Chochołów is close to the border so I was soon leaving Poland and striding into the first Slovak village, Suchá Hora. According to Wikipedia it is a village that has repeatedly changed which country it is part of.
Rather than take a direct route to Trstena, my destination for today, the E3 employs a curved route southward to the village of Oravice, then curves north to Trstena, taking in a few mountains. First it followed the border posts south. Tracks came and went but I kept heading in the general direction, initially through grassland rich in blue forget-me-nots and yellow buttercups and dandelions, plus a few purple orchids. Fallen trees frequently obstructed me today, necessitating diversions around them. At one of the first, a man was standing with a chainsaw ready. Despite me indicating I was English and had no Slovak, he gave me a long explanation about something. I smiled and nodded then continued on my way. Leaving the border posts the trail continued to climb through conifers. Apart from a single direction sign at Suchá Hora I saw no waymarks and wondered if my gpx track for the E3, taken from Waymarkedtrails.org, was correct for this stretch. After reaching a high point the track dropped steeply. Shortly before the village of Oravice I saw a faded yellow waymark before a particularly difficult section of fallen trees.
Oravice had a waterpark that was under construction; a well populated open air pool surrounded by sun loungers with people spread across them in their bathing costumes; shut up stalls, stationary ski lifts, and a buffet open and selling food and drink. I ordered a langos with cheese and tomato ketchup. I first tried langos, a sort of fried, savoury dough, in Hungary. While cheese is a common and welcome accompaniment the ketchup that the waitress suggested was something new. Having tried it I would avoid adding it to langos in the future.
I knew from my research last night that after Oravice there would be a big climb up to the summit of Skorušina at 1314 metres. Having this fore-knowledge the uphill section was not too depressing. At the summit there was an observation tower so you could look over the surrounding trees. The ladder up was steep and I felt I had climbed enough.
There was then a long, slow descent following green waymarks. In the dusty track there were prints made by people's boots, bikes, vehicles, deer and a bear. From the size of the feet it was a small bear. I had been on the lookout for bear prints throughout my time in Slovakia but these were the first I had seen.
Once out of the trees I could see Trstena ahead of me and beyond a large reservoir which I will visit tomorrow. However it seemed to take a long time to reach it and my left knee was complaining after all the descent. Finally reaching my hotel in the centre of Trstena I was worried to see a notice on the door leading to the reception with red letters, was it closed? Using Google Translate to see what it meant I discovered that they were looking for a new receptionist, as a permenant employee. Fortunately the old receptionist was still there and checked me in. I had arrived in the town centre too late for the cake shop, but I enjoyed a evening meal at the restaurant attached to the hotel, sitting outside with the locals who were chatting over a Friday night drink. I probably enjoyed it too much as I ordered a second beer. Usually a mistake which I had avoided on this trip up to now.
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