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.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Getting off the train in Slovakia we are greeted by Michal Rajcan, one of my friends from UNR who is a native of Slovakia. It was nice to see yet again another familiar face so far away from home. He picked us up and we whisked into town where we had a fantastic meal near the Danube River.  I enjoyed some amazing food and one of the first dark beers I had seen in Europe. It was really good, almost “Amazing”, one could  say. From there we went walking around the old town of Bratislava at night. It was beautiful, they have very pretty buildings and a lot of colorful lights on some of them.

Apparently Bratislava, because of their cheap beer prices sees a lot of Brittish tourists who come for the weekend or their “Holiday” and stays a night or two, get trashed and wander around the streets at night being very disorderly and somewhat rude. I saw a few of them while I was there doing all of the above it was interesting to be told about it, and then seeing it a few minutes later.

Bratislava is quite interesting, they have several old communist style buildings around, many renovated old buildings, and 4 funny statues.There is one of just a guy standing “presenting” a building, another of a man leaning over a bench in the middle of town, another of “man at work” where a guy is coming up from the man hole in the ground, and one called Paparazi, where a guy is creeping around a corner, wearing a trenchcoat, hat and taking a picture of someone.

Man at Work

That evening we headed to an office building where we were sleeping for the night. Yeah, staying in an office building. At first I was a bit confused, but Michals mom works for the govt and they have an arrangement where people coming from one town to another can stay in these buildings, it was nice to sleep someplace for free

In the morning we went to the old castle in Devin. It was very old and crumbling which made it even cooler. On the way up to the castle there was an area that had very old and traditional Slovakian middle aged “stuff” one girl was dressed in animal skins, there were stocks, a small area for chickens, and one for sheep, and my personal favorite, chain mail and swords! Mike and I of course needed to try it on and take pictures.

Mike

Along the way up the castle Mike was trying his hand at being a tourguide, telling us how advanced the early Slovakians were

After Devin, we went back to the main town of Bratislava and saw the castle on the hill. It was very pretty, unfortunately it was under construction/ renovation and the entie place was covered up. But from up on the top we could see Austria on the other side of the river, all of Bratislava including their UFO bridge. We walked down to one of their biggest cathedrals and again through old town to see it by day. When passing souviner shops our friendly tourguide, Mike would ask “Want some crap?” Avoiding the crap, we hustled through Bratislava and headed to Banska Bystrica, his home town in the middle of Slovakia.

UFO Bridge

Along the drive we stopped at a small place which had traditional Slovakian food, Holy Cow it was soo Good! Sauerkraut Soup, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Potatoes, Chicken, and this drink called Kofla, it is a soda that tastes like Licorice, the food made me very happy.

Upside down building

Ljubljana, Slovenia

After exploring Rab for a few hours we headed back to Rijeka, and not long after arriving, we hoped on a train for Ljubljana, Slovenia. We got in to Slovenia very late, the town was fairly quiet until we reached the university. Once we were near others our age, we certainly saw people out and about late at night. Our hostel was nearby the campus, it was reasonably priced and included a breakfast. I was very excited about getting breakfast also, the rooms were surprisingly nice. That night it rained a lot, and the lightning was relientless, the sky would light up far more than I had ever seen in the Western U.S.

In the morning we set out to see as much of the capital as we could in the few hours we had to see it. Ljubljana is very pretty, the old town square is very nice and the buildings and architecture are gorgeous. They have an old castle on the hill, which we saw from afar, a bridge across the river in the center of town which is actually three bridges, ornate statues and fountains. It was a very pretty capital, which we saw in only a few hours, save the castle. We headed to the train station to go to Bratislava, Slovakia