Blogs from Zilina Region, Slovakia, Europe

Today has been emotional, to say the least. It started out with a trip to Orava Castle, an absolutely beautiful castle/palace built on a hill in the Orava region, bits dating back as far as the 13th century, and still fairly intact. It was another sort of museum where you followed a guide around from room to room, without being able to wander freely, but I can certainly see why in this case. Not so much to protect from theft or anything as to prevent people from getting lost (the place is huge!) or hurt (there are still open archaeological excavations on site). Not only that, but it was raining, and wood and stone have a tendency to get slippery when wet. Next we ventured on to Podbiel, and stopped at the town hall. The travel ... read more

Started the morning by heading out to Pustý Hrad ("deserted castle") just outside Zvolen this a.m. Ruins of a castle that's been around since Roman times. The catch? An uphill climb. A change in elevation of more than 200 m (yeah, I know that's not that huge, but it's well bigger than anything we've got in Edmonton). It was a hike. And I mean a real hike. If we'd managed to stick to the path it probably wouldn't have been such a hike, but at some point we ended up losing it and more or less scrambling up the hill until we found it again. It was pretty fun, actually. If I ever come back here, I may have to try some more hiking and general outdoorsy-ness. Totally worth the climb (which took about 35 minutes ... read more

Our arrival to Slovakia and the pursuing midnight prowl through a towering, decaying sídliště to find the only cheap accommodation which existed in Košice, and the lack of sleep I got, is one of those things which is just best left at a quick description. Should any philosophy MA students wish to write a thesis titled "The emotional equivalent of carving through your midriff with a circular saw", then contact me and I will provide a detailed play by play description. Let me just say that I was extremely glad to have Jitka with me. I set off alone after having vaguely recovered from it all. Walking through Košice to the station in the morning, I felt myself able to find appreciation in the little things like the churches and fountains, that there was a band ... read more

EN: We spent some nice time with our friends in beautiful Orava and Liptov region. First 3 days near Oravsky Podzamok. The main acitivities were drinking, chatting, cooking goulash, barbecue etc :) But we also visited the castle in the village. Check the photos. Movie: "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" has been filmed there (classic from 1922 !!). This castle is also the second most visited castle in Slovakia (after Bojnice castle). After those 3 days some of us set off for a hiking through mountains to Liptov region. We hiked through beautiful Kvacianska dolina (Kvacianska valley). There we took a bath/shower in one of the waterfalls (and as it was in the evening, with no people around, guess what swimsuit we had on :P ... sorry, no pics here. Just the waterfall ) We spent ... read more

Vratna valley, Terchova So our base for the next 5 days was here. With the weather still good, we made our way up Boboty peak as a warm-up for the larger peaks. The climb was 400m, but very steep. The descent involved a bit of clinging on to a chain over a bit of rock. The day after we went via Stefanova for the climb up to Poludniovy Grun and the 1608m Stoh. It was tough going, as it was very steep, and I got very hot on the lower slopes, carrying all my crap. Maybe it’s because I was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, but waterproof, spare food, jumper, all seem essential to me, unlike this wee Polish lass who wandered up in plimsolls/pumps and no rucksack. How she got up is a ... read more

The last weekend i joined some friends on a trip to Slovakia. We would fly to Prievidza and on to Martin to go fishing. The weather has been just great the last couple of weekends. It's a lot of fun flying a Cessna. Our GPS conked the moment we took off so we wer back to the good ol' maps for navigation. A lot more fun! After roughly a two hour flight we touched down at Prievidza for a lovely lunch at the airfield. the Bojnice castle in the backdrop and the perfect weather were the perfect setting. Not to mention the good Czech beer! :) and a lovely meal. After lunch we head onwards to Martin. After some sightseeing and pub hopping in Martin we had a lovely barbeque. What a party! haha! Dunno when ... read more