Monthly Archive for August, 2008

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short stay in Bratislava (the capital)

Published on August 11, 2008 in sightseeing. 0 Comments

This was just a spontaneous decision – two old friends of mine had birthday recently and decided to hold a small party in a pub in Bratislava. As I had nothing to do those days I have decided to go and see them. So I packed a spare shirt and trousers, a book to read in dull moments, photocamera and my set of hitchhiking signs and went :)

The way was fast and fun, was lucky all the time and arrived long before expected party start. I used the time to help a lost french guy find the train station and see the city from the highest spot – the WW2 memorial of Slavin. I have spent some time walking around the monument, then went down to the city and saw an exhibition about the 1968 “invasion of Soviet armies” into Czechoslovakia – the story is longer and is summed up here, but in short CS has started to be too democratic and independent on USSR and that was something USSR could not accept as it was weakening the position of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. People in CS have been shocked because they took it as betrayal from their comrades… The democratization was stopped for next 20 years.

I didnt take too many pictures but You can find them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/BratislavaTheCapital

our cottage in the mountains

Published on August 5, 2008 in trekking. 0 Comments

This small building is just a part of the original house of my grandparents, it was actually the birthplace of my mother. 2/3s of it have collapsed years ago, now the “leftover” is our family “mountain holiday resort” :) No electricity, fresh (freezing cold) water from a spring few meters away from the house, green hills all around, warm sun in the day and sky full of stars at night…

We didnt take the casual way but took a hike via beautiful needle-shaped rocks. I had to resist a huge urge not to try and climb them.

I can take You there if You want, its possible to sleep all year round, but during the winter we would have to get through at least 0.5 m of snow and lit up fire in the stove :D

Pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/
TripToHillsAboveTheBirthplaceOfMyMomVillageZazriva

a 30 km long walk

Published on August 4, 2008 in trekking. 0 Comments

I just felt like walking, walking a lot, as far as I only can, just to see how far can I go… And when my mother mentioned that I should visit my grandparents, in the village of Maly Cepcin, I just combined those two things and went for this walk (it cant qualify as trek because I walked roads, village roads but roads).

I was not in a hurry and despite the sky was sometimes looking like a storm is not far away I had beautiful weather the whole time. It took me nearly 6 hours to make the distance including a few stops and detours looking for some nice sights.

Surprisingly no sores or aches after the walk… My condition is better than expected :) My plan to walk Slovakia across (literary) sounds more realistic day by day :D

Look at few pictures from the trip here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/30KmWalkToHouseWhereMyGrandparentsLiveVillageMalyCepcin

hike to the Castle of Strecno (and mushrooms!)

Published on August 2, 2008 in trekking. 0 Comments

This was first of my trips around Slovakia – decide where to go on the spot, pack and go however possible.

This spot was one of those I was looking forward to go to, Strecno is now a small village few km away from Vrutky (my hometown). Before it was an important place because it is on the side of the river Vah which was followed by an important merchant road, that is also why two castles – and old and newer have been built to guard it.

I went to the Old castle, now just a ruin, but the path took me under the New castle which is now partly renovated and serves as a museum. On the way I stuffed myself with wild blackberries and found a bagfull of mushrooms.

See the pictures from the trip and also few of my hometown here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/CastlesOfStrecnoAndPickingMushrooms

first trek – the mountains “Fat” and “Sharp”

Published on August 1, 2008 in trekking. 0 Comments

So here it is what I was looking for – trying to get damn tired hiking up a hill and taking deep breaths and long views of Slovakia…

Todays destination are two hills in the valley that I call home, the first one is called “Tlsta” (1373 m) which means “fat” and the second is “Ostra” (1247 m) which means Sharp. They are part of the same mountain range and are actually twins. Their names come from their shape – one having a flat and the other sharp peak.

The altitude might not look too impressive – in Pakistan even the holiday hills of Murree are more than 2000 m above sea level and I hiked to Kutwal Lake at 3260 m without any problems, but the important thing is the starting altitude of 500 m (thus we made 800 m ascend in like 3 hours) and the fact that the highest mountain of Slovakia (and whole Central Europe) is “only” 2655 m tall. Its a moderate difficulty hike for few hours…

On the way we also stopped and went into the cave of Mazarna – an around 50 m long opening in the face of the hill, the Castle of Blatnica is also very close but we didnt have time to stop there. Generally it was a very pretty hike and even though the “promise of a storm” in the sky was haunting us all the time it didnt rain until we have been down and safe.

See the pictures album from the trip here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/TheCaveMazarnaAndHillsTlstaTheFatAndOstraTheSharp