Slovakia - Tgon's Travels

I have spent the last two days and nights in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. I drove down from the beautiful hotel in northern Slovakia, almost running out of petrol on the way due to the rarity of petrol stations on the Motorway, and checked into Patio Hostel. The first night I met an Australian guy called Andy and an English girl called Kirsten. We decided to go out for some drinks and were joined by three French guys, Valentine, Arthur and Jan. They were taking part in an event where they were driving around Europe in an old car they said was called two horses. In the event were nine teams, each driving one of these cars, with four people in each car, they were leaving Bratislava at 5am the next morning. They gave me a few tips of good places to visit in Romania so I’ll try to look into them when I get there. So the six of us headed off into Bratislava and went around a few bars drinking and having an amazing evening.

The next morning Andy, Kristen and I were joined by Lars, he is a student from Denmark who was also staying in the same hostel as us. We headed out into town to take part in the free tour. The tour was great and lasted about 2 hours, we walked through the city being told about the important buildings, the history and culture of Bratislava. There was an orchestra playing in one of the squares which made for a great atmosphere. After the tour we walked up to the castle and looked down over the city, the view was really good but I think it would have been nicer to look back onto the old city rather than the new.

In the evening the four of us headed out to Slovakia Pub for some food. The food was the tastiest food I have eaten in ages. We had Goulash with dumplings. After we had eaten we headed out to find a relaxing bar with comfortable chairs. We ended up in a cocktail bar, this is where we met two guys who were on another amazing trip.

These guys, Ed and Mark, were travelling through Europe on pedal bikes. They were riding from the North Sea to the Black sea, they started in Holland and followed the Rhine through Germany and France, they are now following the Danube all the way to the Black sea.

We spent the night drinking in bars around Bratislava and listening to the live music in the bars. Bratislava is a great city for the history, the food and the drink. The history is free and the food and drinks are very cheap.

I’m leaving Bratislava today and travelling the short distance into Austria to visit Vienna for the afternoon. This evening I’m planning to camp somewhere fairly close to Vienna and then head to Hungary to stay in Budapest tomorrow.

The drive from Prague to Auschwitz took longer than I thought it would, the roads in Czech Republic were good and I managed to keep a good pace all the way to Poland. Once I crossed over the border there was a definite change, the roads were uneven with a lot more bends. I had prepared a route which seemed simple enough to follow, the only problem was that once I arrived in a small town I was supposed to take a road from there to the Auschwitz museum I found that there were three different roads all with the same number heading in different direction.

I stopped a few times to ask directions and managed to get fairly close, this is when I met a guy riding a CBR 1000, he said that he was heading the same way and I should follow him. I followed him to the museum and we stopped and had a brief chat, he was a motorbike mechanic and had done some touring on his bike. He offered to give me his mobile number so that if I ever had any problems while I was in Southern Poland I could call him. I explained I didn’t have a working phone but thanked him and gave him my website address.

I went into the museum car park and met the attendant, a Polish guy with one arm who spoke no English. We went into the on-site hotel so that the girl on the desk could translate. I explained I wanted a very cheap place to stay, they suggested the hotel, I explained it was too expensive and asked if I could sleep in the car park. The guy said I could but that it would be cold and I would need to pay for parking, a little less than 3 Euro. I agreed but then when we left the hotel and went back to the car park he changed his mind and said I could stay for free.

This morning I woke up, packed up the camp and headed into the museum. If you go between 9 and 10 you can walk around on your own for free, I went at 10 and had a guided tour. After the Museum I headed to Krakow. There wasn’t much to do there so I didn’t stay long and headed south into Slovakia. The border here is really nice, as I got closer the road climbed up into the hills and I could see the rain clouds ahead. I managed to get my water-proofs on before I got into the rain but then had to drive slowly, trying to concentrate on where I was going with rain, condensation in my helmet, and awesome scenery all around.

I crossed over into Slovakia and decided I wanted to stay in a hotel tonight instead of having to put the tent up in the rain. I drove until I found one and stopped, its reasonably cheap but is a beautiful building in the hills. I’m sat here now having eaten a pork stew type meal and a strudel, drinking a beer in front of a log fire with relaxing music on in the background, trying not to fall asleep yet.

Tomorrow I’m driving through Slovakia to Bratislava and I plan to spend 2 nights in a very cheap hostel while I explore the city.