Blogs from Slovakia, Europe - page 42

Groeten uit een behoorlijk warm Bardejov in het oosten van Slowakije! Als alles een beetje lukt ga ik morgen naar Oekraine, dus dit is de laatste dag in dit land. Zaterdag in Banska Stiavnica van alles gezien, o.a. het New Castle (op zich niet heel boeiend maar wel uitzicht over de stad) en een mijnbouwmuseum waarbij ik met een groep onder de grond door de gangen ben gelopen (wederom helmpje op!) en allerlei werktuigen heb gezien. Daarna een uitgebreide wandeling door de heuvels en bossen en velden gemaakt, langs een meertje, naar een uitkijkpunt op 939 meter met mooie uitzichten. Nadat ik schone kleren had aangetrokken 's avonds pizza gegeten. De dag erna een mooie tocht per trein gemaakt, door de heuvels in het midden van het land, van Zvolen naar Kosice. Tunnels en bruggen en ... read more

On Friday, we drove to Kosice to attend the graduation of Sylvia's cousin Ka. She has been studying in vet school for the last six years at a bilingual Slovak/English program. The graduation was held in the town theatre which has been very well restored. The graduation ceremony was rather short, but it might have been half as long if everything was not repeated in English. It is quite common for flowers to be given to graduates (and on just about every other imaginable occasion in Slovakia), so most everyone in the theatre held flowers. After the ceremony we met outside for pictures and then drove to nearby Moldava for a nice lunch and party. The following evening was the large graduation party for both Ka and Sylvia, since she didn't really have a large family ... read more

Yes it finally happened, we pre-booked our accomodation in Bratislava in university housing that was being rented out for the summer to tourists. We thought it would be an experience and it was really cheap with 7 euros a night getting us our own room. We arrived at the accomodation and the building was massive, there was probably well over 2000 rooms and the rooms were really nice with new bathrooms and recently remodelled rooms. The builing however was a throwback to soviet times, it was like something out of a movie and we thought it was extremely funny. We were waiting for someone to burst into the room and put us on a train to the Gulag in Siberia for some hard labour. Bratislava as a city is a really nice place however as far ... read more

Today we packed up, got some cold cuts, cheese and bread from Billa Supermarket and took a trolley to the station. But OF COURSE with our luck in matters of public transportation, the train is late by 90 minutes (even though the next train is 83 minutes after this one but that one is late too) and changed platforms. Changing platforms is not all that bad IF you know they changed the platforms. We got there just in time to catch the train to the capital of Slovakia. Bratislava Now I'm in the hotel writing up all the entries for the past few days and I am starving. off to get some food... read more

We arrived in Bratislava late enough from Vienna. The train station was a lot smaller then the others we had been to. The only perceptions I had of the place, were the ever so dark and gloomy ones, I got from watching the film "Hostel"! In the film the director Tarrentino perceives the place to be a dangerous city in which the locals kill off any tourists one by one. Within a few hours though of being here we realised the city was far from anything like this. We stayed in the "Patio Hostel", fairly central and even though it was quite possibly the slowest check in I've ever bee through, I had no major complaints. OH WAIT except for being awoken on the last day by about twenty builders outside our window. They were hammering ... read more