Just after Christmas I travelled to a village called Podmanina near Povazska Bystrica, which isn't far from Trencin or Zilina. Since the whole country has beautiful nature this place is no exception. The mountains might not reach as high as the Tatras there, but the rock formations and beech forests more than make up for it. Sadly, there was no snow so I couldn't try cross-country skiing. The best way to travel in this region is lightly- take a train and go to tourist info to find privats or pensions for as cheap as 10 or 20 euros. Local grandma's will [View Full Entry]

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Do you ever find yourself stuck in a city where there is an eternal blanket of snow above you? Well, chances are good that these clouds are quite thin and all you need to do is hike up a mountain or hill for clear skies and warmer weather! This was the case when I travelled with Milka (my Couchsurfing friend) before Sylvester to some mountains west of Kosice, near Gelnica. We had a spectacular view of the Tatras and basked in the sun during our 16km hike. The day after we took the train to the national park Slovensky Kras [View Full Entry]

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Well i have spent the last day and a half in Bratislava, Slovakia. Was really looking forward to coming here - was caught up in the "Hostel" jive but really its just another European city with trams, trains and busy moving people. Vikki, got this morning free so am going to try to find that tower (did see one that looked similar yesterday when i was at the castle) Oh yes what European city doesnt have a castle. Has been snowing the last two days so not as cold which has been nice - not as cold here as it was [View Full Entry]

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Ok so I haven’t exactly kept up with the blog. You see, I’ve had so much work and then I had Christmas break. I just haven’t had time to write. Well, as for my travels, I went to Bratislava and Vienna, then spent a weekend in Amsterdam and then spent two weeks home in Puerto Rico. About a month ago I was on my way to the airport with my friends Anna and Patrick to board our early morning flight to Bratislava, capital and biggest city in Slovakia. Every person we told, even a girl that was actually from Bratislava, questioned [View Full Entry]

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The Argentian born Sicilian sitting next to me just said something about that, so I thought that'd be a fun title for today. So I left off in Prague. The 2nd, we went to Prague Castle and wandered around, despite that fact that it was absolutely freezing. The first thing we saw was the Lobowitz musuem which is a musuem about the Lobowitz family. They were a family of princes in Prague for about 6 centuries and incredibly rich and powerful. Their musuem was interesting, just because they had Beethoven's original manuscripts for his 4th and 5th symphonies because one of [View Full Entry]

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Typical, 15 minutes outside Prague it was white all the way to Bratislava/Vienna. Painless bus trip and apart from the ugly nylon coats and large shoulder padded 80's coats that the people wear Bratislava was lovely. The historical centre is less preserved than Prague but that was actually kind of nice. [View Full Entry]

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Navnadil Vas titulok na pikantne citanie? ;-) V tom pripade sa uz rovno na zaciatku priznavam, ze nejde o nikaju pikanteriu ale len o dobre odkukany marketingovy tah slovenskeho bulvaru, pri ktorom nazov citatela navnadi na velke tajomstva a samotny clanok mu ukaze, ze sice titulok nebol uplne klamstvo, ale napriek tomu je to cele inak... Nalejme si teda cisteho vina... do odchodu ostava okolo 38 hodin a ja svoju velku cestu naozaj zacinam v posteli... s horuckou... nie vsak cestovnou ako by sa ocakavalo, ale so standardnou pliagou zimnych dni, od ktorej boli hlava a (ako zvykol hovorit moj brat [View Full Entry]

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Touched down at the Airport, cleared immigrations and collected baggage in a 15-minute period. Flight was full so there was a small crowd gathering near the luggage belts. No problems with baggages though, prompt and efficient. Asked the money changer for recommendations for getting to Bratislava and she commented that it would be good to take the bus instead, a sentiment echoed by the tourist information counter (they speak English). So off we went just outside of the terminal and waited for the 11.30 PostBus service which runs a daily roundtrip from Vienna to Bratislava Bus Station. Bus arrived punctually. Indeed, [View Full Entry]

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So I left Nottingham on a RyanAir flight to Bratislava. I had exhausted myself through nerves, but couldn't sleep on the plane. I sat next to this really cute little girl, but I couldn't understand a word she said. There were really low clouds, but once the plane got above them the stars and moon were beautiful. Looking down, I could see the lights from the ground below reflecting on the clouds. Then they turned on the cabin lights and ruined it all. Once in Bratislava, customs was really quick - they looked at my passport and waved me through. None [View Full Entry]

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Hi team Hope everyone back home is going well. I am fine thanks for asking. Me and Cat are now in Bratislava which is a lot better then what I was expecting. We have some time to fill in before Paris so though we would visit Slovakia. When we got here the weather was really nice (a sweltering 11 outside). Had a walk around the city which is really old and not touristy at all. Visited the castle which has an awesome view of the city. On every street there is a kebab stand. Think that I will turn into a [View Full Entry]

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