While in Czech my best friend from school Yann and his mate from work Arnaud came over so that we could do a little tour of Central Europe. Since none of us had been to Slovakia (except for me, but only for a day) we decided to head off there as I had heard that there's some pretty neat things to see and do.
So we headed off from Prague towards Bratislava, but upon buying a map of Slovakia on the border we discovered that Bratislava is actually quite far south, away from the mountains we wanted to see, so we decided instead to do the mountains first and then head down to Bratislava (such last minute changes to travelling plans seem to be the rule rather than the exception when I'm travelling). Just driving through the Slovak towns you can get a sense of the different way of life over here: it's very laid back and people seem to spend quite a bit of time doing outdoorsy activities (cycling, swimming, canoeing, hiking, etc). There's also a (pleasantly) high proportion of quite attractive women, which makes driving along all the more enjoyable. And even though it is a foreign country it's great that I can communicate with little difficulty with the autochthonous population as Slovak is just badly pronounced Czech with every word having a letter or two changed, although there are a few evil words out there that are completely different from the Czech.
Anyway, our destination for the evening was the town of Trencin with its imposing 16th century castle on a hill above the town. That's one thing that you notice about Slovakia: every other hilltop has got its own castle or at least some castle ruins. So therefore on our way to Trencin we stopped off at Cachtice where there are the remains of the castle of the "Bloody Countess" Elizabeth Bathory who managed to kill 600 young virgins (see link for details) along with the cell in which she was finally locked up and died. Trencin itself is a really pleasant town with a pretty and compact town centre beneath the castle.
The next day we headed off to the Little Fatras (a small mountain range in the north of Slovakia, and hence the title of the post) where I had heard that there were some excellent hiking trails. When we arrived we only had a few hours so we did a little trail called Nizske Diery (at least I think that's what it was called). My god it was fantastic, and probably worth the trip alone: ti starts off quite inconspicuously but soon your walking along walkways through extremely thin gorges with water falling all around you. Very cool! (I'll try and post some photos or at least set up a link when I've got more time.) The next day we decided to do a longer trek through the range, although luck wasn't really on our side as the clouds were very low and most of the time we were in them, so we didn't get to see the views (that, I'm reliably told, are magnificent). However, the walk itself was fun and a useful bit of exercise, although I'm amazed by some of the trails, which were at almost 45 degrees in places, both going up and down, and so I'm not embarassed to admit that on more than one occasion I had a bit of a slip on the descent.
And now we are in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, which has a cute little old town with some well-preserved buildings and the ubiquitous castle on a hill, from which you get a lovely view across the Danube to the other side of the town. Well, it would be lovely if the communists hadn't built their concrete monstrosities there; it serves as a reminder of why no-one in their right mind would want to go back to that (but that rant shall have to wait for some other time).
Must dash now as I'm running out of time in the internet cafe. So without further ado I shall take my leave, and, as the Slovaks say, na videnou.
So we headed off from Prague towards Bratislava, but upon buying a map of Slovakia on the border we discovered that Bratislava is actually quite far south, away from the mountains we wanted to see, so we decided instead to do the mountains first and then head down to Bratislava (such last minute changes to travelling plans seem to be the rule rather than the exception when I'm travelling). Just driving through the Slovak towns you can get a sense of the different way of life over here: it's very laid back and people seem to spend quite a bit of time doing outdoorsy activities (cycling, swimming, canoeing, hiking, etc). There's also a (pleasantly) high proportion of quite attractive women, which makes driving along all the more enjoyable. And even though it is a foreign country it's great that I can communicate with little difficulty with the autochthonous population as Slovak is just badly pronounced Czech with every word having a letter or two changed, although there are a few evil words out there that are completely different from the Czech.
Anyway, our destination for the evening was the town of Trencin with its imposing 16th century castle on a hill above the town. That's one thing that you notice about Slovakia: every other hilltop has got its own castle or at least some castle ruins. So therefore on our way to Trencin we stopped off at Cachtice where there are the remains of the castle of the "Bloody Countess" Elizabeth Bathory who managed to kill 600 young virgins (see link for details) along with the cell in which she was finally locked up and died. Trencin itself is a really pleasant town with a pretty and compact town centre beneath the castle.
The next day we headed off to the Little Fatras (a small mountain range in the north of Slovakia, and hence the title of the post) where I had heard that there were some excellent hiking trails. When we arrived we only had a few hours so we did a little trail called Nizske Diery (at least I think that's what it was called). My god it was fantastic, and probably worth the trip alone: ti starts off quite inconspicuously but soon your walking along walkways through extremely thin gorges with water falling all around you. Very cool! (I'll try and post some photos or at least set up a link when I've got more time.) The next day we decided to do a longer trek through the range, although luck wasn't really on our side as the clouds were very low and most of the time we were in them, so we didn't get to see the views (that, I'm reliably told, are magnificent). However, the walk itself was fun and a useful bit of exercise, although I'm amazed by some of the trails, which were at almost 45 degrees in places, both going up and down, and so I'm not embarassed to admit that on more than one occasion I had a bit of a slip on the descent.
And now we are in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, which has a cute little old town with some well-preserved buildings and the ubiquitous castle on a hill, from which you get a lovely view across the Danube to the other side of the town. Well, it would be lovely if the communists hadn't built their concrete monstrosities there; it serves as a reminder of why no-one in their right mind would want to go back to that (but that rant shall have to wait for some other time).
Must dash now as I'm running out of time in the internet cafe. So without further ado I shall take my leave, and, as the Slovaks say, na videnou.
No comments:
Post a Comment