The Goulash Man. A Slovakian Winter Story.

A two-day hike took us through the winter mountains of Slovakia. There were potential avalanches, bears, and worst of all, a chance of slipping over and looking silly. We were on a quest to find the fabled Goulash Man of Ždiar.

Before travelling to Slovakia I’d read a few blogs on things to do. I prefer reading blogs these days. They are a lot more real than the average travel advisory websites.

Through my searches I came across Traveling Spud’s post – 10 Reasons To Visit the High Tatras in Slovakia During the Winter.

The eighth post mentions a Goulash Man. A man whom has retired and turned his home into a small restaurant.

That, I thought, was a worthy goal. A worthy quest through the harsh winter mountain conditions to experience an authentic Slovakian goulash.

Monika, the team leader of our group of volunteers was always keen for a hike. Luckily she’s also Slovakian and kinda planned everything for us. A true squire.

I’d also been walking around the mountains a little by myself at this point, so I was confident for such a hike.

18th January 2020

We decided to split the hike into two days.

We had to work on Friday, leaving us with just the evening to hike, so we planned the sleep the night at the chata at Zelenom Plese – Green Lake.

A chata is basically a mountain hostel of sorts. They are incredible places to visit. They are usually wooden with breathtaking views. Everyone around is a hiker and just great fun, and actually, the volunteers hike the mountains with all of the chata’s supplies on their backs. It’s insane how much they carry.

Although the map suggests under three hours, we actually took a little over as it was slow progress through the snow.

I also took my large backpack to make it feel more of an adventure.

One issue travelling in winter is the sunset speed.

It didn’t take long before the sun was blocked out by the mountains and we were walking in the dark with a little moonlight and our headlights.

It gets pretty scary out. Especially in a national park with bears and wolves.

There was a point when we were just walking and telling stories and suddenly Monika grabbed my arm and stood still petrified.

“There’s something up ahead” She whispered.

I squinted through the darkness ahead, but I couldn’t see squat.

Then I saw it. Movement coming from the trees, straight towards us.

A hiker’s dog.

Monika made me put my glasses on after that. That made me significantly less cool.

Well it actually wasn’t so bad, as the stars were starting to appear.

Approaching the chata was magical. The mountains surrounding the chata’s backdrop was dotted with little moving lights. Other hikers presumably making their own treacherous way to the chata.

And the warmth when you walk in. Incredible. I’m not just talking about temperature. The atmosphere was so homely and you could tell every single person in that room had a story to tell over their bowl of goulash and pint of beer.

Chata Pri Zelenom Plese was my favourite chata of all that I visited on my travels in the High Tatras.

If you decide to go, make sure you call ahead and book a spot. It’s around €20, but the price varies. They also can’t turn you down, but you may end up paying a higher price and sleeping on the floor in the dining room.

Fortunately, we had a private room that night, so we could decide when we went to bed and when we would wake up.

I thought.

After showering and preparing a few things for the next day, we headed down to the bar in the cellar.

We snuggled up with three Slovakian hikers – Katka, Robo & Juraj – on a table. That’s when the homemade vodka and Borovička enters the story.

Both were equally as lethal.

Plus I smoked that night – cigarettes. Just because it felt damn cool to be smoking in my shorts outside in the middle of a snowy winter surrounded by mountains.

They had said they knew I was an idiot from the city, because I was wearing jeans when I walked into the chata…

It’s a shame I don’t have many pictures of walking at night. My cameras weren’t good enough for the low light.

Anyway, I don’t remember much else of that night. There were some other hikers playing music in the corner and we drank a lot, oh and we ate a fair amount of smoked cheese.

19th January 2020

Waking up and looking out the window at a crazy frozen lake and huge mountain peaks, certainly takes some of the hangover off.

That… and more borovička for breakfast, with our overly syrupy tea, cheese, ham, and boiled eggs.

We had plenty of time for a photoshoot on the lake.

Yepp, on the lake.

It was incredible. I’ve never been able to walk across a lake so frozen that it was safe to walk across.

We walked separately, although occasionally caught up, or were caught up by Katka, Robo, and Juraj on the hike to the next lake – Velke Biele Pleso which means great white lake.

Although it wasn’t as impressive as Zelenom Plese, we still took a group pic.

Next we hiked to Chata Plesnivec.

This was real difficult.

The pathways were hidden by the snow and they were only a few feet wide, alongside a steep drop. Obviously, in the snow and ice, it was scary at times.

Though we made it safely, albeit with a few bruises from the occasional Slippin’ and Slidin’.

We also bumped into a big group of travellers who’d come from Zdiar, going to Zelenom Plese. It’s funny because I recognised the pink jumpsuit straight away as the one worn by the Traveling Spud in her blog.

It turns out that there is a hostel called The Ginger Monkey, which has spare winter clothes for backpackers wanting to hike in the winter.

It has pretty good reviews from what I’ve heard.

A few pieces of dark chocolate and more borovička gave us some more energy to carry on, but honestly, we were both getting tired by this point.

We made our way to a small town called Tatranská Kotlina, where we decided to take a bus for the remaining journey to Zdiar.

We had a short walk left, but I was stoked to meet the goulash man.

There it was. Bufet Livia. The Goulash Man.

We took a goulash and Slovakian style sausage to share.

The goulash man actually worked on the ski resorts and decided to retire beside them.

I don’t blame him. The mountain backdrop is phenomenal.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a daytime picture to share, although I just checked it out on Google Maps to get my facts right and the summer just looks incredible too.

It was dark by the time we’d finished eating and it was a long walk back to Tatranská Lomnica, so we decided on taking the bus… except we got back off again once we found out it was a two hour, round the country bus ride.

So we hitchhiked back. Monika waved down a car on her first attempt and so we went back to Tatranská Lomnica with a young Slovakian couple.

There and back again, A Slovakian Winter Story – sorry J.R.R. It had to be done.

In total, we travelled around 48km, via hiking, bus and hitchhiking, over two days in the snowy mountains.

Thanks for reading. I hope I have inspired you to go on an equally worthy quest, and I hope you check out Slovakia’s High Tatras mountains in the future!