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Blogs from Slovakia, Europe - page 7
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May 17th 2011
So I arrived in Vienna last Saturday completely exhausted after getting only a couple of hours of sleep at the airport in Turkey. Unfortunately, so was Adam, as he had to get up pretty early to meet me downtown at 8am. Adam is finishing his MBA in Vienna, and was able to score me a free night’s accommodation by sneaking me onto the extra mattress on the floor of his dorm room. He let me have an hour nap before he smacked me on the head and told me to get up. It was a beautiful sunny day in Vienna and we walked around the city centre, got some gelato, and went to the famous Opera House to find out what was playing. No opera that night, but we could get ballet tickets for about $12 ... read more
Bratislava & Vienna - the world's two closest capital cities
Published: May 16th 2011Europe » Slovakia » Bratislava Region » Bratislava » Old Town
May 13th 2011
I took the trip to Bratislava with my Canadian friends hoping to watch the semi finals of the world hockey championships. That plan went down in flames when the Russians knocked out the Canadians in the quarter finals as we arrived on the Thursday night. That ensures that we hit up the pubs for them to console the fact that we won't be going to the hockey. The night life in Bratislava is buzzing. Many stag parties and many hockey fans chant on the streets and we find a sports bar to sit outside on the balmy evening where topless barmaids serve Russian groups vodka. The Russians all wear the oversized hockey shirts that still don't cover up their massive guys and man boobs that outsize the barmaids. We enjoy plenty of cheap pints and forget ... read more
April 29th 2011
I forgot to mention yesterday that this is now my 4th country of my trip. OK. Bratislava. My first (and final) day in the city. Very very beautiful. I decided to go on a free walking tour of the city along with a couple of Aussies from my dorm. All very interesting. The castle perched up on the hill is spectacular. However, my favourite building would have to be the Blue Church. It rises completely incongruously out of a run down area of Bratislava like something out of a fairy tale. Very beautiful. Tonight I´m going to go out and watch the Slovakia vs Slovenia Ice hockey game on TV in one of the numerous bars in the city that are showing it. Germany have already beaten Russia today. Tomorrow morning I get a hydrofoil down ... read more
April 28th 2011
OK. Plzen was a waste of time. City was a dump, hostel was crap and it took me 3 and a half hours to get back to Prague instead of the 2 it should have taken. No idea why, an explanation was given...in Czech unsurprisingly, which also unsurprisingly I didn´t understand a word of. Ah well. The other problem with the train delays was that it meant that I missed my 1 o´clock coach to Bratislava. I managed to get on to the 3 o´clock instead. This meant that I got into Bratislava at about quarter past 7. I got to the Presidential Palace via the directions from their website which I´d written down. I then had to ring them to ask where they were. I thought I understood what he said, walked off in the ... read more
A sensitive mountain nature
Published: April 4th 2011Europe » Slovakia » Presov Region » High Tatras » Strbské Pleso
April 3rd 2011
One little nugget of comedy from that horrible day at Demänovská Dolina last summer has been itching ever since, which was during my conversation on the train with the hung over Leeds United fans who had come to see Leeds play Košice, when I told them "I really want to go climb a mountain today", to which one of them gestured listlessly towards the perennially majestic backdrop of the High Tatras and replied "there's enough o' them round 'ere". I had never been to the High Tatras, with no real reason or motivation to go as well as the constant fear-mongering of locals in Prague about people dying there. Last weekend, I suddenly had a realisation that my life was the most boring thing ever, spending all day on a couch teaching people (or waiting for ... read more
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February 12th 2011
Being by myself, travelling through eastern europe in the middle of winter, I had worried about how easy it would be to meet people. So I thought of using couchsurfing as a way to meet locals. Kosice was my first attempt. Couchsurfing is an organisation that explains itself as being a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. So you send of couch surfing requests to peope who have their profiles on the couchsurfing website and then basically if they have time and like the look of your profile, they accept and you have a place to stay. My first host was an English teacher in Kosice. I arranged to meet her at an internet cafe after she had finished work and spent most of the day beforehand walking around ... read more
February 11th 2011
Spiš castle is an impressive sight to behold. It dwarfs the town at its doorstep and it's easy to see why its a UNESCO world heritage sight. We got out of the bus from Levoca and made our way from the small town called Spišske Podhradie to Spiš castle. On the way there we were the focus of attention for 3 gypsy kids who followed us begging for about 15 minutes to half an hour. It was quite theatrical, saw feigned tears, competitive begging with a wide range of strategies used and ended up in everyone singing now you know your ABC. After which of course it was back to business, until an eardrum spltting whistle came from somewhere and saw the kids dissapear in the blink of an eye. We then contiuned to the top ... read more
February 10th 2011
It was freezing the day that we found ourselves in Levoca. I think it was the day when the voices of those who had said, 'what, your travelling through Europe in the middle of winter - your crazy' reverberated through my head. However, the numb cheeks, dry mouth and chilled bones were all worth the while. My one regret though, was that I couldn't convince my partner in crime to walk up the hill to the massive church that overlooks the town. Although having said that, I was quite happy to jump on the first heated bus that came by...... read more
February 9th 2011
After a 6 hour delay due to a fatal car accident, we finally arrived at our point of destination, Poprad. We spent the next three days there exploring the mountainous region around Poprad. Having been raised next to the beach, mountains are not my forte, which would explain why I climbed a mountain with a pair of running shoes, that and stupidity. But it made for a lot of fun, including several turns and tumbles. The height of my stupidity was where I tried to walk across an extremely steep ski slope. I made it to the middle of it and started to think that I could reach the track on the other side when my legs decided to take on a life of their own and I found myself hurtling down the ski slope on ... read more
January 11th 2011
...sobota 8.januar, vstala som pevne rozhodnuta, ze dnes je ten den. Treba si rozlozit veci na zem, aby som videla, co vsetko chcem napratat do kufra a potom to vsetko zbalit. Predstava fajn, realita uplne ina. Klasika – cela ja. V sobotu som zvladla akurat tak statie pred skrinou a vylozenie veci tak na 80%. To som este netusila, ze v nedelu sa dostanem do stresu vdaka mojej rodinke. Tak som pekne krasne v nedelu vecer pobalila veci do kufra a bolo. Zbalene. Mozem cestovat.... read more
