Donovaly, Slovakia Skiing
January 19, 2008

We took off Saturday morning early to make the 3 1/2 hour drive up to Slovakia where we were planning to spend the day skiing (at least Katie, Ashley, and I). Donovaly ski resort is located in the Low Tatras mountain range in central Slovakia. Admittedly, this is not really comparable to its Alpine neighbors, but we thought it would be an easy day trip (and cheap) and opportunity for the girls to get a day of ski school in before our February trip to the Austrian Alps.
We made it there OK, but unfortunately could not find the ski school that we had signed the girls up for, so I just had them join another one that I saw. We got our tickets and made our way to the school, which was unfortunately at the bottom of a hill. Basically, the girls needed to know how to ski to GET to the school! Utterly ridiculous. We spent an hour trying to find/get to the ski school, taking the girls down little by little. By the time we made it there they were not too excited! But Katie did a pretty good job (see videos attached) but still did not last long. Ashley lasted even less! I did a couple of runs is all, and by that time the girls had had enough, so we SLOWLY made our way back to the car (well, I made my way back to the car while Heather and the girls waited at a nearby parking lot that was easier to walk to than trying to get the girls (and 5 months pregnant Heather) back up the hill!
It was fun to be together as a family, but certainly 7 hours of driving for an hour of skiing didn't seem too efficient!