Slovakia

After the day we’ve spent with Tamás we were just the two of us again. We set off to east, to  Spissky Castle. In the way we visited Banska Bistrica. Nothing special, the town holds the athmosphere of the Communism. Nevertheless it is a special place for us as we watched  the final of the Football World Championship while having a cool beer.

After we left Banska Bistrica we met a drunk old fellow in a small village. We stopped for lunch, he came and asked a lot of questions mixing German with Russian, then he left. After half an hour he returned, he was a bit more sober and he didn’t mix the languages either, he spoke better German. He said he came back to invite us for a coffee and he added that he would be our host for the night. We didn’t accept the invite as it was merely 3 o’clock in the afternoon and we had a lot to go that day.  Finally he gave us 3 euros.  He felt offended we didn’t accept the invitation and subsequently we were sorry too. This was the second time we refused an invite. We met a Czech cyclist wayfarer who was on the road for approximately 50 days as we were, just that he was already headed home. He travelled along most of the Balkan Peninsula. He told us he was in Alaska and is South-America by bike. It was nice to meet a guy like us, with the same hobby.

Before seeing the Spissky Castle, we visited the Dobsina Ice Cave. We arrived to the cave in the evening and wanted to boil rice, but we didn’t have any water. In the parking lot  there was an RV. After a few moments of thinking, we knocked on its door and asked for some water. The man boiled the rice for us while he was telling us stories and offered us beer. His name is Alfred Tham, he came from Berlin to visit the ice cave, which is one of the biggest in the world. Unfortunately we weren’t able to make photos inside the cave.

After visiting the cave we saw Spissky Castle. In its neighbourhood, that’s the North-Eastern part of Slovakia,  live a lot of gipsies. There were villages inhabited exclusively  by gipsies, but they weren’t hostile. I lost my bicycle-lock  in one of these villages. I noticed it, but as soon as I turned back, the kid ran away. Hang it! – it’s worth a try, I’ll follow him, let’s see whether I get the lock back. The street was full of gipsies, everyone enjoyed the happening. I stopped 5 m far from the kid, showed him the flat of my hand, hoping to get it back. The kid smiled, everyone was watching us, no one moved. A little bit of time passed this way, then I thought: damn that lock, I’d better get lost before they take away my bike as well. Suddenly the kid changed his mind, he came  to me and gave back the lock. I got on the bike much relieved and absquatulated peacefully. We slept that night on a stage.

The following day we visited the castle.

We reached Poprad on the same day, this is the last bigger town we encountered on our way to Krakow. I found out here that because of the heavy load (we got much luggage in Bratislava) and because of the streets of Slovakia, my rear boot  broke.

I got a new one for 16 euros, that is not that good as the old one, but it’s not broken. I spared the old one too, hoping it would mend some time. And carrying is my way of being, we carry all sorts of unnecessary things.  At the end of the journey I’ll be curious to find out how many superfluous things I had carried. Before leaving Slovakia, the cliffs of Visoke Tatry made us joyful. Those cliffs are sharp, they are as saw-teeth.
Our days in Slovakia were eventful, we had a good time there.

Krakow

Another town which is part of world heritage. It lies on the bank of Wisla river and it has probably the most beautiful castle of Poland. On the territory of the castle there are the royal palace, the church and the view from the castle is magnificent. 

We visited the town in 39 degrees. We started with the castle, then we went to see the rest of the old town. This  was the time we were more ecstatic than about all the buildings of Krakow. In some points firefighters poured water and we found one of these points. You can’t imagine that happiness.   
And this was just half of the happiness, because while cooling down we met a Hungarian respectively a Polish group, who were headed to the Northern part of Poland, to the seaside. They invited us for a beer, which we accepted, this way the cooldown was perfect.

After the drink we visited Emilio Schindler’s factory. Schindler was a German officer in World War II, who saved the life of  many Jews by employing them in his factory.

On the road in Poland

When reaching a village on our way to Krakow, we found ourselves in awkward situations again. One of them was funny, the other one less funny.

The weird thing was that we found a man lying like a log on the side of the road. More exactly on the side of the highway which is busy as we all know. We were marvelling that no one stopped to see what the problem was with that guy. We stopped and noticed a woman in a restaurant nearby. We  announced her by asking her to follow us, than we showed her the reason why. The problem was solutionized fairly quickly, a car proved to be handy and the fellow was on his way to the hospital. As it turned out he was in alcohol induced coma. With a hint of exaggeration, after saving a deer, we almost rescued a man’s life.


The funny scene happened right after this. It was noon and we found a small table in front of a store, where we thought we would have lunch. I went down to ask the lady whether we can sit and eat. The lady did not know any other language but Polish. I rubbed my head not knowing what to do. She looked at me and didn’t understand what I wanted. OK, I’ll ask her to come out and we’ll show her what we want. I signed her to follow me. She came. In the meantime Előd was communicating with everything he could with the paramedics, because they were notified eventually  by someone about the man lying on the margin of the road, but he was not there anymore when they arrived. The paramedics didn’t speak any foreign language either.  In the meantime the lady got to the front of the store. We started to explain her as we could that we would like to eat on that table. She smiled and didn’t understand what we wanted. We were smiling too. Half content of the bag was already on that table but we still didn’t understand each other. 10 minutes were gone when she finally comprehended what we wanted. Cheerfulness and happiness on both sides, she signed we could have our meal leisurely.
This kind of communication results in many interesting skits. It was good to be part of it.

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps

In Oswiecim we visited  Auschwitz –Birkenau (Auschwitz II) concentration camps.
We weren’t able to make legally any photos, but these were not the places where one took photos with pleasure. But there is much information available for visitors. Visiting is necessary if one wants to feel the atmosphere that prevailed there in those times. 
We were in a fairly good mood when entering the camp, but when leaving it we weren’t that smiley anymore, in the meantime the weather got gloomy, rainy too.
Here we met a French cyclist wayfarer headed to Romania. His name is Fabien Savouroux and who wants to find out more about his journey, visit http://laptitevadrouille.over-blog.com/

We spent the night about 200 m far from the camp, as time passed and it got dark. The next day the radio station  Erdély fm called us and took a telephone interview that was broadcast live.

Czech Republic 

After leaving Krakow we were headed to the Czech border where we come upon an American guy.

Our direction was Brno, he went to Prague. He came from San Francisco to travel along Europe for three months.  That evening while having a beer we mutually spoke about our experiences. The next day he set off to Prague, we went to Brno.

On the whole Czech area there was nothing but ”up the hill, down the hill”. Well, it was tiring and annoying too.
 In Brno we got together with Tomas Sikora, I met him on Crete.
This was the place where we first had Pilsner beer. The best we ever had.
After Brno we went towards Ceske Budejovice. You might wonder how the road was. ”Up the hill, down the hill”... In Ceske Budejovice Előd was helped with the bump in his rear tire.


Unfortunately the interference wasn’t that helpful, as he had more and more punctures. On a day he had actually two breakdowns.  The reason? We don’t know...

Before visiting Prague, we went to see Plzen, where we met Petr Stojka.
We got acquainted in the summer of 2008 when we were hiking in the Făgăraş Mountains. There we ate pizza again and drank good local beer.

The next day we visited the Pilsner factory, in the evening Petr helped me fix the broken rear boot. This way I have a spare boot now.  

On our way to Prague we visited Karlstein Castle, where we finally come along a pass. I was as happy as a dog. The surroundings of the castle is beautiful to an extent  that made Előd enter a ditch as he wasn’t looking at the road but to the landscape. 
Nothing serious happened, he got a few bruises. And a photo of the bike route taking to Prague.
There are lots of bike routes in the Czech Republic, the only disadvantage being the abrupt ground. This wasn’t good for us.
Prague is probably the most beautiful city we have ever seen. I formulated with probably because I still can’t decide whether Budapest or Prague is the nicest. Beautiful buildings, huges squares, million people. This was the place we met a Serb cyclist,  Mihailo Djordjevic. We had a beer together.
And I turned 26 in Prague.

In the present we are in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, hurrying to Helsinki.