Štrbské Pleso

Hawaii is a wondrous place. Warm tropical breezes and bright sunshine abound, and the inviting beaches and lush scenery easily make for enduring memories.

Slovakia is also a wondrous place, but it is not likely ever to be mistaken for Hawaii. Weather and scenery aside, there is a simple reason for this: in Hawaii, you are never far from a vowel. Every word has at least a 1:1 consonant-vowel ratio. One of my favorite places to visit in Hawaii is the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (City of Refuge) National Historical Park on the Big Island. Seventeen letters, eleven of them vowels. Very reassuring.

In Slovakia, one can visit Štrbské Pleso. That's not a typo: Štrbské Pleso. That's 12 letters and only three vowels. That first word is a doozy, isn't it? It is a lake and surrounding resort area in the High Tatra mountains. It is beautiful, but unlike Hawaii in every other way. We visited by train, taking the 100-year-old Tatra Electric Railway to get there. I could really get used to taking trains to places like this. Not far from the depot is the lake, Štrbské pleso, after which the area is named.

As a family group, a dozen or so of us walked around the lake, enjoying the views, eating wild raspberries, and breathing in the fresh mountain air. Tessie got some hands-on nature experience:

We stopped for lunch at a "traditional" (read: touristy) Slovak restaurant, where the prix fixe menu includes a shot of the local gin no matter who orders it; the two young girls, ages nine and eleven, sitting at our table were each given a shot along with their main courses. Solely in the interest of propriety these were consumed by their elders at the table.
After lunch we continued our leisurely circumnavigation, stopping again for coffee/ice cream/more gin at an outdoor cafe by the train station. Tessie had none of the above, snacking instead on the seemingly endless supply of wedding goodies still available.