The Tatras Mountains: In the House of the Ginger Monkey.

After our whirlwind capital tour we were ready for a breath of non-polluted fresh mountain air and a break from the hoards of tourists. The obvious choice was to head to The Ginger Monkey, of course. The Ginger Monkey is the single coolest hostel we’ve stayed in so far, situated on the edge of the High Tatras mountain range, in northern Slovakia (near the Polish border). It’s got a lot going for it: everyone there was a like-minded intrepid traveler like ourselves, the staff were super friendly, the hostel itself was brightly coloured and filled with an eclectic décor, the surroundings are totes gorgeous, and there is a hammock (WE SWEAR WE’RE NOT GETTING PAID TO WRITE THIS). It was one of the most international weekends we've had, with Brits, Scots, Canadians, 'Mericans, Danes, Australians and Argentinians all getting amongst in the Monkey.

 

We even got to sample the nightlife in the Slovakian mountains, which exists in the form of one single club, potentially the most ridiculous club we’ve ever been to. A snow-plough had been driven through the wall and turned into a DJ booth, there was a pile of snow in front of the plough which made for a rather slippery dancefloor, and there was a car hanging from the ceiling. We don’t exactly remember what happened in there, but we do remember waking the next morning and going for the most disorganised tramp in the history of tramps. Doing a 7 hour tramp when hungover and with only peanuts and banana chips as food is a generally terrible (and yet money-saving) idea. At least we had a map.

Weird things happened. Rock that barrel!

 

Setting off on the beautiful Polish Lakes tramp.After 8 months of being in Europe, the novelty of being able to literally walk across into another country still hasn't worn off. Also kinda cool as our Eurail pass doesn't include Poland!

We were rather thankful that it was clouded over, it made the temperatures well within the bearable range. We were also grateful at the amount of wild blueberries and strawberries we found - without them we surely would have perished. The Gods were definitely on our side.

 The waterfalls were lovely, but reminded us of the countless waterfalls we had done on the previous evening.

Heston Blumenthal came on the tramp, he thought the scenery was fantastic.

 The team steps out of the steady stream of Poles to take a few photos.

 The climactic final ascent; the view from the top was incredible.

Being the patriots that we are, we took one for team NZ and completed a pizza challenge each. In a tortoise-and-the-hare turn of events, Phoebe took 1h45 to eat the whole pizza, while team USA's pizza came back up onto the floor, two bites before the end.

Next time: The mighty Budapest, and a Hungarian holiday resort.