Day 2

 Day 2!

I wish I could say that we all got a full night of sleep and woke up refreshed, but that was not to be. After getting the kids to bed fairly late last night, Jessica and I didn't get to sleep until after 11. No sooner than 1am, Ryan woke up and wide awake and was unable to be put back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Luke also woke up, but thankfully we were able to get him back to sleep. With Ryan wide awake, both Jessica and I had to stay up with him until around 4am or so, when he finally went back down. Jessica also was able to go back to sleep for a few more hours. However, I had already been awake too long to be able to go back to sleep. Plus, the sun was slowly starting to come up so I decided to catch the sunrise out on the lake. 

Our Airbnb is right on the edge of Lake Orava, which is a large reservoir in the northernmost part of Slovakia. Our Airbnb also just so happened to come with a large kayak and some paddles and life jackets. So, I rolled the kayak down to the lake edge and hopped in. It was probably just past 5am and the sun had just come up. The lake was completely still, so it was great to easily glide across it in the kayak. I paddled out to a somewhat nearby island to explore. In addition to many birds, this island also had a church on it, so I went to check that out before heading back into the kayak and paddling back ashore. 

Back at the cottage, everyone was still asleep. Rather than wake them up and risk being murdered, I drove into town (Namestovo) to take some Euros out of the ATM and to stock up on groceries (mostly breakfast foods). After coming back this time, Luke and Jessica were awake (if only slightly). I persuaded Luke to come exploring outside with me and after he saw the lake and the kayak, he pieced it all together and asked me if we could "take a ride on the boat". After strapping his life jacket on, we rolled the kayak back down and hopped in. Luke had an absolute blast. He has recently been watching a TV show called Octonauts which is about all sorts of sea creatures, so his mind went wild and we were gliding above the lake and he was telling me about all the different sea creatures that were below us. 

Back on land, we needed to commit to what we were going to do today. The weather forecast had said thunderstorms were in our near future, so we decided to head out to Tatralandia, a water park where many of the pools and kids areas are indoors.....but not before another ride on the kayak at Luke's insistence. The drive was going to be a little over an hour, so we decided to stop for lunch at a koliba (log cabin usually in remote locations that serves rustic/authentic food). After our first official Slovakian meal, I can say that everyone was very satisfied. I got the garlic soup (served with croutons and sheep's cheese), Jessica ordered the grilled pork medallions, and we all shared french fries and grilled vegetables. Everything was amazing and we are greatly looking forward to our future meals on this trip. 

Another 20 minutes or so down the mountain, we arrived at Tatralandia. What a place! It was quite chatoic in the number of people that were there, but also the crazy water slides that were offered along with a surprising lack of any supervision. It had also just started to rain, so we were proud of our decision to come here today. We bypassed the crazy stuff and went straight for the kids area. It was made up of wading deep water and a big play structure filled with slides and ladders. Both kids had a blast. We also went upstairs for a while to let them explore other play areas and even took them in the big pool where Luke accidentally dunked himself when he slipped off a big inflatable structure and was not very happy about it. After a couple hours, we retrieved our items from the locker and then heard some of the loudest thunder sounds ever. In almost no time after that, the heavens let lose and it began to absolutely pour water from the sky. Already drenched from being at the water park (because we didn't pack any towels), what was a little more water while trying to strap screaming children into their car seats. 

On the road back home, the weather had really turned and we had to drive through some of the hardest rain that I can ever recall being trapped in. Thankfully, after about 20 minutes or so, we got through the worst of it and were able to cruise back to the lake cottage within a further hour or so. After arriving back at the cottage we quickly noticed that our keycode access to the front door was not working. After calling our Airbnb host, we were told that this was because there was a power outage due to the storm. With relief, we found out that his in-laws live nearby and they were able to bring us a key to ley us in within about 15 minutes, although the power remained out for another 4-5 hours.

We kicked back at the cottage for about an hour and a half before realizing we were starving. So back out we headed, this time to a nearby restaurant, Salas Orava. We picked this one because it had both indoors and outdoor play areas for the kids along with a variety of farm animals for them to watch just beyond a fence. With Luke out playing, Jessica ordered the garlic soup (she really liked the one I ordered earlier for lunch) and Slovakia's national dish, Halusky, which consists of potato dumplings covered in melted sheeps cheese with bacon and green onion on top. I ordered the Kapustnica which is a soup with sauerkraut and sausage along with a slovak ribs plate. Everything was again excellent. The kids didn't want to leave because they were having so much fun playing. 

Once back at the cottage, we put Ryan to bed and hung out with Luke until he started seeming (barely) tired, before putting him to bed. With the kids asleep, Jessica and I went out in the yard to test out the sauna. This sauna was built into an old airport shuttle van (see pics below), but it was pretty easy to get going once I was able to get the fire started. Not too experienced in sauna life, we could only last about 7 minutes inside before calling it. 

And that's where we are now. Hoping to get to sleep soon for a full night (fingers crossed). Stay tuned!!


































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