Hotel Altenberg Stare Hory

... we didn't feel like socializing with the chickens and got a penzion instead.

Luckily there was a Pension just near the campsite but unfortunatly they were full up except for the Suite. Fortunatly the Suite was only 28 Euros, Gotta love hotels in the middle of nowhere. Most of our campsites cost that much!

After a great nights sleep and a delicious breakfast we made our way to Krakow through the Tatras mountains.

... still a couple of hours drive further and the road signs threatened a diversion around Brno too. Enough was enough and we stopped and made tea with our Polish groceries.

UPDATE:
I texted Dominika with the name of the store where we had bought groceries. We had some plastic bags with the name on, conveniently. She did some hunting and called the owner. Apparently there had been a man asking about a wallet but they donīt know what he did with it after that. I guess it is gone for good.

... a few Ciders. The following morning we toured the Old & New City of bratislava & met Danke & Mark for drinks back in the Irish bar. Beata & i then took a bus to Piestany where we stayed with Andrea & visited Spa Island which has beautiful Parks,Ponds,Spa Mud bath's, Physio treatments & the 1st & only 5star Hotel in Slovakia. I tried some local Hot fountain spring water that comes from underground & smells like rotten eggs, but suprisingly takes nice ...

... of course it did. The drive into Slovakia proved to be a very picturesque one. The scenery in the south of Poland is highlighted by the Large Tatras mountains (on the border of Slovakia and Poland). When we were closer to the border we decided to pop into a little town. We passed the footy in the park (recieving glare after glare) and as usual Matt couldn't resist putting up a bomb that almost hit an unsuspecting local. As in previous occasions this signals the end of ...

... thank you", "yes/no", "sorry", and "1, 2, 3". ° Toilets: Pay-per-use toilets are the scourge of the earth. Avoid paying wherever possible. This is not to deny a poor local his livelihood but to discourage this terrible practice on principle. If the guy is in a little cage, he will probably not chase you so just ignore his angry cries as you walk out. If you do pay, get your moneys worth. ° Taxi rip-off avoidance tip 1: Find out ...

... at the Zlaty Dukat restaurant with the family. In early December a lot of families invite friends over to kill a pig. They shoot the poor piggy between the eyes at the crack of dawn, then spend the rest of the day carving him up in all directions. Almost ...

... map it's supposed to do within 40 minutes. I ignore this fact and continue my descent which should have leveled off by now. I am only preliminarily worried. An abandoned house sits in a field overlooking a stagnant pond ripe with mosquitoes as I stare at the sign in front of me. "Stare Hory: 3/4 hr" This is not right. I know I don't remember this being on the way to the mountain hut. I do, however, remember making fun of the this when I saw it on the map the day before as in Polish ...

... be late and hoped he would get it before wasting too much time at the station. With the situation as it was, there was nothing that I could do but jump on the train and wait for it to get me there. It didn't do this. I had to make a connection in some small town, which would have been fine had the train actually stopped there. I don't think I've ever been on a train that didn't stop at the scheduled stations before. Instead, I jumped off at some other station it did stop at ...

... s. I made a big show of dropping his bank card, visa card and, of all things, library card, then the whole wallet into the bowl. After that, the night continued but it's hard to distinguish any hour from any other hour. Tom, a former professional double-bass player, joined the band for one set. They played 'Summertime' and a couple of other jazz tunes and Tom fit right in, which impressed a lot of people. The only problem I had with the band was how they kept hard-selling ...

... Slovakia and I just took as much of the whole thing in as I could. We stopped at a nice sidewalk restaurant for a bite to eat but were told that a meal would take 40 minutes, so we settled for a bite at a 'fast food' place. Retracing our steps to the 'new town', we stopped at the Museum of the Slovak Uprising, which had a lot of WWII memorabilia (if that's the right word) and details about the uprising that I didn't know much about. Back in Krivan, a nice spread of food and ...