SLOVAKIA

Stary Smokovec

Well, we made it over the Tatra mountains, and thus over the border into Slovakia. It was a short 50 minutes minibus ride through the mountains. Not too scary. Actual roads! Andre and I went straight to the perfect base camp town of Stary Smokovec. A really cool little town right at the foot of the mountains, leading to a vast amount of trails, which also host an array of pensions and refuges all throughout. We scored a very crass hostel, but it was very cheap.......Perfect! It was only for two days anyways.

It was a nice continuation of the eastern style just like Poland. The people are rather rougher and not as welcming in Slovakia though, but who cares cause the beer is even cheaper! I can't believe how good and cheap the beer is around here. Like 40 cents canadian for half a liter of beer, and that's what's cool too, a regular beer bottle is 0.5L. I really feel like I'm missing out if I don't have atleast one beer with every meal and then as a digestif, and then atleast another for good measure.

I kinda got carried away one night though (pic) with some bad people it seems. I woke up the next morning missing a liver. It's all good though, I still have three more! And check out the cashmoney! Dollarbills baby! I kid, I kid......... It was a montage for shits and giggles, but our money is worth 25 Slovak crowns so we got big bills. It was fun to roll around in bed with all the money!

What was really impressive about the area is that there was a horrible tornado and storm, that the Slovaks call the "calamita" only two years ago. You can see the devastation in the alley of the cyclone as huge amounts of trees were completely derooted and it rendered the path of the tornado into a sort of wasteland (pics left and right). It's a kinda weird oxymoronic or bitter-sweet type of beauty. The illuminating oranges of the sun-burnt grass just screams out at you in the daylight, contrasting the greens of the trees left behind. It was quite beautiful.

Well we came here to hike so we went on an amazing day hike up a relax path, and decided to go until we couldn't take it anymore. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we couldn't ask for anything more. It was seriously just as nice as the Pyrenees in terms of scenery and lushness of the greens. So breathtaking! We decided to follow the river and waterfalls (pic left + right) all the way up. Just amazing! There were so many good pics taken cause the whole area is just perfect so every picture is gorgeous.......hint hint.....go check the other pics on snapfish if you're interested.

Of course I had to get the best spots for some pictures as everyone else just watched and laughed at the stupid monkey man work his way over, but hey, it was worth it (pic left). And the pic on the right also gives a sweet impression on the disgusting backdrop we had to put up with. You can see the massive waterfall just starting near the left bottom of the pic. I mean seriously! When the hell is someone gonna invest in some condos or something. Ransack the whole place and get some soft-wood lumber action going. And I couldn't even find a McDonald's anywhere.........Dispicable!

Getting back to the trek. It was an easy lazy day but we were both a little under the weather so it was perfect. It was actually the warmest day we had seen in over 3 weeks, and we were up in the mountains! It felt so nice to get some heat, some Vit. D, and bask in the wonders of nature (pics).

We finally got to our final destination as the sun was setting behind the mountains, so we decided to enjoy the view and relax a little before heading back down (pics). Again.........check out the sweetness that's on my arm. And anyways it's only fitting in this gorgeous scenery........look at the word "gorgeous", I have it all in this picture, the "gorge", and the "ass". hehehe!


Kosice

So we went straight to the 2nd biggest city in Slovakia after Bratislava, Kosice. It fit nicely for our itinerary, and we wanted to see some caves not too far away. Not much to see in Kosice other than a nice but very small old town, one day max is enough there.........but atleast the people of Kosice are very secure and know how to avoid dangerous situations as exemplified by this sign outside of a bank (pic left) NO JOKE! The old town is quite nice though, and the church had a very nice colourful mosaic style roof (pic right). Seems to be a common theme throughout the former Soviet oppressee countries, as you will see in later blogs.

The main reason to stop over here though was because of the caves in the town of Jasov, just 45 minutes away. They didn't disappoint! Oh man, I felt like such a Japanese going through that place taking pictures of anything and just aweing at every corner. Really really really cool! (pics......go see snapfish!) The caves are called Jasovsky Jaskyna, and are stalagmite caves with the rocks being fomed one drop at a time but that's as much as we understood since we could only have the tour in slovak............goes along well with my Jap analogy since I wasn't listening to anything the guide was saying.

I immensely enjoyed that experience! It was fun too cause you felt as if you were in another world, and as soon as you step behind closed doors, you feel the cold and dampness right away all over your body. Kinda spooky! There was actually a bat that was flying back and forth between me and Andreanne right at the beginning. It was so exhilerating seeing come towards my face with its wings spanned. Andreanne didn't enjoy it as much I believe.

We then had a little time before the bus went back to Kosice so we went to check out the town. It really looked like a very simple southamerican village in the middle of buttcrack nowhere, and the villagers even looked peruvian or something. Kinda eerie in Slovakia. We also found a really peaceful field, and had fun doing the stereotypical kitchy things (pics). Right shmoopy kins! It was actually really fun (ketaine style calisse!) I love this girl!

Next stop...........Hungary!........until next time............

love ya.............masdroveeya (pronounced not written........means cheers and good health in Polish, Slovak, and Czech)