Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

Getting in to Mikes home town, we stopped at his moms house to meet her and his brother, we sat for a while and had some nice conversations over some homemade cake. Later that evening we went out with Mike, his brother and a few of their friends to a local pub, where we got to try some of the local brew and such. After a very long night of hanging out and dancing at an underground club, which was very cool on the inside, it was brick and looked like an old celar, we woke up early in the morning and headed for the “Low Tatras” mountains to hike to the top of one of the peaks.

I of course slept on the car ride to the trail head. But when I got out I was very impressed with the wilderness of Slovakia. When we got to a certain point on the hike, Mike told me that there was a cabin/resturant at the top of the mountain that has to haul everything up on foot, they had a stack of logs and if you carry one up to the top they give you a FREE cup of tea, me being one who enjoys free things, grabbed one of the logs and headed up the mountain.

Me and my log…

Once at the top I got my free tea and a pancake thing it was really good! We continued up to the very top and took pictures next to the Slovak cross. We headed down a different way than we came up and we ended up going down a very very steep ski run. It is much easier when there is  snow.

My free Tea

Amazing pancake thing

Trying to do a hand stand on the top of a mountain

After coming down we headed to a small village where Mikes dad lives, he had made goulash and invited us to eat with him. It was really great, eating homemade goulash in an old house in a small village in Slovakia. The cabinets were real wood, they had a real wood stove, and all the things of that nature that are uniquely “small village” .

The next morning we got up early and headed out for Poland.

Brasov, Romania

Transylvania, Count Dracula, Castles, Mountains, Rivers, Black Church, Defense Garrisons around the city  who could ask for more?

Arriving at the Brasov train station late in the afternoon our couch surfers were kind enough to meet us at the train station and immediately took us around the ciry showing us some of the sights of Brasov, they drove us up a big mountain road to where we could see all of the old town the new part of the city, and of course the “Hollywood style” Brasov sign adorning one of the high peaks in the area.  They also took us to the white tower and explained a lot of the history of the city after driving around we went to the  grocery store and headed back to their flat. Similia was nice enough to make us a traditional Romanian meal consisting of “corn – mush” called Mamaliga. It was very tasty. Later we sat around their place drinking red wine with pepsi sharing stories and telling jokes, it was a great evening.

Early the next morning our hosts drove us to a castle a little ways away. It was absolutely breath taking. It was not Dracula’s castle, but it was still amazing. We took a tour of the inside and I was stunned with how ornate everything was. The woodwork and carvings on the interior and attention to detail was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately they charged an arm and a leg to take pictures inside, so I refrained.

After spending a beautiful day at the castle we explored the old town, walked all around and ate an amazing pizza. The old town is beautiful, we even visited the narrowest street in Europe.

Black Church

After exploring we headed to the train station to head to Beograd, turns out the internet site we were using to check train schedules was bad (interrail), and we ended up making some changes to our itinerary and headed for Budapest, Hungary after waiting a few hours in the station.

So while we were in Brasov, our couch surfers did a wonderful job explaining who Dracula was, people called him Vlad the impaler, because he had been known to stab people in the back with a wooden stake, making sure he did not sever any nerves causing his victims to die a slow and painful death after a few days. He tried to take over the town of Brasov, by holding the son of  the ruling judge  hostage, saying that if they did not give him the town, that he would impale his son. Turns out that they did not give him the city and his son was found in the foothills of Brasov with a large pole going through his body, entering through his butt and coming out his shoulder somewhere. It took him several days to die. Because of these heinous acts they started calling him Dracula, which has many meanings, Son of Dragon, Satan, Evil etc… He has a castle someplace in Romania in the Transylvania region.

I’m Alive!

After venomous Snakes, spiders, falling rocks jungle creatures, ancient burial grounds, haunted buildings, ancient castle ruins, razor sharp rocks, open tombs, windy narrow mountainous village roads on a bike, and blood I am happy I am alive!

Today I rode a bike across the island to the other side. I took one of the wrong roads, which ended up being a curvy road winding up through a mountainous village. On the other side of the island my destination were the castle ruins, it was a beautiful old ruins area of a once gigantic castle and compound.

So, after exploring the castle, I headed to an old abandon hotel construction site, rumor has it, that it was built on an ancient burial ground, workers started loosing their lives quite frequently. Because of this no one wanted to work there and finish building the site became empty. Now it is said to be haunted Walking through it was very freaky, being in an unfinished hotel that is haunted.

It reminds me a bit of the cyanide mill in Virginia City, NV

Once it got too dark in the building I decided to go outside, I started taking a road that turned into a path in the Jungle, I kept going and I saw these beautiful butterflies, 4 times as big as the ones in the states.

I kept walking along realizing that I was in fact in a real Jungle, not a forest like I a used to. Unfortunately there are poisonous snakes, and spiders, with venom that not only immobilizes, but eats through flesh.

Continuing on my journey into this hazardous land I come across several tombs. Then I see one that is open, I decided to get a little closer so I could take pictures of it. However, I couldn’t get too close because there was a fairly big spider in the way. I decided I would jump off of a rock and land in the center of the area surrounding the tomb. I felt like Indiana Jones, I had a sling satchel, there was an ancient tomb whose door had been broken in to, I jumped over a spider but the area I was standing on collapsed out from under my feet. I landed safely in the middle and tried to take a few more pictures before the bugs in the area devoured me.

After that little adventure, I headed back down toward the castle remains, it was beautiful, you could see from one side of the island to another, and the views of the Pacific were astounding.I next headed to a well for the castle…

After getting back to the gate house where I left the bike, I ate my sandwich and took advantage of the fact that everywhere in Japan has a vending machine, I had some Pocari Sweat, which is like an electrolyte replenishment drink, similar to Gatorade but different at dinner.

I then rode my bike back to Rons house, I was traveling at about 30 mph going down a steep hill. When I arrived, I left almost immediately with some of their friends to go rock climbing, and bouldering. We went to an island and off the coast we started to climb on some of the razor sharp rock/coral. One of the guys I was with was climbing upside down and the rock he was holding on to came out and hit the other guy in the head, blood everywhere.

This was an amazingly gorgeous place to go climb around at.

The guys I was with both climbed out on this overhang as far as they could and then decided that a nice dip in the ocean would suit them best…

Here is a picture of me trying to boulder around this rock.

After a day of Jungles, Ancient places, and rock climbing, we saw Terminator on the military base, fairly good movie.

But after all of that I am happy to be done with my 20 mile bike ride, and I am happy to be alive!