After finishing my class in Poland, I headed back to Slovakia. Sylvia and her family came to Lublin to pick me up. After one day back in Roznava, Sylvia and I headed to Presov, Slovakia so I could attend a research conference on religious geography in Europe. The conference went well and on the third day, we had a small group tour of some of the most important religious architecture in Northeast Slovakia. This region has a group of small wooden churches that were placed on the UNESCO World Hertiage List last summer while I was here. These churches are unique [View Full Entry]

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Talk to Frank. It's easy! If you take a break from your refreshments in the Old Town of Bratislava, "I won the World Cup" Frank was found aimlessly wandering the streets as part of his pre-match warm up routine. Chelsea were in town to play Slovan in the old European Cup Winners Cup and as accommodation of a 5 star nature was a bit tricky to locate back in 1997, the team were based right in the heart of the Old Town. Alas we were not, having failed to secure a berth in the old communist icon, the Hotel Kiev! We [View Full Entry]

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Monday Today we met at half 8 to catch the train to Bratislava, Slovakia. We caught the tram to the station and then got on the train. The journey took about an hour and was fairly scenic. When we got there George showed us where to go in the old town before he had to head back to Vienna. We headed up to the castle first. It was under rennovation but we walked around the outside and it gave us great views of Bratislava - a surprisingly cosmopolitan city. Apparently you could also see Vienna and Budapest from there. Tony found [View Full Entry]

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A long day trip from Vienna to Ljubljana in Slovenia was the next step, with a side trip to Bratislava which is situated below the Carpathian Mountains and is the capital of Slovakia. Highlights of the old town tour were the Mirbach Palace where I happened upon an interesting art show as I was looking for a bathroom. From the castle which is being renovated 9as is most of this part of the country) there are three bridges that span the river from new to old) and then another cathedral St Martins. We went back to the Hotel in Vienna and [View Full Entry]

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DAY112 Today we are traveling by train to Bratislava, Slovakia. The ride was about 3 hours. Not a long ride and we arrive by midday. In the train station we talk with the information women but not any real help with accommodations and then there are some young women at a hostel information booth and we talk with them about the several hostel here in town. The one that we preferred did not have a twin share, so we hop the tram and travel into the old town to the information office there. Here we are lucky because the gentleman is [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up rather late considering the times we had been up in the post couple days... got done and showered etc and left the hostel to go to the station to find out if we could upgrade our train to Athens in a few days... unfortunately for us they only have 2nd class on the train  So after some back on forth we decided to go back to the hostel, chill a little and then go and see the sights that are Bratislava. Thank goodness I can say that the city is not the same everywhere and the [View Full Entry]

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Bratislava really doesn't seem to like me much. I write this from an internet café on the way back from Budapest. I had a really cool time, went there last night for a club night at a boat on the danube which a friend of mine was putting on with some other guys. While it lasted it was good, however we were caught by an absolutely ferocious windstorm which proved having the club on the boat too dangerous, so it was shut down at something like 1:30am, about 4 hours earlier than planned and just as everyone was starting to arrive. [View Full Entry]

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I traveled by train to Zakopane from Krakow, a mere 3 1/2 hours to go 120 km. Let me know if you cannot read this blog entry because I am using a Slovak keyboard and I have to use some letters in the wrong locations. I arrived in Zakopane in the Tatras region of the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains. Lonely Planet says that no one stays in hotels because there are some many private rooms available - they will meet you as the train arrives. And they did meet us, but walked right by me. I approached a group [View Full Entry]

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Slept in a bit this morning, all the way until 8am! The noise from the street was a little much, so I got up, showered (hogged the double shower bathroom!) and got ready. I took my time, eating breakfast, surfing the net, and then around 10:30 I decided to "check out" and leave my packed bags at the hostel so I could go to the Jewish Synagogue and do some souvenir shopping. Walked to the Jewish Synagogue in the immense heat and took a few pictures. For the oldest synagogue in Europe (I believe that's what they claim) it wasn't THAT [View Full Entry]

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