Slovak paradise, how well you are named...

13 May 2016

"Legend has it that 3500 years before Christ, the first people who settled in this wooded mountain area gave it the name of paradise. Nature gave them everything they needed to live: water, game, fruit, vegetables. " The young man with the shaved head who is expressing himself here is Vladimir. I met him at the Vydrnik station on my way back from my 6 hour 30 minutes hike in the middle of the canyons which are well named... Slovak Paradise.

The golden girl of the canyons

The excursion in Paradise could have easily fallen through. At 8 am, when I woke up in my flat in Presov, the rain was dripping on the windows and falling hard. That Friday was my last opportunity to do this outing. With only 6 hours of sleep, I stumbled along 75 kilometres west by train, hoping the rain would stop.

Misov, in the Sucha Bela canyon, several dozens of metres high and certainly one of the most difficult waterfalls to climb.

This is what would happen when I got the border of the national park of the Slovak Paradise (Slovensky raj) covering 20 000 hectares. Despite the thick layer of clouds, the scenery was almost cheery. By the side of the road, the apple trees were in bloom and seemed to blush with their whiteness. Horses grazed on the healthy, water beaded grass at the bottom of the Paradise Mountain which never exceeds 1000 metres. Paradise, meanwhile, green as a lush garden, is wrapped in the morning drizzle.

My route would look like a rectangle, by first going up the Sucha Bela Canyon. Apparently, according to a Slovak of the sector who reported on a blog, "He who has not gone up the Sucha Bela canyon has not seen the Slovak paradise. " This stands without a doubt. It consists of a tangle of rudimentary wood footbridges passing under the river, slippery greenish ladders without any railings climbing several metres up the cliff of a waterfall... I don't know if I prefer walking on wet rocks or to sink into the icy snow like in the High Tatras.

The other two canyons I climbed (Maly Kysel and Klastorska roklina) have a similar route, where I always navigated in the rocky riverbeds of the streams. With this example, I have no problem believing that the canyons of the Slovak Paradise are among the most beautiful in Slovakia and also the purest. Most are classed as National Natural Reserves (Národná prírodná rezervácia), which means they have the highest level of nature protection in the country.

For the Salamander to survive, it needs a particularly clean and pure environment, like in the Slovak Paradise, with very little human activity.

That's probably why a Salamander made me glance at the Maly Kysel. Its colours (black with yellow stains) were so bright that I first thought it to be an abandoned piece of plastic jewellery. Up close, the lizard, of only a few centimetres, was much prettier than plastic... Its comparison with a small piece of shiny gold at the edge of the Adamantine stream is less demeaning.

During my walk of the last canyon, that of the Hornad river which is wider, it was a beaver's lengthened body that fled as I approached. I only have a blurred image of it. I couldn't tell you how many Burgundy snails dotted my path. And what is the effect of walking on colourful metal footbridges hanging on the rim of the wall, where you sometimes have to twist your torso, with the river running under your feet?

The feeling of being alone in the world, like an explorer in these canyons or vegetation intertwines in a brilliant mix, it is a rare experience in a world increasingly disrupted by human activities. Surely the Carthusians, who built their monastery on a plateau of the Slovak Paradise in the XIII century, would still benefit today from this sanctuary.

Vladimir, the "cool dude"

So it was on my way back from this visually incredible walk that I spoke with Vladimir, on the platform of Vydrnik station. He first spoke to me in Slovak: "I thought you were Polish", he explains. A Slovak and a Pole can understand each other as the languages have the same roots (Slavic).

Hands in his pockets, his swaggering walk, Vladimir is as you would say a "cool dude". If the Southerners finish there sentences with "asshole" then Vladmir is a "guy".

Both in the past and the present, he's hardly optimistic about the situation of his country. "Communism is the deprivation of freedom, everything is muzzled. Money was only going to nomenklatura. Now it all goes to the capital and the west, which is well integrated in the market economy and Europe. The rest of the country is gathering the scraps".

This does not stop him criticising the European Union. "Europe brings us migrants who take our jobs and riches which could satisfy someone with the Slovak nationality. On top of this, it pollutes our feminine beauty. Our closure from the Soviet era has the advantage of preserving our youth from mixing. Just look at how superb our girls are! Hang on a sec, I'll find at least two! ". A few seconds later, a slender adolescent with blonde hair draping her face, in a short outfit, walks up the station aisle. "Take her for instance, behind you! " he showed while lowering his voice.

Let's face it, the Slovaks are mostly (80% according to France 2) hostile to the reception of migrants. During the last parliamentary elections last March, they even brought in 14 members of the far right party "Our Slovakia" to Parliament for the first time. A station manager, whom I met a few weeks ago, shamelessly amalgamated: "All Muslims are terrorists". Luckily there are people like Simi, a student in Presov, to put things into perspective: "No, not all Muslims are terrorists. She resumed. You need to be able to distinguish the radical Islamists from the pacifist Muslims, who practice their religion like Catholics".

Paradise is on Earth, not in the sky

In his painting on behalf of Slovakia, Vladimir clashed with religion: "Ah, religion. Only cowards believe in God! God, God, no one has ever seen him! What are people scared of? Death? Being judged on their life? It's absurd to have this sort of mindset in a developed and civilized world as ours. The Church should collapse now, and Slovakia is still full of devotion! " he said, vexed.

I pointed out that in France, Catholicism has lost its influence in people's conscience and churches are becoming empty. He welcomed this. "You French people are not as ignorant as the Slovaks". "I'm on Earth" he continues "Paradise, like the one before us, is on Earth As for me, I'm not scared mate" he concluded with a burst of pride.

Our trains parted ways. His left to the East towards Kosice. Mine to the West towards Poprad.

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