Our first hike in Tatra National Park

It's a little difficult to plan a route because there are so many marked hiking trails in this park. We decided on a 16.8 km (10.5 mile) hike with an elevation gain of about 700 metres (2,300 feet).

Travel days are never boring!

So we set off yesterday morning, headed for the village of Zuberec, without any idea of where we were staying. We walked down to the train station in Istebne, with lots of time to wait for our 9:52am train. And we waited. And we waited.

It was a hot one!

It was a hot and humid day yesterday. I think it went to 34C (93F). But that's no excuse not to go for a hike. Jana and her sister Monika came and picked us up at around 1:30pm and then we picked up Jana's boyfriend Lucas and we all went for a walk to a waterfall!

Hanging out with the young people!

Yesterday morning we walked into the nearby village of Istebne. They have one of the oldest churches in Slovakia in this village, one of only four remaining wooden churches.

What do you get for €11.00 ($13.75) per night?

It was time to move on yesterday, so we took the bus from Terchova to Dolny Kubin, a distance of only about 30 kms (18 miles). We didn't know for sure where we were going to end up staying last night, but we had some ideas.

Just another perfect day...

Woke up to blue sky and sunshine on Sunday, and didn't see a cloud in the sky the entire day! For that matter, it's exactly the same as I type this at 8:30am Monday morning.

Okay, I have a bone to pick with you ladies...

But we'll get to that in a few minutes.

We were going to use Saturday as a day of rest, but because it was turning into such a nice day we figured we shouldn't waste it just in case Sunday wasn't as nice. (So far, Sunday is great too!)

Never pet a dog who's taking himself for a walk!

We set off on what was supposed to be a 13.5 km (8.5 mile) hike yesterday at about 10:30am. The sky was overcast, but it really didn't look like it was going to rain. This hike went through several little villages in the middle of nowhere, and it was an informational trail with ten different boards to read along the way.

Terchova, Slovakia

Yesterday morning, Michal, our couchsurfing host in Zilina made some phone calls for us to try and find us somewhere to stay  in Terchova. Because Terchova is a popular outdoor destination area, there are a lot of pensions (guest houses) and private accommodation available.

But because it's a weekend coming up, some of them were fully booked!

Best Hike Ever!

Well, we think it's one of the best hikes we've ever done anyhow! It was only 8.5 kms (5.3 miles) but it took us six hours from start to finish. Quite a few people on the trail considering it was the middle of the week, but it's because it's such an interesting trail.

Slovakia!

Another new country for us, and so far, we're impressed! Once again, some of that comes down to the people you meet, and our new couchsurfing hosts here in Zilina are once again, fantastic!

We cheated.

And we're not proud of it.

We did a hike yesterday to the top of Radhost Mountain. Problem is, we took a bus 90% of the way up! Every time we've done something like this, we've been kind of disappointed in ourselves, but we had been told to do it this way. And there was some justification to it.

A hike in the mist

It rained much of the day on Saturday, so we used it as a relax day! And then on Sunday, we woke up to drizzle, but our couchsurfing host Blanka and her boyfriend had a hike planned for us in the morning with the local Jack Russell group that she gets together with.

Why we're doing what we're doing.

Many readers have commented over the past five years that we are “lucky” to be doing what we are doing at our age. But it has nothing to do with luck. It has to do with a conscious decision to do something different in life.

A record long hike!

We've done several hikes over the years that were 16 kms (10 miles). Yesterday, we planned out a hike that we figured was about 14 kms (9 miles) but turned out to be a bit longer!