Not just a giant cereal bowl

First impressions on entering Slovakia was that we had landed in a giant cereal bowl, with seemingly endless fields of corn and wheat on the horizon - a bit like a scene out of ‘Honey I shrunk the kids!’
Our frustrating discovery that a symbol of a tent on a map does not mean there is actually a camping ground in the vicinity happily led to us spending some very comfortable and inexpensive nights in pensions (guest houses with self catering facilities). Camping does not seem to necessarily translate and sometimes can refer to private grounds with little chalets on them (all occupied).
Surburban towns provided free entertainment in the form of tinny pop music(followed by very serious sounding sermons) via loudspeakers which were dotted about, probably used in the past for broadcasting Soviet propaganda, these days taken over by the church, local news station and pop channel.
As we emerged from the giant grain bowl our attempts to avoid the busy E roads (equivalent to British A roads, led us on some very steep and scenic detours into the Low Tatras mountains where we observed a very unchanged way of life in mountain villages. Not all detours proved successful though and some back-tracking had to occur!

Now on YOUTUBE.com! (CycletouringTV)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR1Ngmi3OKE

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