Tough times in Slovakia

Compared to Hungary and Latvia where everything followed the script pretty much perfectly, this was a more testing trip. The God’s didn’t always smile on us; the unavailability of Mark, a 6hour flight delay, bouts of food poisoning (I’m still not eating solid food yet!), insect (flea/bedbug?) bites from the bed, a mediocre quality hostel in comparison to the previous trips, castles that were closed, dangerous terrain underfoot, missed trains and surly waitresses greeted us on this trip…But thanks to excellent company and a good spirit, it proved to be a great trip and a worthwhile journey.

We set off in good spirits, but the first blow came when we were told the flight would be delayed by at least 6 hours. Not only did this mean that we’d be spending 8hours in Manchester Airport, but more disappointingly we’d arrive in Slovakia at 1am Sunday morning instead of 7pm Saturday evening and our plans for spending the night in the town were derailed. There were a lot of loud and very drunk men (presumably on a stag do) on the flight. At one point some of the guys got so aggressive towards each other that I had visions of a fight breaking out and the plane being diverted to another airport….We eventually arrived at the hostel at 2am and tried to salvage some of the evening by heading out for a few drinks, but thanks to poor information by the girl on reception, we didn’t find anywhere open.

Got some excellent views of the city from the castle and the viewing platform from the bridge at Novy Most. Walking around was slow and difficult being mid-way though a large thaw with large pools of water lying on top of hardened snow. Also, the Town Planners of Bratislava did not look upon walking highly and it must rank as being one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly cities I’ve been too, yet this is not unusual in ex-communist countries. We did however make it to the very communist suburb of Petrzalka where, at Shiz’s insistence, went for a beer in a local bar. I had visions that it would be a den of xenophobic locals hostile to outsiders, particularly rich westerners, but instead we watched Slovakia vs Kazakhstan in the Ice Hockey in a very civilized atmosphere as well as being a mere 38p a pint. Definitely a highlight of the trip.

Sampled a few of the excellent Slovak and Czech Beers that evening.

Late Monday afternoon I suddenly started to feel very ill, which culminated in me unexpectedly vomiting at the checkout in Tescos, before spewing up several times in the street outside. I spent the next 12 hours bedridden with a fever, feeling like death unable to even drink water before making a semi-recovery for the trip to Trencin the next day. I blame the Szeged Goulash I ate at lunchtime, though mysteriously Shiz also had the same dish and was fine. I can only assume that the gypsy-looking waitress took a dislike to me and cursed me (it’s happened before!).

Trencin castle had the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately I was more focused on trying not to vomit or to soil myself (since I’d had been having copius bowl movements) rather than giving the surroundings my full attention!

Overall though an excellent couple of days despite a few set backs, though if I’d been alone it’d have been a pretty miserable time.