...SPECIAL MONTH! Paradox, isn't it, but than - when else is a better time to go home to meet your friends and family?! Yes, October is your guy! People for once settle into their conventional routine (which is very unconventional), flight tickets are cheap and let's face it: you're also bored to hell.
That was the case for me and my trip to Slovakia, 14-18th of October 2016. Well, I was not literally bored, but it started to be dark, cold and wet outside, I could no longer play on the streets, Toastmasters competition and treasurer obligations were mostly over, and it just felt like a good time to see some old friends :-)
I kind of got used to getting maximum out of every vacation or trip. This was not an exception but I still have to write "kind of used to", as the journeys have started to get quite hard-core (or I start to get old). I arrived to Košice airport on Saturday, 1am, on that flight from Bristol which I had taken couple times before. As usual, I fell asleep on the benches and later moved to the comfy couches. Having normally a light sleep, I nonchalantly threw my arm over the backpack thinking "that's good enough, if someone comes around, I'd surely wake up straight away".
I woke up at 4:55 from a weird dream where I could not stop a faulty battery from making a squeaking noise. It was my alarm, which was ringing for 10 minutes already (!!!). The airport was bustling with early flight rush and there were people all around me, but luckily, my bag was there untouched. I called a taxi (there was no public transport till 6ish) and got to the central station, where I had a bit of a breakfast and coffee, before hopping on a train.
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| Michalovce train station |
My first stop was in Michalovce (nicknamed Michigan), where I visited Ondro. He's moved here for an adventurous journey in Teach for Slovakia, a program seeking to make a real difference in the parts of society needing it the most. The organization is very strict in the candidate selection, but it then provides high quality training and mentoring to the successful ones. Ondro's made it, and although it's now super challenging, from what I've seen, he's doing it GREAT, making difference already. Respect and really good inspiration, Ondro :-).
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| Weird urge to take selfie with Ondro and the oven |
Jano, Ondro's brother was also visiting in that time and thus it should be no surprise we ended up making it a bit a of gastrotrip. We all slept till 10am-ish first though, a really vital nap for all 3 of us. We started off with some breakfast, continued almost immediately with a pizza from Bongiorno in local shopping mall, then shopped some amazing home made sausages and "škvarkys" (for more škvarky-related gastro-adventures, please refer to this blog post. Perhaps I should start a "škvarky-hunting" blog) and finished off the details in local grocery store. Only then we were ready for the actual trip to Poloniny, which was the original objective, although we still contemplated a visit to a restaurant with the best name ever: "džazero".
Btw, I have never really mentioned what's škvarky. The English translation seems to be "fried pork rind" and it's kind of a fried fat. But more importantly, as you may have noticed, I mentioned pizza. This was quite unplanned, but once Ondro showed me the Bongiorno pizzeria, there was no escape. We had to order one and thus we gave birth to this pizza hunt. Now, we'll do a simple maths here (perhaps Ondro, you can re-use in school?), and you will see why there was no other option than to get a pizza:
* Pizza in Cardiff: £10.99 ~ 12.5€
* Pizza in Michalovce: 2.99€
YES!
You can have more than 4 pizzas in Michalovce for the same price, and
that's considering the weak pound exchange rate after Brexit. Not only
that though, these were baked in a wood-fired oven, right in front of our
eyes. And though it's not always guarantee of a great pizza, you know ;-) it was this time.We got just one (mind you, we'd just had breakfast! We know, of course, that it's healthy to eat just one pizza after breakfast!), a vegetarian option with broccoli, mushrooms and corn plus Ondro added our favourite garlic oil. I meanwhile went to get some coffee, leaving Ondro and Jano to do some documentation, but I barely got served and they already came with the fresh pizza in their hands. The waitress from the coffee shop came made us a picture - a pizza and a coffee for the second breakfast.
Another
positive surprise came with the taste of the sauce, which was just great, just as the mozzarella. I think not much more was necessary for a
gourmet experience, and I'm sure to have that plain Margherita when I
come back one day. This time, we had also the veggies on top and they did not
disappoint too, although perhaps pre-cooking and extra seasoning of the
mushrooms or broccoli would make it all 10% better. But even like this, I
can positively say this was a pizza hunt in my so-far top 10, all for
3.29€ (including take away box): a DAMN good deal!After this gastro-morning, we finally set off from Michalovce, basically in the direction of the north-east corner of Slovakia. We took a hitchhiker, a young chap who's joined the army. He described to us the life in the barracks and the drills they undergo, e.g. their trainers doing random wake up calls with screaming at 6am. It sounded quite tough, but then, it must be fun as well and a good experience.
We dropped him off in Sobrance and continued north, towards Podhoroď. Jano had an itinerary planned for us, which seemed to go as much off-piste as possible. We stopped at couple lovely wooden churches (think they were in Beňatina and in Inovce), one of them just being decorated by a local. After that Jano led us through a "shortcut" which tested the full potential of Ondro's car's chassis. Jano explained Ukraine is just a couple hundred meters away and that we might later go have a look at the border.
We stopped on the road overlooking a dam (think it was Starina). There was a car parked already and 4 guys were leaning against it, smoking a cigarette. The thing is, there's not really much traffic this far east and even if there is, it's mostly locals. Thus even licence plate starting with LC (for Lučenec, where Ondro is from) raised quite some interest and we heard the oldest saying "Look. Lučenec came." . We than had a brief conversation and I could feel the thoughts in the air after I said "I am from Bratislava". We continued by explaining where we aim to go to which the eldest said "Ohh, but you have to go to Runina! And than up the hill.. You won't make it..." . But I think it was more of a game, perhaps a test, whether "these boys from the west will get discouraged" . We didn't and not much longer later, we stood at the start of Ďurkovec hike in Runina.
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| Yeah I know, we should have rather called bomb defusers |
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| In the saddle |
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| The ridge of Poloniny. Poland on the right, Slovakia on the left |
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| Just amazing... |
We had a quick snack at the top and then headed down. Jano still planned to take us to the Ukraine border, but we somehow missed the right turn in Ubľa and were driving seemingly nowhere (which, come to think of it, sounds like driving to Ukraine!). We turned around though, and head home, where we re-took the gastro-trip from the morning, with amazing pancakes from nearby restaurant, beer from local "culture bar" and few more snacks back home, before falling asleep, dead.
The next morning, I said the farewells and hopped on a 6am-ish bus to Košice, and later train to Poprad, where I was meeting Dominika, a friend from university. Knowing Dominika, she does not like waking up too early, and thus I appreciated even more that she found the time to meet : -) . I'm not exactly an early bird myself, and thus I fell asleep on the train, almost sleeping through the stop in Poprad! Think I'm no longer that light sleeper I used to be :/
Dominika is doing software analyst in Poprad, which consists of many things we were taught by mr. Plachetka in university - JOIN, LEFT JOIN and sometimes even LEFT OUTER JOIN. More importantly, though, she has a view over Tatra mountains, a perk no company in Bratislava or even London can match. However, we complained together over the fact there's virtually no jobs in the industry where we could do the same things as in uni.
Hm, it might have come through wrong, I guess most readers imagined alcohol and wild parties, thinking "why do you expect someone to pay for that?!". What I meant, though, is devising those nice algorithms full of knights and castles and their proofs which almost magically always tie everything together at the end. Those times were timeless but at least talking about it made me think about making the next "career" step again. Just a shame we forgot to take a picture!
After Poprad, I went to Važec, to meet my parents and see grandma. Although it was a short stop again, it was well worth it. You see, grandma is a special person, she has a gift to tell a story, and not only that. She can tell the same story hundred times and it never bores. I asked again for those from the war-time and made a mental note to record and write everything down the next time.
In Bratislava, I finally slept a full night, which was quite vital, as few hours into the morning I was laying down with my mouth open, teeth under the drill of the dentist. Its a funny thing, this "going to dentist". Nowhere else do you pay so much money for so much suffering. Also every time it's the same story - dentist finds a caries, she drills, you suffer and promise to yourself "I'll never allow that to happen again! From now on, I'll be properly brushing my teeth!" . Then, a week goes, and you eat a box of chocolate and say "what the heck, it does not hurt to skip the brushing once". And before you know it, the dentist is leaning down on you, with the giant drill she's probably bought in Hornbach to fix a kitchen table.
But, OK, now, I will REALLY brush my teeth properly!
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| Bachova crew |
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| In the new Machnáč |
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| With Milka and Andrej junior |
Yes, October might be a boring month. But then, it's up to you: sit bored home, or go visit someone. And chances are that someone will visit you. Perhaps me ;-)Dough - 9
Ingredients - 7
Sauce - 9
Atmosphere - 6 (this was a takeaway)
Service - 6 (this was a takeaway)
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