Slovakia

Riding over the Tatras (highest peaks in the Carpathians), a gap in the forest gave me my first view of the mountains. These see-saws were everywhere, but I can't remember seeing people actually use any.

Felt a little lazy today so I caught a cable car to this lake halfway up the mountain. All the other tourists there were Slovakian or Polish and even though it was only 10am I was the only one drinking coffee - everyone else was hitting the schnapps or vodka shots. The bottom-right picture is a short video (6.5MB).

Nice ride up this trail along the Biela voda, still in the Tatras.

Spisska kapitula is an old walled village with only one street, but a wine cellar beneath every house. Spissky hrad is this vampire-ish old castle - click on the bottom-right picture for the complete view from the top (14.5MB).

Slovensky Raj translates as Slovakian Paradise National Park - there was more mud and mosquitoes than I'd expected in paradise, but a day treking through here took me to the most beautiful spots I'd seen in Slovakia.

Dobsinska ice cave is, well, a cave full of ice. Sorry this picture is not so good - I'd already gotten in trouble for taking pictures without a "foto lisense" (the cold-war was still going for this one guard) and had to quickly take this when noone was watching.