Unexpected Events.

by

Luke and I went out for a walk this morning and tried to find the ‘river trail’. How hard could it be? It follows a river! We walked to the other end of town, which is uphill all the way, and crossed the road to the ski fields. We found the end of the forest walk, which we’d tried to do yesterday but failed, but no sign of the river trail.

We struck off across the muddy, grass slopes in what we hoped was the right direction, but I didn’t last long. Water seeped into my shoes and I decided to turn back. Luke keep going but didn’t find the trail and turned back later on.

I really think we’re here too early in the year. The higher mountain trails only open for walking around the first of July and right now every path is full of running water or boggy with mud. Disappointing, but there’s not much we can do about it. Danka, the manager, suggested bike riding to another town and then catching the bus back. But having seen the tiny, packed buses I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the idea of hoping that there’ll be room for two bikes.

Anyhow, the day’s excitement really started when I got back to the hostel to find everyone in a flap. The two Canadian girls had taken Wally for a walk and he’d been bitten by a snake. He’d come most of the way back with them but then disappeared when they got close to the hostel. The girls and Danka went out looking for him and there was no sign for ages. We looked up the snakes (they’d seen two) online and thought that it was probably a European viper, which is venomous but not usually deadly.

Danka eventually found Wally and brought him back. Half his face was swollen and he was shaking dreadfully. We all patted him while we waited for the taxi and now they’re heading to the nearest big town and hopefully something can be done for Wally. If his facebook page is any indicator, he’s a very popular dog who’d be very sadly missed.

Fingers crossed!

Chilling out in Zdiar, Slovakia.

by

The last couple of months (I can’t believe we’re 2 months down… 7 to go!) have been pretty hectic and the last month particularly. The longest we’ve stayed in one place in Europe was Cesky Krumlov for 4 nights. I don’t mean to imply that we’re feeling exhausted or are sick of traveling. In fact I’m surprised at how well things have been going and how effortless our journey has (mostly) been.

But you do get sick of having to re-pack the bag every few days and the actual traveling parts, while interesting (or in some cases cramped, stinky and confusing) are tiring and so having 5 nights to relax in a gorgeous alpine village is a welcome break.

To make it all the more enjoyable, the Ginger Monkey has two dogs and a cat. Luke and I are both mildly allergic to cats but it hasn’t been in the bedroom and we’ve felt fine so far. The dogs, Wally and Chuba (I’m just going to call her that because I can’t pronounce her name)) are delightful. I had no idea how much I was missing my own dog until then.

Wally!

We went for a walk this morning up a nearby ridge to take in the view. The ground was very soft and there’s a lot of snow melt running down the gullies, which wasn’t great for Luke as he only has runners and no boots. Wally came with us and wanted us to throw things for him – plastic bottles, too-large sticks, a shoe sole and a rock that was almost as big as a half brick (we didn’t throw the rock). He was pronking all over the place and making us laugh. Then he found a huge stick and kept running past Luke, banging him in the ankles with it, which made me laugh. Luke not so much.

Anyhow, I can’t wait to get to the UK so we can travel a bit lighter after ditching some stuff at Matt’s place. But for now we’re having to live with a bit of chaos.

I blame the fact that there is nowhere to hang anything for the dreadful state of our room.

Budapest to Slovakia

by

This morning we found our taxi driver asleep in his car outside our hotel, which was kind of funny. What wasn’t funny was being taken the long way to the station  – about 3 times as far as we’d walked the previous day to buy our tickets. Le sigh.

Early morning light at Keleti station.

Still, we found our train and, after being asked to move seats, realised that there was an allocation system that we weren’t part of so we found some unoccupied seats and got comfortable. Hungarian trains are pretty nice and the toilet was decent too. Unlike toilets on Vietnamese trains, which are full of water. Full on a train. Don’t get me started.

Anyhoo. The hostel website was full of confidently brief directions on how to get there via public transport so we didn’t do all the research we should’ve. Note to selves and other travelers: if you’re taking trains in non-English speaking countries don’t just work out where you’re getting on and off, look at the last stop on your line because that’s what the signs will say. No problem with our first train as it stopped at Kosice on the border. Unfortunately our next stop, Poprad, wasn’t the final stop on that line so in the 15 minutes we had to make the connection there was a bit of stressful hurrying about trying to work out which train we wanted. Not ideal when you’re carrying all your worldly possessions on your back.

We found the right train, though, and then got off at Poprad. About 20 minutes before Poprad the view goes from flat fields to OMG! MOUNTAINS! Big, jagged, snow covered mountains. Since this is something I can’t ever recall seeing in such magnitude and at such close proximity previously I was very impressed.

With luck and our last few euros we hopped on the bus to Zdiar and made it to our hostel, the Ginger Monkey. This place was recommended by our friend Ben, who was here a while back. Probably not at the same time of year though – it’s just us and one other guy here at the moment, with a girl arriving tomorrow. I don’t mind a bit of quiet though and it’s a stunning place to have a break.

With no restaurants open during weekdays in the off season, we walked down to the local mini mart with the hostel’s dog, Wally, and bought ingredients for tuna pasta. This will be the second from-scratch meal I’ll have made in two months.

After bringing our food back we took both dogs for a wander, hoping to find the river walk. Miraculously, in a village with two streets, we managed not to find it and lost both dogs along the way. No doubt they’re off greeting all the other dogs we passed – there’s more dogs here than people if our walk was anything to go by.

I’m saving the mountain photos for tomorrow. Tonight will be maybe a movie and then definitely and early night. Hopefully there’ll be blue skies for a nice long walk tomorrow.