Weekend in Svit and the High Tatras

This past weekend I went with my friend Josef, a member of the local here in Zilina to his hometown Svit, a village just outside of Poprad. Now here is a little bit of irony; up until the last decade, Svit was originally named Canada because the village was established by Bata shoes company who sent engineers to Canada in search of better factory and building designs. My understanding of it is that Bata had a company policy of setting up villages around the factories for the workers, hence Svit, or previously Canada, was born. I thought they might be pulling my leg about the whole name thing until Josef introduced me to his friend and said "this is Blanka from Canada." His friend became a little confused thinking that I was from the village Canada and he didn't believe him. Josef had to reassure him that I was from the REAL Canada.

Being so close to the High Tatras, the famous high mountains that run through Northern Slovakia, on Saturday we drove up to have a closer look. The mountains were quite beautiful but again pale in comparison to the Rockies. We walked up to the ski resort, Strbske Pleso, and people were already taking in the ski hills. Because the High Tatras are at a higher elevation, they already have snow unlike many of the other ski resorts in Slovakia. We then srolled around this lake in Strbske Pleso and the whole time talked about how we both live so close to this beautiful scenery and yet we rarely take advantage of it and explore it. The rest of the day, and much of the weekend was spent eating, and eating some more becasue his mom and dad were so generous and took very good care of me.

On Sunday we headed to Poprad where we took in the spa at Aquacity. This spa was really nice and had many different attractions to offer. We had access to several indoor pools, outdoor thermal pools and vital world which is a collection of many sauna's, steamrooms, and other relaxation areas. I've never spent more time in sauna's as I did yesterday and by the end I was thoroughly relaxed. All in all it was a great weekend to just hang out, eat, and take in the sights. Thanks to Josef and his parents for being so welcoming.