Blogs from Slovakia, Europe - page 50

We headed to the village of Terchova in the Mala Fatra hills to catch a Slovak folk festival. Folk tradition and music is very much alive in Slovakia and people seem to be very keen to keep it alive. In the more rural villages there are a lot of farmers living off the land in quite a simple way. There are a number of communities around who are purposely trying to live and farm as the generations before them did. This is quite a contrast to the flash cars and shopping centres we have seen in the bigger towns. Wildlife In the guesthouse we stayed we were chatting to one of the locals, Vlado, over a glass of wine. Managed to talk to him in German for about 2 hours allbeit with a lot of ... read more

url='/Videos/3274.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3274.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Snow Hiking The first day we did a short hike, 3 hours! up to a waterfall which was a bit disapointing but the hike was nice. The tourist info lady didnt warn us that we´d be hiking through snow and dara was not surprisingly a bit chilly in his shorts. The seccond day we decided to do a long hike (5 hours up and 3 down). We saw 3 pretty waterfalls. Most of the hike was again through snow, the last 2 hours was challanging, Snow was deep and a very steep uphill. When we got to the top everyone was having a beer, so were obliged to reward ourselves with one too! Early Beers Most mornings as we´re having our bowl of cereal we´ve seen people sitting in cafes/bars having beers. Today was ... read more

Bratislava Europe » Slovakia » Bratislava By Kurt DiApril 5th 2007Kurt & Di We visited Bratislava over the Easter long weekend, and had the first sunshine that we'd had in over a month - and we soaked it up! We stayed in a little apartment in the Old Town that we rented off a young couple. They picked us up from the airport on a Friday night at after 11pm, which was so nice of them. The apartment was in a perfect location in the middle of the Old Town. We spent the weekend wandering around, eating a stack, and taking advantage of the cheap beer and wine. Highlights were sitting in the sun at the Castle, which overlooked the whole town - fantastic v... read more

Tuesday February 27. Left Komano and followed the north bank of the Danube for about 50 kms before crossing the river at a Hungarian town with a very striking castle on a hill overlooking the river. Unfortunnately I didn't write down the name in my jounal. I must look it up. It is a sad fact that one day does so often merge into the next. I followed the bend of the Danube until I reached the suburbs and the traffic. The speed and aggression were unnerving. I saw a terrible accident with a red family car reduced to the size of a domestic fridge (see photograph) underneath a rather small lorry. I stayed the next two nights at the Papillon Hotel on the Buda side of the city, a very nice hotel on a steep ... read more

The Austrian Train system (called OBB) has a deal going through the month of March, were students can by train tickets to travel on Saturdays. You can go anywhere in the country all day long for only 11 euro. This is a great deal, and we more than utilized our 11 euro, as we were on almost 10 different trains on Saturday! While Austria is very beautiful, it also is part of the dark history along with Germany during the Second World War, as it was a part of Hitlers government. In the town of Mauthausen, in Upper Austria near Linz, the concentration camp was built in order to imprison not only Jewish communities, but also people who went against governments rule. Many people from Mauthausen came from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and areas in Austria. More ... read more