On Sunday the 22nd we arrive in Poprad at the base of the High Tatras. We had caught a few busses around this area over the last few days and had become pretty good at it. We were staying at a hostel here as we couldn't find a CS host. An American guy that we had met at the Cave of Liberty the other day gave us the name of this hostel. It was a really nice hostel and we arrived just as the owner was leaving. But she processed our room and then even gave us a lift back to the train station so we could get the train to Štrbské Pleso. This is a gorgeous lake up in the mountains. Not much to write about really, but damn nice views.

After spending a bit of time there and having a beer while enjoying the views we did some shopping for dinner ingredients and Nikki made a nice pasta dinner which we enjoyed with some beers while watching South Park.

Monday was raining and cold so we slept in. We went up to the mountain quite late due to this with the plan to go up to Lomnický štít, a lookout tower near the top of the mountain. But as a result we got there too late and it was closed. The weather would have obscured the view anyway. So we just had a couple of beers instead.

We planned on getting up Tuesday to get to Liptovský Mikuláš and see the Liberty Cave. But again we slept in a bit and left later than planned which meant we had to catch the train there and then quickly get on the bus to the cave to make it there in time for the last tour. It was a pretty cool cave, better tour than at the ice cave at Dobšiná at least.

That night went out drinking with CF surfing host Johnny who took us to some really cool bars. One of which he had helped renovate in just a week and was newly opened. It still smelled of paint. One other one we went to was decorated as a hunting lodge, complete with animal skins, furs and heads on the walls (all real). Here we did a shot they called fire water which was made out of some local root and had a kinda chili taste and was spicy like one too. It was at this place we met the cave man.

He was a mate of Johnny's who explores the caves in the area. He told us that him and some colleagues were going into one them the next day and invited us along. We were actually planning on leaving the next morning, but we couldn't pass up an opportunity like this so we decided to stay an extra night.

Again we slept in, this time more due to the fact that we actually got pretty well hammered last night and didn't get home til like 5am. Today was the day to go cave exploring though, so no time for a hangover. When we got there we were given overalls, a helmet and a helmet flash light. This was the real deal, no walkways, stairs or electric lighting. It was a totally awesome 5 hours of cave exploring; climbing, crawling, sliding, you name it. It was hard work, a few parts where we weren't even on hands and knees, but actually on our stomachs, think crawling under a car. And one part, the hardest, which required climbing up over a rather large fall squeezing ourselves between two walls and shimmying up that way and it was wet and slippery. Kinda scary. The guys we were with also found the crystal things they were looking for in record numbers which is cool. Before this expedition they had only found 12 spots of them in all of Slovakia. They found another 7 just on this one trip.

As you can imagine we were totally exhausted after this, so we had a quiet night. In the morning we were up earlyish to get to Žilina where there were a couple of castles waiting for us.