Slovakia and Budapest

Poprad - Levoca - Zavolen - Korytarky - Banska Bystrica - Kosice - Budapest (Hungary) - Eztergom (Hungary) - Sturovo - Bratislava

Dobre den!

In Vienna at the moment. I can't believe I’ve been travelling for a year already (left 6th September last year), time has really flown by, and I’ve seen and learnt (and eaten/drunk) so much! Not long before I head back home though, in less that 2 months....

Slovakia. A beautiful country, it doesn't matter which city or town you are in, you can always see some mountain or hill in the distance. Coming from Poland through the high tatra mountains of Slovakia was a highlight, with enormous mountain peaks and sheer cliff faces amongst dark green forests. Slovakian people however don't really pay heed to it, they are so used to seeing and living in a location where us folks would pay lots of money to "get away from it all" on holidays.

Poprad, a small industrial town with nice enough town square, was an overnight stop to catch up on sleep lost in Poland, and also a good place to do a day trip to Levoca, a beautiful walled town with a pretty renaissance town square, also a cage of shame where criminals would be locked up and be made fun of in the middle of the square. Was tempted to go in but it was locked.

Next day I went to Zvolen to meet up with Jana, (my Slovakian ex-girlfriend from when I was in UK). We were well behaved this time for once, and remained just friends. Anyway, she took me to her home to meet her parents (always a scary experience), but her non-English speaking parents took quite a liking with me, in fact her mum even asked Jana to marry me! Boze Boze!*

Anyway for the next three days I learnt a lot of Slovak and was fed with vast amounts of traditional Slovakian countryside food (as Jana actually lives in a small country village in the middle of nowhere called Korytarky, surrounded by - yes you guessed it - hills and mountains!) her mum prepared (as she is a cook). Amongst the many things tried I liked halusky (small potato dumplings with soft cheese and bacon bits), and my favourite, harula, which is pretty much like a large savory hash brown. Dobru Chut!**

Went to Banska Bystrica, got a haircut for 1 euro by psycho Slovak woman, also saw a Slovakian folk dance performance. I love watching folk dancing, the women dancing around with handkerchiefs, the men with sticks they would swap and jump over etc, the Slovakian hat swapping dance is funny and fantastic! The women would occasionally scream/yelp in high-pitched Xena warrior princess like fashion while dancing, weird.

Jana took me to a disco in Zavolen called ";Culture Forum of Fun", apparently the second best disco in Slovakia, people would come from all over Slovakia to go there. It was pretty cool, drinks were cheap (for me anyway), and I pretty much danced all night, before leaving Jana and friends to go to Kosice.

Kosice is a beautiful peaceful town and one of my favourite chill out towns. Beautiful architecture of many styles with Hungarian influences, a huge opera hall, and a tacky but lovely musical fountain dancing to 80's music (really grooves to Mariah Carey's "Endless Love")! Looks more beautiful at night with the coloured lights also changing colour to the music.

Went into Hungary next to visit Budapest, which is pretty much my favourite city in Europe (along with Berlin). A huge beautiful city, actually two cities - Buda and Pest - joined by bridges. Buda the affluent leafy hilly (pot smoking) city with castle, caves and Turkish thermal baths; Pest the working traffic filled city with the enormous spiky parliament building, more thermal baths, parks and another old castle surrounded by a moat, quite a romantic place I imagine especially in winter when the area in front becomes an ice skating rink and the castle turrets are covered with snow...

Spent a good day with people at hostel in the thermal baths, the hot greenish mineral laden water so relaxing, the baths I went to also had some outdoor pools, one featuring a whirlpool which was fun doing superman impressions in!

Tried Hungarian goulash. Spicy, hot, saucy. yum. (just like the women you might say?)

Wasn't fortunate enough to witness good Budapest nightlife. We were trying to find this squat bar/club (semi illegal bars owned by people who squat in abandoned buildings and transform them to night spots). Unfortunately because they are semi illegal they are hard to find, all we had was a general area and that it had a "red door". Of course we ignorant tourists never found it!

Left Budapest (but I will be back some day!!!) and went to Bratislava, crossing the border on a bridge by foot from Eztergom (which has the largest church in Hungary - it's huge!) and Sturovo, a small town on the other side of the Danube river. (You save 50% if you go to the border towns and cross by foot than get trains/buses that crosses countries).

Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, sometimes referred to as "little Vienna". Quite small for a capital, feels more like a big town, filled with interesting metal sculptures, old renaissance buildings and, according to fellow travellers and confirmed with my eyes, the largest number of beautiful girls found in any given town/city! Velmi pecny***

Stayed a little longer in Bratislava for the Coronation Ceremony of some Queen or something. Whatever it was it was lots of fun watching comedy acts, historic/folk dances, fire breathers/twirlers/jugglers, sword/weapon/gun fights, and the best part, an actual jousting competition where "knights" would charge at each other with blunted lances to knock the other of their horses! Unreal! Unfortunately no "We Will Rock You" crowd singing/thumping AKA "A Knights Tale" (I make too many references to movies in these emails).

Well, back in Western Europe now, where everything is expensive and I have to live on eating kebabs and other cheap junk food to stay under budget...

Dovedenia,
James

*Slovak for "oh my god!"

** Slovak for "Good Appetite"

***Slovak for "Very pretty"