My journey started in the Slovak Republic in Bratislava by heading east to Poprad. I spent two nights in Poprad and visited the Vysoke Tatry (High Tatras), the highest montains of Slovakia. Afterwards I was going to the city of Levoca, a gothic village with 14.300 inhabitants. Followed by the small town of Spišské Podhradie, where the stronghold "Spišsky hrad" is close by. Continued by Košice for two days and Velky Krtiš. I went home by bus, which took a while...
Roadmap
Größere Kartenansicht
My Story
After work, I went to directly to "Wien Südbahnhof" (south and east railwaystation of Vienna) to Bratislava, there I changed the train to the city of Poprad in the High Tatras. After a couple of hours traveling I finally reached the first milestone out of five. It was the first time to "surf somebodys flat" by using the couchsurfing-plattform. It was also the first night I stayed in slab-construction house, which were very famous during socialism in east/central europe. All things considered the flats were very functional and ample somehow.
Poprad
Saturday morning I met with a another friend from CouchSurfing. First we very visiting the city center of Poprad, then we went up the High Tatras:
Poprad - Vysoke Tatry (High Tatras/Hohe Tatra)
Montains (Berge...)
Poprad
The second night i stayed at Nikkas flat. On sunday morning I continued my travel...
More pictures at the photoblog:
Poprad, Vysoke Tatry, 09.02.2008
Levoca
My couchsurfing-friend Nikka gave me the information to visit Levoca, which is about approximate 30 minutes away by bus from Poprad. Getting there wasn't easy at all in the beginnig. Thankfully Nikka gave me a time-schedule of all departure times, but I had to find the right plattform by myself. I had to use my poor treasury of words in slovak language, but I always got what I wanted on my hole journey. I really got used to this language somehow, which was a good practice for me! So I had a small chat with a young man from a city which is located close to border to Ukraine. He told me that he has a sister working in Stockerau (a small city next to Vienna), and what his work is about, what kind of music he likes and so forth, of course all in slovak language! People were surprised and impressed somehow, that someone of Austria tries to learn their language.
Levoca
Nevertheless, after chatting, I reached Levoca. The historic center of this town is protected by a city wall. The village is really nice, you should visit it.
On the busstation of Levoca something unexcpected happend to me, when I was asking "Kde je staré mesto?" (Which means "Where is the historical center?"), I got the answer in swiss-german :-) Because that woman was working in the Swiss for a while, she adopted the Swiss accent.
More pictures at the photoblog:
Levoca, 10.02.2008
Spišské Podhradie/Stronghold of Spišsky hrad
From Levoca I went to Spišské Podhradie, a very small town close to a famous stronghold of Slovakia: Spišsky hrad. It is the biggest of central europe. Unfortunately it wasn't opened at all during winter season, but although, I went up that hill to take some photos:
Spišsky hrad
Spišsky hrad
Me at Spišsky hrad
More pictures at the photoblog:
Spišsky hrad, 10.02.2008
Košice
In the evening i reached the forth milestone out of five: Košice. With 235.000 inhabitants, this city is the second largest of Slovakia. I really have to acknowledge that I expected something diffrent. All stories I heard, all pictures I've seen about this city sounded somehow scary, because I only heard about a very dangoures district called "Luník IX", where all the gypsies live in slums - without energy, without clean water, without work. Actually this district does exist, but it's far away from city center.
Košice at sunset
Košice itself is really a very nice and beautifull city. You should visit it, when you plan to go to Slovakia. Some people of Slovakia say, that Košice is the culture-capitol-city of Slovakia, this might be correct, because of all this very old and nice buildings. It is even less expensive than Bratislava.
Košice
Košice
Košice
I also took some pictures from a district where probably hundreds of those slab-construction houses were built, it was somehow fascinating to me.
In Košice I also met a couchsurfing-friend, her name was Lenka. She showed me some nice pubs in her city and it was really nice to chat with her!
More pictures at the photoblog:
Košice, 11.02.2008
Velky Krtiš
As the last milestone on my roadmap, I went to the city of Velky Krtiš, where my friend Alena lives. I visited her and her parents at home. We also visited a museum in Modrý Kamen. It was the last time to see Alena for a long time now I think...
Nova Ves bei Velky Krtiš
More pictures at the photoblog:
Velky Krtiš, Modrý Kamen, 13.02.2008
Original Teaser Story from 13.02.2008:
"Habe vorab mal eine Auswahl an Fotos ins Netz gestellt, da ich aller Vorraussicht nach in nächster Zeit nicht dazu kommen werde. Hier sind Bilder aus Poprad, Levoca, Spišsky hrad, Košice und aus Nova Ves bei Velky Krtiš - Aus der Suedslowakei, Velky Krtiš, Dominik"