Archive for the 'sightseeing' Category

my second home – Banska Bystrica

Published on August 29, 2008 in sightseeing. 0 Comments

So I got a kick of nostalgia right in my guts the last few days…

Yeah, I know that I am home in Vrutky/Martin, the twin towns where I was born and was raised, but honestly for the last 7 years it was just a stop over – the place to go to get clean clothes, have some home cooked food and maybe spend holidays. In Banska Bystrica (BB) I have spent 5 years of my uni studies and it was my base for the countless conferences of AIESEC… but most of all its the town where I truly lived, loved, drunk, enjoyed myself, was doing sightseeing for I dont know how many foreigners, lived at 5 different places each in different part of town, took on the challenge of AIESEC leadership and realized I am more-less good in it, was enjoying the old buildings with their small details and the hills and nature right behind the houses…

So it should not be surprising that I experienced that a memory pops out on every second corner…

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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

My hometown

Published on July 31, 2008 in sightseeing. 0 Comments

I came back home less than 24 hours ago, its time to check out my “kingdom” and compare it to memories…

I took a bike and went for a ride to town of Martin (Martin and Vrutky are twin towns), the town where I was born and where I went for high school… Very refreshing and nostalgic ride. My most favorite spot here around is a place called “Attilas grave”, read more about him here, in short he was a great warrior who brought a lot of sorrow to this part of world in 4th century. Its a small hill with an pre-WW2 cemetery on the top. The legend says he is buried there – that the hill is his funeral pile (it also says he was buried in a “triple coffin made of gold, silver, and iron”)… In fact its of natural origin but it surely gives a really nice view and has a real romantic feeling to it.

And than I went to the center of Martin, nicely renovated, full of shops but it does feel odd to me, gone are the crowded streets full of all kinds of people dressed in similar clothes…

See the album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/klepo.slovakia/TheTownOfMartinAndAttilasGrave