Slovakia

Finally, a new blog post.  My university provides four trips for the international students which are organized by a travel agency run by one woman (and her dog).  The first of these trips was to the Slovak mountains.  The former country of Czechoslovakia peaceably split on January 1, 1993, creating two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  I've had to correct many people, telling them that I am not in Czechoslovakia, as it ceased to exist 15 years ago.  The CR has 10 million people and is more industrialized.  Slovakia has 5 million people and is more agrarian,  but is quickly industrializing, especially following its accession into the European Union.  Slovakia is even on its way to becoming the world leader in per capita car production.  The Czech Republic and Slovakia had been placed together in the past, even though the two nations are different.  The languages are different, but share most of the same words.  A Czech and a Slovak can speak in their own language and still understand one another.  Slovakia, like the CR, uses the koruna, or crown, as its currency.  Slovak crowns are worth a little less than the Czech ones, about 24 crowns/$1.  However, Slovakia will join the euro on January 1, 2009, and will cease to use the crown, a goal the CR hopes to also accomplish in the next few years.  

Ok, onto my trip.    We left Brno at 7 am on Friday, Oct. 10.  Our first stop was the Slovak town of Piešťany.  It is a well known spa town.  There wasn't much to see and I don't really know why we went there.  We talked to a shop owner there and he was excited that we were from the US.   He then asked us if we wanted to see the "best looking" kids in the US, and he pulled out pictures of his grandchildren, who live in Denver.  I guess grandparents are the same everywhere.  Afterwards, we headed to the town of Trenčin to visit the oldest Slovak castle.  We wandered around the castle and around the town, mainly looking for a place to eat.  

That night, we headed to our hostel in the middle of nowhere, literally.  The hostel had a restaurant and outlying cabins.  Our cabin was off in the woods, in the complete darkness of a Slovak mountain forest.  We were finally able to see the stars, too, which we hadn't been able to do in Brno.  An interesting thing with that is that when we look at the moon and stars here, you can see the exact same moon and stars wherever you are.  

The Trenčin Castle

Looking out from the front of our cottage

The following morning, we had breakfast and headed to the Vrátná Dolina Valley in the Fatra mountains.  We were going to walk along a mountain trail.  Our guide said it was a romantic and easy walk.  Later, we found out that trail was closed, but there was another special trail open.   We were told this was an even easier trail, as our guide said, "No adrenaline."  We should have known that couldn't be true.  The trail led along a stream going up the mountain.  It was beautiful scenery, too, which was a lot different than what we had been seeing in the cities we had been touring.  Soon, the trails began to get more difficult.  It had rained the day before and the trail was muddy and the rocks were slippery.  The most difficult parts were the rickety metal bridges and ladders across the river and up waterfalls.  The worst part was when we had to climb a rock face, using only a metal chain to pull ourselves up.  We all wondered if this was the "relaxing" trail, what was the hard one like?  We took too long to travel up the mountain and didn't have time to finish and didn't get to see the mountain valley.   We had to turn back around...which meant going down the same ladders and the chain.  It was a lot easier going up than going down.  Complicating matters were the hikers we met coming the opposite way, which made single lane trails hard to navigate.  By the time we were finally down from the mountain, we were all a bit tired of hiking and really muddy.  

Fall in Slovakia

The Vrátná Dolina Valley

Don't let these pictures fool you--the ladders were steep and rickety

The dreaded chain...going up was easy, coming down was hard!

Waterfall: Pretty. Ladder: Pretty scary.

This is a lot steeper in real life...also, wet shoes and wet ladders/planks were bad

We were later treated to a wooden river raft trip through the Strečno Valley along the river Váh.  

The wooden rafts we took on the River Váh

The River Váh

A castle on the river

Another castle on the river

The next morning, we toured the Demanovská Cave.  The cave tour involved a lot of walking through the cave system.  It wasn't a demanding walk, but the stairs didn't feel good to those whose legs were hurting from the mountain hike the day before.  After the cave tour, we were supposed to eat at an authentic Slovak restaurant.  However, it was closed.  Another restaurant was recommended and we were told they could handle all 50 of us in the group.  When we got there, however, we found they only had one waiter and one cook.  The guide had planned for an hour lunch break, but it stretched to five hours.  Fortunately, my table was the first to order, so we only had to wait an hour and a half for our meal.  By the time we finished our lunch break, it was already supper time.  

Part of the Demanovská Caves

Our last stop was the village of Vlkonínec.  The entire village is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is an "untouched and complex example of folk countryside architecture in the Northern Carpathians." The village is made up of old two or three room log cabins.  Since we arrived so late, we weren't able to tour the town with a guide or see the town's museum.  We arrived in Brno 3 hours late that night, pulling in after midnight...and I still had a paper to finish and turn in for class by midnight...but they are so lax here with homework, I could turn it in late, fortunately for me!  

The main street in the village of Vlkolinec

The church in Vlkolinec (built 1875, young for this old town)