Blogs from Trenčín, Trenčín Region, Slovakia, Europe

Sunday July 7 – Today did not start well. I got up at 6:30am after a night of terrible sleep. Bratislava is a party town for English bachelor parties and it was a Saturday night last night. I stayed in a girls dorm that had 6 beds, and there were four of us, which was fine. I had the room to myself until 11pm, when I went to bed, and the girls who came in were pretty quiet. The problem was that the window opened up to a main road, and it seemed that everyone out there was having a good ole loud time. All night. It was finally quiet when I woke up at 6:30am, of course. I got my stuff together and thought I left in plenty of time, but it was taking too ... read more

We headed South. Ish. Dodging an a unmarked police bike – a black R1 cruising up and down the highway, trying to tempt young folk into competing, then giving them a ticket, crappier roads and crappier driving. The Tatras loomed majestically – I'm not sure if you can loom majestically, but there they were, looming away, and there was a definite sense of majesty, so there you go. The craggy peaks were covered in cloud, on the road to Poprad. The foreground littered with rolling hills of barley and hops and little white villages. It looked like a beer ad. We rolled into the campsite at Trencin. The lady was cheerful and spoke zero English, but we got by with single German words. It's not real hard to say 1 tent and 2 people. When Klaire ... read more

20-08-08 Poles Apart We spent the rest of yesterday (19th) in Trencin, we really couldn’t get to grips with the place at all. It has this magnificent fortress - Unesco listed, and yet they seem pretty unenthusiastic about foreign tourism. In the fortress they make a point of nothing that the only language spoke by staff is Slovak, the national language. Hard to tell whether this is typical of other sites, but it is kind of a strange feeling being in a place that really doesn’t want too much to do with anyone who speaks another language - German or English. This is in very sharp contract to CZ where all children are taught English and German from an early age in school. It feels as if SK is very inward looking, I think give the ... read more

Being McGogged means eating a hamburger bigger than your head, which I did (twice) at the Pohoda Music Festival in Trencin, Slovakia. And being really f**king unlucky means not having a working camera to capture all the good stuff, like The Stereo MC's, International Noise Conspiracy, The Frames, Coldcut, Chicks on Speed, The Pixies, Bajafondo Tango Club, and Golgol Bordello. And Mikey, the skinniest lil white boy in rock, bangin it out amongst the sweat soaked inebriates of the two front rows. Ten points for your devotion to Black Francis Mike - lucky no-one thinks you're gay. So, guess you'll just have to be content with my highly exaggerated stories and recollections that are so out of proportion they no longer even remotely resemble the truth. Or even parts of the truth. But I swear, I ... read more