High Tatras - Orava Castle

The drive to Zuberec on Friday evening last week was quite bad: it was already dark and it was raining so hard that you could barely see the red back lights of the car in front. But one thing I did notice on the way: a huge castle lit up on top of a steep hill. Turns out it was the Orava Castle (Oravsky Hrad). I love castles (because I still want to be a princess...) so I wanted to at least stop on the way home on Sunday long enough to get a picture of it. 


We did stop. But the moment we got up to the castle door it was literally closed in our faces. Closing time.


Suomen Leijona !?!?!?
The legend of the castle says that the noblemen owning the land made a pact with a devil because they wanted a castle that couldn't be built by any man. If the devil succeeded in building the castle in one day the noblemen were fine, but if not they would go to Hell. Obviously the devil didn't succeed (on purpose I expect) and the noblemen went to Hell.



In proven facts we know that the castle was built in the 13th century in the place of a former fortified fortress. It has seen multiple counts, aristocrats and noblemen. Ferenc Thurzó was a mine owner in the 16th century and he is mostly responsible for bringing the castle to its current spectacular outlook. He is also known in history as a close friend of Countess Elizabet Bathorý who is still recognized by the Guinnes Book of Records as the most "productive" female mass murderer ever. In 1800 the upper parts of the castle, which were made mostly out of wood, burned completely in a great fire. It took 60 years until anyone started reconstructing it.




Apparently the castle is well worth visiting: all the rooms are reconstructed with furniture and the guides are said to be very happy to tell you the tales of the castle. Even without the rooms being reconstructed the castle would be interesting to see because it consists of several separate parts and at the end the ones who are not claustrophobic can climb a very narrow staircase up to the highest room to look around the Orava county. But, as mentioned before, all we saw was the very interesting dragon knocker on the door.


Walking down from the castle we saw a sign saying children's castle and obviously took a turn to go check it out. Turned out it was actually a play ground... but I'm not quite convinced it was really made for children because the main attraction there seemed to be a stripper's pole. What is a child supposed to do with that?


And here ends the High Tatras trilogy. It was an amazing weekend in awesome surroundings and with great people! When's the next one?!

Kommentit

Lähetä kommentti

Tämän blogin suosituimmat tekstit

Challenge Accepted !

Kuva
As mentioned in the previous post I am not happy with the new job and thus the life I've lead since the beginning of 2018. This unhappiness and how stress has literally occupied every corner of my mind can be seen also as the loss of all creativity in me, thus the blog has been silent for months. But now, with a new set of goals and a new determination born from the ultimate disappointment that this new job has been, I decided to challenge myself: I found a list of 10 questions worth asking myself. Whether as an employee, a manager or just an individual these 10 questions seemed like interesting points to ponder on so from now on I will ask myself one question each week and see what thoughts come forth. First of all this is a good idea for me because I love writing and I've missed it. But also I hope I will come up with new ideas and perhaps some new realizations about myself and my life that I maybe wasn't aware of before. So, challenge accepted
Lue lisää

How Do I Cherish the Moment

Kuva
Overall I have been quite good at cherishing the moment. It has a lot to do with the ability to appreciate the little things in life; whether it is a sunny day (rarety in Estonia!), a great meal or a cuddle from someone special. But recently I have found myself struggling to cherish any moment. There simply hasn't been any moments worth cherishing. Except the moment when I bury myself in bed and slip away from this world for 10ish hours. I got myself a new job at the beginning of the year and despite it being a large step-down from a Project Manager position I felt hopeful because it was a big company with surely many opportunities to grow professionally and move forwards in my career. How wrong I was... The company culture is everything BUT forward-looking and open. The company, it's values and it's way of operating is a complete opposite of me as a person and as an employee. This together with the fact that it has been one of the most stressful winte
Lue lisää