Blogs from Slovakia, Europe - page 10

This morning it was out to a few sites in the various districts of Bratislava. The first stop was a monument to the liberation of Slovakia after the WWII. I am sort of ashamed that I don't know more about the history of this area. And I have to admit that I find it hard to think of switching from Nazi occupation to Russian-led Communism as liberation, but it's an adjustment I'll have to make, mentally. Next stop was the Sandberg, a geological formation that is made entirely of sandstone, and that preserves a lot of the geological history of the area. Pretty nifty! Another running joke is how fast I'm going through sites here, as the average tourist is a) a fair bit older than me and b) not as fit (thank-you, Running Room!). And ... read more

Talk about confusion. Today has been full of it. To start, this is honestly the first time I've gotten horribly confused about European trains. I had to email my Slovakian tour company an ETA into Bratislava a couple of days ago, and used the Internet to figure out that I should be leaving Vienna from the Südbahnhof. Yesterday, though, I checked and my ticket to Bratislava says it's from Wien Westbahnhof to Bratislava via Kledering and Kittsee. Does such a train exist? No. Fortunately it's an open ticket, so no worries about time, which has been quite lucky. I got to the Westbahnhof and stared at the departure board for an extended period of time before realizing there was nothing departing for Bratislava. So I wandered over to the info desk and asked. Wrong station. Apparenty ... read more

Today Tom and Dan left which was sad because they were great fun. I went to the post office and mailed some postcards. I wandered around the village checking it out and found a market where I bought some food as well as red hair dye. Kate was excited to dye my hair, it turned out awesome really bright and just the way I hoped it would turn out but it but I hate that red washes out so easy. The whole hostel got together and went out to the nicest resturant in town which was still pretty cheap for the amount you get. I ordered a potato pancake stuffed with chicken, pork and liver. It is such a neat thing to do and a great feeling when we all get together and do somethinglike this. ... read more

Today was an amazing fun filled day. It started off when the four Ginger Monkey workers(Martin the Slovak, Jess the Brit Manager of Ginger Monkey who is with Martin, Troy and Bevan the Kiwi's) and I piled into a car and headed an hour away to a place we can go on a nice seanic rafting ride. The driving trip was fun going fast on a winding Slovak road. Where we were rafting was on a river that was right between Slovakia and Poland. We suited up in a life jacket, helmet and paddle grabbed the raft and was off. The guide only spoke Slovak so it was nice having Martin with us to translate. He told us about the mountains and stories behind them. There were a few parts that were rough but nothing to ... read more

I don't really remember the day part of day expect Troy from New Zealand who works at the hostel asked if I wanted to go and have some Golash. It was just up the road from the hostel at this little hut, you have to knock on the window and the man opens it you tell him you want Golash. He does not really have anything else there expect frozen pizza that he puts in the microwave. It was very good and filling and got to know Troy, who was only working at the hostel for a few weeks while the owner (Jimbo) was away on holidays. For the evening we all went to the pizzaria and ate num num pizza and some beers, we came back to the hostel to chill and watch movies. ... read more

I woke up at the right time and caught my train to Zdiar, well I caught the train to Poprad then I would need to take the bus to Zdiar. I first had to take a train to Bratislava, my Eurail pass does not work in Slovakia so I was allowed to sit in first class until we got to the Slovakian boarder then I had to move to second which was very full so I just sat on the floor in between carts since it was only about half an hour. My connecting train to Bratislava was late thank goodness since my train was very late getting in and I was very happy that I did not have to wait another 2 hours to catch the next train. This train was very full as well ... read more

Nach zwei Tagen in der Niederen Tatra hat es uns ins sog. Slowakische Paradies verschlagen. Dort gab es fúr uns wirklich paradiesische Wandermoeglichkeiten. Die schwierigen Routen dauerten meist ca. drei Stunden, wir konnten uns also prima abwechseln und allein losziehen. Dann gab es noch ein paar sehr einfache und kurze Wanderwege, die wir mit Emilia und Florian zusammen laufen konnten. Emilia hat ihr taegliches Laufpensum jetzt auf fuenf Kilometer erhoeht und solange sie einen Bergbach zum baden findet und nach den Wegmarkierungen suchen darf ist die Welt in Ordnung. Nur wehe wenn nicht... Die sechs Tage im Slowakischen Paradies vergingen wie im Flug, unter anderem besichtigten wir eine Eishoehle und die Zipser Burg, beides wirklich sehr beeindruckend. Nur leider hat soeben der Kamera-Akku versagt und ich kann die Fotos nicht mehr hochladen... die Bilder folgen beim ... read more