Slovakia, stop it!
Trip Start
Jun 04, 2008
1
13
17
Trip End
Ongoing
Propad,
Slovakia
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Ok Im finally going to update this blog. As i said Slovakia was a really pleasant surprise. Initially we thought we may just pass through it being sure to keep the windows up and the doors locked shut however just like every other Eastern European country visited thus far our expectations were blown out of the water.
We left Krakow and bid farewell to Mr Burgundy. The traffic was crawling on the way out of the city but we were all pretty stoked to be on the road again. Theres something very soothing about saying goodbye to a city where you got drunk every night and played the fool everyday. On the second last day Ben introduced Matt and I to a game that I guess is called "Penis". Whilst walking in the busy main square we each take it in turns of saying penis. The only catch is that each subsequent shout must be louder than the one before it. At first it's just a soft whisper but by the end we were screaming at the top of our lungs. The winner is the last man standing (i.e. that gives the last shout). As you can imagine people were quite disturbed by this behaviour and poor old Maxi took off in the opposite direction unable to deal with the embarassment. He walked about 20m ahead of us the whole way back to the hostel in fear that the game would make a reappearance, of course it did.
The drive into Slovakia proved to be a very picturesque one.
On the road again
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 the game so we went and had a coffee and took in the scenery under the sweltering sun. Halfway along our journey I pulled over at a berry stand. The highway is littered with children selling bags of freshly picked forest berries. The boys werent impressed with the taste so I took it upon myself to eat a whole bag, delicious!After a couple of wrong turns and some backtracking we crossed over the Slovakian border. The roads were surrounded by dense forest and at each clearing the dramatic mountains seemed to get bigger and bigger. I can honestly say they are almost on par with the Canadian rockies and I fell in love with them immediately. Thoughts of spending a winter at a Slovakian ski resort buzzed through my head which were halted when I almost ran off the road. Pretty and beautiful, yes. Distractingly dangerous, ditto. As we drove south away from the mountains we drove through numerous rather unsightly towns. We finally chose a small town named Propad and parked Karl in a street across from a local pub/restaurant. We had a scrumptious dinner in the restaurant and asked the rather cute waitresses where we could find a bar (at this point I should tell you that Lonely Planet states that Slovaki is known for its Ice Hockey and Beautiful Women).
Scenery
We went to a bar/nightclub and had a few beers. In the bar it was quite evident that the gender roles in Slovaki differ slightly to Australia. We enjoyed noticing the subtle differences and of course looking at the local girls. Lonely Planet may give dodgy maps, send my friends to abandoned hostels (See Hungary) and talk dribble but this time they were on the money, we were blown away.We went back to Karl and set up tthe beds. Matty and I slept like babies in our little refuge in the back of Karl, Maxi on the other hand was kept up all night by a suspicious police car that continually drove past the car. Thinking that the police were not happy to have some dodgy Great British bums in town Maxi decided that if he pretended to be reading (at 3am in the morning) then they would not be suspicious. When we woke up at 8.30am the next day Maxi was a little red eyed and we couldn't help but laugh at his story. We made a quick getaway and headed for the mountains intent on going for a bush walk in the mountains. As you would expect we never found a track and after 4 attempts at walking along various tracks (what appeared to be anyway) we gave up and decided to head into Hungary. Our legs were itching from the spiky nettles that attacked our legs during our so called "bush walks" so we pulled up at a stream and jumped in. It was freezing and made us yelp like girls. We washed, shaved and warmed in the sun before heading away from the mountains and over the border. Destined for Budapest, Hungary we were on top of the world after experiencing the unexpected beauty of Slovakia.
Cheers
