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Published: June 23rd 2009
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Mihalovce
The scene of the forgotten bag drama involving a quick sprint, a very nice lady and lots of resolutions Starting to wonder whether this plan to post on each country makes sense but I will try to keep it up for a bit longer.
So what do we know about Slovakia? There was one of those filler programs on TV program that focused on British people who bought houses in Slovakia. It basically showed a beautiful country that had cheap houses and an easy atmosphere. Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution when the Communist regime was removed and elections were fought by more than one party. Slovakia supplied a couple of Prime Ministers at least for the former 'joint country. Alexander Dubcek was the one who was probably the most famous. He took a view that wasn't supported by the USSR at the time and the Soviets sent in the troops. Dubcek was set to become the President of the new Slovak Republic but was killed in a car crash prior to being able to take on that election. Some still see this as very suspicious.
We had four days and nights before travelling to Frankfurt to deliver our fellow travellers to the airport. We decided to take a run from Tokaj in
Old Castle
There are only 300 castles in Slovakia that are cared for. There are many, many more. Hungary across the border and around the eastern side of Slovakia - or Slovenska as the locals call it - find a place to stay somewhere in the region of the high Tatras and then head on to Bratislava for a day or so.
And just a thought. Why do we call Slovenska Slovakia, Nihon Japan, Magyagorsza Hungary, Deutchland Germany etc, etc? Is it just an English language thing? Are the names selected because they are easier or what? Don't the people of a country have the right to determine what their country is called by others?
So anyway we headed around the east and up towards the Tatras. The mountain range is called the biggest little mountain range in the world. It isn't extensive but it is high. There are very few foothills along most of the range. You basically roll along the plain, through some pretty gentle undulations and there you are with the Tatras in front of you. They are also high mountains on any scale with the tallest peak up over 2,200 meters.
We ended up in what today is a relatively small town called Levoca. It wasn't always small compared to its
Levoca
The main square. You can't have too many churches neighbours nor insignificant. Levoca was a center of government and very much a center of trade in days past.
You find that around this country, everything has a past. The Slovaks, for instance, were part of the waves of Slavic migration or invasion or gradual takeover that occurred during the 6th century AD. The occupiers of this particular country prior to the Slavs were the Celts. The Romans played a role a little earlier and clearly the Celts moved the previous occupiers out when they moved in some centuries earlier.
Levoca had 3 museums. We decided that one would just about do us but they were ready for that basically ignorant attitude by charging E 3.50 per head whether you go to one or all three. We visited all three. They were all situated around the central square of the old part of the city, as was our hotel - the U Leva - which was very nice indeed, if a little expensive. The first museum had to do with a bloke named Master Paul who was a master carver. He spent most of his time, I suspect, carving images of various religious figures. Master Paul was very
Levoca
Town hall good at his craft. He was able to carve faces and features with excellent expression. He did have one minor hang up though, all of his carvings were depicted with prominent round chins. All bright and shiny. All women had drooping eyelids. Not sure why but I looked a little harder at the Slovak women around and couldn't see any evidence that the trait has continued.
Another museum - 2 were well worthwhile and the 3rd perhaps not - in addition to the standard and good quality museum material had an excellent exhibition on coffee drinking along with all of the paraphernalia you might use, and have used, to consume the stuff.
It started to rain on the day in Levoca and this continued. We contented ourselves by eating in as many different restaurants as we could, wandering around until we became to cold and then scuttling back to our nice hotel room to warm up.
Walking, hiking, mountain biking and climbing is what you do in the High Tatras. There are plenty of places that looked like they might be good places to go but starting out in the rain requires grit or stupidity that we
Down the Street
Looking down from Levoca to the plains don't have at the moment. We drove up into the mountains a little and followed a road that ran along for a while.
The motorway took us nicely into Bratislava through a countryside that is now becoming more or less normal - rolling green hills, productive agricultural land and picturesque villages. Although, we did come across a dirty great pulp mill and, very interestingly, trout fishers in the river downstream. It was obviously a good place to fish. Perhaps this was a very clean mill, perhaps the fishers were ignorant or perhaps there is another explanation.
A pension on the outskirts of Bratislava had been selected by the selection committee appointed for the task. The aim was to find one that met our various criteria, importantly including the need for parking. On the way there Tony devised a test or two for Tomtom. One involved taking the 'wrong' fork in the road but Tomtom very quickly devised a route to get us back carting us through the backs of some flats, down a lane that may have been used sometime in the last century and required a very hard right turn down a hill. When she said 'TURN
Roof
The person who picked these photos loves this sort of thing RIGHT NOW!' it sounded like she meant it this time.
Devin Castle is just up the road from our pension. This castle was actually destroyed by Napoleon in 1809 and is being preserved as a ruin. Nevertheless, they have provided an interesting display along with some wel reconstructed bits. The archaelogical exhibition was worh a good look. It always concerns me that we only really get to remember those civilisations that build things that aren't flattened by the 'incomers'. At Devin Castle they have moved down through the strata and have found evidence of Slavs, Romans, Celts along with earlier groups who occupied the site back many more centuries than are generally talked about.
Bratislava has an old city that you can visit but it is lacking in parking. We found some in a shopping mall on the other side of the Danube - or rather Tomtom found it after being told where it might be. On this trip, when Itook the wrong turn on one of the expressways and looked like we were on our way to Austria, she was definitely very toey and quite definite about us getting back on the right road.
We spent
And This
Slovakia has a person in their Transport Dept who has an artistic flair. The barriers are all different and bright colours. Should happen everywhere a few hours having a look around the old city and I have to say in fairness that this was long enough. It is a nice enough old city but there is not much of it and, frankly, after you have seen a few they start to get pretty samey. You also get more discriminating. Bratislava impresses as a city that would be pretty easy to live in. Not a great deal of value to tourists but certainly OK for a stop off for a day or two.
We head off to Frankfurt tomorrow. Long drive through Austria - where we have to pay a vignette for the privelege - and on through Germany. We will probably only be in a Germany for a couple of nights and then the two of us will continue after saying goodbye to our travelling companions for the last 4 months.
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slowfeet2
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trees in the mist
I seem to remember that the trees in the mist are not a 'forest in the mist' because of a big storm that went through the High Tatras a few years ago. And we (Barnes and I) braved the cold and wet to get photos of the effects while the driver/author stayed warm.