We crossed into Hungary at a very small border crossing from Slovakia, so small a road we got lost and couldn't find Hungary for a while! Very surprisingly the first building we met in Hungary, about 2km over the border, was a campsite. The campsite was hosting the '11th annual international cave rescue conference' but there was still plenty of room for us. Weather was good so we parked up, got the bikes out and went exploring the local Aggteleki national park. Good cycle through very picturesque hills and scenery. Eger The days drive was through very rural and very [View Full Entry]

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We headed to the village of Terchova in the Mala Fatra hills to catch a Slovak folk festival. Folk tradition and music is very much alive in Slovakia and people seem to be very keen to keep it alive. In the more rural villages there are a lot of farmers living off the land in quite a simple way. There are a number of communities around who are purposely trying to live and farm as the generations before them did. This is quite a contrast to the flash cars and shopping centres we have seen in the bigger towns. Wildlife [View Full Entry]

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Slovensky Raj is called the Slovak Paradise by the locals. It certainly was to us one of the pritiest national parks we´ve hiked in. We found a lovely campsite with views of the snowcapped Tatras and a fun atmosphere as most of Poland seemed to be there on holidays (with a good few bottles of vodka around the place). In fact this is the first campsite we´ve hit in E. Europe thats been fully opened and had people other than ourselves in it. When we entered Slovakia we expected it to be less western than the Czech Rep, but in [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/3274.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3274.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Snow Hiking The first day we did a short hike, 3 hours! up to a waterfall which was a bit disapointing but the hike was nice. The tourist info lady didnt warn us that we´d be hiking through snow and dara was not surprisingly a bit chilly in his shorts. The seccond day we decided to do a long hike (5 hours up and 3 down). We saw 3 pretty waterfalls. Most of the hike was again through snow, the last 2 hours was challanging, Snow was deep and a very steep uphill. When we got to the [View Full Entry]

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We spent a few days exploring the Moravian Wine Region in Sourthern Czech, mostly by cycling. Our most memorable day was our cycle through some vineyards. We decided to join the locals way of life and had our first pivo (beer) of the day at 11am! We then cycled a couple of hours and then hiked up a hill (one of these hills with about 3 false tops!), When we finaly made it to the top we had our first well deserved wine. We heard some load music on the way down, we followed our ears and ended up in [View Full Entry]

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Cesky Krumlov is so beautiful and romantic its impossible to try to describe. One of the prettiest towns we've even been to. Would recommed anybody to visit. I'm sure it can be overrun with tourists in the summer, we did see a few groups of japanese clicking their way along the streets, but generaly the town had a lovely laid back atmosphere. We can see why its a popular hangout spot for backpackers. Would love to return. [View Full Entry]

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Over the border from Austria to our first Eastern european country. The price of the beers has dropped dramaticaly. We can now get 8 pints for the same price as 1 in austria. [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/3273.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3273.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Shilpa boardingFrom the Dolomites we headed back to Austria and to the town of Mayrhofen. A beautiful town, excellent campsite - a great week of very sunny boarding and slushy afternoons. There was a cool burton snowpark there with a pros and beginner sections. Dara spent some time in the beginner park (along with all the austrian teenagers, who were much better at the jumps), and was managing some pretty good jumps by the end. [View Full Entry]

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Snowboarding the Dolomites  Europe » Italy » Dolomites By shilpa_dara April 4th 2007 Dara and ShilpaWe visited the Dolomites a few years ago on a snow holiday and it was an area we definitly wanted to go back to on this trip, and hopefully will get a chance to visit again in the future. Its an amazing mountain range, very different to anything [View Full Entry]

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After over two weeks of pretty much solid boarding and sleeping well below zero temps, we both felt a bit run down so headed for the spa town of Merano in northern Italy. It was a relativly short drive down through a mountain pass from Austria to Northern Italy but when we hit the pass in the evening we discovered it was closed for the winter a detail we wish was on our map! We had to camp near there that night and had a long detour via the Brenner pass to Italy the next day. When we finally got [View Full Entry]

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