Magnolia Piestany

From Bratislava me and my Aussie mate took a train to Trenchin. We had a while to wait before we could get on the train and stocked up on some supplies. I brought myself some an intersting lunch of a a bun a piece of lettece and a Snitzcle that required about 3 buns it was so long. Once on the train it was only a short ride to Trenchin. It was nice to get out the city again and ...

... a conversation with one of the ladies and she volunteered that the people in Spain seemed to be the most arrogant, stuck up people she has ever encountered. Her husband told me their three days there were three days too many, and I felt sort of relieved that other people were getting the same impression. So it's definitely not me just having a bad attitude. That got me to thinking about last night when I was trying to fall asleep in a lumpy bed under a ...

... 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 ...

... evening was pretty good. Geir, my Norwegian mate, spotted one of the teachers (from Hungary) at the bar. He thought it made for a good photo opportunity... No wonder Esperanto is so popular in Hungary. I still haven't quite trained my doorman back at the pension well enough yet. He's been leaving the big gate open, but the door's always still locked and the bell doesn't seem to work so I end up napping on a seat in the garden until he comes and wakes me up.

... a made up word in Esperanto - Lorenzo's place. I'm not sure whether he chose to sit outside every night because he's a smoker, or because it's a nice open space to sit down in, something that seemed to have been lacking inside. It was usually him, the two Portuguese girls and anyone else that dropped by. A very welcoming group. Finally though there was just me, the greater of the two Danes and a bottle of some Slovak spirit left. And yes ...

... she did have me standing next to her which probably (no doubt) didn't help. Or maybe Slovaks just aren't into giving people lifts. I walked back to the congress-centre with Solenne and then I decided that as I didn't have anything else to do other than sit in the restaurant and sink a few more beers, I might as well walk to Budmerice, the next town, by myself. It turned out to be a pretty boring walk with lots of fields and sunflowers by the road ...

... of a tourist trail which turned out to be rather confusing if you didn't know what you were looking for. Though there were plenty of these impressive villas up in the hills. No doubt holiday homes for the rich from nearby Bratislava. We eventually found the convention centre and it is indeed a surprisingly big building out in the middle of no-where. I was pleased to see a really nice restaurant/café nearby with lots of outdoor seating ...

Got up at 8am and after breakfast walked down to Obchodna and caught a tram up to the main train station. Caught the 9.30am train to Trencin. Arrived in Trencin from Bratislava at 11.30am after a slow train trip. Walked into the town centre past the Piarist Church and the Town Gate and had lunch from a small sandwich shop in the main square. Walked up to Trencin Castle and took in the ...