Snowy day in Levoča, Slovakia

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In Levoča, Slovakia, on our very first morning here, my wish was granted before I was even awake. Masayo was up before me, and peering out the window of our room at Penzión Oáza announced that… it was snowing.

We’d come all this way basically just to see some snow, so instantly jumped up to get ready to go outside and play around in it. My blood sugars would end up alternately low and high today, even moreso than yesterday.

But somehow the snow made it all okay. You have to take care of diabetes but also see it in perspective. Sure it was up and down today, but look where I’m lucky enough to be – a beautiful snowy town I’d never heard of a few days ago!

Once outside I checked my BG in front of the church that lies just outside our room. I was only 57 – and I must have been sleeping that low for a while. Well, if I survived that long why not extend the time a little? I ate nothing, instead deciding to walk around Levoča with Masayo to find a place for breakfast.

Just as we were about to give up and and find chocolate from a market or something, we saw a place called Planeta Levoča with a sign out front saying “tourist menu”. (Despite the fact that there didn’t seem to be any other tourists around besides us.)

The breakfast at Planeta Levoča was great – I had eggs, coffee, bread with jam, and juice, which I asked to be brought right away and guzzled first thing. All of this was about €5.

After breakfast, after which my BG seemed to be feeling better, we found a tourist office in town and asked about visiting Spiš Castle, about half an hour away. They said a bus left once or twice an hour to the next town, from where we could hike up to the hilltop castle. Unfortunately the castle closed to visitors for the season just a day or two ago. Terrible timing on our part, but that’s the risk you take when traveling in the off-season. It’s still been worth it and I’m glad we are doing it this way.

Anyway the castle seemed cool enough that it would be worth the effort to get there anyway, just to see it. But the day wasn’t destined to unfold that way for us, and we had to stay open to the winds of change.

We did find the bus stop but after waiting a while began to think we were in the wrong place. And we were: the stop we wanted was about a block away and by the time we got there our bus had left. The next one was scheduled to leave at 12:40 pm, which would arrive in the town of Spišské Podhradie at 1:10. With the early sunsets around this part of Europe in December that would leave us with too little time to go hiking around the large hill that the castle is on.

We made the snap decision to put the castle off until tomorrow. It was too bad since it was snowing today and it would be a nice way to see it, with the white flakes falling all around us. But the travel gods have spoken.

Instead we wandered around Levoča itself, playing around in a sort of park/playground and peering into abandoned buildings, plus admiring the old shops and signs in hidden little snowy alleys and looking at the grand buildings in the main rectangular Old Town section. My BG during this excursion was 133.

One of my favorite things was a round iron cage outside the cathedral just big enough to hold a person or two. It’s called The Cage of Opprobrium, and dates from a time in the town when there was a law that any woman found on the streets unaccompanied at night had to spend 24 hours in the cage.

“The Cage of Opprobrium”; you couldn’t make something like that up!

We found a supermarket called Billa for snacks, and I convinced Masayo to go back to the hostel for a lunch of cereal. She doesn’t usually like my junk food ideas for meals but sometimes goes along with it.

Still thinking ahead to a trip to Spiš Castle tomorrow we went looking for a place with wifi that had coffee. The only place we could find was Planeta Levoča, where we’d eaten breakfast. Hey, why not go to the same place twice in one day if it’s this inviting?

I got some broccoli soup and tea and they gave us the wifi password. Masayo and I made our plans for tomorrow, and also decided to take some trains higher up into the High Tatras mountains the day after. This would be much more expensive than we’re used to but is one of the things I’ve most been looking for. Even tight-fisted travelers like me should know when to open up the wallet.

Back at Penzión Oáza, the owner helped us out with some information about the trains that go up into the mountains. She also noted that while Spiš Castle was officially closed, if we were lucky we might find someone hanging around that would open it up for us. Imagine being the special guests at a grand and obscure Slovakian castle! If it works out.

The lady also gave us some apples she had just picked from her garden. This is one of the biggest reasons I like booking.com, where we’d made this reservation: it runs on a ratings system and it really tends to weed out the more gruff and inattentive guesthouse owners. We’ve met really nice people along the way so far and little touches like free homegrown apples makes it clear that the system brings out the best in people.

My blood sugar was low again though: 65. Several lows in the last couple of days. Not good, but different than all the highs anyway. I ate a small snack and relaxed a little, not knowing that I’d be bouncing up quite high before the day would be over.

Dinner tonight was genuinely excellent: at a restaurant attached to Hotel U Leva Masayo and I both ordered the same thing, chicken steak with whipped cream and cranberry sauce. We added a plate of round fried potato croquettes to share and I got a large draft beer and some chicken soup.

Somehow delicious and affordable, this meal was a highlight of Slovakia and the surroundings of the restaurant made it even better. There were hardly any other customers, and it was tasteful and comfortable without being stuffy or sterile.

I ate everything and was still hungry. And as a diabetic I had to wonder: Had I overdone the potatoes? Or underdone my Humalog shot? Time would tell.

At 11:00 pm I got my answer: 302. By this time the snow had stopped. Oh well, an imperfect end to a day that I really can’t fault otherwise. Levoča is a remarkable little town to spend time in, manageably-sized, quiet, full of scenic old buildings and paths, covered in snow, and somehow completely non-touristy.

And tomorrow we’re off to visit an ancient castle. We might even find someone to let us in despite its being closed for the season.

This trip just gets better and better.

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