September 6th After making use of the internet and washing machines we left our Krakow camp just before 10am, and drove South into Slovakia. It was a beautiful drive, through the Tatra mountain range. It was not too much of a climb really and Sven went well during the drive. We stopped in a small town on the Polish side of the border, and found a tasty cake for morning tea, as well as some little stalls selling toys and fireworks! We picked up a few for when our visitors arrive. We had chosen a small town to stay in - Namestovo, a small settlement on a hyrdo lake about 30km into Slovakia. We found a nice little camp site and ended up there for the remainder of the day. The camp was tiny, and we were the only ones staying there apart from the owner in his caravan. It was a beautiful setting, but unfortunately it was a bit chilly, so we spent most of the afternoon in the van. It was a little disappointing, it would have been nice to go for a fish or have a ski on the very flat lake that was less than 10m from our van door! When the sun came out for a few minutes, we stood on the jetty and watched fish jumping near the shore. We hope that the weather improves for our next few days in Slovakia.
September 7th
We woke to a misty, still morning. It was cool but it felt like the sun would get the better of the clouds and they would disappear. After getting ourselves organised and ready for the day, we were on the road. We did not really get far before there was a diversion. We saw a 'Tesco' supermarket. This is a British supermarket but we had them in Ireland, so we went in for a look, and see if we could get a couple of things in particular. Well we were out of luck for those, but nevertheless still made a few purchases. We also saw that the beer is about $0.80NZD per 500mL bottle, and that it is 10% alcohol, so I bought a couple of bottles to sample. We were back on the road for about 10km when we saw a sign for the 'Oravsky Hred', a nearby castle. We had learned that one of the things you have to do in Slovakia is go to a castle so we headed in that direction. During this drive we started to enter the mountain range the 'High Tatras'. It was spectacular, by far the most impressive scenery we have seen in Europe so far, but I am sure it will not be the best. We stopped off in a small village on the way, which seemed like a 'normal' Slovak town with dark wooden houses, wooden carvings dotted around, and a lovely little church. It was filled with character. We finally came to the Oravsky Hred (castle) and it was amazing. It really was something out of a fairytale. The village was nestled in the hills, and the castle stood proud, high on a large rock which looked like it would give way at any time. The castle dates back to at least the 13th century, so it must be reasonably secure. It was brilliant.
We spent about 30 minutes looking and taking photos. We decided we would not go into this one, but will save that for another castle, so we got back on the road and drove further south-east towards Levoca. We stopped off for lunch, then arrived in Levoca at about 4pm.
Levoca is a small town, with around 14,000 people, but it is filled with history and still has it's complete medieval town wall intact which is quite impressive. We headed straight for the campground which we found without bother.
When we arrived there was no one at reception, so we went to the campsites and chose a site. The whole campsite was on a hill, with leveled areas, so we chose a site down at the bottom. I drove up, but wanted to turn around, so it would be easier to leave in the morning. Well we ended up getting stuck. It was not even a steep hill, I guess just the weight of Sven on the wet grass was enough really. An older German man nearby came over and helped with a push and some advice and we managed to get out of our predicament with a minimal amount of bother (but some big skids in the grass), and moved to another site.
That evening Em went down to pay for our campsite and checked out the restaurant menu. She saw that mains were only about 4euro each, so we ended up having dinner there, and not cooking it, which was nice, only our 4th dinner out this trip!
That finished off our day really, as we went back to the van, played cards, then it was bed time.
September 8th
It was a cool morning, with quite a bit of dew on the grass. This did not seem to matter and we got out of the campground without bother (only little skids this time).
Our first stop was in Levoca, a small town which was near our campground. It was nice enough but nothing spectacular. It was nice to see 'just a local place' though where the locals were not just trying to make some money out of you. Here we found out some info on surrounding areas, then got on the road, drove East to Spisske Podhradie, to see Spisske Hrad, a spectacular hilltop castle, which is at least 800 years old. It was very impressive from the distance and did not disappoint when we got closer either. We spent nearly 2 hours here, exploring the ruins, which were still in quite good condition, listening to our audio guides which told us the history of the hill top and castle, and some quirky stories as well. They have found evidence that this hill was inhabited more than 2000 years ago, and in 2003 they found a skeleton in the dungeon cave with leather pouches, and silver Roman coins, which they also dated back to a similar time. Amazing to think something like that goes undiscovered for so long. At the castle we bought a snack of home-made smoked sausages with mustard, horseradish, and bread – it was very tasty and delicious.
We formulated a plan for the rest of the day: we drove back to Levoca, where we stopped of for lunch, then drove west for the afternoon. It was a slow drive over the High Tatras, but there was very spectacular scenery – beautiful forested hills and valleys with tiny villages nestled in them. Sven coped well, we took the hills slowly but made it to the top without any problems. The High Tatras as a mountain range are not very wide, only 25km at the widest point, which meant that the climb really was not too undulating, just get to the top, then down the other side.
Once we made it to the other side (the south side) we past though a number of small towns, where we saw lots of olive-skinned locals standing along the roadside and selling produce they'd gathered, which included yellow forest mushrooms, and red berries (which looked like red currents). They would hold up their box or bucket to the van so we could look at it as we drove past. It was unlike anything else we have seen anywhere, but that was not enough the encourage us into making a purchase.
The sun started to set and we were still driving, passing though a couple of towns which did not have campgrounds. I even managed to talk to a local in one, who in Slovak told me the closest on was Bojnice, well I think that is what he said anyway, so we headed there. By the time we made it to Bojnice it was dark, but thankfully we found the campground at the top of a hill, and it was open (this we only found out on the second attempt, after our first calls at the gate went unanswered). The main thing was we made it, so we st up camp, had dinner, then went to bed.
September 9th
We left the campground and drove down the hill into the township to visit Bojnice castle. After Em cunningly outsmarted the parking man and got us out of paying for a full day parking, (since we only planned on being there for an hour), we wandered around the outside of the castle. It was a fairytale castle, and in amazing condition. The inside is like a palace, with lavishly decorated rooms, but we did not go inside, instead choosing to admire it from the outside. The outer walls were an almost pink stone, and the castle was topped with picture-book turrets and spires. There was stained-glass in several windows. There was a moat around the entire castle (complete with white swans and turtles!), with a drawbridge over it. We left Bojnice at about 10am and it was already 20°c, with the sun beating down.
We drove South-West, via Trencin for a pit stop and arrived in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, just before 2pm. We did not stop off in Trencin because of time, and it did not seem very exciting.
We found our campground without bother today which was a nice change, set up camp, then went down the road and wandered around a few shops. We did not make any major purchases, just a few bits and pieces as we start to prepare for the arrival of our first guests, our friends James and Julie who we are meeting in Prague in 3 days time.
It was about 5pm when we got back to the campground, so we had a beer (the Slovakian beer is great!), some cheese, and played cards, then did washing, and I washed the van while Em cooked dinner. It was quite late by the time we had finished dinner so we did a couple of things on the computer then hit the sack.
September 10th
After a leisurely paced start to the morning, we caught the tram into Bratislava city centre. After doing our research there was nothing in particular we wanted to visit in Bratislava, just wander around the city and old town and enjoy the day.
We found the info centre shortly after getting into town, and got our map for the day. After wandering around old town, and enjoying the beautiful sunshine, we thought we should actually do something, so we went to the castle. The original castle dates back to 907AD. It went through many changes, but the greatest of these was a fire in the 1811, and it basically burnt to the ground. The reconstruction only started in 1953, and it is still going!
On our way up to the castle Em got talking to an American couple, John and Anne, who were very friendly. They had come over from Vienna for the day, so we walked up to the castle with them. We wandered around for a little while then they came back over to us, and asked if they could have a lift to the Czech Republic tomorrow, so after some planning and thought we were happy with that. We exchanged details, and will pick them up tomorrow, which will be a good story I am sure.
With these plans made we continued to explore the castle grounds and enjoy the view of Bratislava, particularly of the old town, and the communist housing areas around the city centre.
The castle itself was not that spectacular, but I guess we have seen some rather amazing buildings in the past few weeks, so that might be a little harsh. The castle may have been plain, but the view from up on the hill was great, looking out over the city and the Danube river. We been really noticing the air pollution in this part of Slovakia – lots of grimy Soviet factories around.
Once we were done at the castle, it was time for lunch. Em found a brochure for a place called the 'Slovak Pub' so we found our way there. We both had dumplings of different types and they were great. We also tried another fantastic Slovak beer – light and dark versions of Zlaty Peizant. That hit the spot nicely, so we continued on and wandered the streets of the lovely Old Town for a while longer. We tried to track down the 'old markets' but they were not where our map placed them, so not sure if they still exist or not. We also managed to find a considerable number of light-hearted statues dotted around the streets, including the most famous and photographed one, 'The Watcher', a statue of a man who is poking up out of a man-hole in the ground, resting his arms on the ground. There was also a statue of a paparazzi photographer hiding behind a building and peeking around a corner with his camera. They were a unique, entertaining addition to the city.
The afternoon was hot and we had resisted ice cream all day but the urge was too great, so we got an ice cream, sat and ate them, then caught the tram back to the campground.
We were back before 5pm, so got into some more washing to try and make use of the nice weather, then just relaxed for the remainder of the evening.
Tomorrow we move on from Slovakia, which has been a great country. We were happy to have a break from the cities, and stay in the more rural areas. The countryside was spectacular, but this was surpassed by the amazing castles we visited, which were a trade mark of Slovakia. I am glad we chose to spend this time in Slovakia in sacrifice of Hungary, because this has been a highlight for us both. I am sure in the coming days we will continue to get a similar feeling in the Czech Republic, but this is only an assumption, so we will wait and see.
