Blogs from Orava, Zilina Region, Slovakia, Europe

Started the morning by heading out to Pustý Hrad ("deserted castle") just outside Zvolen this a.m. Ruins of a castle that's been around since Roman times. The catch? An uphill climb. A change in elevation of more than 200 m (yeah, I know that's not that huge, but it's well bigger than anything we've got in Edmonton). It was a hike. And I mean a real hike. If we'd managed to stick to the path it probably wouldn't have been such a hike, but at some point we ended up losing it and more or less scrambling up the hill until we found it again. It was pretty fun, actually. If I ever come back here, I may have to try some more hiking and general outdoorsy-ness. Totally worth the climb (which took about 35 minutes ... read more

Eventually found someone to pay for the night in the campground - we are certainly still in the low season, and headed down the Orava valley. First stop was the village of Podbiel with little wooden houses. Near here we say a stork nesting on a special pole. Elsewhere we have see stork nests on the top of powerpoles! There was a school nearby and in the window amongst the other pictures were pictures of the stork. We drove on heading for Orava Castle. First glimpse is of a knife thin spike of rock with the castle on top. This was by far and away the most castle like of the places we had visited. The whole castle complex was in levels up the rock - with various defensive points along the way, three gates, two ... read more

30.7. - 2.8.2005 English summary bellow vlastne sme povodne chceli ist bajkovat na Ukrajinu, ale nakoniec sa rozhodli neist tam lebo je to daleko, tamojsie hory su na bicykel vysoke a este stale mame v pamati sest-hodinove cakanie na hranici z minuleho roku.. takze sme sa rozhodli ist na styri dni na Oravu a dobre sme spravili.. den 1 v piatok sme mali skvelu jazdu smerom na Oravu (so stoparkou ktoru sme vylozili v Rajci).. sranda prisla ked sme spolu na jednej luke pri zapade slnka aplikovali tabacik chytracik a neskor sa este zastavili v Sutovskom jazere kde sme odficali na miestnych chlapcoch ktori postavali pri svojich vytunovanych autach a porovnavali si subwoofery.. a tak zmohnuti okolnostami sme neskoro vecer chodili autom okolo oravskej priehrady a skusali po tme hladat nejaky flek na prespatie.. dlho sa ... read more