Slovokia

I've made it to Slovakia, but I definitely would not have been able to do it on my own. Three buses, no English spoken equals some confusion.

My friend Brian and I took a bus from Krakow down to the town of Zakopane, Poland. This part was problem free. Next stop we need to get a shuttle to some weird place, a very, very small village called Lysa Poliana or something like that. We must have told the bus man about 12 times the name of the place we were going, and he just shook his head and said, "Tak" (yes) Anyway, what does he do? He takes us to the wrong place... We attempt to inquire where we are, and he just begins to yell louder and say more words. It was just like an American, when they talk to someone who doesnt speak English, they just talk faster and louder, using more words. It was actually rather funny in retrospect, and he did end up pawning us off on another bus driver who drove us to our location at no cost. We then arrived in time for the last bus to the place we were staying, but it was an hour and a half away. Luckily we knew the most important word in Slovak, pivo, which of course means beer. A building was labled bar, but was really just a minimart. We bought some pivo and waited on the side of the road for the bus like some homebum drifters, which is exactly what I am right now. Actually a rather cool experience.

We made it to the hostel we were staying at, in the middle of nowhere of Northern Slovakia. I actually experienced a little bit of anxiety upon first arrival due to the ruralness of it all. I cant remember the last time I was in that much country. I saw more stars in that sky than I have ever seen. The big dipper was so bright it jumped out of the sky at you. I had an amazing time once my being out of the city anxiety ran out. I played Texas Holdem with a bunch of Europeans, and had plenty of pivo. Attempted failure to make it to watch sunrise with a new Canadian friend.

View from hostel porch

I spent my second day hiking in the Tatras Mountains on the Slovakian/Polish border. It was amazing. Rolling green mountains with creepy warewolf trees. The trees resemble the type of tree you would expect to see in a horror movie. The grand finale of the hike was a giant lake with snowcovered mountains as the backdrop.

I planned to take a train to Budapest yesterday...but instead I caught a ride with my new Canadian friends to Kosice. Matt is a Canadian English teacher teaching in Slovakia, and his parents were in visiting, so they had rented a car. They are all lovely people, and I had an excellent time spending some days with them. I ended up staying in Kosice for the night, and caught the next train to Budapest with them in the morning. Now we shall see what adventures in Budapest await.