Year 2020
Beginning in beautiful Barcelona
Next: Erasmus in Riga, Latvia
Graduation from Master´s cycle at the university
Summer in USA ..
.. and an internship abroad
What are you supposed to do, when your plans ..
..  for the whole year 2020 get cancelled?
In Slovakia, we chose the hiking trail "Heroes Trail SNP".
The longest hiking trail in Slovakia
that goes from Dukla to Devín in 770km
with total ascent of more than 30 000m.
It all sounded like an impossible adventure
but with my hiking partner Jakub we are here, Dukliansky priesmyk.
After few kilometers we start to realize,
that it´s not gonna be a vacation on a sunny beach.
18kg backpack on the back is becoming a struggle.
Shoulders are always asking for a break
and whole body starts questioning this whole hiking adventure.
After the first night in shelter "Čierna hora" we are headed to Zborov
where after a short "beer break" at the local pub
we´re heading straight to the "Stebnícka Magura" hill.
Tell us Peťo, where we could´ve been right now?
Where? We could´ve been in a cozy hostel
pizza in front of us, after shower, clean.
But no, we decided to continue to
Magura.
We´re not even there yet, and it´s already 8PM. "Awesome!"
Bardejov baths. Bardejov city. Žobrák hill.
35km passed like nothing
and the asphalt roads bring us first blisters.
Full day hike to Žobrák hill gave us the most beautiful sunset views.
We didn´t think, we gonna meet many people during our hike,
but after few days we go together with Peťo and Jožo.
Good recommendations on hiking shoes for the SNP hike?
Our group chose:
Jakub flip flops, Peťo running shoes and Jožo barefoot.
Dukla - Košice section.
We expected to explore the nature,
but it was just the opposite.
Heavy sun on asphalt roads
drains our energy really quickly, and I´m also switching to my flip flops.
The beginning of "Volovské vrchy" mountains is welcoming is with rain.
I wasn´t able to take out my DSLR the whole day.
GREAT!
The next day was not better at all.
Kloptáň hill with the viewpoint,
make a great place for relax with views,
unfortunately not in weather like this.
Rain, terrible visibility, but a lot of blueberries.
Finally a morning without rain.
We are all looking forward to
fully enjoy the views of the "Volovské vrchy" mountains.
It wasn´t ideal, but better than whole day in raincoat
We can finally feel the connection with nature.
The closest village is far away.
Here, we got a new member of our team - Daša.
The final destination - Volovec cabin, greets us
with a beautiful view from a nearby hill - Skalisko.
*slovak folk song singing*
"What a contagious song huh?"
"Who was whistling it?"
Navigation is becoming more difficult.
The red sign is getting lost in kilometers
of fallen and cut down trees.
We finally got a sunny weather,
but we couldn´t always sync our movement while filming. :)
"Should we stop?"
"No, you can go, but, ugh."
There are lot of water sources on the SNP trail, which is great
during these hot and sunny days.
Navigation is back,
but not everyone uses it.
"So tell the story, what is going on now?"
"I see that Jakub is taking another path rather than following the red sign.
He is avoiding that little muddy place
which is barely visible.
So he is going through the fallen trees, tall grass."
Telgárt is right around the corner, but we have to wait a little.
After a quick storm we can see the gate to our next section -
Kráľova Hoľa.
I´m entering an unknown land.
We are staring to realize
that our path through east Slovakia is over.
From the whole "Nízke Tatry" national park I only hiked Kráľova Hoľa peak.
Hiking the whole national park on one try has always been something I wanted to do in the past.
We are on the trail for almost 2 weeks.
The pain of the individual parts of the body alternates regularly.
Once it is shoulders, another time feet or a combination of everything.
Human body is much more capable, than we think.
Majestic Kráľova Hoľa peak,
awesome weather and short distance to Andrejcová shelter
allowed us to enjoy the first day of the Low Tatras national park to the fullest.
"I have to taste their sour cabbage soup."
Calm morning and an awesome view on the High Tatras
woke us up to the 13th day of our hike.
We planned to finish the Low Tatras in 4 days,
so our next destination for today was Čertovica.
Empty trails and a minimum of tourists.
Total opposite of High Tatras in summer season.
"Don´t film me!"
"Smile and a fresh face? uhuh, okay."
"Taste some blueberries."
"I will, in a bit."
Today we have the highest point of the whole SNP trail - Ďumbier, waiting for us.
 
Our final destination of the 14th day of the hike was Ďurková shelter.
In here, we meet much more tourists, that chose an easier way of hiking - cable car.
We didn´t enjoy the crowded section Ďumbier - Chopok that much.
We even got caught in a thuderstorm.
It didn´t look promising, but after the storm stopped,
Low Tatras showed us their beautiful views.
Zero tourists, lots of animals
and the views after the storm were unforgettable.
"How is it going?"
"Awesome! We already said some bad words"
"We are almost at the top."
"But we still didn´t have the F word."
"Beautiful words - Beautiful words at the end of the day."
"You will cut out those words."
We are halfway through the SNP trail.
Low Tatras are behind us and we are facing new challenge - Veľká Fatra.
Hiking the highest peak of Veľká Fatra mountains - Križná
was one of the most difficult days on the whole SNP trail.
After super hot beggining of the day we entered a 5 hour long thunderstorm.
We could find a place to hide, rest and
not even time to eat something.
I chose to go and not stop.
Jakub waited for 2 hours under the rain cover,
but after that he went in the storm anyway.
Climb on the highest point of Veľká Fatra mountains - Križná.
Extremely difficult but what´s worse -
5 hours in the rain nonstop.
It´s hard to describe the feeling
and the climb.
How difficult it is.
From 800 m altitude to 1600 m or so.
Always
always in soaking wet shoes
completely wet
even in this raincoat.
Well, you cannot call this a raincoat anymore.
Just "beautiful".
These are also the days you have to go thourgh on SNP trail.
*in spiš dialect*
Unfortunetely, at this point Peťo and Daša had to end their trail.
On the climb Peťo got injured
and in combination with his ankle problems, he had to head home.
After Veľká Fatra, we enter the Kremnické Vrchy mountainskk.
Not even a day after Daša and Peťo left,
and I´m starting to have the same problem - ankle.
I ignored it at first,
but after I couldn´t even make a step, I started to make precautions.
After using some pills and puting some healing gel on it I continued our trail with bandage on the leg.
Ankle isn´t swelling, but every step is like a nightmare.
The paradox is that on that day we covered the most of the whole SNP - 43km in one day.
SNP trail is covering many beautiful views and mountains in Slovakia,
but the hill Strážov had the most memorable sunset of the hole trail,
which I´ll never forget.
Before the SNP trail I thought,
that west Slovakia is gonna be boring and without mountains to explore,
but I was wrong.
Strážovské vrchy mountains are definitely a place I will visit again.
We´re entering civilization.
The city of Trenčín is welcoming us with hot and sunny weather,
but rather than exploring the city, we´re looking for a pharmacy.
After a short break for lunch we´re back on the trail.
"Jakub .. SNP trail and you´re using the e-scooter?"
"Yes"
"Disqualified"
The pain in the ankle isn´t getting better
and in my head I think about finishing the hike earlier.
Many times I´ve asked myself,
why I´m doing this.
If I´d have gone alone, maybe I ´d be home after the first problems.
Thanks God Jakub was with me.
We were helping and motivating each other not to quit.
Machnáč hill which is situated on the borders with Czech was a breakpoint for me.
In hiking I´m no newbie and I knew,
that you need to listen to your body.
Mine was telling me for 5 days to quit.
The motivation to finish the trail was strong and it was not time to quit yet.
One section of the SNP trail crosses the Czech republic.
The fact that we´re in Czech republic we knew,
after we saw the flat land called Morava.
Milan Rastislav Štefánik mound.
One of the most important places of the whole SNP trail.
In here, the oficial part of the SNP trail ends
and the trail goes to Devín as "Štefánikova magistrála".
Unfortunately, the SNP trail ends here for us as well.
The pain in the ankle was getting worse, but I could walk with it.
The breakpoint were the last days under the sun, where both me and Jakub got sunstroke.
High fever, shiver and every single muscle hurt really bad.
We tried to continue the following day in Brezová pod Bradlom city,
but we were not able to get out of the bed beacuse of the pain.
We ended our SNP trail after 23 days and 660 km.
At first we were dissapointed,
but after we take a look back at how much we were able to hike,
what we´ve seen and lived through,
we don´t regret a single minute on the trail.
It was a great reset from the chaos,
that´s happening in the world now.
100 km to Devín through Malé Karpaty mountains are still waiting for us,
but we´re more than happy with our performance.
"Heroes Trail SNP" is a proof, that our beautiful Slovakia has so much to offer,
and everyone should be proud to have a privilege to live in a country such as Slovakia.
For everyone, who´s thinking about this trail I have one thing:
It´s not important if you finish it until the end, or you´ll be home after 3 days.
The experience you´ll get is unforgettable,
and just the fact, that you are brave enough to go on this trail, is a win.
It is a trail on which the journey itself is the final goal.
