Travel adventures - Slovakia - Morské oko

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Travel adventures - Slovakia - Morské oko

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018 · 7 min read

I'm spending one week with my family in Slovakia and I thought you might enjoy traveling and walking around here with me 😊

Today I will take you to the lake Morské oko (Marine eye) situated in the protected area of Vihorlatské vrchy (Vihorlat mountains).

It took us a little longer than one hour to get there by car yesterday. The roads were deserted. It was early in the morning, so I think that people were at home preparing Sunday lunch.

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After a short while we were approaching the mountains. The mountains in the back are already in Ukraine.

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As there was no traffic we stopped in the middle of the road to take some photos. The weather was not ideal, but we hoped it wouldn't start raining.

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ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/9 18 mm

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It takes around 20 minutes to get to the lake from the parking place and 30 minutes to walk around the lake. Our walk starts here..

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Vihorlatské vrchy

It is a volcanic mountain range which stretches in the Eastern Slovakia, and partly in the Western Ukraine.

The forest is magical and it looks like from a fairy tale. It is dominated by ash, maple, elm, and lime trees. There are wolves, lynxes, otters, wildcats and brown bears living in the area. The bears have migrated here just a few years ago. People are still getting used to the fact that they could come across a bear in the forest. It hasn't luckily happened to us yet!

We also came across various wild herbs and flowers.

They say that it is easy to grow mint. Well, I was not able to keep it alive at home and here it grows just like this! I must have done something very bad to that poor plant 😊

The cornflower is my favorite wild flower! There were so many of them!

Here we are!

Morské oko

It is the largest lake in the Vihortat mountains and it is the third largest natural lake in Slovakia. It was created due to the volcanic activity in the area. There are no active volcanoes here anymore.

A massive landslide dammed up the valley stream of Okna, and a natural lake was formed behind the barrier.

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The maximum length of the Morské Oko lake is 750 meters and its width is 312 meters. The lake is 25.1 meters deep.

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In 1984 it was declared the State Natural Preserve and any kind of water activities including swimming and fishing are prohibited here.

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It was very cloudy but we still hoped we could walk around the lake before it starts to rain.

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Before we continued walking, we fed the fish. There were hundreds of them (mainly trouts)!

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The clouds were getting darker, but we were determined to follow our plan. Was it a good idea? Well..

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It's prohibited to take wood out of the forest so there are many broken trees and branches in the water and around the lake.

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You can see them on the other side of the lake as well.

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If you fancy staying here over night you can do so and book this mansion. It was built in 1924 on motion of Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi whose daughter was treated here during her sickness.

She also contributed to the enlargement of the lake from 7 ha to 13.8 ha by building a dam.

There are many celebrations held in the mansion during summer months.

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Behind the mansion there is a relaxing area with a few benches and beautiful views.

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But there are people (like my husband) who prefer to sit on cold stones instead.

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We were thinking to celebrate my birthday next year here.

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As much as we enjoyed it there we had to move on and continue walking. When we reached the opposite side of the lake it started to rain. There is a small bistro nearby. We thought we would run there and wait until it stops as there is a terrace with roof even though the bistro is never open.

We were surprised to find out that they were open! It was our lucky day! It was cold and windy, so we ordered some tea and snacks. We waited for the rain to stop but it seemed to be getting stronger instead!

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We had our umbrellas, but we were not very well dressed for such weather. It was sunny when we left home and the forecast wasn't showing rain either. We waited for more than half an hour before we decided to leave but in the end we got soaking wet anyway. There was no lightning and we didn't hear any thunder, so we figured we could walk in the forest with our umbrellas without getting grilled by the lightning.

We had to walk the same way back instead of going around the lake as it was much shorter. It didn't take us too long to get back to the other side.

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I like it even more when it's raining.

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We stopped one more time on the way back to the car..

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As the roads were deserted on the way back home too we could stop in the middle of 'nowhere' and take a few more photos from the car. I didn't even get off the car because of the rain.

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My messy hair is the proof that it was windy 😊 I was glad to have my second assistant (my brother) with me to hold my umbrella while my first assistant (hubby) takes a photo of me taking photos 😊

This is the first time when I saw my husband multitasking (holding the umbrella and taking photos 😊)

It was a lovely day even though the weather was not ideal. We came home, changed our clothes, had a cup of tea and went to visit my grandmother, spend some time with her and showed her photos from our adventures.

The last time she was there was about 20 years ago, so she was happy to see that it hasn't changed much. She was worried we would get sick but luckily, we are all fine.

I hope you enjoyed our walk today as much as we did.

All pictures are taken by my Nikon D3200 AF-S NIKKOR 18-55 mm 1:3.5-5.6 G II/

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Martina

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Food / Life / Travel @avizorAugust 2018

What wonderful and quite place! I would love to go out and fish 🎣 there with a little boat :-)

And also you bring us some great pictures with a good quality . 👍

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

No, no, fishing is prohibited :) This is why there are still so many fish. You can't even get a special permit and the fines are very high so you wouldn't like to try :)

Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words!

Sally Beth 23 @sallybeth23September 2018

Hello @delishtreats! At last I am catching up with your travels in Slovakia. It is so intriguing to see photos of a country you have never been to before. I have absolutely fallen in love with this place! The forests are breathtaking. It is great to hear they are protected from removing wood from. From your photos it apprears that the eco system is truly flourishing. Those little pale blue flowers are so beautiful. The whole scene is really fairytale like as you say. The lake too is just amazing and all those trout, wow! Is there fish farming going on there? Those trout seem to be used to being fed maybe. That mansion is beautiful - the combination of stone amongst wood like that is very apprealing. It would be a great place to have a birthday celebration for sure. That way we can come back and have a look inside the mansion too. Haha It would have been magical to take a little rowing boat out on the water in my imagination anyway. Like as not it wouldn’t be allowed but a lovely thought nonetheless😉🍀🌈💛🦋🌴

Thank you so much for a wonderful walk. Every part of it was just so enjoyable. Slovakia is stunningly beautiful and now it seems fitting that a beautiful flower such as yourself should come from such a fairytale land. Have a happy smile filled weekend.

Taste and travel @delishtreatsSeptember 2018

Hello my dear Sallybeth! Thank you SO much for your comment and for the time that you took to write it!

I'm happy that you like the place! I haven't appreciated it enough before I left. It was so boring, lol. Now I love coming back!

No, no, there is no fish farming there. They are used to being fed because everyone who comes there throw them some bread :) it's been always like this. Or at least as far as I can remember.

They renovated the mansion just recently and I always wanted to go inside. It will be a treat to celebrate the birthday there! I will bring you inside with me of course! :)

Imagination has no limits. You can even go swimming there (in your imagination of course :) )

You are SO sweet! I can't even express how much I treasure our friendship! Thank you for being YOU!

Sally Beth 23 @sallybeth23September 2018

Wow so many trout by nature’s hand! I love that 😍 sometimes we have to leave behind what we had to appreciate it the most but better late than never is all that matters 🤗🦋🌴❤️🌈🍀

Taste and travel @delishtreatsSeptember 2018

Exactly! And I might move back one day ;)

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Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

So good to see you again! :) Thank you so much!

WelcomeTo inna-world @inna-worldAugust 2018

how much green you have in Slovakia, it's nice to watch) in general, nature calms me down)
wild mint, wow) I love mint, but I have not heard about the wild one yet)
Sea eye in Slovak language is a beautiful name, consonant with Ukrainian words)
me as a vegan about the prohibition of fishing is nice to hear;)

Thank you for a fascinating journey with you to your homeland, Slovakia 😊

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you for stopping by Inna. Yes, it is a green country. We have many hills and meadows.

I also didn't know that it could grow in forest! Every day is a school day! :)

Oh yes, Slovak is very similar to Ukrainian. And I can easily speak with people living close to the borders as the Ukrainian there is different than let's say in Kiev.

Yes, I'm also glad that you can't fish there. This is also the reason why there are so many fish in the lake.

Oh, thank you for the compliment my dear!

WelcomeTo inna-world @inna-worldAugust 2018

you are right, dear, the main thing is not to stop learning and be open to the new)

Sara Jarvie @sjarvie5August 2018

Another wonderful post. So fun to see this small portion of Slovakia and a place that means so much to you and your family.

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you Sara! I spent there so much time when I was a child and I'm happy that my husband loves to see these places :)

Jasmin @jasminkAugust 2018

I was mesmerized as read this post and kept staring your beautiful photos! I like cities, but there's just something really special and calming about the green and blue nature, even if you're only looking at photos! I'm glad you shared this with us, Slovak nature is really beautiful! :)

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you Jasmin! I also prefer nature. I like to live in the city but I enjoy spending my free time in forest. I can just sit there and read a book the whole day :)

Oh, it is! I will try to travel a bit more this week and show you also different parts of the country :)

Jasmin @jasminkAugust 2018

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Slovakia! Have a wonderful week there! :)

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you Jasmin!

LivingUKTaiwan @livinguktaiwanAugust 2018

You seem to have a much better Sunday than me! The walk looked so lovely and serene around the lake, especially the last few photos just before you got back into the car

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

It was lovely! It was much colder than we expected but we still enjoyed it. Thank you for stopping by! I'm always happy to be back home for a few days :) Seeing my family gives me a lot of energy.

davemccoy @davemccoyAugust 2018

Once again this is beautiful! I love the rain in the photos too! Very good scenery with the clear water and also love the benches!

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you Dave! It's good to be back home and enjoy the nature here. It is very different than in Switzerland.

It's the first time I took photos when it was raining and I was quite pleased with the result.

It's a pity I could't walk around the lake to show you the other side too but I hope to get a chance soon again!

steven-patrick @steven-patrickAugust 2018

Great photos of your visit to the lake. Very special you were able to share with your grandma. I like the pictures of the rain and low clouds in the forest :) The rock mansion is also very picturesque.

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Thank you for stopping by. Yes! We actually went there so that she can see the photos :) She is more less tied up to bed so we try to make her feel better when we're here.

I like these ones too! This was the first time when I took photos of rain and I am very happy with the result. I'm just learning how to take photos so I'm proud of me! :)

Exactly! A perfect place to stay there and have fun time :)

puravidaville @puravidavilleAugust 2018

That forest does look enchanted, so lush and gorgeous. I bet it smelled even better, fresh. And that sure is a lot of trout. So nobody fishes there? Incredible!

Grandmas sure do have a way of making us feel right at home, cozy and warm in wet clothes or not.… thank you for keeping us posted on your latest travels @delishtreats, your life sure does look fun.

Taste and travel @delishtreatsAugust 2018

Yes, it's very fresh and breathing there is so easy. You feel great there.

No, no, because the fines are too high for people to risk it :)

Thank you for stopping by my dear! I do try to make the best out of the time I have :)

puravidaville @puravidavilleAugust 2018

Very cool. Looking forward to more adventures.