonight starting at 19:00. Our last train back was 21:30, so we couldn't stay for the whole evening but at least we could see a couple of hours. The group turned out to be performing in the hotel's very small jazz café but they readily agreed to reserve a table for us and we went off for a very early dinner. We had chicken and dumplings at the hotel's fast food restaurant and were amused by the bill. All the countries in former Eastern Europe are obsessed by the size of the portions and almost all menus give details of the weight of each part of the meal. So, looking at our bill we were charged 150g of salad, 2 x 160g of dumplings, 2 x 100g of chicken and 8 x 10g of 'kurca pecene/doblok'. The last one flummoxed me for a while until I realised that they had put 4 very small spoonfuls of gravy on each of the plates!
The jazz was excellent – a young group consisting of a drummer, bass guitarist and acoustic guitarist with a box of electronics that, together with his skill, allowed him to get some fantastic sounds out of the guitar. Jane was a little concerned at the billing of “modern jazz” but it really was very good and we were sad to leave just before half past nine.
The forecast came true as we stepped off the train at Stara Lesna – it started to rain. The 700m to the campsite was completed in record (although not Olympic) time.
Photos: The lake at Strbske Pleso with the jagged peaks of the High Tatras behind; The jazz café – this shows half of the room, it really was small.
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