Planing the next stop - Slovakia part 2

Towards the end of my stay in Bratislava I felt the need to see some countryside for a change. A friend had recommended to visit the Mala Fatra National Park and I also always wanted to see the Tatra mountains in the Eastern part of Slovakia. Some planing became necessary and so I spent the best part of my last day in Bratislava on the internet, checking out bus and train schedules, availability of mountain huts, onward connections from the Mala Fatra area to the Tatra mountains and accommodation options in the Tatras. It is the sort of planing I have to do every time I move to a new location. That, together with the fact that every time I move I have to check that I have packed everything, get up early with the help of my alarm to catch an early bus, make sure I find my connecting buses on time, make those periods of traveling quite stressful. So far that has resulted I in a travel pattern where I make just a few stops per country but stay more than just a couple of days in each place, unlike most other travellers – and that seems a pretty nice balance of quantity and quality so far.

Some impressions from moving through Slovakia...

Making the most from the space: rolling timetables

People inside a train station, waiting for the platform to be announced. For some strange reason they are announced only couple of minutes before the train arrives.

Learning from the locals – Slovakia part 1

From Olomouc I moved on to Slovakia, and there my first stop was Bratislava. With no further plans for the evening of my day of arrival, I strolled through the city centre when I noticed this flyer for a concert – and decided to check it out.


Unfortunately, the hostel staff were not familiar with with the concert venue, “Garage under Pristavnym bridge”, but they got me on a bus heading the right direction. When I got off the bus I was lucky enough to run into Mattie, a local, who also wanted to go to this concert. But even though he was a local lad, it was not until an hour and several phone calls to his friend later before we found the place. And it all made sense then: there was this big garage complex where people lock up their cars, and one of these garages was used to host a Czech and a local punk band that night. The whole event felt as much underground as it can get and I understood why the girls from the hostel reception had not heard about that place before – and I also understood that night what the word “garage band” is all about!


Later that night, after everything had been cleaned up, Mattie and I met up with some of his friends at a bar downtown. With all of them being locals I was interested in their views on the separation of Czechoslovakia and their experiences with the Euro currency that was introduced in Slovakia this year. And whilst listening to their stories I felt happy that I had spotted that concert flyer. It is difficult to get into this kind of intimate contact with locals (ok, I still have not used couchsurfing.com yet, but I am on it) and at hostels you usually only find travelers from other countries than the one you are visiting. So, in future, I will keep looking out for these flyers...

Some impressions from Bratislava...

Primate's palace - The Habsburgs made peace with Napoleon here (Peace of Pressburg)

The Watcher, one of many odd sculptures in the city centre

Changing of guard at the Presidential Palace

Headquarter of a construction company

View over the city from the castle

3+1 alternative ways to travel

Leaving Prague I stopped in Cesky Krumlov for a couple of nights and then moved on to the university town Olomouc. Both towns had great hostels with a cosy interior and a much more personal atmosphere than the big city hostel in Prague. Some of the people I met at these two hostels have interesting approaches to traveling. There is Ian & Wendy for example, a couple from New Zealand, who wanted to travel around the world after they retired. They have their boat anchored in Turkey for six months and are now touring through Eastern Europe with just two small backpacks holding a couple of changes. Their next big lag will be crossing the Atlantic ocean in a couple of months. Starting from New Zealand with their boat, it took them about five years to make it to Europe, so I reckon it will take them another five to complete their round trip. It was interesting to hear from them that they are not the only crew doing this kind of long-term sea and land traveling. They reckon there are about 100 crews out there doing the same thing, and every now and then they meet one of the other crews again.

Relaxing evening at Hostel 99 in Cesky Krumlov: at the table are Croatia, England, Canada, South Korea and Germany

Other folks, with less budget, who are also keen to spend longer periods in a place, work for a couple of months or years at a hostel and travel the vicinity during their time off, before eventually moving on to another hostel in another country.

Some folks make a career out of traveling. They roam around, find a nice spot and open up their own hostel. Every now and then they will look for someone to take over runing the hostel to buy themselves some travel time.

And then there are people like me, taking some time off to travel on a fixed budget. Actually, I found the alternatives that I have come across so far quite inspiring – perhaps I will help out in a hostel along the way to get some idea what running a hostel is like.

Some impressions from Cesky Krumlov and Olomouc...

Castle garden at Cesky Krumlov Castle

Double-spiral staircase in St Moritz church, Olomouc

Townhall with astronomical clock, Olomouc

Main square with Holy Trinity Column, Olomouc

Language problems - Prague (part 3)

In order to keep expenses low during my trip I intend to wash my cloths by hand. The sinks at my hostel have no plugs however, so I need to get out and buy one. The first shop I try looks like they might just have what I am after. The guy behind the counter speaks little English, too little. I try drawing something on paper, but thanks to my poor drawing skills he still doesnt understand what I need. Shop number two, same story. In the third shop one of the young assistants speaks English. He gives me directions to the right kind of shop and also tells me the Czech word for plug. So at shop number four I finally get my plug, only to find out later that it is too big. Ah well, I shall keep it for later.

Like that English speaking guy at the shop, most people that do speak English (and that is not many) are fairly young and many of them are overseas students who are not familiar with local life and history and cannot help with questions like why are there two house numbers for every house and what is the difference between the 100 and 150 Kroner daily tickets for public transport. Realising that I decide it is time to fill in my couchsurfing profile so that I have a chance of meeting up with some local folks that can explain things to me during my next city stop.



Businesses seem to have grown much faster than language skills since the wall came down in 1989. I see all the big store chains in Prague that I am familiar with from living in the UK, Netherlands and Germany. It seems however that some of their products they sell here are adapted to the local taste. Without being able to understand Czech and judging by the photo on the can, I expected to have spaghetti bolognese for dinner, but instead I find some think tomato soup when I open the can. It did fill my stomach, though!

24. April - Prague (part2)

Today I spent a day on the tram to explore the city a bit more but also to go out to the city perimeter. One thing I noticed is that people make good use of the many rubbish bins that are everywhere and so the city centre is pretty clean. As soon as you leave the immediate centre however, you start seeing graffitis, even on those beautiful houses.



Moving towards the perimeter, the graffiti density increases but on the ground it is still very clean everywhere.


At the end of tram line 17 I enter one of these concrete tower housing estates. Getting of the tram I heard some music coming from around the corner and I thought I should watch so I dont end up in the arms of a youth gang. But far from it. The music turned out to come from a small beer garden where the locals hang out to enjoy beer and snacks. Also, the whole area looked pretty grim when approaching it with the tram, because all you see nothing but concrete blocks with small windows, and there are thousands of it. But if you make the effort to take a closer look you will notice plenty of space between the tower blocks, filled with hedges, trees and playgrounds. So in the end it didnt seem such a bad place after all - in fact I found it a very peaceful place with a relaxing atmosphere thanks to the lack of tourists - and the people living out here (obviously not the richest ones) just enjoy what they have.

Prague (part 1)

My accommodation in Prague happens to be a little bit away from the town centre because I picked some place quite cheap. The nice thing about being based away from the centre is – and I realise this only now – that you get a chance to see what the city is like away from the touristic centre. So on my way downtown I discover this 10-storey concrete building that is full with administration offices, offering a nice and free of charge view of the city from one of the upper floors. It is from there that I spot the unbelievable: a public footpath crossing all tracks of Prague´s central train station. Without barriers or lights warning of approaching trains – use it at your own risk!


Downtown Prague, you can explore the city on everything you can imagine, like horse-drawn carriages, vintage cars, self-balancing electric 2-wheelers or this bike – if you want to call it that – which sits seven people all facing each other. Being a bicycle fanatic, I wanted to have a go on it but with the only other people showing interest being Italians, the owner only runs sightseeing tours in Italian language.













Exploring the city by foot, I came to a place where once a giant Stalin sculpture watched over the city. It has been gone for a long time and the place acts now as a hangout for Prague´s skating kids and graffiti artists.

19. April - Rocking East

During the last two weeks I was able to tie up all loose ends of my travel preparations. I have a backup credit card, I have travel health insurance and I had amazon sent the lonely planet “Eastern Europe” edition to my friends house. Now it sits in my rucksack and I am feeling ready to go East, and so is my friend. He is starting on a tour with his rock band today and his first two gigs are in Nuremberg and Prague, which is like the perfect direction for me to start my tour through Eastern Europe. So I follow his invitation to join his band as band support for 2 days...



Life as band support proves very intensive, but fun. Lots of good and loud music, lots of carrying heavy amplifiers and speakers, and very short nights because concerts always run till late in the night and in the morning you have to head to next location. The second night I am so tired, I fall asleep when the headliner plays, and they were not the quiet kind of guys!

On Tuesday morning I say goodbye to my friend and his band. They are moving on to Germany and I will stay in Prague for another week, my first stop in Eastern Europe.