ROAD TRIP - SLOVAKIA STYLE

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This whole Coronavirus thing really put (and continues to put) a damper on life. As you all well know and have experienced in your own ways. It sucks. And unfortunately one aspect it affected my (and your life too, undoubtedly) is travel.

Spark Notes - My Polarsteps Journey

New Plan

I had initially planned to travel back to the (formerly) good 'ole USofA in July. Corona threw a gigantic wrench into those plans. First, my trip was four weeks long, a bit of work and a bit of family fun time. Kinda pointless to be stuck in quarantine for two out of those four weeks, and then to have been forced into another quarantine upon my return to Germany. That was the big downer of it all. The big sign of that trip likely not going to have happened despite my desire to make it happen - KLM straight up canceled my flight from Amsterdam to Portland and vice versa, and didn't tell me a damn thing about it...

The Decision Process

There was no way in hell I would have survived a full summer of not taking any time off. That just wasn't going to happen - I had to get out and about and do something adventurous and away from home. My first choice - two week road trip mountain biking and drinking whiskey in Scotland. Unfortunately, Scotland has had a two-week required quarantine in affect as well. That trip will have to wait until next summer. Seriously. I really want/need to make that happen.

Next idea was Iceland. I looked at tickets and such and am really keen on making that happen at some point. I even debated taking the ferry from Denmark all the way over. But, as it is a expensive place to visit, and I wasn't quite up for driving around all on my own for two weeks, I opted out and decided to save Iceland for a later date.

Those two ideas off the table, I was struggling to make a decision given the travel restrictions and limitations. At some point I shared my 'predicament' with my buddy Christoph, and he spits out, "Check out the High Tatras." No idea what he was talking about. Long story short, it's a small-ish but tall mountain range on the border of Slovakia and Poland. After looking a little more into it and the country, I was sold.

Unfortunately, Christoph was super busy with school and studying, so he was unable to join. Still wanting to have someone along for the journey, I tried to figure out who'd be up for a fun little road trip around a tiny country. Long story short, I finally got to see my buddy Yann for the first time since moving back here, and he was down to adventure. BOOM BABY!

The Plan

Corona really took a shit on my vacation days and work hours for the year. That's a point of clarification for a longer conversation, but in essence I lost some vacation and time off because of how things at work shook out with the virus. But, I was able to squeak out two weeks of vacation at work and still have something left for the holidays, and Yann was itching for a good long time off, and was able to combo this trip sprinkled in with some more time off afterwards.

If you look at Slovakia on a map, it's not a huge country. But taking a quick google search of the place, you'll see that there's actually a fair amount of stuff to get into, explore, taste, and experience over there. To try and plan out our road trip from thin air, we researched some of the highlights, pinned them on a google map, and decided on a counter-clockwise route starting and ending in Bratislava.

Other than that, not a whole ton of planning. A few waypoints on a map, a date when we were starting and a date we wanted to get back by, and that was it. Off to Slovakia we went.

Day 0 - On the ROAD AGAIN!!!

Slogging through work, it was honestly a long stretch leading up to taking off. The week beforehand involved a workshop in Wörth, and since I was the only guy on my component on-site, I had to cover for a lot of stuff. All of that stress also included getting a flat on my bike sometime during that week on my way to work. Good thing we've got a department Sprinter and some good colleagues to come pick up a stranded biker on the highway. It was busy, and frustrating in a few ways, but made the time go by relatively quick.

But, finally, the day had arrived. I worked from home as I wrapped up the last details and figured out how and what to pack for two weeks on the road with Rupert and Yann, and making sure I was set for backpacking, city exploring, and everything(-ish) in between. Yann was also swamped leading up to the time off, so instead of heading over to Stuttgart that Friday night, we crashed at our own places and got things started early on Saturday.

An early rise and prep, threw everything into the car, and we were off!!! It was an easy breeze over to Stuttgart (thank you early morning Autobahn), so I hung out there with him for a bit before loading up Rupert and getting underway. So it begins!!!

It's kind of a cop-out way to describe it, but the drive really went by pretty fast. Despite a couple splotches of traffic before we got to Ulm, we cruised through southern Germany and made it over to Austria in no time. Bought our little vignette to be able to drive in Austria and Yann took over as we we cruised through rural Austria, then back to their autobahn, and thanks to some help from This American Life, we made it over to Vienna in a jiffy!

Wien aka Vienna

Once we got there, we weren't sure of our plans for the city other than walking around and checking it out. Parking garage found, Rupert parked, we hit the street, and started strolling around.

If you need to know anything about Vienna, it's that there are big old buildings all over the place (imo they kinda blended together a bit) and big parks all over the place too. At least from an initial evaluation. And they were all welcomed, as it produced such a fantastic combination for exploration. In addition to that, there are bike thoroughfares everywhere. Big, wide, nice ones, right along the main streets and some of the smaller ones too. That was surprising and really cool to see.

We were parked pretty close to the center of town, so we started our wandering strolling through the big park in front of what seemed to be the museum area. Huge buildings, ornate features, a gigantic plaza and park, and people strewn about (mostly adhering to the distancing guidelines).

Another thing we noticed pretty quickly was the prominence of bike lanes. They weren't really bike lanes, but pretty much separate bike-only streets. It was awesome.

Our stroll through the park took us past a ton of greenery, some statues, and other random things. We stopped at one pavilion with a cool statue and took a load off for a while. In front of us were a couple dudes filming what I thought was some kind of music video. They took a ton of takes of the same thing, but wasn't sure what they were doing other than lip syncing to something.

Then on the other side, there was a dude strumming on a spanish guitar throwing out some hypnotically relaxing and low-key vibes. It was a perfect set of sound waves for the moment.

After a while, the journey continued on. We walked past the Rathaus, where they were hosting some kind of film festival. Neither of us were up for forking over the cash for it, so we strolled by, found an allee, and headed down thataway.

Weird interaction on that street. Some dude walked past and as he did asked if I was Jewish. I said no (as I am not), and his reply, "then go away". No idea what the fuck that was about, but the dude was shady as shit so we just kept walking.

At this point, walking along this gorgeous, broad allee, with bike streets and car streets all mixed in, I kinda got the feeling that all the buildings just kinda blended together. This may just be characteristic to that area of Vienna that we walked through, but it was not very vibrant and just gave a sterile, museum-like feel. Not all that spectacular.

That all changed once that allee led us to the waterfront. Not sure why this was such a surprise to me, but we'd stumbled upon the Danube flowing through town, and it was quite a vibrant stretch! We had to hunt for a staircase down to the walkway, but once we got down off the street-level, it felt like a different world.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, and I think it will always be true - water immediately changes the feel and atmosphere of a city. This was very true in Wien. There was color everywhere, graffiti, artwork, a laid back vibe, tons of people walking and biking around, just a relaxed place to be. Cool too, as every square inch of wall in the area was covered with color and artwork.

Relaxing. Just really relaxing taking in the energy down by the water. Eventually though, the path took us directly back up to the street level. All good things come to an end, I guess. From there, we pointed our feet in the direction to complete our mini-loop around the city center. Then hunger struck. Uh oh.

We weren't sure what we wanted until Google showed us that there was a Korean restaurant just around the corner. Once we saw that, it's like it'd been in our heads all along, so we made a bee-line for the place - HAN.

No patio spots, but we snagged a table inside. BOOM BABY let's do this. I was a bit bummed to start because the Makgoli only came in a full bottle. Wasn't trying to get sloshed, but any shred of disappointment I had vanished very quickly. We started off with some kimchi and edamame to get the ball rolling. ZOMFG I love edamame. Nomnomnomnomnomnomnomnom. Then the bibimbop came. ZOMFG it was unbelievably delicious. So good, and so flavorful.

At some point, one of the waitresses (turned out to be the cook’s daughter) came out and noticed I like the hot sauce. Because of that, she brought me some special hot sauce that’s extra hot. As she put it on the table I dipped my finger in it to give it a try, and she literally jumped back with a huge gasp! I tasted it, and it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. A bit of a nutty, pasty, smooth feel at the start, and then a good bit of delayed spice. So fucking good.

Turns out, she'd never seen someone be able to handle the sauce like that. Not trying to toot my own horn here, but sounds like my tongue is a little more spice-tolerant than the normal Vienna crowd that rolls up there. No joke, I asked if they had any bottles of the stuff. It was so good. Unfortunately, the answer was no...

From HAN (I saved it on my map for any time I head back to Wien), we strolled through the city back to the car, now in the dark. Tons of activity and action, and it was a delightful walk. Got back to Rupert though and started the last little stretch to make it to Bratislava!

It's only an hour between these two country's capitols, but it was a pretty cool drive. Wasn't a ton to see because of the darkness, but there were a ton of wind turbines along the way that only made themselves known via their synchronized red lights at the top. Wickedly cool seeing all that.

We made it to the border, snagged our toll vignette, then made it to the suburbs of Bratislava to our AirBnB. We rolled up kinda late, but our host's son was super helpful getting us in to the apartment and set up. Yann and I played some backgammon, but then it was time to hit the sack.

Mini-GBD

Although I've been to Austria before, I've never done a segment of Good, Bad, Different for the country. This was kind of a bit too much of an abbreviated visit, especially since it was only to one city, but here we go!

Good

• Huge lanes devoted to bike streets. Essentially full car lanes or separate streets, which were usually separated and/or elevated from normal traffic. All of it only for bicycles. How dope.
• Tons of green space and water in the city

Bad

• The parts of Vienna that I saw, in terms of architecture, really looked homogenous and started to truly blend together. Of course, there were differences in the details of the structures and such. But, if it wasn't some kind of highlighted historical building, they all seemed to be cut from the same white stone with the same architectural motif. This was surprising to experience, as Vienna is touted as a cultural landmark. I didn't expect it to all seem to be the same.

Different

• Most intersections made you cross what felt like five different crosswalks just to get to the other side of the road.
• There were so many freakin benches in the parks. Not sure if it was intentional because there needed to be so many places to sit, or if someone just went way overboard with it.

Day 1 - Bratislava

As always, it was up and at 'em, ready to start this explration trip off. Yann and I woke up and got ready in a relaxed manner, then headed towards town. Once we started walking, we quickly realized that our AirBnB was in the embassy residence area of town, with seemingly every second block some country's coat of arms on a gate or something like that. Even without that, there were some pretty wicked homes as we made our way down the hill in towards the city center.

Before we'd made it quite all the way down the hill and into town, we came upon the National Council building, what I took to equate to their Senate Chamber or something similar. We wandered around the plaza for a bit and checked out the cool statue, beautiful overlook of the city, cool view of the bridge, and entrance to the old castle. But, as hunger was starting to creep in, we kept going, intending to return later.

The last stretch to the city center was quick after that. Took us a bit of walking around (no sweat though, it was a gorgeous morning), but we found a decent little place. Nothing too spectacular, but the pancakes were pretty great, and I found out I'm not a fan of chemex coffee. But, satiated, time to explore!

Being in the capitol, and a historical one at that, we put on our walking boots and got our sightseeing on. The core of the city center was the historical area, with plenty of things to see. Being still somewhat early in the morning, it was also relaxing as we strolled around.

Sidenote: Why the fuck does America feel so god damn special that every embassy I’ve ever seen is guarded like Fort Knox and always prominently in display right in the middle of the city. Seriously? Are we that arrogant and anxious as a country? The one in Bratislava was located right on the main pedestrian allee, and looked more like a jail than an embassy.

We picked up a trail along a tree-lined allee as it took us back up towards St. Michael's Church - huge, tall, promiment, right in the middle of it all and visible from pretty much everywhere.

Right in front of the church was a little pavilion with some historical and informational boards showing how the area used to look, important events from the past, the role the church has (and other buildings had) played in the community, and other stuff. The most memorable thing for me though was the sign that showed how that area was at some point leveled to build the highway that ran right next to the church. The old Synagogue and tons of other assumingly significant and historical parts to the cities past just destroyed so they could build the UFO bridge and a freeway right through downtown. Crazy communist past...

From the church, we went up the stairs and along the old city wall ramparts, then curled back into the many plazas and narrow walkways that we encountered along the way. Then we went back to the old tall tower/gate pictured above, but we couldn't find an entrance. Not sure if all the websites we read were lying, or that there just wasn't a lookout up top. Either way, that was out of the picture.

We cruised and meandered our way through some historical buildings, along some slowly-more-populated streets, past some cool statues, and were having a laid back time of the beautiful morning.

At this point, some of our research came to the point of publication. Although we'd only been walking around for an hour or two at this point, we'd noticed that nearly every group of people also out and about had cones of ice cream in tow. No joke. It was almost everywhere. This suprpsied us, as Germany is seen as a pretty ice cream-friendly land, but Slovakia was blowing the dairy out of that comparison.

My Momma didn't raise me to be no fool. So we circled back to an earlier ice cream dealer we'd seen, snagged a couple scoops, and posted up on the nearest bench. Nothing like the combination of ice cream and people watching.

In our sweet spot, we got up and taversed over to the other side of the historic city center with the Blue Chapel as our destination. On the way, We saw some cool buildings and such, but the Blue Chapel was quite the exclamation point. It stuck out like a sore thumb, and was quite the interesting thing to see.

We hung around for a bit to admire the unique building and how it seemed, not out of place, but to just really stick out from everything around it. The blue paired with the clear skies quite well.

Our plan from there was to head over to the other side of the river, walk around and explore a bit, and then make it over to the UFO Bridge to go up to the observatory deck. Step 1 then, cross the river. This was done via a really cool pedestrian/train bridge, aka the Old Bridge. I was loving the shapes and geometry of it paired with the sunshine and shadows, so I took my time in crossing and looking back.

Sidenote: The general vibe in Slovakia comes off as a country in between developed and developing. Infrastructure is worn down but present, but cities and such have modern amenities.

As I've mentioned, the weather was gorgeous, so our walk back down the Danube over to the tower was perfectly delightful. Eventually, we made it to the tower, but it was closed for lunch. Bummer, but not really. Right next to the tower is a big park, so we headed over there.

Being that it was around mid-afternoon, and that we'd been walking for a while, we just found a nice spot to sit down, read, and take a nap. I'm always a fan of naps, so that's what I dove into. :-) Always the right choice. Soon enough though, the clock flew by and the bridge was open again. So we got up and moseyed back over to head up to the top.

As with everything, the whole process was a little more complicated than normal due to COVID, but we got our tickets and eventually found ourselves at the top. Quite the cool view of Bratislava and:

• Parts of Austria
• Parts of Hungary
• A huge group of Plattenbaus next to a shopping center
• Great views up and down the Danube

Also cool at the top was a banner going around the deck stating that the UFO Bridge was part of the World Tower Federation (or some group like that). Turns out I'd been to a few of their partner towers! All-in-all, beautiful views on a beautiful day overlooking Slovakia's capitol!

Our journey then took us back across the bridge in search of something near and dear to my heart - craft beer. As you'd expect, late afternoon, we got thirsty. And through our walking around during the day we'd noticed that good beer seemed to be somewhat-readily available. Naturally, we had to take part.

On the other side of the highway from St. Michael's church (one of us had spotted it earlier...), we rolled up to a little craft beer bar and snagged a table outside. Fresh air, good company, and craft beer. Perfect recipe.

Since I've been living in Germany, a beer-variety desert, for the last while, I've been missing all the variety and diversity of taste that comes with a craft beer culture. Naturally, I was excited to be back in a country that doesn't archaically limit themselves of taste and ingredients. Excited and happy to see options on the tap list, I snagged myself a Citra IPA. To be honest, it didn't really taste like one, but it still tasted great.

We sipped our delicious liquids, watched the cars and people go by, saw a bunch of commmotion with some kind of VIP group at the church, and just enjoyed the moment until our glasses were empty. Back up and at 'em, from there we wandered through the small alleys up the back-paths back to the castle.

The little stretch of buildings leading up to the castle were really cool and quaint. The vibe was quiet but comfy, so we took our time walking past the little bars and buildings on the way up the hill. The path then spit us out back at the National Council buliding, so we walked past that and into the castle grounds to explore.

Once we got into the fortress walls, we realized just how gigantic the castle is. Huge building, towering over us, not just upwards, but footprint as well. We walked around and took the building, the statues, and the view of the city in. Pretty cool spot. Was a bit of a bummer though that the castle gardens were closed for some kind of private event, but that's how it goes.

By this point dinner was on our minds. So from the castle we decided to try and find a way out and back down towards town in search of a good place to chow down. Unfortunately, it took us a bit of a while to find a path that didn't lead to someone's backyard, but eventually we found our way.

Sidenote: For some reason we ran into a ton of historical buildings, places of significance, etc., where people's houses were jammed right up to it. For example, trying to get out of the main castle there, some paths just led directly into people's courtyards. Not sure why a national historic site as a pheaux entrance/exit specifically for the people that live in those buildings, but it was pretty interesting/weird to see. Also, we weren't alone in trying to go down those paths to get out...

Our first idea of a Steakhouse ended up falling through. They were way too expensive. Trouble was, that put us in the terrible predicament of both being hungry and being on the search for food in the most touristy area of town. Not a good combo.

This perilous search took us past a few places that looked cool but were packed, that were eager to host us but we weren't interested in, and similar situations. Somehow we got lucky though and stumbled upon a really quiet and small inner courtyard that ended up having a restaurant. No one was there other than the cook and waitress hanging out a table. We weren't sure they were open, but they waved at a table and we took a seat.

Ended up being just what the doctor ordered. Amazing food, cheap beer, and a laid-back atmosphere. Hard to beat that!

Satiated and relaxed, we (I, at least) felt the sweet tooth coming on. We enjoyed the patio and the calm environment at the restaurant for a bit, then were on the hunt for dessert. Found a cafe with a tiny table outside and snagged an espresso and some cheesecake. Total win.

Food and drink success with a little people watching while enjoying it all got us back on track for a little more walking around. Our route took us to a newer part of town from what we'd explored earlier in the day, and eventually we would up at the Presidential Palace.

To my eyes, it was kinda weird to have a presidential residence in the middle of the city (and as I type this I remember the time I walked past the White House right in the middle of DC...). On the one hand it's a ceremonial sign that the president is connected to the people, yes. But how often do they actually get out and interact with their constituents, neighbors, and people nearby?

We wandered around the gardens a bit, then headed back out to the neighborhoods on our way to the Slavin Monument. The journey there took us through some pretty neighborhoods and up a big hill on the edge of town, and eventually we had some sporadic views looking over Bratislava.

Twas a bit of a bummer, as the monument itself was covered in scaffolding because of construction. That was a bit of a letdown. But walking around the monument complex was pretty calm and relaxing. The monument and complex is dedicated to the Soviet troops that helped liberate Bratislava from Nazi control in WWII, so there were tons of military insignias and plaques of fallen soldiers throughout the area.

By the time we were on our way out from the monument complex, night was upon us. We'd done a ton of walking throughout the day, and were trying to decide if we were up for another drink somewhere, or just heading back to the AirBnb. After some deliberating as we walked past some wicked homes with some amazing views of town up on the ridge, we decided to call it a day and head back to crash.

Day 2 - Crossing the 'Dube then Nitra

You know how mornings go, we woke up and eventually got ready. For some reason our host showed up a good bit early and kinda rushed us out of the place. Oh well. Just meant we got an earlier start to the day.

We packed up the car and then walked back down to the town center for some grub. Thankfully we opted to bring our rain jackets along for the ride, as it started raining right as we got into town. Our way to town took us back through the castle, and this time the gardens were open. So along with heading to breakfast, we got some rain-calmed scenery to take in along the way.

We strolled in with our schnazzy jackets into the town center, then saw a Mondieu (I think that's where we'd got our sweet tooth on the night before). Rather than fight the battle of trying to find the best place to breakfast, we settled in there and had a delicious breakfast. Easy win.

Grubbed up and ready for the day, we strolled around a bit more, exploring the now rainy town center. Just like the day before, it was beautiful. Rain is really soggy and damp, but it does add quite a nice vibe to things, as long as you've got the right clothing for it.

Once back to the car, we were off to the next stop in our adventure! We took the road out of town over the UFO bridge, then turned south to drive along the Danube. Kinda cool getting out of the big city, as things got much more authentic as soon as we did. Our first stop was just a bit outside of town along the river. Yann had found a cool art museum right on the river, so that's where we headed.

Womp womp womp. Turns out the place was closed on Monday's. Good thing too, because it was Monday. :-/ Bummer. But we made the most of it by walking around the area and seeing what we could. Ended up having some cool things to see like a dam, boat launch, watersports park, and some more. The grey weather was perfect for just strolling around, taking in the mighty Danube, and teaching/explaining to Yann about the amazing wonders of Sloppy Joes.

We took our time exploring around and taking in the sites and sounds of that little area. But from there, we jumped back into Rupert and took the little road that continued south alongside the Danube. Kinda cool, as we were on a jetty that channeled the Danube down the river (the main boatway) which was on our left, and on our right was the orignal path of the Danube. And on the other side of that right-side stretch of water was Hungary. Crazy.

That little road took us along a pretty calm little stretch through some small towns and along the water, and eventually it was going to take us across the Danube. But the way it did that was via a bridge over some giant boat locks and a dam that spanned the whole river. We almost drove right through, but I flipped Rupert around to park so we could jump in and explore this civil engineering behemoth.

Damn good thing we stopped, because this was a pretty sweet thing to check out. We walked from the car over the bridge to the locks, and noticed there was a bunch of construction going on, which ended up making the visit that much cooler. Well, as we learned, we had just driven along and were exploring part of a re-route of the Danube river to make room for the giant locks we were checking out.

As I mentioned, part of it was under construction. As it was, one of the lock's channels were completely dry, so we got to watch the construction and get a grasp of just how massive the channels are. Obviously, the Danube is a pretty big and active river with plenty of commerce going up and down its banks. So seeing the infrastructure that allows that kind of activity was pretty cool.

While exploring the locks out and grasping their size, it reminded me very closely of the locks I visited in Lüneburg way back in 2013. My guest grandpa took me there on a little adventure, and similar to here, were impressive to take in.

We did a good amount of exploring and walking around as we checked out the complex. Cool being able to look out onto the breadth of the giant river and get a good lay of the land. From the locks we slowly meandered back to the car to complete the journey across the river.

As we jumped in, we got into a new groove of turning on some episodes of This American Life as we were driving. This time, we threw on the Frat-House episode to give Yann a little taste of this crazy subculture of the US. Drunken idiots, everywhere.

Sidenote: It was honestly kinda weird listening to a podcast about America, as I’m living in Germany, and traveling through Slovakia. While doing it, I had the feeling that it was hindering the cultural experience in a way. Not sure if that’s legit or true, but it was what I was feeling in the moment.

As we were cruising, we stopped off at a grocery store in a tiny village to stock up on snacks. Good decision, as we learned everything was pretty dirt cheap. So we grubbed up and were happy as we continued on.

Our next stop was the town of Nitra. Relatively shortly after the grocery stop, we parked and got to exploring/wandering around the city. It ended up being a little smaller than expected, but was still worth the visit.

We covered the pedestrian zone / city center pretty quickly. But while hanging around the main square and people watching a bit, I popped into the post office to grab some stamps. I was a little surprised by it, but I had my first non-verbal encouter of the trip. I body-languaged my way through it, but was very unsure if I got all that I needed or correctly conveyed my needs through the thick glass separating me from the confused Slovakian lady behind the counter. Rather than waste everyone's time though, I snagged my packet of stamps and assumed I was all set to go!

Once we were done cruising around the pedestrian zone, we started heading up the hill towards the town's castle. Great walk through some side streets and some more natural areas of town, as well as some great views of the area.

The castle was quite the big structure up on the hill, and was cool walking up to it. The bridge going up into the castle was built at some point way after the castle was built, but up on the archway we could still see the original holes where the chains were pulled through for the drawbridge. I thought that was a pretty cool remnant of history.

Getting in we paid for the cheap price to explore the castle grounds. Cool grounds with some great views along the ramparts, and really beautiful views of the hilly area. I wandered into the church and was pretty impressed by the incredible red marble strewn all over the place.

While at the top, we found a good spot to hang out and enjoy the views while planning out our next few hours. Nice place to sit and take in the fresh air. After a while, we hashed out our lodging plans and then walked back down to town for some grub.

No long search needed this night, as we found the Irish Pub and plopped down. Burgers, Beers, and people watching. A helluva recipe to end a great day. From dinner, we cruised on over to our AirBnB on the outskirts of town and were intrigued at the setup. It was a cozy little pension-type place, but was interesting checking in. Either way, we got our room and crashed.

Day 3 - Banská Štiavnica

Next morning, similar story of the rest. Breakfast was a little fancier than I anticipated, but I snagged the Slovakia-take on French toast. It was ok. The bread was really good, but the rest wasn't anything too spectacular.

Packed up and cleaned up, we jumped back in Rupert and hit the road towards the hills! Finally, nature and elevation change!!! :-D We threw on some more This American Life along the way, and I was really loving how much Yann was digging the program and the insight into us weird Americans.

Sidenote: Slovaks are some pretty intense/wreck-less drivers. They drive at high speeds regardless of location (especially around crosswalks and walking zones), performing overtaking maneuvers when you probably shouldn’t, just all in a hurry and ready to take a risk.

Our target for the day was Banská Štiavnica, a tiny little historical town tucked into the hills. We got into the valley, tried to figure out where to start, and ended up circling around town then finding a place to park. We grabbed our exploration gear and hit the streets ready to see what we were in to.

From our parking spot, we started walking up the hill to the main part of town. The start was a little interesting, but the further uphill we got, the more we started to feel a cool atmosphere and vibe from the town. It was a small place, not too busy, laid back, and low-key - no hustle or bustle.

There were a few cool sights and things along the way, but eventually we made it to the main 'city' center. We hung about for a bit and got our bearings, and I squeaked in to the tourist office to grab a map. From there, we headed up the hill a little further to the Old Castle.

The walk over to the Old Castle continued to show us the quaint and cool atmosphere of the city. Small buidings and houses, lots of little statues and neat sights here and there, and eventually some great views of the valley further up the hill. Eventually though, we made it to the castle and started checking it out.

Unfortunately, there were a ton of other tourists with the same idea as us, but we both got in and walked around the castle grounds to check it out. The ticket desk handed us each a little program that clarified all the various landmarks on site, so we each went off on our own little self-guided tour.

Pretty cool mish-mash of historic buildings. The setting was up on the hill overlooking the town, with huge walls wrapping all the way around the giant castle/church inside. There were some cool exhibits of old artifacts, and a bunch of rooms around the castle walls to explore. Did that, enjoyed the stuff there, but eventually grew impatient with the wealth of idiots walking around the place and eventually headed out to meet Yann on the patio outside. Cool spot though.

Out on the patio, Yann and I hung out on a comfy little bench for a good while enjoying the day and the view. Eventually, we got up and cruised back down towards town on the hunt for a little spot for some coffee. After a little hunting around, we found a place tucked inside a courtyard with a cozy table outside and a relaxed vibe.

Caffeinated and relaxed, we hit the trail once more to head up over a different hill and make our way over to the open-air mining museum. Around that time the sun came out for a hot minute as we had a nice conversation about diversity in France. There, just like in the US, racists assholes complain that things aren’t white enough. What the fuck.

Sidenote: All the shit going on in the US right now has really strengthened my negative opinion of my home country, as well as implanted the impression that we are alone in the bigotry, fascism, asshole-ery of the world. Unfortunately, in talking to others and getting an idea of how things are elsewhere around the world, we are not alone in the mentality of racism. It sucks to see that, and that people can still be so negative and hateful towards others, unfortunately in all places across the world.

Don't be an asshole. Be kind to your neighbors and everyone around you.

It was a bit of a walk out of town over to the mining museum, but nothing like having a good discussion along the way. Once we got there though, we learned that most of the tours were sold out. The ones that weren't however, were much later in the day, and we weren't trying to hang out for a few hours.

Despite the bummer news, we opted for wandering around the ground-level exhibits and had a good time doing that. There were a lot of cool artifacts and exhibit buildings there to check out and see what kinds of stuff were done way back when. Gotta say, mining as a livelihood must have been a really friggin hard life. Now for sure as well, but way back then, with less technology and little to no care about people's health...

After checking out the mining exhibit, we backtracked down the hilly road and wound up at the New Castle. There weren't any views on the outside of the castle, so we kind of waffled about going in. Both for Corona and cost reasons. But as the view from the walkway was just shrubbery, we made it happen.

Ended up definitely being the right decision too. This New Castle was built as a protection against the invading Turks. I didn’t know the Turks were that power thirsty and blood hungry, but clearly that was the case based on the fact that a castle was built specifically for that purpose, and as portrayed through the descriptions and maps inside.

The exhibits and artifacts inside were really quite cool and informative. There were tons of pictures of the town in various eras of the past, and a good bit of rustic weaponry used to defend against the dastardly Turks. The many centuries/eras of invasions were also well portrayed through maps and such, and it was really cool to get a grasp of the crazy life that must have been had back then, having to brave through hard winters, then spend the good months trying to find a way to live while also defending your home on a constant basis. Intense.

Again, a cool spot. But from there we started our jaunt all the way across town to the third of the three big hills in the area. But on the way we spent most of the time walking around in some very non-touristy areas, which was really nice. As usual, we got a (what we believed to be) pretty brief but nice taste of what things look like for the people there. That, and there were some cool views along the way.

Our walk eventually got us to the Cavalry, a catholic relic of the impact of religion on the area. There were a ton of religious things on the way up (aka dioramas of jesus), but we just hiked up. We were in it for the views, and views are what we got, including some great ones at the top.

The top of the hill was home to a cool refurbished church, with a really bright and cool color scheme that helped it stand out on the peak of the hill above town. During the War (WWII, if I remember correctly), it was severely damaged. But recently, a big effort was put into refurbishing it, and the work that was done really did a good job.

While looping around the church, we found a tiny little kitty just hanging out. Had the feeling that it was just left there by someone or maybe just a local stray who knew exactly where to find plenty of attention on any given day. I'd assume the latter, because it was doing its best to soak up everyone's attention. Cute little thing.

After a lap or two of walking around the castle and enjoying the various vistas, we found a spot to plop down and enjoy the great view of the countryside. We chatted, hung out, and just enjoyed the moment for a good long while atop the hill.

After a good rest and soaking in the scenery, we started our trek down. Somehow we got on the topic of credit, so we discussed the differences of credit and finances between the US and DE. The discussion was pretty insightful and interesting, especially realizing that both country's setups of credit are almost identical. The biggest difference - the US is willing, if not eager, to hand out credit cards to those that have no business dealing with one, whereas DE prevents potentially risky people/users from getting credit cards and such. Hmmmm, sensible move, I'd say.

Our walk was full of one target - dinner. Thankfully, we knew right where to go this time. As we were walking over to the Cavalry, we spotted some place with a giant poster of a fancy-looking beer. We earmarked it and headed straight for it. Pivovar Erb.

As we rolled up, we'd initially just planned on a quick beer. But as soon as we walked in, everything looked so damn good. With that, it was time to Treat Yo Self.

First things first - Beer. Not just any, time for the Braxatoris. That's what was posted on the schnazzy sign we'd seen earlier in the day, so we had to try it. The mighty Braxatoris was its name, and it claimed to be the first Slovakia-developed beer style, and was quite the beer. Not letting it go alone, we snagged some spicy camambert as an appetizer and let the deliciousness begin to roll.

Around that time I finished up my Braxatoris, we finished up the camembert, and the main course had made its way to our table. I got some yummy chicken and the Dark beer to go with it. Hot dayum was it good. We really balled out at Pivovar Erb, and everything they threw at us was absolutely amazing.

Even with the beers and the great food, I was feeling more. So that's what I went for. Namely, the chocolate lava cake. Any time those words are present together is a damn good sign. And this time was no different.

As I said, we totally balled out at Pivovar Erb, and it was an absolutely money decision. Nice when you take the chance to treat yourself, and everything turns out to be way better than you expected!

Completely and utterly wonderfully satiated, we were on to thinking about next steps and where to stay for the night. Since Banská was really an awesome place, we tried to find a place to stay there. From Erb we dropped off our souvenirs in the car, then drove up to one Pension to see if there was space. Unfortunately, parking was non-existent there, so we ended up making the split decision to drive on.

In hindsight, both Yann and I wished we would've found a place to stay there. Banská Štiavnica is a truly delightful little town tucked up in the hills with tons of charm and things to do. Highly recommended to check out!!!

But, from Banská, we hit the road. Our target was somewhere to stay, so we found the nearest big-ish city and headed there. We eventually got into Zvolen and found a cheap hotel by accident right 'downtown'. The check-in process was a bit drawn out, but the lady at the counter was super friendly and spoke extremely good german. Once we got to our room, we swept the mini-bar (cause it was FREE), and then hit the hay.

Day 4 - Pol'ana National Park Protected Landscape Area

The fancy hotel gave us a meager breakfast to start, but then we were off for a day in the woods! After a couple days of cruising through some cities (albeit nice and interesting ones), we both thought it was high time for a little neature in our lives.

Starting out, I had an idea of where I wanted to head. So we hit the road and made our way through the beautiful countryside over to our goal. Unfortunately, just like what happened to me in Oberstdorf, the road we took eventually produced a No Entry sign, so that was really helpful...

Flipped a bitch and changed plans to head over near Detva. Thankfully, technology and maps are amazing in today's day and age, so it was a quick rework of our plans to head over to a different 'trailhead' to start our adventure. It only took a little while to get over there, but we eventually found a spot to park, got ready, and hit the trail!

In hindsight, we should've parked a lot further up the road, because the first probably 45 minutes was just walking along the road past some farm fields and rural homes. It was pretty, don't get me wrong, but it was just long. That, and there were tons of aggresively barking dogs as we passed by many of the homes. Thankfully, all of them were either chained up or gated in. But that moment of unsureness between when the barking starts and when you see where it is chained up or gated in, that can be quite the mini heart-attack.

Eventually we got to a small cropping of homes and there was a sign for the start of the trail. Woohoo! From there, it was up the hill we went. For the most part, the trail was decently signaged, but there were a couple weird gaps that we eventually finagled our way through.

The first cool thing along the way was a weird tower-like rock formation kinda popping out of nowhere. After that, a few open fields, a few views back the way we came into the valley, and we kept chugging uphill. We stopped for a few breaks to enjoy it too, no worries.

The trail eventually became a little more forested, which provided a cool change in scenery. There were tons of mushrooms on the ground nearly the entire way. Tons of them looked really interesting, as they really stood out from the rest of the foliage.

At some point the trail popped us onto a road which ended up being the parking spot for the Hotel Pol'ana. Weird too, because the place was completely empty and closed. In a way it made sense because it looked more like a ski hill/area, but still. A giant building in the middle of the forest looking a little deserted. Weird.

We poked around the hotel area for a hot second, reading some of the nature signs and information about the national park area, then started the jaunt further uphill. There was some kind of Soviet Red Star monument, some wetlands, more uphill, the rickety old ski lift, then some more uphill, and eventually we made it up to the tallest peak on the volcanic crater rim!

Oh yeah, let me back up for a second. The reason I picked out this spot and Yann was up to check it out was that on Google Maps it looked like a giant crater in the middle of nowhere. And to be honest, that's exactly what it was.

Some cool tidbits about it:

• It's one of 14 protected landscape areas in Slovakia
• On March 27th, 1990, it was declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve
• The original volcano was one of the greatest European volcanoes at roughly 2,500m high, whereas the highest peak on the rim now is 1,458m high
• It's also the highest volcanic range in Slovakia!

Well, at the top of the highest peak, there unfortunately wasn't a viewpoint or such due to the forest cover. Again, thanks to the handy-dandy maps, I saw what was supposed to be a couple viewpoints, one on each side of the crater rim, just a little bit further down the way. So that's where we headed.

We wandered a bit downhill where we got to the split off for the two viewpoints, and that's where we ran into Lubka. She seemed to be on the hunt for some kind of lookout as well, so we connected on that and headed to the first one together. We ended up cruising around and hanging out with Lubka for a good while up at the top, and as soon as we got to the first look out we were all hit with an amazing amount of natural beauty.

It wasn't a huge overlook, but it was gorgeous. A small cliff right in the woods opening out to the entire valley outside of the volcanic crater looking down on the many farms and fields and the beautiful trees galore.

We all plopped down and found a comfy spot to sit and take it all in. The view was gorgeous, and it was a beautifully calm day to enjoy it. While hanging out, we had some really interesting chats, and heard a bit from Lubka about her journey living in Ibiza for a while and just recently having had returned to her home country and looking for what she wanted to dive into.

Eventually we all mustered up the energy to head to the other view point towards the north on the other side of the crater rim. Back up the trail, wandering through on the other side, and the same thing as before - incredible views.

There, similar as before, we plopped down, hung out, and chatted as we took in the wonderful view. I even got in my mountain nap :-)

At some point, Lubka headed down after our nice time together, and we wished her well. Shortly after that, Yann and I were ready to keep rambling, so we got up and started the trek down. It started out just backtracking back to the vacant hotel, then we opted for a change in route that took us along some water.

Turns out this wasn't just any water to check out, but was in fact one of the biggest waterfalls in Central Europe! It ended up being a really cool waterfall, as there were all kinds of sketchy ladders just to get down to it. Both of us made it past the adventure ladders without harm and got down to the visitor spot to gaze at the mist of water flowing down the rocks.

It was gorgeous. Tall, but quiet. It wasn't a truly constant cascade of water, but a relaxed and peaceful flow coming down from the cliff.

From the waterfall, we started the now long slog back to the car. It started out as trail, then got to forest road, then eventually the forest road spit us out on to the road going along the hillside. We were both a little tired, but powered through as we had yet a while to go before getting back to Rupert.

No idea how this started, but at some point I started going through all of the US States to help Yann work on his pronunciation of them. Honestly, it was hilarious. For him though, I think he thought I was just being an asshole with how different all of the sounds can be.

Take, for example, the letter A. In German, it produces one single sound/tone - aaaaaaaaa. In English though, this becomse a total mindfuck if you're not accustomed to it. How, you ask? I had more examples, but all I need is one - Alabama. Al (aa) - a (uh) - ba (ae) - ma (uh). Same letter, spoken three different ways. Now if that isn't a mindfuck, and probably the reason why people stop learning English soon after they start, then I don't know what is.

That definitely made the walk go by much more enjoyably with the beautiful countryside. Then, out of the blue, a car pulls up next to us and Lubka is on her way down from the trail. She was kind enough to offer us a ride back to the car, and we gladly took her up on it!

She was on the hunt for a place to crash that night, and we would eventually have to figure that out ourselves. She knew of a Pension (B&B kinda thing) in the area, so we popped in there. Unfortunately that place was booked out, but from the sounds of it, it seemed like the whole region was booked out. She chatted with the pension lady for a while and got some leads, then eventually we got back to the car.

As we were all hungry, we ended up banding together and heading to a place she was recommended to chow down. It was a pension restaurant in the town of Detva, so we piled in and found a table on the inner courtyard. Perfect spot to chat, hang out, and enjoy the nice fresh evening.

For dinner, since we had a local friend we could learn a little more about the country from, we asked her what some local specialties were. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of dishes that are truly Slovakian, but there are some! The one she suggested that night was Bryndzové Halušky. Essentially a potato-based Spätzle dish with heaps of sheep's cheese and some dried and fried bacon bits on top. It was fucking delicious.

We chatted and hung out a while longer with Lubka, all while trying to find a place to crash for the night. She ended up finding one of the last beds in town, and we found a hotel a while down the road. Bummer to split from our new friend, but we bid adieu, hit the road, got cleaned up once we got to the hotel, and crashed after a gorgeous day in the woods.

Day 5 - Caves and Valleys towards Kosice

It was up and at 'em ready for another day exploring some of the natural world! Always a good way to start the day! Bummer that that parade was rained on a bit by the super unfriendly hotel staff. Yann got super heated from it, which kinda surprised me.

Sidenote: Why was that surprising to me? Well, in Germany, customer service is an absolute fucking joke. No matter what you're doing, what company you're interacting with, what industry it is, it's a downright fucking joke. Therefore, having a bad customer service experience in Slovakia kinda aligned with how it works in Germany.

In my mind, German's are tolerant of such shitty customer service because it is so prevalent in their culture and NOTHING is done to change it or make it better. Stupidly though, this mindset or view is not valid. Germans (not all, mind you) actually have an appreciation for how you should be treated as a customer, and an expectation of a minimum level of service. Well, Yann has that and understands that a business shouldn't just shit on their customers. Good on you Yann. Sorry that that threw me off guard.

Back to the story. We hit the road and were off to go do some spelunking! As always, the curvy roads through the countryside were gorgeous. The place we were headed was pretty tucked in there, so we cruised along the twisty turns up and down the mountains and headed into the hills.

The beautiful mountain roads eventually lead us to the Ochtiná Aragonite caves. Thankfully we arrived a little early, so we were able to get tour tickets for the next round, and then had a little time to kill beforehand. I walked around the info center and perused the many informational signs about the geologial makeup of Slovakia and Central Europe.

Did you know, there are over 7,300 caves in Slovakia, most of which are being constantly researched and explored? Within that group of 7,300, there are a ton of different types that have unique and interesting characteristics. The one we were checking out is famous for its Aragonite growths/features.

Eventually, the clock struck whatever time it needed to for our tour to begin! As we learned, essentially no fucks were given in regards to Corona - it was just a mass of people huddled together in the info center, down the tunnel, and wandering around the caves. But, in we went, through the tunnel, and down the stairs.

Yann and I had no idea what the various tour guides were saying during the entirety of the excursion, as everything was in Slovakian. Kind of a bummer, but it was a crazy cool cave system to check out. The dirt/earth was a super red color mixed in with some grey/white granite, all sprinkled with the crazy Aragonite formations. To describe it, Aragnoite just looks like some kind of deadly virus growing out of the rock.

Despite everything being in Slovakian, I did know that you were not allowed to take pictures. Hah.

We kinda hung back towards the rear end of the group procession. Also in the back was this really cute little 2-ish year old girl bouncing around and talking all excitedly for the whole tour. She was super happy, bubbly, excited, and cute to watch while not paying a single ounce of attention to what was going on.

Down in the cave, it was clear this was a practiced adventure. The cave itself was a fairly decent-sized complex of caverns and tunnels, and the park did a pretty good job of making it explorable for the public while still maintaining its natural beauty.

Adding to that, the tour guides worked like clockwork herding all us sheep from one area to the next. As soon as we finished in one little alcove or section, the sweep guide of the three would make sure no one was left and immediately turn off the lights to that spot then stood guard making sure no one back-tracked. Very well disciplined shepherds of their flock.

The further along in the tour we got, the bigger the virus-looking growths were in the cracks of the rock. In all, they were quite various in size and shape and look, with some being giant blobs of it hanging down, while other were simple spires jutting out from a small crack in the rock.

In all, way cool stuff. Unfortunately, the tour went by pretty quick, but it was really cool to get a glimpse of some underground phenomena like that. It's crazy to think and see what exists under the surface of the earth that we know so well. Once you go below the surface (and here you could say the same thing on land as well as under water), it's a whole other world that opens up and reveals some crazy cool stuff.

Our clock-work group of guides walked us through the whole loop and then eventually back out of the tunnel to the above-ground world. Yann and I kicked around for a hot second enjoying the view and the gorgeous day, then back to Rupert and back on the road.

Rupert then led us along some more gorgeous hilly roads and through the countryside. Definitely an enjoyable drive coming up and down the hills, in and out of towns and farms and such, and just cruising along. At some point, we stopped off in one of those small towns for a quick beer and a break. Was a cool spot with everything for the town centered around the main square/parking lot, which ended up being a perfect place to enjoy a beer and watch the town slowly roll along with its day.

Our journey then continued on as we headed for a gorge that was on the way to Košice. Eventually the rolling hills kinda flattened out to a small valley with farms and such, then we turned off and headed for the gorge. At first, I wasn't too convinced this was gonna be a great excursion, but we pulled the trigger, paid for parking, and found out there was in fact a big 'ole nature walk leading up the gorge. Hot damn!

We jumped out and geared up then started the trek. It was a fairly gradual walk up the little valley in the trees with a calm river flowing next to the path the whole way providing a gentle, cool breeze. We only got sporadic peeks of the rocks that were towering over us, but the shade was nice and helped kick the heat of the day.

After a while, the trail then cut to the right and started its journey uphill. Turned out to be a long-ish climb, at least longer than expected, but we slowly made our way up to the top of the gorge. Right where it flattened out, there was a gorgeous view overlooking the whole valley, with the stark white rocks and deep tree foliage on a beautiful blue-sky day. Pretty gorgeous.

We stopped and enjoyed the view as we cooled down from the climb. Once we were cooled down, we wandered back onto the trail and down into a field, then back into the trees along the gorge's edge. As with a lot of natural areas way back when, they used to (and probably still do) have problems with clear cutting and improper use of the land that led to erosion and instability. Seems like the country and various regions are focusing on sustainability between agriculture and industry and nature, which was visible in small areas along the trail.

Eventually made it to another incredible lookout. There, we were able to see up and down the entire valley. We hung out for a bit in one spot, then moved over to another to enjoy the views. At some point, I was feeling a little restless but tired, so I found a spot in the shade with a view to try and take a nap.

I'm unfortunately a bit of a light sleeper, or at least I struggle to fall asleep when things are going on around me. There, with the bugs and stuff crawling over me, I wasn't able to clock out all the way. Bummed, but while sitting there and relaxing, I made friends with a cool looking salamander who made sure to keep an eye on me as I was in his neighborhood. Also got to wave to Hungary from where I was at.

After recooping some energy and enjoying the beautiful day, Yann and I met back up and continued our little journey. It was (for me at least) crazy to be sitting there at the top and to be able to just be looking out over into Hungary. So close, a whole different country. Cool stuff.

We wandered along the trail which started to take us back down the hill to the start. Had some nice discussions along the way, made it back to the car, and then we were off to Košice!

From there, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump through the Eastern Slovakia countryside til we rolled into Košice. We didn't have a place to stay lined up when we got there, so we parked somewhere near town and hung out for a bit. We were going to just walk around and explore for a bit, but found out we'd parked next to an awesome brew pub, Dobré Časy.

We grabbed some beers as we waited for answers on our AirBnB requests. Had some good chats over the beers (again, craft beer, why is this not a legit thing in Germany!?). We got a reply and I was stupidly a little bummed/annoyed that it was so far out of town, but we headed over and got checked in.

Our spot was a Plattenbau on the outskirts of town. Seeing a Plattenbau, a giant, stark, brutal concrete building, I was really pleasantly surprised to see how nice the apartment was that we'd snagged inside. Quite the crazy contrast to the stark build and impression of the building itself (despite ours being painted a little green and blue).

We got in, got settled, cleaned up, and lounged around for a nice, relaxing bit, before walking down into town for some grub. We took the walk as dusk was slowly setting and were on the hunt.

The first place we wanted to check out was permanently closed. The second place we wanted was pitch black. Not a good 1-2 punch when you're hungry. We went to another place but they were out of patio space (not trying to sit inside due to COVID and a nice summer night). Eventually walked down another alley off the main drag and found a spot off the tourist street on the patio. Dope.

Food. Really good food. Definitely helped that we were pretty hungry, but it was delicious. Not quite ready to call it a night, we headed back to Dobré Časy for a dessert beer and brownie (god I love brownies...). Perfect night with great company and great beers. Wrapped that up, walked back to the apartment, and crashed after a great day.

Day 6 - Košice

Since we were staying in Košice for two nights, we had a lazy morning getting up and ready for the day. After relaxedly getting ready, we headed down to town to start off the day with some breakfast. The walk to town from the apartment was a good 20-30min, and we got to get a good taste of the town as it slowly woke up for the day.

We got in and poked around a bit, then found a sweet cafe tucked away on a tiny street with a beautiful little patio completely hidden away. So dope. Yann and I were really digging it, kinda below ground level with the sunshine flowing in, little old Vinyl records as the table markers, friendly service, and all of it. Just bam.

Coffee, croissants, killer way to start the morning. We breakfasted our way to satiation and started to discuss our plans for the day. For some reason, I was feeling anything but motivated to wander around and was feeling like I needed a little 'me' time (which I should have voiced in the moment...). But we started off meandering around then eventually split up. Yann seemed to have a lot more energy and zeal than me at that point in time, so he went off to explore the town.

So Yann went off and got his walking and exploring game on. I on the otherhand found the nearest available bench, and sat down. For the next four hours. Wasn't expecting that to happen, but I was enjoying the tranquility of just letting the world pass by. It was truly relaxing.

While sitting there, I pulled out my kindle and read. This was kinda uncharacteristic of me (reading, and just staying in one spot), but it was quite therapeutic. No timetable, no rush to do anything, no plans or actions, just sitting there and watching the world pass by.

Amidst all the reading, I definitely popped my head up a bunch to just take in the environment. Here are some things I noticed:

• Lots of police presence in town
• Lots of homeless/vagrant presence as well
• Correlation between those last two?
• Bicyclists of all shapes and sizes out and rocking their two-wheeled chariots
• Heavy family-orientation. It was a Friday, but families were out in droves hanging out and wandering around
• Around 4pm some bar down the way started blaring some shitty pop music...
• Kids here LOOOOOVE chasing pigeons. Seriously

Sidenote: There were so many young families, everywhere we’d went. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say Catholicism had an impact here...

Sidenote: There is a clear difference in people-mixture in the east side of country. Likely due to influences from Turks and Roma’s over on this side of Slovakia from centuries past.

I need to keep that in my mind for future trips - find time to just find a place to sit, stop, and take in the world. That was truly a nice time to just be.

As with all things, my time sitting eventually came to an end as I was ready for something different, but really just needed to take a leak. Got that taken care of, and went to the first ice cream place I saw and ended up getting what I thought was some Gillie's Chocolate Custard. Seriously Mom, it was literally the exact same thing and absolutely delicious!

From there, I slowly walked through the main pedestrian zone. Took some pictures, realized the source of that shitty pop music was from some hockey team promo, got excited thinking there was a hockey game that night, learned that there wasn't a hockey game that night, and just kept wandering along.

As I was cruising down the pedestrian zone I passed by the main church and saw a cute gal sitting at a table at the foot of the tower. First thought, that was kinda weird. Then I put 2 and 2 together and realized that it was a church, and churches have towers, and towers have views of the city. Boom. Snagged my ticket and started climbing the stairs. Nice when my brain decides to wake up and contribute.

Sidenote: Every city and village we’d been to, as is common all throughout Europe, had a pedestrian zone. In thinking about it, I can’t think of a single US city with a pedestrian zone that is not a park. Bummer, as it's such a pleasant and useful addition to a city.

It was a super tight stairwell to get to the top, and weirdly it opened up into some cavernous rooms that weren't blocked off, as well as the bell tower that one could just waltz right into. Which I did. Just to take some pictures.

Made my way up to the top and what a great view of the city on a beautiful day! I stayed up for a good while, taking in all sides of Košice under the waning sunlight.

After a while, I made my way back down the tiny staircase and back down onto the street. I pointed my trail out of the main part of the city and wandered over to a park next to the train station. Wandered through the greenery and fountains a bit before finding another bench to take a load off for another while.

As I always do, I got hungry. Because I was next to the train station, I decided to head there, as there was a brewery inside that I'd noticed the night before. So, since I was in the neighborhood, I figured it'd be worth a visit.

And indeed it was. The waiter was super friendly and got me squared away with their dark beer, some goulash, and cheesecake to wrap it all up. An absolute killer meal.

Once again satiated after a delicious meal, I headed back out to town and wandered around a bit. Found a nice bench or two to relax on for a bit, and slowly strolled through town. It was getting dark, so after a while I slowly started making my way back on the trail back to the apartment while enjoying the night.

Didn't last long after getting back to the apartment and meeting back up with Yann before calling it a night and hitting the sack.

Day 7 - UNESCOs through to Poprad

It was another lazy up and at 'em, but we got ready then drove down for some breakfast. Outside of town Yann found a cool spot with a nice patio and some delicious food. I bougie'd out with some avocado toast. Delicious. Grubbed up, we hit the road and headed north.

Our first stop for the day was Prešov. It was a quick half hour or so from breakfast and we popped into the town to walk around for a bit. Parked somewhere outside of the town center, then walked in to see what was up.

Turned out to be quite a nice little spot. It was pretty small, but with some cool stuff to admire while there. We meandered around the streets, saw the pretty buildings, and kept a relaxed stroll going.

Right in the heart of the main plaza was something quite peculiar. In the foreground right in front of the church was a monument/obelisk with the Soviet star, hammer and sickle, and Soviet crest. Despite all the inscriptions being foreign, I’m gonna take a wild stab and say it had something to do with WWII, but the juxtaposition of a soviet monument right in front of the towns church was pretty stark and interesting.

We strolled along for a little bit more, seeing the town slowly wake up a bit, and meandered our walk in and out of the pedestrian zone. Eventually, we finished a makeshift loop around town and made our way back to Rupert to head a little further north.

Once again, we were treated to some beautiful countryside as we were driving through. This was incredibly present regardless of where we were in Slovakia, but the landscape turned out to be just gorgeous. Rolling hills, tiny towns, beautiful colors - quite the incredibly enjoyable way and place to drive.

Before long though, we'd made it up to Bardejov, a UNESCO World Hertige protected town. We parked and walked to the main center, getting some initial churches and fortress bastions to check out along the way.

First stop was the main square, and it was really quite impressive.

• A giant cobbled open space
• Tons of space right in the middle of town, really cool
• The former town hall right in the middle (offset) in the square
• Houses of a very similar style bordering the plaza all around, very cool and consistent motif
• The giant church down at the far end
• A nice little flea market in one small corner of the plaza
• Coolest Part - a statue of an executioner ready to go to work. Wasn't sure what that was all about, but it was pretty cool

We hung around in the square for a while admiring all that was underway and the UNESCO-ness of the place (i.e. trying to take in the history of what was there). Through the main square, we wandered out of the main town center, but down to the edge of town to the former fortress walls. Here's where I got a better feel of the place, as this was just one side of the fortress with a couple gates and bastions and such. Most of it was pretty well preserved, and an incredible reminder of what must’ve been put in place to protect this town from whoknowswhat.

Sidenote: Again, gotta be incredibly weird and intrusive living next to, or in this case essentially in, a historical monument. And Bardejov being a UNESCO Heritage site, being inundated with tourists and lookieloos peeking in your garage every damn day must get really old.

We kept along the outer fortress walls until it essentially led us right back to the town square. At that point, we were a little bit aimless so I took the time to jump into the info center and grabbed a map. Bummer - they were only available in Slovakian or Polish. Interesting.

We were both pretty warm and really feeling the sun come down. Our plan? Ice cream and a little break! Along the square was little cafe so we snagged a table, got some coffee (and I got some ice cream), and we took a load off for a while. Definitely what the doctor ordered.

Twas quite nice to sit in the shade on a hot day and just take a break. We made the most of it and drew it out for a nice little while. At that point, we got up and checked out the other side of the walls and monuments and such.

Not as much to check out on the other side of the main square, but it made for a nice, relaxed walk. Soon enough though, the loop led us back up to Rupert, so we piled back in and hit the road heading West.

On our driving stretches, we'd listened to a bunch of This American Life, and Yann was getting a real kick out of it. One of the episodes they showcased the first episode of Nice White Parents and jesus fucking christ what an embarassment. That was ridiculous to hear how entitled white parents can impact (negatively, mind you) the make up of neighborhoods and schools so drastically.

Back on the road, we got into some pretty remote countryside with a one-lane road up and over a mountain. Made up for some beautiful country roadways and scenery.

Sidenote: Driving through the countryside in Slovakia is gorgeous. It honestly reminds me a ton of the various countrysides in the US.

That beauty got ground to a halt for a good 5km stretch as the roadway turned into a pothole garden. Truly a ridiculous patchwork of asphalt and rocks claiming to be a road going up and over a little saddle.

But, fear not dear readers, soon that bumpy road turned back to normal and spit us out onto a field with a great view across the valley to Spiš Castle! We pulled off to take in the great view of our next destination. Really cool view in general taking in the kinda low valley up and down the area.

We jumped back in the car and headed down the hill towards the castle, slowly nearing the big stone structure on the hill. It was a pretty cool sight seeing this giant castle all alone on its own little peak.

In search of some better lighting (instead of looking right into the sun), we took the road around the castle and through the nearby town. As luck would have it, there was a parking lot at the base of the castle's hill, so we paid and parked there and did our sweatly little walk up the hill to the giant pile of stones.

It was a quickish walk up, and it put us right into a giant hive of tourists. Bleh... Waited in line, got our tickets, and walked up to the main part of the castle.

The Castle was definitely more classified as a ruin now, but being that it dates from the 12th Century, and there were still a ton of intact parts of the place, it was really in pretty damn good shape. That, and the whole thing was pretty impressive to begin with.

Our feet took us up to the main castle area and we wandered around for a bit. We'd bought tickets to check out the tower but immediately threw that out the door when we saw how many people were yammering for it. Yann (rightfully so) got fed up with the amount of people and headed down to fresher air, but I hung out and kept poking my nose around the place for a bit.

I perused around the various rooms in the castle's skeleton and checked out the museum to get a better idea of the background of the place. Again, impressive stuff:

• The castle was invaded by the Monghols in the 1240s. Seriously?!? Slovakia is a long-ass way from Mongolia. That just goes to show just how incredibly expansive the Monghol's reach was!
• In one of the caves underneath the castle, there were some reliefs and bones that were dated back to 100-200AD. Now that's some old stuff

From the castle museum I headed back down to the main part of the castle, and then down to the big expansive courtyard at the bottom of the complex. Yann was already down there lounging out, but I headed down, walked around the ramparts, then met up with him on the hill.

I slowly made my way back up the hill and plopped down next to Yann on the wall. Twas a great spot to sit back, enjoy the sunlight, watch the medieval play being practiced, and we even got to meet a few of the chipmunks hunting around the grass for something to eat!

Our lounge session was all kinds of relaxing, but at some point along the way we got up and made our next move. We slowly escaped the tourist heaven in the castle (which was definitely cool to check out), and made our way back down the hill as golden hour was starting to hit the castle and the valley. Beautiful Spot.

Rupert was waiting for us at the bottom of the hill ready to take us to Poprad. But rather than just b-lining it for town, we took the country road that weaved through the hills right alongside the highway for a more relaxed, scenic route to town. Ended up being the nice, relaxed choice.

The road weaved around, up and down, and through dorf after dorf as we headed west. It was quite the pretty drive. As we approached Poprad, I remember looking to my left as we entered one of the little villages, and was immediately drawn to what looked to be a pretty poor slum up on the hill. It was a very stark contrast to the countryside and area, and a big difference to all of the areas we'd past through up to then.

At some point, we turned a corner and went up a low rise in the terrain, and as we crested - mountains. The High Tatras sitting right in front of us in all of they silhouetted glory. Ooooooooooh boy. Holy god I love mountains.

Shortly thereafter we rolled right on into Poprad, a town right in between the High and the Low Tatras. Quite the impeccable location if you ask me. First thing's first, we needed food.

We parked and made the really short walk to the main part of town and were aiming as our first choice for the MiniPivovar Tatras craft brewery. It looked dope from the pictures, but we walked up and got ghosted. The service looked us over as arrogantly as possible, and although we could see that the tables were full outside, no one even approached us to give us the decency to say sorry. What a bunch of stuck up pricks.

Not trying to let that vibe live on, we moved on and found another brewery nearby - Hodovňa. We found an empty table outside, and the first gal to swing by realized we didn’t speak a lick of Slovakian. As we noticed with a ton of wait staff, she was clearly not comfortable speaking to us in English, so she went back and got the guy who did. And he was awesome.

Didn't catch his name, but straight off the bat the guy was cool as a cucumber. He gave us some translations and tips on the food and stuff, so we took his advice and were in for a great dinner.

One of the appetizers we got was some delicious pickled meat. Essentially Weißwurst dipped in vineager for 6-7 days. It was money.

For the main course, I took the guy's advice and took a second chance on the Bryndzové Halušky sheep cheese potato spaetzle. It was money. The cheese was much stronger, which made a huge difference.

And of course, the beers were delicious.

As we were cramming down our delicious vittles and sucking back our thrist-quenching brews, we noticed the ice cream guy across the way. The entire time we were sitting there, he was on fire selling the frozen dairy goodness. I think through our entire time sitting there, he maybe had a total of 5min without a customer there. Seriously, he was killin it. And as I said, Slovakians are all about that milky sugary dough...

We let all the delicious food and drink settle in and linger on the tongue. It was well worth it. Then, we paid a huge thanks to our awesome server, then hopped around town as we tried to arrange a place to stay.

First idea was Dobré Časy, the beer patio we'd enjoyed in Košice, as they were also a pension/B&B. Unfortunately, the lady there was also pretty cold towards us, so we dipped out.

By that point it was starting to get late, so we were just trying to find something. We'd googled and found a place that looked really nice, a pension in a historic part of town. So we rolled the dice, drove over and knocked, and ended up waking the lady up (we think).

Think she was winding down for the night but she was super friendly, checked availability, and got us acquatined with our room. While getting us set up, she made extra sure that we knew we had English and German tv channels. Super welcoming and we got super lucky, we went down, parked, and grabbed our stuff.

Now here's a part of the story where I am very not proud, but disappointed in myself. I take after my dad in a very bad way.

I ran back up to the car so I could park it in a spot a little closer to the place, and had Yann stand in that spot while I went and get the car. Rolled up, and it took me two tries to parallel park. No biggie.

Well Yann gave me some shit for it and I just wasn't having it. Told him to shut up and that he could walk home if he wanted to (which, for context, is what my dad used to say all the time anytime we did something he didn't like away from home.). That quickly put things on ice for the night.

Eventually I piped up and apologized for being a dick, and thought the tension stemmed from me telling him to shut up. Clearly I'm an idiot, and he pointed out that he was hurt by that fact that I said he could walk home. Quite the dickish moving inviting a buddy along for a road trip and then half-way through threatening them I could just leave them there.

Might have been some tensions, unsureness, or restlessness building up in me during the trip or tensions from the summer coming to a head, might have also been my dad's shitty habits coming to the surface in me. Either way, no excuse. I gotta check myself and my words to make sure I'm treating others with the respect they deserve.

Yann, again, I'm sorry.

Day 8 - Slovakian Paradise

The next day was a late and lazy rise. Kinda nice. Yann wasn't feeling up for much of an adventure, so I got ready to go to Paradise and hit the road. I tried to find some quick breakfast, but on a Sunday morning it was pretty slim pickin's.

I got lucky and found a small espresso bar just up the road in the heart of that little historic distric and snagged a coffee and croissant to at least start things off. From there, I was on my way.

From there, I jumped in the car and headed to a grocery store to stock up on some snacks. But after that, it was just a quick 20min drive over from Poprad to the park. The small size of Slovakia was really messing up my expectations of drive times and distances.

But hey! Slovak Paradise National Park! ...... filled with people. I rolled up and was hoping for a low-key day in the wilderness with few people around. Got the wilderness part, but nothing else. Full parking lot clusterfucked with toursists. Should've expected that...

Paid, parked, and headed to the map. I'd read online that the closest trail was the most popular. With that heads up, and seeing just how many people were there, that trail was clearly out of the running. After a little deliberation I chose a trail further out from the starting point to try to escape the crowds, and started the walk over. It was a long walk along side a river, on the road, and through some greenery, but eventually made it over to the start of the trail.

The start of the trail was pretty easy coming out of that nearby village, but was a bit of a bummer, as the riverbed was all dried up. Because of that, I was worried I wouldn't be seeing much of the prize ticket of the park - waterfalls and such.

Despite the worry, it was a quaint little hike. Tons of rocks and roots with some nice shade and tree cover on a warm day. There started to be a little bit of water flowing here and there, but it was relaxing just to be strolling in the woods.

Slowly, the gorge started to deepen and the sides of the valley I was in started to get a little higher. The amount of water flowing down the valley increased as well, which provided a nice relaxing tone and a calming flow of air. Soon enough I'd rounded a bend in the trail and bam - a super tall waterfall.

There wasn't a huge amount of waterflow, but it was a cool sight. What made it even cooler was the ladder of a trail going right up along side it! I hung out at the bottom pool for a bit to take in the sound and sights, then made my way up the ladder. What a dope trail format. Riverbed, chasm, waterfall, rusted ladders and platforms, my kind of hiking.

From there, it was up the ladder. Again, what a cool way to hike! Once I got to the first level, the trail flowed through a pretty tight chasm further up the river. And to get through it all, it was a mix of metal platforms and wooden ladders/bridges to keep going. To be honest, it was a bit sketch seeing how many of the wooden rungs were rotting out, but I kept chugging along.

The wooden bridges continued for a good while, then the trail reverted back to normal hiking. But then, the second big waterfall showed up! Enjoyed the view for a bit, then up I went to the next round of wooden briges and such.

After a while, the trail went again back to normal, and that was that for the fun stuff. Womp womp womp... The trail continued its way up the valley, and eventually met up with a forest road, which I took until it passed by a big old field.

At that point, I was both a bit tired, and a bit unsure of what I wanted to do. I pulled out my map and hung out a bit as I came up with a game plan. After some internal hemming and hawing, I decided to head down.

Got up and continued on the trail headed back towards the start. It was essentially all forest roads from there, but an enjoyable walk in the shade. Eventually, I got to the point where the most popular trail spits out, and there was a stall of tons of bikes claiming you could experience a real 'downhill' ride to get back to the start. Passed on that, as I knew it was just riding on the forest road all the way down. No way.

It was a long-ish way down, with bikes and people the whole way, but I found a couple places to stop and enjoy a slight break in the trees with a view.

Once I got all the way down the hill, the trail popped back out at the park services area. But instead of getting out of there, I found an empty spot on the grass in the shade, snacked on something, and then shut down for a nap. Oh boy was that a good decision.

The nap was just what I needed. Slowly, I came back to and then gathered myself to hit the road back to Poprad.

Got back into town and met back up with Yann on the patio of our Pension. What a beautiful day. I got cleaned up, then from there we walked over to town to grab some dinner. After talking about it, we decided to give MiniPivovar Tatras another try. Hot damn was it incredibly worth it:

• The service was interesting, as you could tell all of the waitresses were scared/shy of using their English with us
• Milk stout. THEY HAD A MILK STOUT. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS. Made a bold statement to Yann and I think it holds true - might be my favorite beer I’ve ever had in Europe...
• Went for the beer soup as an appetizer. For some reason had beer cheese soup in my head that day. This wasn’t that, but still delicious. That and the waitress poured it out from a little pitcher for me...
• Pieroghis for dinner. Cheese pieroghis. Nomnomnom
• Good people watching on the patio. Confirmed many of our impressions about Slovaks, and confirmed a new one that Slovaks don’t believe in personal space...

After that delicious meal, we were both up for another drink afterwards. Despite the weird reception we'd received the night before, we waltzed back over to Dobré Casy and found a spot on the patio. Drinks ahoy! Had some good beer (an American Pale Ale. DEAR GOD it's nice to have good beer options), some nice conversation, then wrapped up and headed back home where I did a little prepping then hit the sack.

Day 9 - Trail-in to Zelenom Plese

It was an early up and at 'em for me, so I finished getting packed and ready to go. We both got ready, paid the lovely pension lady, and then headed to breakfast.

While in Slovakia, Yann and I had primarily been using Google Maps for our food searches, and through the search picking the best/most appealing option. Sometimes the place ended up being a bit out of town (aka in the 'suburbs'). Usually, when this happened, the language difference became much more appartent - no English/German menus, no English/German-speaking staff, always made for an interesting time.

Breakfast that morning was one of these cases. We pulled up to the place, essentially a little shop in a strip mall with a couple tables outside, and sat down. The first guy that came out dipped as soon as we said English. We never saw him again, and think that he just hid in the kitchen til we left.

Thankfully, Guy #2 was present and tried to help, but he couldn't speak English (or didn't trust himself to) either. Thanks to technology, we google-translated our way to ordering something, and hoping it was palatable.

As we waited, we parked ourselves outside at the table and enjoyed the sunlight at the start of the day. Soon enough, our food came out, and it turned quite delicious, paired well with our discussions about cultures as a kid. Seems like, regardless of where you are in the world, kids grow up as kids and are pretty much the same. A lovely recognition and realization.

Sidenote: Yann shared some cool tidbits about his childhood, and touched on basketball culture; how he and his buddies were always waiting for the next magazine and the newest sneakers, just like in the US. Totally different country and continent, but kids focused on and were trading the same stuff.

Sidenote: On a somewhat related note, Yann was very interested in if the things from America that were popular in Cameroon and France, were also actually popular in the US. So many things across the world in media and sports and such stem from some aspect of the US, but he was wondering if those are also popular in the US and not just exported. For the most part, Yes.

After our vittles, we went to the market to stock up on some more vittles. Then, from there, it was off to the mountains!!! And again, the fact that it was only 20min away was wicked. Everything is so close together in Slovakia.

The drive took us through the really touristy mountain town, and we were both very pumped to not be stopping there. A short while after, we rolled up to the trailhead. I tied on my hiking boots, grabbed my pack, and I was off!

Oh yeah, to clarify, since our trip was a flexible seat-of-your-pants kind of excursion, most (essentially all) of the beds in the mountain huts were reserved. I'd emailed a few of them, and most of them flat out said no, but a couple of them had a bed available for a night. After talking with Yann about it, he was cool if I jumped into it solo, so I made a booking and had a short 3-day/2-night 'backpacking' (no tent camping, sad face...) trip ahead of me.

To start, it was a long, steady climb at the foothills of the mountains. The forest road that was the trail was meh, but I was super happy to be in the woods, with trees and a little creek all around me. I was definitely entering my happy place.

I cruised along for a bit, enjoying the fresh air and sunlight, and eventually stopped for a quick break along the creek. It's always such a nice change going from the path to being next to a creek, where there's always a cool wind flowing with the water. Perfect for a hot day.

As I started going, I realized I didn't have a strong grasp or guess on the distances I had in front of me. After getting up to speed, I realized it'd be a super quick day if I went straight for the hut. Screw that, so I opted for the longer route that branched off and went up the right side of the valley. Adventure!

By looking at the roadway (the trail was a forest road for the first hour or two), something was getting dragged out of the woods... I thought I knew what it was, but my hunch was confirmed when I crossed paths with an old tractor dragging a good ten trees down the road, and the trusty steed that followed. Bummer to see a national park being actively logged.

Kept on keeping on, just as I do. And with it, slowly the trail crept further up the valley and into some higher elevation. Up and in the sunlight.

Eventually, I made it up to a tiny little lake/pond, where there were some congregators congregating around. Not wanting to interact with other people, I cruised on by and took the branch of the trail heading further up the hill. My extension of the trail was going up to a saddle in order to look out down the other valley leading into the one I was heading up to the hut.

Sidenote: For me, trying to describe mountain valley setups so you, the reader, can have a visual for where I'm climbing around is hard. So sorry if my descriptions are clunky and unhelpful.

It was a really pretty day (at least overhead where I was at, it was a bit cloudy elsewhere), and the trail opened ever more up as the elevation rose. As much as I enjoy being in the trees and surrounded by foliage, man I love being able to have a 360-degree view with every step I take.

A short hike uphill from the lake and I'd made it up to the saddle! And what a beautiful view... Staring out across the valley I came up I could see Slovakia, and then looking down the valley opposite where I came up was Poland!!! Hot damn! A little sight of my Mommy's family's roots.

I found a nice spot to sit for a bit and enjoy the view, but there were way too many people about and it kinda killed the vibe. So I decided to not park myself there for too long, and shortly headed further up the hill in search of a better lookout for lunch, with fewer people around.

I grabbed my bag, and roughly two minutes after starting off from that little break, I started climbing up and suddenly realized I didn't pack either of my two lighters. For fuck's sake... So there went my plan for a little camp-stove lunch with a view. Can't light a stove if you don't have an ignition source. God. Damn. It.

As I do, I motored on up, enjoyed the views, and got to the 'peak' (at least the peak for that day). Gawgeous... Putzed around, found a spot, and plopped down. Not a bad way to go. With a view down the one valley leading to Poland, with the neighboring Tatras to the right, and all of the high Tatras on the left. Twas cloudy over the High Tatras, but still an absolutely gorgeous view!!!

Of course, soon after I sat down, this chatty annoying group of selfie-taking air-head millennials came right next to me a spent some time being annoying and just taking selfies. So stupid. Seriously. Go be dumb at least a little further away from me please. I don't want your fucking trash instagram waste of time fakeness ruining my and everyone else's time within earshot.

Because I'm impatient, it felt like forever til they left, but they eventually did. Quiet. Peace. It's so unbelievably calm and peaceful when the loudest thing around is a quiet breeze.

There were more people coming and going, but they were more respectful and appreciative of the nature. I just continued to hang out.

As I was about ready to leave, a guy close by pointed out an ibex Chamois over on the hill! My first touch with Neature on my excursion! I swapped my lenses and took some low-quality pictures of our new little friend.

As always, down is wayyyy quicker than up. I started back down the trail and got back to the little lake from earlier in quite a flash. From there, I had to traverse across the valley to make my way over to the hut. So, as you'd expect, that's what I did!

It was a low-key stroll, and every now and then a small break in the trees/shrubs would open up to some great views of the great mountain bowl coming up. It was covered in clouds, but the shrouding added to the mystique.

The stretch from the lake wasn't too long, so I made it over to the hut fairly quickly. There were a ton of people there, so I hung out for a bit, then eventually went to check in. I wasn't immediately sure what to do or where to go, but eventually found out, got my allocated mattress spot in the attic (not ideal with covid), and got situated.

After getting settled in, I wasn't sure what to do. I was debating climbing the near peak to not be quite done with the day just yet, but it was 15:30 around then, and dinner was at 19:00. Given that, I probably wouldn't have made it back in time without having to rush, so I opted out of that idea. Instead, I grabbed my kindle and got out of the building in search of a place to read, nap, and get away from all the other people.

The hut was situated on a tiny mountain lake/pond, so I followed the trail around that little body of water, found the far side, and stumbled upon this massive rock. As luck would have it, it was climbable, and there was a perfect little perch about halfway up that turned into a perfect lounge chair.

It's nice when nature provides such comfy places like that! So after scrambling up a bit, I plopped down and started to chill. I read a little, then napped, then took some time to sit back and stare at the giant walls of rock and waterfalls that were hanging out all around me. I truly love calm, quiet, peaceful situations like that, perfectly accentuated by amazing nature all around.

Not sure how long I was there, but I was comfy, so I might've been there napping and chilling out for about an hour. Seriously. Despite stone being stone, I found a pretty comfy way to sit and knock out for a while. Five stars.

After precariously climbing down the rock, I got back on the pond loop and meandered the rest of the way around. On the way, I saw some ducks and pet a cat. Neature.

Getting back to the hut, I went and made sure all my water things were filled up, then headed out to the tables to write and sit. Was trying to stay away from the chaos and indoors as much as possible. But eventually, dinner time rolled around, and I was 'forced' to go in.

Wasn't sure why, but my stomach wasn't feeling too great. That was a bummer. But besides that, I felt really out of place there. Tons of people, pure chaos, and no one was wearing a mask or trying to maintain distance. Didn't help that I was on an island of a table, but I kept wearing my mask and doing my part.

The food in the chaotic dining hall ended up being pretty good. Started out with some kinda tomato soup followed by some oily meats with kraut and bread. Pretty good. That, and I think the bread helped my wittle tummy out.

As before, I escaped the dining hall as soon as I could to get back outside and out of the mess of people. I went out and found a spot to sit with the massive mountains all hanging out up top. I read, walked around some more, and eventually hit the sack.

Day 10 - Zelenom Plese to Zamkovskeho Chalet

Got up kinda early and got my shit re-packed before breakfast hit. And again, a clusterfuck at feeding time. Food was again decent through. Good to snag a bunch of calories at the start to get me off on a good foot to begin the day!

Teeth brushed, bag packed, all that jazz, and off to the first branch for the day. The peak that I decided not to climb the night before was first on the list. So off I went.

It was just straight up for the first long while. The trail essentially climbed a wall to get up and out of that bowl, and I was sweating like a hog.

At some point, I popped up to the top of the wall and now into a separate bowl. From that new vantage point, I could see the majority of the remaining trail up to the peak, and still had a long way to go. I shifted into my standard low gear and just kept on moving.

I kept cruising along, passed a guy, he passed me, then I passed him again. I was pretty focused on keeping my body moving but at some point pulled my head up, looked left, and bam! Neature! Not sure how I was able to sneak up to it, but there was another Chamois just hanging out and staring right at me! How dope!

It wasn't too scared, as it just continued to graze and move around, so I tried to snap a few pictures of it. That might've been my closest neature encouter while out in the wilderness. It was quite cool!

Eventually, my new friend kept motoring along and wandered out of sight. Cool encounter, but after that I continued my journey. Still, up up and up.

That stretch was finished, which popped the trail right onto the ridge. From there it got super rocky, aka a little technical. At some points there were chains implanted in the rocks to help moving around them a little easier. Made it interesting and interactive in a fun way.

I turned up the ridge, and there was a mix of up and down as the trail moved through the rocks and along the way. Not long after though, I made it to the peak! The best part about it, I had it all to myself for a good 5-10min to enjoy the beautiful views in solitude.

As the peak started to fill up with other people and nature-enjoyers, I found a little spot a bit off the way and plopped down, my usual, and stared off in every which direction just taking in the beautiful view. Once again I got lucky in finding a comfy and cozy rock spot.

After a long while, I got up and went to the other side of the peak to see the other side of the view. Found another super comfy rock spot. Again, more gazing out and enjoying the view, and it was fantastic. :-)

The views at the top were gorgeous and well enjoyed, then it was time to head back down. Again, down is way quicker than up, and the trek down went by pretty seamlessly. Getting back to that first plateau, the Chamois was still there! So I got to say hi to it again, as well as a little black cat that was strolling around. Weird place for a cat...

As I was still on that plateau, a couple came up with a little dalamation in their backpack, twas adorable. They stopped at some point, and the black cat was hanging out nearby. As soon as the pack hit the ground and the dog turned its head to the cat, the cat took a B-line to anywhere but there. It was funny to watch.

Quickly thereafter, I was back at the hut. There, I took the chance to fill up on water before starting the next massive incline for the day. Thankfully, it was easy going to start, with a scenic pond or two, but then smack in the face to some switchbacks.

Before slogging into the straight up, I found a patch to take a load off for a hot minute. Took in the view, snacked on some trail mix, and enjoyed the moment.

Then, the climb... It essentially was just a shitton of switchbacks to get up at the ridge, which I'd been able to see throughout the last day from the other side of the valley. But, before we got to that part, there was some technical scrambling to get above and over a water runout.

As luck would have it, there was a big group of (coincidentally) Germans who were making the technical scrambling a little dangerous. Was NOT trying to get stuck with that mess, so went up a separate stretch of rock and shimmied my way around the crowd. Gotta love me some playing around in the mountains!

From there, back into the low gear and climbing.

Midway through the switchbacks, I passed a father and son duo. The Dad started talking in Slovakian, so I asked Deutsch or English. Thankfully he started speaking in English, and complimented me on how fast I was going and lamented on his beer belly. Thanks mister, but I'm no speed demon, and way to work on that beer belly. Had a quick chat witht he two of them, and they were some quite friendly fellows.

Kept on motoring, kept on climbing, kept on inching towards the top. The whole way up, I was able to see more and more of the valley I'd explored over the last day or so. The whole trail I'd wandered around thus far that day and the day before was in view, so it was cool to retrace my steps and see what's out there. Adding to it, there was a gigantic rock perched precariously over all the switchbacks, a gigantic pillar on the hill.

It was a good 'ole bit of climbing, but I soon made it up to the ridge, and continued up to the small peak that was right there. Since it was around mid-day, time for me to get comfy for my lunch break. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, but I'd squeezed out some matches from the people at the hut, so camp stove lunch was on!!!

I found a nice spot looking over the Poprad region to the south, got comfy, and then got to cooking. So stoked to have the stove running. HUGE Shoutout to Sam and Morgan. That meal was hanging around from our pleasure cruise through the North Cascades National Park the year before, and was some Mexican Beans and Rice (no joke, probably the best mexican food I'd had in Europe. Sad to say...).

It was a relaxing time just hanging out at the top. As always. It's amazing how incredible nature is. Always a perfect source for me to shut down and relax.

After about an hour or so, I packed all my gear up and started the traverse across the mountain towards the next hut. The trail along this stretch was gorgeous, mainly because it had a view onto the Poprad valley the entire time as it took me over to a different valley in the High Tatras.

It all went a little up, but on average down as we moved along. Along the traverse was a tourist hot spot that I wasn't too pumped for having to push through. But, alas, that's what I had to do.

Cruised on over and got to watch the Gondola go up and down disappearing into the clouds and such. Cool observatory on the side, and then at the building/gondola station, just a decent mess of tourists. As I said, wasn't trying to get into that, so I breezed past that and got back to the quiet trail as quick as I could.

More cruising along, and from the tourist spot it was almost all downhill. So cruising in style. Cool trail section again, being able to stare out over the whole valley (aka half of Slovakia) as I was going.

Around a couple ridges, then the trail all of a sudden opened up into a whole new valley. Huge. That's always such a cool experience, having your feet take you into new valleys and new vistas, full of new features and details to explore, view, and dive into!

I stopped to take a bit of it in, then turned the bend and kept going. It was a short bit after that that I made it to the next hut!

I rolled up, and there wasn't nearly enough activity around the place as the other hut. Walked in, and noticed right away things were better. Went to check in and the gals there were super friendly! They gave me a run down of the place, where everything was, and showed me towards my attic mattress spot. Bam.

Claimed my mattress (next to the window, air flow ftw), then went and rinsed off in the shower for a hot sec. Not to hang out inside for too long, I grabbed my kindle and went down to the river in the hopes of finding another comfy spot like the night before. Found a decent spot, read for a bit, but my body was so tired that I couldn't quite knock myself out for a nap.

Stayed down at the cool, calm, and breezy creek for a bit, then went back to the patio of the hut to hang out and read there. Pretty much just killed time til dinner. This setup was much better, as there was the chance to sit outside and eat, and they gave you the choice of grub. I opted for some cabbage soup followed by some kind of goulash. Both deeeeelicious. Paired that with a beer, of course, for a balanced meal. ;-)

After dinner, I kept reading essentially just to kill time and not go to bed too early. Rather than doing that the whole night though, I eventually opted to take a little walk and headed up the trail I'd be following in the morning for a short while.

My hope was to find a spot not too far up from the hut with a nice clearing so I could look out on the valley and the surroundings. Thankfully, it was only a 10-20min stroll from the hut to find such a place. Hot damn!

The clearing I found wasn't outfit with a comfy place to sit, but I made the most of it. Gazed out on this new valley, and down to the Poprad valley. There, there was a giant supercell of a cloud slowly making its death approach on Poprad. It looked like it was bringing with just one massive deluge of water, so it was cool to watch all of it just rain down on the countryside.

Soon enough though, the sky got darker, the air got colder, and I caved, headed back to the hut and crashed.

Day 11 - Zamkovskeho Chalet to Trail-Out

Before going to bed, I knew that my route for this new day was going to be great. Naturally, I was pretty excited about it. Thankfully though, I got a good night's rest before getting up and getting my bag ready so I could just eat and go. Bag packed, I got my stuff down to the dining hall and milled about til breakfast.

I got surprised, as they came out with breakfast earlier than the actual breakfast time. But that worked great for me! Chai tea with the fixings for a german-ish breakfast. Twas pretty good, and a great start to the day. From there, I brushed my teeth and was on my way!

Again, the morning started with a climb, but not as crazy as walking up a wall like the day before. Slowly, more and more of the valley, trees, rocks, and area was touched with sunlight. The further I got up, the more of this new valley I could see, and it was full of incredible sights, and again, with a giant wall leading to the first plateau.

I kept motoring along, enjoying the many rocks and trees and greenery in this valley. As the valley cleared out before the climb up to the plateau, the waterfall flowing from the plateau showed itself in the various angles, and was quite a cool one to enjoy.

Sidenote: Not sure how this became a thing, or that it took me two days to notice it, but the majority of the trails I traveled were just covered in giant rocks. The reason this was noteworthy and annoying was because it prevented you from being able to just kinda blindly walk at your own pace and stride. No, rather, you had to calculate where your feet were going so you didn't roll your ankle with every step.

This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if it was just riddled here and there, but if this is 90% of what you're walking along for the whole day, it really starts to wear on you (or at least it did on me). And I'm one who loves those kinds of sections, because it's a change of pace. But that kinda change of pace for the entire day wears on you, and for me, my knees...

The trail was quite pretty with plenty of things to admire as I slogged up the wall to the bowl. Not a bad climb, not nearly as crazy as the constant stream of switchbacks from the day before, so I enjoyed the way as I put one foot in front of the other.

As it always happens (thankfully...), I successfully made it up to the top of the ridge and into the bowl at the top. I walked past the hut (the patio was small but full), and moved on to find a good spot to first look back down on the valley I'd just come up, then moved further on to find a spot to take in the new alpine bowl I was in. Found a spot on a hill tucked out of the way and took in the beautiful arena with a good few peaks high above all the way around. And, since it was still early in the morning, I took the chance to layer up before I sat there to admire the beautiful views.

Layers make such an amazingly wonderful difference. Cozied a little up, I took a nice stroll around the far end of the little lake up there, and slowly made my way towards the first saddle of the day. Before I could get to the trail fork, I got screamed at by a tempermental marmot. It was loud.

The up was back, so I motored on and headed up towards the summit. First a little meandering up the face into another bowl, around the bowl, and then to the fun part - more ladders and guide chains. :-) The route up to the saddle, at least the very last stretch, was more straight vertical than not and was full of all kinds of technical stuff. Super fun. (see the last picture in the next section, follow the people)

Before I go any further, I have to express how grateful I am. Grateful that I am a reasonably-fit person, that I have an appreciation and a love for adventure in the great outdoors, and that I have experience and love doing things like this. All that, and really grateful that I have good boots that keep me connected firmly to the ground I trod on.

Unfortunately, I had to be careful on this ascent, as there were a bunch of seemingly very inexperienced people up there dangling unsure and unconfident from the chains and ladders. This gave me some serious pause and angst. One quick slip from one of them and it could send not just them, but others and maybe me tumbling down the mountain a good couple hundred meters until a giant rock stops the tumble. No dice.

As you could imagine, I was NOT trying to make that potential outcome become a reality. So, I did my best to steer clear of others and quickly and smartly pass when I could. And, of course, enjoy the route and the ascent while doing so.

Thankfully, made it up to the saddle with no issues and had a bunch of fun getting there! And what sights looking back the other way, and into yet another new valley! As I said, always an amazing 'turning of the page'!

Once I got to the saddle, I took a quick break to take in both sides of the trail. Unfortunately though, there wasn't a ton of space on the saddle, so I didn't linger for too long as people were coming and going. Then, time to descend.

Initially, quite the rocky and sketchy descent, but I made my way down without issue enjoying the technical concentrations on the route. As I was descending, I kept hearing some commotion up on the high walls of the peaks around me. Looking to investigate, I got to see a few groups of climbers! How cool, WAYYYY high up there and still with room to climb!

The trail slowly worked down along the slope of the valley, and it was quite a large, open valley that I just rolled into. As I was working my way down and approaching one of the multiple plateaus, I saw a couple more Chamois!

They were inquisitive, but also not scared to jump away if you came a bit too close. I wandered up to try and get near (respectfully, of course), to try and say hi. But, as I said, as soon as I crossed their comfort zone, they scurried on away.

The Chamois hung out for a hot minute, then eventually scattered. With that, I continued on, and headed down towards the alpine lake down the next stretch of descent. Turned out to be perfect timing to stop, take a load off (and my shoes), and whip up some lunch.

Now this is luxury. Just the kind of cruising in nature I can pull off the trail and truly enjoy. On the menu for this fine lunch was a little Paella. Not bad being able to have that kind of delicacy on the docket at that high of an altitude.

While the water was cooking, I tucked in to my little spot, got comfy, and enjoyed the views. Mountains in the sunlight. Rock climbers mid-pitch high up. A light breeze blowing by. Warm food, fresh water, and an absolutely amazing day.

Before wrapping things up, I went down to the lake to filter some water. Really, just to validate that I brought my filtration unit... Hydration covered, I repacked my stuff and continued on the jolly trail.

From there, the trail continued a bit down, as well as following around the ridge fingers, and as an added bonus, a little snow!!!

Up and over the ridge and I got to the next hut along the route. I initially wasn't going to stop, seeing how little people cared about COVID prevention and as I'd already filled up on water, but when nature calls...

...you unfortunately have to jump into the dung heap that is a mountain toilet. Oh well. Thankful for having somewhere to use the loo.

Back on the trail with tons of more beautiful sights as I started heading up to the second saddle for the day. Another fan-girly thing about hiking, but I love how, when you're in a clear area or at a lookout, you're able to either/both track the trail that you'd traveled thus far, or/and take a look out onto the trail you're about to travel on. So cool to trace the incredible landscapes you've experienced and get a taste of what's to come. I love being in nature. It's neat.

The trail led to another bowl, and the trail curved around and up the left side of that bowl. Where to? The next saddle!

Similar to the previous saddle, this one gradually got more vertical, and right towards the top for that last stretch was really technical with steel rungs and guide chains. Dope. But, unlike the last one, the guide chains and runs were fewer and farther between, and made the ascent that much sketchier, but a little more fun too.

Again with the sketchy people though. There were a couple groups hogging most of the routes up with slippery feet that honestly should not have been anywhere near this kind of stretch. Not ideal. I had to take a little extra care getting by them before a sliding rock smacked me across the face.

Despite all that, I made it to the top sooner than I'd noticed! There was barely any space on the saddle to stand around or hang out. So I took a quick picture and proceeded right to the chains to take me down the other side. I gotta say, rapelling is fun.

Kept my focus going down the sketch, slippery dust area to start. There were some chains for the first part to rappel down, which (as always) was fun, but I was not up for slipping, falling, and getting some kind of injury this high up and away from civilization. That said, made it past the sketchy part without issue.

Once I got to the more stable section of trail along the rock slide, I found a spot to take a seat, take a breather, and to yet again soak in the new valley! Mountain lake, some trees, more mountains on the horizon, it was such a beautiful view to enjoy.

The break was brief but nice. From there, I carried on down the rock slide and then traversed over to the trail above the lake, with short breathers here and there to take in the beautiful sights. Then, realized I was walking into a bummer, as the elevation I just lost coming down the rock slide, I had to regain in order to get up to the saddle. Gah. More effort. But here goes.

Before I headed up though, I waved to my Grandparent's homeland Poland! That, and snapped a picture of the tight saddle I just came over.

I was a little more pooped than I thought I would be, but I made it up the saddle! From there, it was around mid-afternoon, and I was trying to decide what I wanted to do. On the table were two options:

1. Head down the trail, take a leisurely pace, and eventually meet back up with Yann to continue our trip
2. Head up the trail, summit the nearby peak, and then top that off with Option 1

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a stubborn piece of shit. Welp, that sure came to bear as I couldn't let Option 2 go without completing it. So up we go!

This last bit of up was step, by, step. A real bear. I took it way easy, but surprisingly made it up quick. Bam. Incredible views, as always, on top of Východná Vysoká at 2429m, the highest point (elevation-wise) from my hike!

As per usual, I took my time to sit up there and enjoy the views. And they were some wonderful views. Uncharacteristic of me, I asked a dude on top for a picture amidst taking in the sights. But, with daylight slowly ticking away, and knowing I had yet a long descent ahead of me, I didn't hang out too long before starting the route down. So, I packed it in, and hit the trail.

As I mentioned before, it's always amazing how much quicker going down is compared to going up. Incredibly quicker. No idea how long it would've been going up, but I made it down to the schnazzy Hotel on the trail out in an hour and fifteen minutes. Speed Lightning.

Once I got to the lake down there, I strolled along the lake, then got to the trail junction next to the hotel and took a load off. It was nice to take the weight off my legs and knees, and got to see the peak that I was at just a short while before!

At that point in the day, the lighting conditions were absolutely fantastic. I was really enjoying it and taking in the great views of the valley, ridges, and trees. Truly gorgeous.

I'm not sure how it is with everybody else, but at around this time, so close to the end, I was pretty ready to be down at the trailhead. This was definitely the case being so close to the end, so tired, and ready to meet back up with Yann. That, and I was pretty damn done with all the giant fucktons of rocks on the trail. I think that was definitely aiding the struggle in my knees.

At long last, my feet carried me down the hill, into some fields, along a gravel road, and then finally to the main road! Took a right, and found Yann hanging out with Rupert. It was a long, beautiful, enjoyable, and adventurous three days, and I am extremely glad to have gotten the chance to explore the High Tatras!

I dropped my pack, changed out of my boots, and we slowly got on the road down from the mountains heading to a pension Yann got us east of Poprad. Before that though, we were in need of food. Weirdly enough, most things were closed down.

We rolled into the small town, parked, and started walking toward a pizza place I'd found. Unfortunately, I was too blind to see the pizza place around the corner, so we settled for some Döner, which hit every spot with the beer that came with it. Vittles achieved.

Before heading to the pension after dinner, we continued along the pedestrian zone and meandered to the main square of the little village. It was a little lively, but calm, which was cool to take in. Sticking to Slovakian tradition, we also loaded up on ice cream to aid in the enjoyment of the wonderful evening. The ice cream wasn't all that great, but it was nice to have.

Once we got our fill of the tiny town, we drove over to the pension to check in. Luckily enough, the place was closed and all the lights were off. Hmmmm. Yann gave the guy a call though, and a few minutes later he rolled up to let us in. We got to our room, cleaned up (which felt uhhhhhhmazing), and hit the sack.

Day 12 - Tourist Spots in NW Slovakia

It was a wake-up and rise, unfortunately a little more frequent on the wake-up part than we would have liked. Why? The church next door was insane; it rang all night. Seriously, every hour, :15, and :45. How and why the hell was this a thing?

Despite the tiring wake-up, we got up, cleaned up, and got ready for breakfast. We walked down stairs to quite the spread laid out for us! Then another family showed up, but still, it was quite the buffet.

Sidenote: I always feel weird being waited upon so singularly. This was the vibe I had in this pension. Yann had a good input and said think about it from the other perspective. If you’re the business owner and got into it to serve people, it'd bring you joy being able to serve others and give them such a great experience... Good point, but it still feels/felt weird.

The breakfast was quite yummy, but we finished up and got our stuff packed up, squeezed Rupert outside of the tight inner courtyard, dropped off the key, and we were back on the road! Plans for that day included a good bit of driving to sample a few of the tourists hotspots in Northwestern Slovakia. Gas in the tank and spirits high, we were back at it.

As we were driving out of town and hitting the road, the High Tatras were increcibly clear and in view. At that time, I was quite bummed we didn't plan another hike or stop somewhere for a longer period to just sit and stare at them. So gorgeous. And as we were driving by, it was cool to be able to track where I'd hiked previously up in the mountains themselves.

As we cruised through the countryside, we had some more This American Life going through the speakers and were enjoying the beautiful blue-sky day. Once we got to this big (for Slovakian size) industrial city, we turned left. There, I saw signs for a bike park, and damn I was itching to ride.

As we approached, I was unsure of how to approach our first planned stop for the day, Vlkolínec. Thankfully, the route we were on turned out to be right. Parked, paid, and then we walked up the hill to wander around the village.

And that's just what we did. It was a tiny village, but it was quite a scenic and beautiful place. In our walking around, we got a bit of a taste of the place, and wandered through the one building setup as a museum, then went to the 'farm', aka a bunch of farm animals caged up in one spot.

Continuing our little journey, we walked through the main part of the town and saw the very pretty buildings that made up the historic village (and weird seeing the fact that people still lived there...). At the top of the village, we found a spot to sit in the shade and quipped about how life must've been quite hard there way back when.

Wandering back down the hill, we enjoyed the buildings again, and I walked briefly into the UNESCO info booth. Bummer though, because nothing was in English or German.

Down the main road and off to the left, we wandered over towards the church, and the building next to it that had another museum-like setup with some old weaponry and a photo exposition. Cool again to see other views of the setup and people from generations past.

Feeling like we'd seen it well enough, we took a slow stroll past the fields and back to the car. It was a nice time wandering around and exploring Vlkolínec, but I was a little bummed at how little English there was available to get a better insight into the area and history. Would've been cool to learn a little bit more but oh well - can't have everything!

Once back in Rupert, we were headed north in the direction of Oravsky. That route took us back through the big industrial town and then back into the country highways through the rolling hills and countryside. If you're looking for a really beautiful place to drive, seriously, I highly recommend Slovakia. A great way to motor through the countryside and enjoy the views of every roadway along the way.

It was very clear once we got close to and arrived in Oravsky, as the castle was about as prominent as you could have made it. It had an incredible spot up on top of the random rock tower tucked in the countryside. It also had a giant magnet inside it that sucked in every tourist within a 100-mile radius. Bummer we didn't know about that until after we arrived...

The first sight in town was the massive line of people hanging out at the ticket counter. Sheezus. And the second sight was the damn-near-full tourist parking lot. We paid and parked and started walking over, but neither of us had any interest in standing in line for a ticket, let alone wandering through a castle jammed-full with tourists. So bummer, but the castle visit was off the menu.

Because of that, we called an audible and instead, we took a walk around town to enjoy the castle from the town. Well, that was short-lived, as the town was extremely tiny.

Time for audible #2, we decided to grab some lunch and a beer. Thankfully, the first place we looked at was full, because the second place had an absolutely perfect spot on the patio with a view of the castle. Quite the awesome setup to reward our audibles.

Time for a beer and some pizza. Neither were all that great, but it was tasty enough to hit the spot and add to the nice little break. But, rather than trying our luck and hoping for smaller crowds, we headed back to the car and jumped back on the road.

The route took us back through some beautiful countryside as we drove our way over to Žilina. As luck would have it, we got smacked with some pretty rough traffic right as we got in town, but we made our way through and got into the main part of town.

At that point we needed to find a place to stay. AirBnB was being incredibly unreliable, so we opted for the easy route of a budget hotel. It was definitely budget, but would definitely be good enough for one night. Weirdest part, the elevator didn't have any inner doors. Aka you could touch the elevator shaft as the elevator car moved up and down. That was weird.

Both of us were pretty pooped, so we ended up lounging around for a good bit. Yann had a little more energy than me though, so he got up and went for a walk and I went down and took a nice little nap. Booyah.

Not one to call it a day just yet, I up and went to the main square. Similar to my serenity found in Košice, I posted up on a park bench for a good long while and enjoyed the moment:

• Wrote a bunch of postcards. I always take a while to do so, I smudge a bunch of my writing, and my writing looks like a fourth grader’s
• After postcards, just sat there and watched
• Bunch of kids chasing pigeons
• Some kids playing on the stage in the square
• Grandma walking around with her grandson, she set him on a bike just so he could ring the bike bell
• Golden Hour struck again, and I had both great light, and a cool view of the church tower. I think so, at least

At some point, I realized I was a little late in meeting up with Yann, but got up, headed over, and found a table over at Brewvana. Got there and was quite happy with the choice in establishment. More stouts (!!!!!)

Yann showed up shortly after me, and we got our drinks and pizza ordered, then started playing some Kings Korner. I wiped the floor with Yann as I whooped his ass at some cards. Always feels good doing that :-)

Along with the cards though, we had some nice discussions, notably about the differences in work culture between the US and Germany, then touched on finances, and then revisited how uplifting it was for me the moment I paid off the last of my student loans.

The beers were FAN-Tastic (god I miss good beer variety...), the pizzas were delicious, and we had an overall relaxing and great time on the patio at Brewvana. After wrapping up there, and before heading back to the hotel, I found a spot to drop off my postcards and also headed back to the main square for a hot second to take it in again. But, alas, right after, it was back to the hotel and time for bed.

Day 13 - Žilina on Home

Once again, we initiated our standard morning routine, and then headed down to breakfast. That was interesting, as it was an open buffet, and not a single other person was wearing a mask. So many fucking idiots everywhere. Despite that, I knocked back some food, bummed to see Yann not feeling tip-top, but then we hit the road.

Neither of us were really in the mood to keep touristing it up. So in that spirit, we discussed a bit but ended up deciding on heading home that day. Before though, there was one thing on the way we wanted to check out, so we drove from Žilina down to Čičany. Again, beautiful countryside roads.

After a nice ride, we rolled into town and immediately got a taste of the cool painted houses Čičany is known for. Followed the signs to the tourist car park, but the rabid hound barking nearby made us turn around and try to find something else. Thankfully, we found one of the last parking spots closer into town (despite the place essentially being empty that early on).

Once we parked, I went to check out the signs, but similar to the day before they were only in Slovakian and Polish. No English or German, which was a bit of a bummer.

Our time in Čičany ended up consisting of a relaxing low-key stroll around the village. The homes were quite beautiful with the high contrast of the black/dark homes with the white paintings, and just the intricacies of the paintings and forms themselves, it was cool to explore.

Similar to other historic things in Slovakia, it was weird wandering around the village and at the same time walking by people starting their day, eating breakfast, drying their laundry, as they live in the historic village. Definitely felt like a tourist with the many weird looks and such, but what do you expect when you live in a tourist attraction?

We finished our nice little loop around town, then we sat down at the cafe for a bit. From there, though, it was back on the road. Homeward bound.

Well, not quite. First we had to stop off at a grocery store to stock up on Slovakian Goods. Billa was our place of choice, so we jumped in and grabbed snacks for the ride home, and I got some stuff to remember the trip by. Some dark beer, a bottle of wine, and those wafer cookies that my grandma ALWAYS had in stock in the few times we went to visit.

From there though, it was back on the road to churn through the miles and get us back to Deutschland. We put on some podcasts, and started cruising through it. It wasn't too long before we'd made it back through Bratislava (Bye Slovakia, and thanks for the wonderful trip!!!), and made fairly short work of Austria. Cool realization before rolling into Vienna, where we could've taken any number of turns and showed up to a few other different countries. Crazy how compact Europe is.

Getting through Austria was pretty quick. It's a long-ish country, but we cruised on through. Had to get through some traffic and took some backroads getting to the Austria-Germany border, but made it back to Deutschland! Hot damn!

Eventually, we got into central Germany and pulled off for a little break. Went in, got some food, used the facilities, and I headed out to the car. Yann hung back to get something, and between me getting to the car and him getting to the car, the skies decided to just start dumping rain. Seriously, it was incredible. It came down so fast and so suddenly, the car fogged up due to the rapid change.

It took a good half hour or so for it to clear up, and until then it was crawl time on the Autobahn. Thankfully though, it did eventually clear up and we were back to cruising.

First stop - Stuttgart. Time to bid adieu to my travel-buddy Yann. It was an awesome two weeks on the road with my buddy. Great conversations, great experiences, great food and drink, and all with an incredible human being.

From there, Rupert and I were back on the road, and a short hour or so later, we rolled up to Karlsruhe, unpacked the car, and called a great road trip a wrap.

Good, Bad, Different

Continuing on with the wonderful tradition I gained through the experience in my CBYX years, here is another installment of Good, Bad, Different! This is the part of the story where I categorize (comically, against the teachings of my exchange program cultural training) all of the things I notice being in an environment foreign to me. With that, here goes!

Good

• Bratislava, super clean city
• There are bike lanes along most streets, and big ones along the river
• Slovakians seem to be more in love with ice cream than the Germans. Holy shit this is seen in all cities across the country
• Sunday is definitely family day
• Definitely a technology friendly country. Case and point - credit cards. They actually use them!
• Double multi-lingual, with either German or English as second language present in most places
• You don’t have to pay for public toilets!!!
• Some places give you free water with your meal. It's amazing how much I miss this
• Really a lot of time and effort invested into tourism infrastructure. Awesome to see, and makes me wonder how much the country depends on tourism.
• Plattenbaus are built the same as all other Plattenbaus, but here they’re all painted cool and vibrant colors. Nice touch to make them a little less impending and gloomy
• Slovakians are secret pirates. 'Ahoy' means hello. It’s awesome

Bad

• Seem to be as bad and ignorant as Germans when it comes to lines and queues. Nobody gives a shit and they all do what they want
• Smaller scale, but active logging of national park lands... NO BUENO.
• Personal space is not a thing here...
• Along the same line as the above item, but spacial awareness also gets a zero rating. In public and in the mountains

Different

• People live butt-up against some very historical, well-visited, and touristy locations. Case in point, Bratislava castle. There are paths that lead right to the inner courtyard of people’s apartment buildings
• New, clean, nice cars are everywhere, at a way higher rate than in Germany (which is the epitome of a car culture), seems to be a huge part of the culture, or maybe just the most prominent/visible status symbol
• The weights (in grams) of each meal are printed. Probably so customers can verify they weren’t cheated out of more food, or to compare the amount to cost ratio of a meal
• There are tons of towns with the name of the town at the entrance to the town, but written in two languages (Hungarian in SE and Russian in NE)
• Lots of third wheels all over the place
• Most cities have a lot of fountains and water displays
• Majority of trails are ‘paved’ with big rocks. Makes it hard to just stroll along, as the rocks are all cattywhompusly laid in the ground
• Why are most hiking trails just rock paths, and big ones? Seriously. Terrible on the knees, and there are better ways to carve out trails

Random Commentary

A few notes that I made along the trip that I couldn't find a spot to squeeze in somewhere during the literary journey. So, not to leave them hanging, here they are:

• Although I’m a realist/pessimist, I’m an idealist/optimist when it comes to plans and ideas of things in my future
• Europe is a planning culture due to scarcity and business orientation. America has a baseline non-planning mentality due to abundance and customer orientation
• I am always unsure of myself around people that don’t show a lot of emotion.
• Cooling hearing from Yann about childhood memories in Cameroon and France
• I’m an introvert, but like the company of extroverts
• Definitely need some me time more often than not
• In the mountains with a place to sleep is how I slow down
• Traveling, hard to get an exact impression of the daily culture (in a western country), I think because lives aren’t that extremely different. Jobs, family, activities, just like me at home. Someone traveling to my country probably wouldn’t be all too blown away at what my daily life looks like...
• The Unraveling of America

Next Up

Well, true to form, I'm finishing this post just a little over two months to the date from when this trip ended. Actually, that's pretty good, considering how long it's taken me to write previous trip posts. Not something to be proud of, but that's how it goes.

All that to say, there's been a good bit that's gone on in the last couple months, so give me another month or so to write up all that stuff and fill you in on what's going on over here in Karlsruhe for me. In short, lots of biking, lots of working, and starting to feel the ramp-up of Coronavirus over here as the cold weather hits. We'll see how it goes.

To all of you who took the time to read all of this, I hope you enjoyed it! It's a labor of pain in the moment, but a labor of love once it's all over to recount the many adventures that take place in my life with great people like Yann around me.

Original Publish Date: October 22nd, 2020