Hotel Satelit Piestany

... some of the countryside. Trenchin itself is only a small place but quite peaceful and the castle again rests above the city. After having a walk around the castle we headed back to the train station to catch the train. I didnt bring that many warm clothes with me basically because I dont have any from working in Africa so the ones I was wearing were getting well used all the time.

... boarding card from a giant stack on the counter. And they want to charge €5 for this 20 second transaction. My turn finally approached and the first nice person I had found so far in Madrid greeted me with a smile, waived the check in fee and wished me a pleasant flight. Maybe there is hope for Spain after all. In the gate I found myself smack dab in the middle of about 8 Germans commiserating together about their experiences in Madrid. I struck ...

... of the grandness of the city in days past. The nearby monument to the end of the war against fascism as they like to call it here. Of course they all end up being monuments to the Soviet soldier... will they ever get rid of them? I did get lucky however as there was a big folk concert on with lots of different groups singing and dancing in the main square... with stalls set up selling ...

... Ak by ste vsak chceli viacej vzruchu pridite sem v case konania sa filmoveho festivalu a uvidite davy ako sa patri. Takze horsa do prace! Zajtra budeme spoznavat krasy polnohospodarstva. Po 2600 km okolo Slovenska to bude ina forma relaxu. Bol to super vylet!

... one of the badminton players... but in reality the badminton comp didn't really go ahead. Anyway, just about all the interest was in the table tennis as it turned out. The final turned out to be between me and a young fellow from China. Luckily for me he'd obviously been spending his time in China learning Esperanto rather than hanging out with his mates and playing table tennis so I snuck in for a win. In the evening the program ...

I ended up missing class completely. Not surprising seeing I only got to bed at 6:30 and class was at 9:00. I was also going to catch a bus to Trnava... but I managed to miss that too by about 3 minutes... Not a good start to the day. It turns out there are some other restaurants nearby, besides the one that I'm always camped at. Quite a nice setting out amongst the trees, but less likely that anyone would wander by for a chat. There are occasional lectures ...

... kept looking out for me which is why eventually he came out to let me in. In the car yesterday he asked me when I'd be back to the hotel and I said... who knows? Luckily he seems to be pretty good natured. At lunch there was a whole cheering team at a near by table. Great set up when you can seat a whole big group around one table. There seemed to have been only one bloke amongst them all, and he seemed to be their coach when I saw ...

... the room looks pretty good. Up at the congress venue, I had a sneak look at one of the rooms. Not too bad, I must say. Though you do have to share and I've heard some stories about some pretty loud snorers. On my way up to the congress-centre I passed the main church in town. Quite a crowd outside. Rather unsual after coming from Australia... or is it just because I'm usually nowhere ...

... for the bus to Modra-Harmonia but once she heard the price of the hotel in town - €13, and given that the Esperanto gathering didn't start for a couple of days, she decided to stay in town as well. The scene in Modra. I was still curious about where this place was and what it was like so we went for a walk up into the hills. Again the directions were a bit dodgy. It was indeed really easy to find if you kept to the road but there was ...

... over Trencin. Walked back down to the train station and caught the 2.50pm train back to Bratislava. Arrived back at the main train station in Bratislava at about 4pm and caught the tram back down to Obchodna then walked back to the hotel. Went out for dinner at 6pm and ate at Slang Pub on the main square before walking to Tesco for more supplies then back to the hotel for the night.