Nothing against Bratislavians (Bratislavs?) but if God wants me here, I’ll return on a diplomatic post. Otherwise, it’s just a way station on our trip between Zilina, which was fantastic, and Budapest, which looks pretty rockin’ too. (Any place where hot baths is the local past time is cool by me.)
Slovakia, as I mentioned, is a land of contrasts. So let’s look at Bratislava: It was cold. It was wet. We were cranky. Soviet architecture abounded. And let me just say, behemoth housing complexes (we found one in Slovakia called the ‘Great Wall of China” because it extended so far), made of the kind of materials you’d expect to see separating office cubicles… it’s a different world. The hostel had wireless (which is not conducive to a let’s-go-explore-the-city mindset. What can we say, we’re addicts.) Also, the coffee and beer in the hostel were good (see above comment on wireless).
I provide as my counterpoint Zilina. I’ll grant you it doesn’t look like much from the train station (they had to tell us to get off the train, ‘cause it was the last stop. We didn’t know it wasa stop as there was no platform. The conversation involved a lot of pointing to the ground and saying “Zilina?” “Zilina.” etc. etc.) But, then neither does Denver. At any rate, we got off the train and met our hosts, who had arranged everything down to luggage transport for us. They showed us town, ordered us beer at their favorite restaurant (and what a relief not to have to order ourselves. “Tsree pivo” was getting a little old for our only discourse with waiters.) Then they took us to his flat where his parents had prepared dinner for us. I kid you not: venison pot roast. I melted. It was so indescribably perfect, and went quite well with the cherry liquor his father kept “for special dinners.” His parents didn’t speak English, but made their meaning known, and let me tell you, watching a traditional Slovak man heckle Kelly for being a vegetarian in the face of his venison is priceless. He made her sit next to him, pointing to the seat while barking “vegetarian” with that internationally recognized twinkle in his eyes that promised an entertaining meal. It didn’t disappoint.
After dinner, dessert, and some photo sharing, we all went to bed early so as to facilitate an early morning. We got up, and, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, set out by bus for a few towns over, where we found our trailhead and went to explore Slovakia by foot. It is absolutely stunning country, all greenery and wildflowers. Our hosts were a part of the club that marked and maintained the trails, so we were in a position to see the best that Slovakia had to offer. And we did. We climbed to the top of one hill. (By non-Colorado standards it may have been a mountain) Under us, the valley opened, revealing the town, river, and farms below. With the grass and crops, it looked more like a fine emerald-green fur coat with the other features embroidered along its length. Really, it was quite a sight. And, to my joy, balancing precariously on the opposite side of the valley was none other than the castle that had drawn us to this area in the first place. After this view, we expected to scuttle along home and hang out there. But our guide wasn’t done showing us her home. We hiked down the valley, across the valley, and back up to the castle. And so I ceased feeling bad for abandoning my daily run.
The castle, mostly ruins, was open to the public to explore, and explore we did, monkeying around from turret to turret until we had enough castle to satiate even my love for them. And so we returned home and from there to the train station to Bratislava, which had significantly less explorable castles. As a parting thought, in my opinion, America misses out on one of the greatest highlights of civilization by not having castles. We need to start building castles.
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