Blogs from Kosice, Kosice Region, Slovakia, Europe

Being by myself, travelling through eastern europe in the middle of winter, I had worried about how easy it would be to meet people. So I thought of using couchsurfing as a way to meet locals. Kosice was my first attempt. Couchsurfing is an organisation that explains itself as being a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. So you send of couch surfing requests to peope who have their profiles on the couchsurfing website and then basically if they have time and like the look of your profile, they accept and you have a place to stay. My first host was an English teacher in Kosice. I arranged to meet her at an internet cafe after she had finished work and spent most of the day beforehand walking around ... read more

I know that some of you are waiting the entry of my first meeting with Ma'ri's family. You'll have to be a little more patient, as this will be my next entry for the blog. Our base for these few days is in Hejce in the North-East part of Hungary where Ma'ri's parents live. The village is only 30 km from Kosice. I've already been to Prague, but never set a foot in Slovakia. So we decided to spend an afternoon strolling Kosice. Interesting enough, Ma'ri hasn't come here for years, so it was also a re-discovery of some of her childhood memories. Slovakia and Hungary are now both part of Schengen, so no more controls at the border. But the old style communist control buildings are still in place...in a seriously bad conditions...but still standing ... read more

I got to Kosice by train which is the best and possibly only option to get there directly. It was about 1 euro extra for the fast IC train but it cut about and hour or more off the journey time. It's kind of annoying that all these countries take ISIC but only if you are a student in that country. So far, ISIC has not worked for me in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. I keep trying to use it and sometimes they take pity on me and give me an under 26 rate instead but it really is quite useless in Central and Eastern Europe despite the fact that ISIC is supposed to be accepted! Anyway, Kosice is a nice town with a very small old town center. The church is pretty cool ... read more

Day 10 Up at 9 AGAIN for breakfast which we thought was free but was slyly charged at the end and i dont even like eggs.. Made our way to the train sation to find there were none til 3 so waited in a oub just outside the station, where someone tried to sell me bed sheets.. As if i need to be carrying any more shit.. Eventually arrived at Kosice around 5 and made our way to Kosmalt a hostel where we were told they were full.. I was quite glad as it was a right shit hole looked like a crack house.. But our cab had gone so we had to walk to a bus stop.. Luckily a random elped us figure out where to go and we found the main place with all ... read more

We headed out after breakfast relatively early on Highway 7 which heads due south to Slovakia. A word of advice for anyone wanting to take this route is wait a couple of years and it should be great, as it was there were roadworks all the way for about 100km. Every bridge was one lane with traffic lights controlling the flow so it took about 2 hours to reach the border. Once we reached Slovakia the roadworks finished and we cruised along smoothly. We bought a motorway sticker as we didn’t plan on spending much time in Slovakia as we felt there was not really a lot we wanted to see here. The motorway made a big zig-zag down the country but we thought that that was quicker than using the more direct highway and there ... read more

Groeten uit een behoorlijk warm Bardejov in het oosten van Slowakije! Als alles een beetje lukt ga ik morgen naar Oekraine, dus dit is de laatste dag in dit land. Zaterdag in Banska Stiavnica van alles gezien, o.a. het New Castle (op zich niet heel boeiend maar wel uitzicht over de stad) en een mijnbouwmuseum waarbij ik met een groep onder de grond door de gangen ben gelopen (wederom helmpje op!) en allerlei werktuigen heb gezien. Daarna een uitgebreide wandeling door de heuvels en bossen en velden gemaakt, langs een meertje, naar een uitkijkpunt op 939 meter met mooie uitzichten. Nadat ik schone kleren had aangetrokken 's avonds pizza gegeten. De dag erna een mooie tocht per trein gemaakt, door de heuvels in het midden van het land, van Zvolen naar Kosice. Tunnels en bruggen en ... read more

Today Joyce arrived in Košice after backpacking in Europe for the last few weeks. We found her as she was trying to work a phone on the train station since she had been there for a little while before we arrived to pick her up. The three of us spend the morning and afternoon in Košice. I got to attend mass at St. Elizabeth's Cathedral, which is the largest church in Slovakia and was built starting in 1378. Joyce, Sylvia, and I sat outside on the square for a drink and then headed toward Roňava. We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch and enjoyed typical Slovak food. I ordered with only a vague understanding of what my food actually was. I only understood that it would be spicy and with paprika. It turned out to ... read more