Straddling the border

On our way to Kosice, the second largest city in the country, we wanted to go past an old railway tunnel that is listed as a monument.

We figured it would be possible to walk through and that it would somehow be special, as befits a monument.

When we got there, it was a tunnel you could actually drive through and that was that. So drive through we did, since Google Maps figured this would be the way to get to the starting point of a hike my human had planned.

What followed was the most bone shaking, axel rattling ride we have done so far in our four year relationship. And I donˋt say this lightly. 

8 kilometers of basically a bad forestry road, made for big wheels and high clearance, potholes the size of bathtubs, in parts narrow to the point of “will we make it?”

No, neither of us had much fun in those 30 minutes. And Google Maps was cursed pretty much the whole time.

When we finally emerged back onto a real road, shaken but not broken, we both let out a deep sigh and parked close by.

I had some time to cool off and calm down and my human went on a hike to do the same.

Up to Sivec Lookout she went, blissfully undisturbed by other people until she got to the summit.

After this rather exhausting day, we moved on to Kosice and treated ourselves to a campground, which, besides showers and the other usual creature comforts also sported a goat and sheep.

Not long after we arrived, a long distance biker pitched his tent next to us and introduced himself as Benni from Germany.

We ended up sitting together the whole evening, drinking wine and chatting about cycling, van life, travel in general, life. 

It was a very pleasant evening, which, not knowing it at the time, we would repeat the following night.

It was the first time on this trip that we had an actual conversation with someone we met “on the road”. So far no conversations had offered themselves up that went much beyond “hello” and “nice day”.

It was rather refreshing sitting down for a good chat. And good wine.

Slovakiaˋs answer to Coca Cola; a third less sugar, a touch malty, not bad at all

Kosice dates back to the 13th Century, impressively demonstrated by large parts of the original town walls that were uncovered in 1996.

Running through the heart of the city is Hlavna Street, lined with interesting architecture as well as innummerable restaurants and cafès.

St. Elisabethˋs Cathedral, 14th Century

The State Theater

Memorial of the Kosice Peace Marathon, running (haha) since 1924

Jakabˋs Palace

Love the picture at the top

As soon as you leave this pedestrianized area though, itˋs not as pretty anymore. There seem to be a lot of impoverished people around, many Sinti and Roma and some rather unpleasant young people.

We moved on to the National Park Slovensky Kras, an area with lots of gorges and caves, all made of karst. 

The area reaches across the border into Hungary, where it is called the Aggtelek National Park. Cave systems donˋt care too much about borders and there are a couple that can be visited from both sides, although not walked through, of course. We are talking about many kilometers underground here.

Lovely and quiet

Here my human explored the Zadielska tiesnava, a 2,2km long gorge which is only 10 meters wide at some points, went up to Dievcenska Skala, a very nice view point and to Krasna Horka, a large fortress on a hill, overlooking the whole valley.

A 12m tall angel on the cemetery in Haj, prop from the movie "Behind enemy lines"

She covered a good 50 of the over 300 kilometers of hiking trails in this National Park.

Krasna Horka

On getting back to me on the second day here, she passed a small courtyard from which live music reached the street.

So she entered and there were five young musicians playing traditional music on matching instruments.

A young woman was teaching the many kids around some dance moves and as they danced, the music got faster and faster, just like a Sirtaki, just in Slovakian.

Our spot that night, not too bad

To round the entertainment off, the beer came at 1,40€ a pint. Finally a cultural experience, and not of the forced “show” type, but just like that.

A great way to end our time in Slovakia! 

Although, there was one last stop in this country. As mentioned, there are tonnes of caves here and one has to visit at least one.

My human decided on the Krasnohorsna jaskyna for two reasons. As per her research, all tours in all caves are only in Slovakian or, in Hungary, in Hungarian.

In this cave the guide would give the tour in Slovenian as well, but translate most of what he had to say into English as well. Thanks, Gabriel.

Also, unlike all the others, this one wasnˋt permanently lit and much less catered to tourists, meaning no perfect bridges and rails. Rather planks and cable crossings.

This is where they first came in, 1964, itˋs 120m from todays entrance

At a year round temperature of 10 degrees, it was a little chilly, but the excursion was really interesting and some of the formations quite spectacular. Including a 10.000 year old, 200 tonne, 34m high giant sinter column, the largest in Europe!

Hungary greeted us with a lot of rain, thunder and lightning.

Which made for a very muddy and slippery first hike in this new country.

The earth here is like clay when itˋs wet. It took her around 15 minutes to get the stuff off her shoes.

We spent a night next to a little lake and had a very nice chat with Daniel, a German, who came in around 8pm and was very happy about our left over Bolognese.

We are starting to meet and talk to more people, which is really nice.

We made our way to Eger, one of the most popular tourist places in the country. Also, but not only because of the wine region "The Valley of the beautiful Women", which begins right next to the city limits.

Besides Dobo Square, the heart of the city, there is the Castle of Eger, from where the Turks were defeated in 1552, one of the proudest historical moments in the history of the country. 

Istvan Dobo, the captain of Eger Castle at the time of the defeat of the Turks

The Basilica, currently receiving some maintenance on the interiour

The library of the archdiocese was my humanˋs favorite. It holds some 50.000 volumes, including some of the most valuable documents on earth, such as the Dante Codex of which there are only three copies in the world.

What looks like a cupola of several meters hight is actually almost flat

An original letter of Mozart to his sister after their fatherˋs death

The lady at the info center mentioned a "Strudel Festival" that was happening in a town only a few kilometers away, so thatˋs where we went next.

The 20 minutes queuing for the strudel was absolutely worth it! Fresh, still warm, delicious.

The queue was long

Lunch and dessert

In Egerszalok you fell like you are in Turkey when you see the Pamukale style salt terraces. Granted, they are a lot smaller and way less impressive, but still interesting to see.

We spent the evening drinking wine in the Valley of the beautiful Women. Again, we heeded the recommendation of the Info center lady as to which wine cellar we should visit and again we were not disappointed.

Although the "Bull´s Blood" is the most famous wine of the region, there are also very good whites to be had. Which is more to our liking. 

The waiter was so kind as to give us a taste, though. We ordered another glass of white.