Slovakia 2006

We’re in Terchová, a small and lovely town in the Slovak mountains. Getting here was quite an adventure.

 We left Krakow at 0710 on a direct train to Žilina, which promply populated itself with pre-(and a few post-)pubescent Polish children. I’m pretty sure that there’s a picture of me trying to sleep on some kid’s camera phone. There was one pointed at me when I opened my eyes, and there was quite a bit of giggling.

 We arrived in a village on the polish side when all of a sudden the train is emptied of these kids. Breathing a sigh of relief, we assume that the rest of the trip will be quieter–however, we are quickly told by the ticket man something along the lines of us having to switch to one of four buses that are sitting outside. Apparently the trains were broken, or so we were able to gather in our fractured polish. A short twisty bus ride later, we’re shunted off the bus in Zwardoń, a Polish border town where we were both told to wait for a bus that would take us to our destination, and that we should get on the train that was waiting there for us.

 After that, the trip was relatively straightforward, and all affairs aside, we weren’t even very late into Žilina–which I might add is a surprisingly lovely city–before we hopped a short local bus out to where we’re sitting now.

 Dad, you’d love it here.

Anyhow, as for Krakow, it was by far the most social part of the trip as of yet. Between meeting a Greek couple on the train, running into Tullia at the train station and spending a couple evenings visiting (and drinking!) with the (neé) Dymarz sisters and Curtis, and sharing dinner with an elderly couple from Ontario, we spent far more time in Poland with other folks. It was, all in all, quite a nice side-tour.

So we had a fantastic time last night, we met up with Tullia (Tulia?) and her sister and her brother in law and had some drinks at a cave bar. It was totally awesome! Unfourtunately the couple we had met on the train did not join us, they were a lot of fun, and would have fit right in, I think. I can see why Simon is so fond of her, she is a pretty great gal, and smart and cute. Her sister and brother in law are also a lot of fun, there was much laughing, drinking and toasting going around. Tullia and I even repeatedly toasted the inventer of the vibrator. It was quite funny.

Today I spent shopping pretty much, and am going to go do some more, if I can, it’s getting kind of late for that I think, but hey, I”ll try untill I can’t try no more! Stuff is reasonably cheap here, so I can come home with lots. (if I have the room)

I’ve got a few Crypt pictures for you:)

And one of noon bells ringing at 11….

Not that any of that will mean anything to you, but I think it’s pretty cool.

The ballet last night was fantastic. There was whirling and twirling, hopping and skipping, loving and fighting. Honestly, it was way more exciting and… easy to follow than I would have expected. Granted, I had read the synopsis beforehand, but still.

We’re east of Praha, and despite being in the old Moravian capital of Brno, the amount of english around us has dropped quite significantly. We’re in the touristy downtown (significantly less so than Praha’s), but even so it’s a bit of a crapshoot to find someone who speaks english. This is why it’s somewhat impressive that I happened to turn the charm onto who I imagine is one of the few fluent english speakers. The upshot is that I spent a very pleasant evening visiting and wandering with her last night, and I’m supposed to give her a call when we come back through this way.

And now, on to Poland.

We got tickets to the Ballet an hour or so ago, and they cost 160Ck each. Crazy,eh? that is like 8 bucks. We are killing a little time here before we go to the Krypt just down the street, which is as it seems, but all the graves are open(?) wierd, and apparently it is quite morbid. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll take a picture and post it. I’ve just figured out where the usb port is.

We tried to get Simon a three piece suit, but the place we were in didn’t have one that fit, and all the stores here close at noon on Saturdays. Bah. No shoppping in Brno for me, I guess.

Well, I am successful in getting souveniers for those I care about, and Chris. For everyone, I either have it bought, or I know exactly where to get it. I just need to find myself that darned tablecloth…The ones I’ve looked at were over 100 dollars at least. I sure hope you guys buying them for me in other countries are not even coming close to that in price. And if so, jeez! thanks sooooo much! But I might have to limit it to just countries I’ve been to to avoid the guilt factor.

The train station here is much easier to navigate, despite the lack of english in this city, the train station is much better for english speakers than the one in Praha. We’re off to Krakow tomorrw. If anything else, I’m just looking forward to the train ride. It’s 6 hours of countryside bliss.

Well, a very welcome – if completely foreign, but I’m learning slowly – keyboard is in front of me, and I could only be happier if Chris was on google chat, but you guys probably don’t need to be hearing about that…

Anyway, Simon and I have been so busy – my feet have passed from sore to numb, I now see how women wear heels all the time, really after about 3 days, you just can’t feel your feet anymore. We§ve done the opera 3 times in Praha, and a concert on one other night, as well as catching a great local Jazz band (4 piece with a freakin’ banjo! it was awesome!)

The train ride to Brno was gorgeous, I have to admit, being in the city is hard for me to get used to on a vacation. Seeing (and hearing and smelling) green was so welcome! This is a very interesting city aesthetically. It could easily be described as ugly, since it is old and run down (it hasn’t benifited from the government grants that Praha has for restoration after the communist let it detiriorate) and there is evidence of it’s industrious nature with large smoke stacks reminiscent of (what I picture as) nuclear power facilities. After all, it is a very important industrial city for CR.

We ended up using an accomodation service when we arrived, and it turns out it is a private home! It has a BATHTUB!! OMG!! I’m buying bubble bath after this. The balcony (yes, you heard right) looks right onto the old town square, but unfourtunately it is under construction, so it’s not as great of a view as it could be. Still. It’s pretty swank. It’s not Mendel’s Monestary (it is only open as a hostel from July to September), but hey, I’ll take it. That is the claim to fame for Brno – this is where the famous geneticist did all his reaserch, just a block from the town square.

Simon got to witness something as amazing as Mendel’s reaserch: I, Charlotte, looked in a shop window found a dress I’ve been looking for all year, tried it on, it fit, I bought it, and I left the store. Can you believe it???? I’m amazed too. On a slightly sideways note, I think this is where I am going to do all my shopping. I’ve already found a pair of shoes……..yeah for VISA!

OK, now that I’ve inundated you, I’ll let your eyes rest. Simon and I are going to the Ballet tomorrow night, we will see Swan Lake. Apparently Praha isn’t the only Czech city that enjoys the arts. I suppose this was the capital of Moravia at one point, and they had to have a Divaldo as well…..

Na Schledanou!

Eight!

So my bag, trailing behind us, has got an almost biblical knowledge of the streets of Brno before we finally arrive at our suite for the duration of our stay here. As for myself, I’ve been surviving on a pretty steady regimen of beer, espresso and fried cheese. My life will be shorter by the time this trip is over, but richer all the same.

Also, the two Canadian ladies we sort of toured around last night were quite pleasant. I think we ended up showing them a side of Praha that they wouldn’t have seen othewise–beer, opera, large portions of meat and all.

Char and I are sitting at the opera, enjoying the performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. The set design is fantastic, all sorts of moving towers and walkways, the singing is wonderful, and I’m finding that I’m enjoying the music more than I expected to. Of course, the plot is making little to no sense, but as we’ll discover later, that’s not our fault, really. The plot does in fact make no sense.

There’s a relatively tender reunitement of Candide and Cunegonde, and on the screen behind them all of a sudden… something that looks tantalizingly like a bosom. Of course, it can’t be that. This is, after all, the opera. However, the bosom is followed by nude torsos… and then more than that. Of course later on there will be topless dancers, but at the moment this is all somewhat surprising. Opera in Canada has never been this… Risque.

 ***

We go for a walk away from the tourist area. Don’t get me wrong; the old city is quite lovely, but the crowds can be somewhat taxing over time. The goal is instead to see if I can find a pizza joint that dad and I had eaten at five years prior. After a lengthy walk along the river, we turn inland and amazingly enough, through a tangled warren of streets finaly set foot in front of Aldo’s Pizzaria.

 And yes, it is as good as last time.

Well, I think Simon and I escaped the jetlag even, we slept pretty well last night, and were up all day yesterday. Both of us are pretty impressed so far with Frankfurt (although I am having a hard time navigating this keyboard). It is quite a beautiful city with a very nice river valley and downtown area, which we are staying right in.

I tried Buffalo Mozzarella yesterday for lunch, as I was told it was the only way to eat mozzarella, and it was OK. Pretty much just like unripened cheese is supposed to taste, I think.

We were pretty impressed with our hotel (not hostel, like the advertisement led us to believe) so we asked to reserve for the 19th, and well, instead of costing 51€ like last night did, it will cost 189€. We declined. We just need a bed after all. So we will likely just rebook our flight for the next day, or if that’s not possible stay in a surrounding town. Apparently this world cup thing is a big deal. I’ll let Simon on for a while.

On a side note, it’s pretty cheap to go to an internet cafe here….

Or here, or whatever. We landed this morning, did a bit of a walkabout around the river in Frankfurt (which is surprisingly pretty. Lots of trees… um… trees…). Stopped for an espresso in one spot, a pint and a snack in another, and then back for a nap to make at least a passing attempt at catching up on the sleep I didn’t get on the plane.

Now out again, possibly to grab a bottle of wine and wander around the river area. We’ll see.