We had a great nights sleep in the carpark in Levoca, and left around 9am, to go and visit a massive castle on the hill. Spiš Castle is one of the largest castle complexes in Central Europe, with roots dating back to the 12th century.

We were thankful to arrive early as the day was already heating up. It was a pretty cool castle, and huge!. We climbed up the narrow stairs to the tower, but thankfully these were well lit, no candle required! We spent a good 1.5 hours wandering around the castle and the walls and as we were leaving, hoards of people were coming in. In Europe, you gotta get up early (or arrive late) to avoid the crowds.

We then headed into the national park looking for shade. But all the parking spots were pay parking  and chocka block. We didn’t feel the need to go hiking with hundreds of other people, so we continued driving until we found a lovely pull off on the side of a quiet road, in the shade and overlooking the mountains. This was more like it. So we had our lunch and a little nap.

A little way up the road, past all the paid parking spots, we found another little parking spot at the start of a walk. And this one was free, and not too many people. So we went for a short hike until it looked like it was going to rain. We made it back to the car just as it pelted down.

Then we continued through the national park. The road got steeper and steeper and windier and narrower. The rain hammered down and bounced off the road like it was on a trampoline. It was a little scary, winding our way up this forest path, a steep drop off to our left and barely enough room for two cars. The road was rutted and pot-holed, with little rivers running across it. And it just went on forever with nowhere to turn even if we wanted to!

When we finally reached the top and came out of the trees it felt like a relief. Thankfully the road down was much smoother. We’ve been having a lot of trouble finding decent places to stop for the night in Slovakia. I  saw there was one at a castle carpark that had good reviews, so we headed up there. An extremely narrow and windy goat track that anything bigger than our van would struggle with. At the top, there were a whole lot of people setting up for some kind of medieval thing at the castle. They told us we couldn’t stay there. 

By 7pm, we were both getting tired. The drivers here are somehow worse than the ones in Poland. They overtake whenever they feel like it, even if someone’s coming the other way. I’ve seen a couple of near head-ons where I was sure there’d be a crash. But people just seem to accept it and get out of the way. Like today, someone overtook us with a car coming straight at them. The other driver had to brake, and Mike had to pull right off the road. They don’t care. It’s crazy. And dangerous.

Anyway, as a result of mad drivers on a Friday night, we decided to take the back roads. I can see why nobody does that now. The road was a mess, ruts, potholes, and washouts everywhere. We could have walked faster. We thought about backtracking, but there was no where to turn around. Did I mention the road was also narrow? It was pretty painful, but after a few kms we make it to a little village, and the road smoothed out and we were able to continue.

It was about 8pm when we finally found a place to camp in a carpark in a town. Neither of us felt like cooking, so we walked about 20 minutes into town and found a kebab shop.

By the time we were walking back, it was dark. I felt a bit uneasy. I didn’t know the town, and everything felt a bit too quiet. We took the path along the river, where a few homeless people were drinking and hanging around. Nothing happened, but the atmosphere felt off, so we cut back to the main roads. Thankfully, all was fine in the end, but in a new place after dark, you just never really know.

We snuck back into Bertie and settled in for the night, happy to be home.