Leg 08 - Slovakia

Writing this blog in the early hours of the morning; I am okay at about 6 hrs sleep, tho’ someone I know is more comfortable going beyond 9. Mind you I slumped over the keyboard at 11 last night when we got in and before (sic) sleeping. I try to be up so that the keyboard sounds are far enough away to not wake. One of the best gadgets I brought is a USB powered plug-in lamp that illuminates the keyboard – brill.

So, where are we ... one of the Bs, and which country will that be then. It’s a struggle not to insult the hotel staff by saying what a nice country they have and not getting the name wrong ... we are enjoying it all still but will be glad when home and in a bed for more than one or 2 nights without having to repack the truck in the morning. So, where indeed: Bratislava, Slovakia and this is our last night here, off into the countryside today. One of the more difficult countries to plan, it’s small but Bratislava, the capital, is tucked into a corner and we could have driven straight through without seeing anything else. That would not do justice to it. The other good bits are spread across the country to the NE and we will then have to re-trace our steps passing Bratislava as we exit to the Chez Republic. Thankfully most of that driving will be on motorways, if the new ones (being built on Google Earth as of 3 years ago) are complete.

3 Dec 09

This was a short day’s drive, only about 100 miles, so in Bratislava early and GPS to the hotel a newly completed pension in an old building. This is the last of the 3 Bs – a historic 16-19th century city I have hankered after visiting for a while. Like so many of the cities and towns in E Europe they have managed to preserve their historic centre while surrounding it with ugly communist era blocks of flats. Many buildings have lacked the investment in maintenance and have either been allowed to decay or have a cheap concrete fix for preservation – a great shame. Bratislava is better placed than many and obviously has a lot of EU and tourist orientated investment going in. The old centre is pedestrianised and the wide streets are open and to be enjoyed. They do catch cold winds tho’. It was hard to find the old centre but a pleasant walk around when found, another Christmas market was in evidence. ‘Twas interesting that this market was almost completely food and drink – and not very healthy food at that. Goose liver and fat was much in evidence. So, for a punter, having eaten poorly during the day, in the evening it was nigh impossible to find a decent restaurant but easy to find a bar/pub. Yes, an unusual regime operated where it was difficult to find restaurants, but the weekend lad/ette group could easily find booze. There were some decent eateries down alleyways and in courtyards but just not well advertised. This was yet another country blighted by graffiti.

We arrived early enough to book an opera performance. It was in their new National Opera building and was a modern choreography of Mozart’s Magic Flute. There were some whacky modern ideas interwoven into the story which we couldn’t decide whether they were a distractive entertainment for an unsophisticated audience or an attempt to blend modern themes to ‘update’ an old story. Mind you; I have enjoyed the music for many years, but this was the first time I had read the full story line; what a complicated story it is. No other opera I’ve seen is a mind bender like this. Probably a good thing it was in scribble – they had kept the original German songs, so the translation screen showed this in Slovak; whilst the narrative was in Slovak, so the screens showed this in German – no chance for a Brit! Still, a good evening’s entertainment, tho' I must confess to some Egyptian PT later on (just a short zizz!).

A World first clocked today as well - the lady taxi driver who took us there, refused a tip - "No, the fare is on the meter".  Not so with the guy we caught to return us tho' - he had the tipees pause.

4 Dec 09

Bitterly cold, but an easy day. Castle first, being renovated (yes, EU money), town with Xmas market and just a little gluhwein (after 11 o’clock you realise), some mild shopping and back to chill. Out in the evening for an early meal, well no; we took ages to find a restaurant – great Italien. I must confess that his was delayed by a spell in the Dubliner Pub, with live music like most, to watch England’s World Cup draw – a good group, the USA should keep us sharp enough not to screw-up.

Enjoyed Bratislava, but too much a boozy weekend spot and a day and a bit was enough – we’ll leave early tomorrow.

5 Dec 09

A couple of days of inactivity and that tyre needs some air, stop to fill up and the air is in a rechargeable carry-bottle.  We have these in the UK, but this is only the second country I've seen them in on this trip - rather advanced.  Also had to stop to buy a motorway tax sticker, been called a vignette in every other country, but LP advises that it's a "nalepka" here.  No it's not, after a 3 min exchange, surprisingly vignette seems to work!  Got help from another driver with good English - "Okay, so you want a vignette, but where for, we don't know where you are going"  Here.  "Just here, we can do Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria ..."  Tuns out he has been interested in our number plate and where we're from as he has friends who work in Kuwait, hence the confusion of where we might be going!  That's great, 'cos we can get ahead with a Czech one as well - just have to decide which dates.  How friendly and helpful - oh, and just a few more smiley folk than we have been used to, but a bit to go yet there.

We've had more interest shown in us here than all the other countries together: on arrival in Bratislava a car had pulled in behind us and taken a picture on his mobile of the back of the truck, before speeding off - had the communists really left I wondered - and later in Slovensky Raj (tomorrow) about one in 3 people/cars were interested.

A few miles to cover today, but hope most are motorway and yes most are. I’d planned 3 breaks in the day and all just adjacent to the main roads. Trencin castle – they’ve arranged the town so that for a casual passerby, us, there are not enough parking slots in town (off season note) and even negotiating the pedestrian precinct does not give access to the castle above – let’s press-on. Zilina – Budatin castle/mansion is a wreck, even with EU money which seems to have built a reception area and ticket office but done nothing for preserving the building that is their reason d’etre. Ten minutes was too much for this place. Slovensky Raj – national park, as we have re-arranged this part and are taking an extra day here as we think we’ve found a really nice town/hotel to stay in, this national park can wait until tomorrow. The evenings are really drawing in and by the time we are at the hotel it will just give us enough time to walk the town square before dark. Yes, the plan works and old-fashioned navigation took us straight to the hotel – hurrah for old-fashioned nav - Levoca, village panorama from our window above.

6 Dec 09

What a nice day – little driving and some chilling. This is a place that gave us some of what we really enjoy: late off the starting blocks, our 8 o’clock b’fast was at 0820. Felt guilty as the young lady who came in (the one who served us dinner last night – but was well tipped!) must have rushed in for 8. Then a lazy 6ml drive to Spis castle – largest in E Europe – not open ‘cos it requires 2 days notice for a visit and we can’t forecast tomorrow. Two guard dogs, which enjoyed chasing the stones Chris threw, and a young man who had no interest were guarding the place. Don’t think we missed much – a run around the hilltop was enough for me and we casually drove off (10 ml) to the national park for a couple of hours at Slovensky Raj. This is a beautiful area of lumpy and undulating hills with some severe gorges; streams and rivers flow though narrows; the footpaths are cared for and organised; the wildlife is natural and there is a calm – like a decent Yorkshire Dales walk. Today was particularly impressive ‘cos yesterday’s overcast was just thinning in the noon-day sun and gave a fantastic hazy depth to the views. You’ve seen the art shop pics with varying levels of haze at each hill line into the distance, that was today in Slovensky Raj – fantastic. Had a ‘German’ snack after our walk, or maybe Prussian in these parts. The bread came not with butter, but goose fat – yes you heard me right – dripping. The simple meal was fried, didn’t need to be, but hey, nothing wrong with some extra grease ... Give me some fresh fruit and veg – yes George green stuff. Returned to walk the town walls of Levoca (home today); chill over the blog etc with a red draught; pizza out, in a popular local ‘aria and back for an early night. A great day had by all. Crossed my mind at one stage – here we are in the middle of Slovakia, without a care in the World, beyond the first 56 of where we are going to live, how big should the storage container be, will it be there before the sea freight arrives, will we be able to drive the truck beyond Harwich ... blah, blah – you know, those everyday concerns ... Night, night, love to all ...

7 Dec 09

We also had time to muse yesterday about how we laugh about our experiences as we walk and then the memory banks are erased when we sit down to do the blog etc. I hope to have caught up on some of this yesterday, but must confess that the full cynicism will not have come across – this is an open blog after all! Tho' those guys on the free meals are no longer in the corners of our restaurants.

A frost in the village today, almost certainly not our second, but the second that I've noticed - in with a chance on that 8 o'clock breakfast as well.  Frost, that's nothing ...

What a grey day – awful, glad we’re travelling and that we saw all the interest points (!) on the way out 2 days ago. Today is a return to Bratislava, not to stay but to pass, see a nearby castle (Devlin) and go up to the Czech border if the time works. We’ll consider this on the road as the cloudbase is 2000 feet above sea level at Levoca – that’s just 200 ft above us. We are in thick mist ... no we are in cloud or fog to you guys. There is cloud scudding everywhere, snow falling and building up on the windscreen wipers and we have fog lights on. Today will just be a driving day, but it will clear mileage and may generate extra time in somewhere interesting. I reckon we can do the border and make significant headway to our next point of interest a promising town called Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic, may even make it today, but need to check what is enroute – start netbook and check the stored Google Earth info. Okay, there are a couple of places worthy of a view – get a 2nd opinion – we’ll check progress, but would like to see Telc a UNESCO World Heritage town. So, we’ve binned the one point in Slovakia ‘cos a closed castle in thick mist doesn’t have a lot to offer and we are aiming for some promising Czech towns. Bear in mind, all the pretty towns we see/stay in are surrounded by communist era building showing liitle concern for future heritage.  The cloud level has followed us down tho’ and is now at 1000 ft, still just above us, just. Border crossing a worry? – would be if there was anyone there – slowed to 40 kph but drove thro’ on a motorway. We already have the vignette so press. Until we hit thick fog, well actually we’ve just climbed into the cloud.

PS. If you were following the rest here, it was in the wrong post so it's moved to Leg 09.