Fingers crossed for good weather!

Thursday 30th August

In order to get the maximum amount of time out in Slovakia, this year I decided to get an evening flight to Bratislava, and so at 3.30pm I left work and jumped on the tube to Liverpool Street to catch the Stansted Express.  I must admit I was very impressed.  By 5.45pm my bags were checked in, I was through passport control and sitting in the departure lounge waiting for my 19.30 Sky Europe flight to be called.  I did have a moment of panic when I heard an announcement saying a flight to Bratislava was delayed and wouldn't be leaving until 8.20pm.  Thankfully I then found out it was the 18.55 Ryanair flight being referred to, phew!

By the time my flight was called the Ryanair flight was being delayed until 8.40pm, I'm so pleased I hadn't booked up that flight instead!

We made good time in the air and actually landed 20 minutes early at 10.30pm, but by the time my bag made it's entrance on the carousel it was getting onto 10.50pm anyway (when my flight was originally due to land)

I rushed through the doors and straight into Martin's open arms - it was so good to see him after two weeks apart!  He also had a moment of panic as he thought I was on the Ryanair flight - now not due in until 20 past midnight...

We drove back to his house in record time - it usually takes 3 hours but his neighbour Tbor told him about another way and it took just 2 hours!  Not bad at all.  Once back at the house we said hello quickly to his parents who were in bed and had been woken up at our arrival by Bess and Duke (their dogs) barking loudly, and then went straight to bed.

Friday 31st August

We had decided that Friday would be a relaxing day, so after waking at about 11am we then sat in the garden with his parents, reading in the sunshine.  After lunch Martin and I drove to Sutovsky Vodopad where we hiked up to a beautiful waterfall.  It only took about 40 minutes and was a nice introduction for our legs!  The waterfall is 38 metres high and is one of the highest in Slovakia.  Martin says in the winter in the right conditions it can freeze right over and becomes an ice climbing route!

We spent a fair while there but the temperature quickly began to drop so we packed up the camera and started walking back to the car.  That night Martin and I popped over to Tbor's as we had all been invited over for a goulash party (similar to a BBQ over here) on Saturday but we wasn't sure of the time.  We had a beer while we were there and his wife Anelka tried to tempt us with some cakes but Martin had to explain that we hadn't yet had dinner and Martin's mum would give us a slapped wrist if we ate beforehand!  The dubbed version of Harry Potter 2 was on the telly and we left shortly after it started - it was very bizarre watching Harry talk in Slovakian!

Saturday 1st September

We knew we wouldn't be doing much today because of Tbor inviting us to his house for goulash at 5pm.  So after another late start we drove to Fackovske Sedlo where there is a restaurant.  Martin was cursing my arrival as it seemed I had bought the bad weather with me - just last week they had had lunch there outside in the sunshine, and now we were inside sheltering from the rain!

After lunch we all stretched our legs (the dogs included!) before heading back to the house and freshening up for the goulash party!

Neither Tbor or any of his family speak English but Martin speaks excellent Slovak and did very well at translating for us all.  The goulash was delicious and we all relaxed with a few beers.  Unfortunately it started to rain at about 7pm so we all went inside to finish off our drinks.  An hour or so later we left and agreed to meet half an hour later to go to the local bar!

So at 8.30pm Martin and I were back at Tbor's and together with his wife Anelka we walked over to the bar where we all had a couple of beers.  The owner of the bar was there and shook Martin's hand when he saw him - he's certainly getting himself known amongst the locals - which is no bad thing!

Tbor and Anelka aren't big drinkers either so after a couple of pints we all walked back home together.

Sunday 2nd September

Martin's parents 35th wedding anniversary!  After yet another late morning we sat in the sun in the garden for a few hours - it was lovely and hot, the thermometer in Martin's car said 29 degrees!  In the early afternoon it started to cloud over so we freshened up and drove to Salas Dechtare for lunch.  Enroute we stopped off at Jasna, Chopok Sever which is where we went skiing this year.  It looked pretty amazing with the lack of snow - very steep, I couldn't believe Martin and John snowboarded down some of those slopes - and neither could his parents when they saw it!

After lunch we stopped off at Tesco to stock up on some food and a few presents, then headed home.  By this time it was 9pm so we just had a few beers before going to bed and crossing our fingers for good weather tomorrow - we wanted to go out walking!

Monday 3rd September

When Martin woke up at 8am it was raining outside so we went back to sleep and slept in until our latest yet - midday!  After breakfast I lazed around having a bath and washing my hair whilst Martin and his Dad popped over to Tbor's with a few presents to say thanks for their help in looking after the house (cutting the grass etc) whilst we're away.  We then drove into town to sort out some paperwork with the water board before driving to Gader for lunch.  On the way we stopped off at Jasenska Dolina - this was where we skied last year, and where we hoped to ski this year but it looked pretty much the same as it did in March - ie no snow!  After a lovely lunch in the restaurant in Gader we took the dogs for a walk further up the road.  When we walked here in the winter of 2006 the snow was up to our waist!

On our way back to the car it started to rain again - typical!  Luckily we hadn't walked too far and so we didn't get too wet.  During the drive back to the house we did some nature watching and spotted a few red deer and buzzards in the distance.  Once back at the house we packed our rucksacks, made our packed lunches and planned the route for tomorrow - big day planned, weather permitting!

Tuesday 4th September

Alarm went off at 7am and Martin jumped out of bed, unfortunately the view out of the bedroom window wasn't so promising.  It looked wet and there were dark clouds hanging over the mountains.  We decided to reset the alarm for 8am in the hope that the weather would clear.  Unfortunately the gods were against us and at 8am the weather looked just as bad, if not worse.  Disappointed we went back to bed before being woken up at 9.30am by Martin's mum with a hot drink and breakfast!

In order not to waste the day we decided to go and buy the coal for the winter.  After this was done, with delivery planned for tomorrow, we drove back to the house spotting two black stork on the way!  Back at the house we bumped into Anelka who was just dropping off some freshly made cakes - it was her birthday today and so Martin had dropped off a card and chocolates earlier that morning.

We then all took a drive to the center of Europe - which we had just found out was in Slovakia and just down the road from us!  If in England it would have had a coffee shop and souvenir shop, and car parking fees - but not in Slovakia!  It was just a little monument next to a church at the top of a hill.  We didn't stay for long - it was spitting with rain and very cold so after taking a few photos we retreated back to the car and drove to another tourist attraction - the Botanical Gardens.  It took us forever to find the place and the guide book was obviously written through rose tinted glasses as the surrounding town wasn't as fabulous as the book had made it out to be!  The pizza's we had though were delicious...  By this time it was raining quite heavily so after a quick detour to look at a statue we headed back to the car and drove back to the house.  It was my nephew's first day at senior school tomorrow so I rang him to wish him luck, then settled down with a beer and a read of my book, before Martin and I joined Anelka and Tbor at the local bar for a few birthday drinks.

Wednesday 5th September

With trepidation Martin looked out of the bedroom window at 7.30am.  We hoped for better weather but it looked even worse than yesterday.  Martin asked me to look outside too which I did and yes, we were not going out walking in the mountains today!  We went back to bed for a while and then got up at 10am as it was inbetween 10am and 11am when the coal was being delivered.  Needless to say it didn't turn up until gone 12pm but at least it was delivered!  While we were waiting we had a look at the mountains from the road and were amazed to see them capped with snow!  It was bitterly cold though so no real surprise.  Something which was a surprise though was the way the coal was delivered!  We expected it to come in bags, or to be funnelled through a chute straight into the coal store but no, it was just tipped straight out onto the grass!  Poor Martin and his dad then had the back breaking job of shovelling it in, but they soon made short work of it.

Once that was all done we decided to drive to Oravice where there is an outdoor thermal spa.  It is even further away than Besenova but less commercialised and quite rustic.  The weather deteriorated as we drove there, with really heavy rain and by the time we got there at about 5pm it was just 4 degrees.  The snow on the mountains here seemed a lot lower!  Once we got changed Martin and I headed straight upstairs for our £12 all over body massages whilst his parents headed straight into the thermal spa.  Our massages were lovely although very firm and I wasn't too keen on having a male masseur!

Afterwards we joined his parents in the thermal spa and my word was the water warm!  It was ever so relaxing and hard to leave!  When we eventually did I was walking back to the changing rooms when I started to feel lighthearted.  I sat down on a bench and Martin told me to put my head between my legs.  I did so and started to feel a bit better so I went in to the changing rooms and was waiting to collect my clothes when suddenly the next thing I knew I was on the floor and Martin was putting me in the recovery position!  I had fainted and the changing room assistant had caught me and then luckily Martin had come in as he wasn't convinced I was okay, and he laid me down onto the floor as I was getting too heavy for the lady to hold.  I soon came round and after being given some magnesia to stop me shaking, and some strong sweet black coffee I felt a lot better.  Got dressed and then we all went for dinner - I hadn't eaten since breakfast which is probably what caused me to faint in the first place.  After that it was straight home to bed!

Thursday 6th September

Today we decided to go to Auschwitz as we knew the weather was going to be pretty miserable again.  We left at 11am and what should have taken us 2 and a half hours took us 4 hours!  Two major accidents caused two major traffic jams, plus we took an unplanned detour...!

We finally got to Auschwitz at just before 3pm and as luck would have it an English speaking version of the documentary film about the first moments after the liberation of the camp was starting at 3pm and then an English speaking tour was due to start at 3.30pm!  The film was pretty harrowing but thankfully only lasted about 15 minutes.  We then just had to wait about 10 minutes for the tour to start.

June 14, 1940, when the first transport of Polish political prisoner deportees arrived in Auschwitz, is regarded as the date when it began to function.  At first, Poles were imprisoned and died in the camp.  Afterwards, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies, and prisoners of other nationalities were also incarcerated there.  Beginning in 1942, the camp became first of all the site of the mass murder committed against the European Jews as part of the Nazi plan for their complete destruction.

Auschwitz I is where the Nazis opened the first Auschwitz camps for men and women, where they carried out the first experiments at using Zyklon B to put people to death, where they murdered the first mass transports of Jews, where they conducted the first criminal experiments on prisoners, where they carried out most of the executions by shooting, where the central jail for prisoners from all over the camp complex was located in Block No. 11, and where the camp commandant's office and most of the SS offices were located.  From here, the camp administration directed the further expansion of the camp complex.

The tour lasted until just gone 5pm and we were taken around the site - parts of it had been made into a museum and contained some of the original objects belonging to the victims of Auschwitz.  Discovered after liberation, they included fringed garments, eyeglasses, suitcases marked with the names and addresses of the victims, shoes, prostheses, children's clothing, bowls, and so on.  This is what remains of the property of the Jews who were murdered.  The camp authorities did not manage to send everything into the depths of the Third Reich, or to destroy it all, before liberation.  When you see it with your own eyes and see the huge quantities, which are only a fraction of what was found, it really brings it home just how many people suffered in the hands of the Nazi's...

In another block there was a presentation of the conditions under which people became concentration camp prisoners and died as a result of inhumanly hard labor, starvation, disease, and experiments, as well as executions and various types of torture and punishment.  There were also photographs here of prisoners who died in the camp, documents, and works of art illustrating camp life.

At 5.30pm a bus then took us over to Auschwitz II-Birkenau.  In the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, everything happened on a magnified scale.  This is where the Nazis erected most of the machinery of mass extermination in which they murdered approximately one million European Jews.  At the same time, Birkenau was the largest concentration camp (with nearly 300 primitive barracks, most of them wooden).  Over a hundred thousand prisoners at a time were here: Jews, Poles, Roma, and others.  The site of this camp contains places that are still full of human ashes; the greatest portion of what remains of the Auschwitz complex is here.  The vastness of the space, the primitive barracks for the prisoners, the ruins or remains of other structures, and the miles of camp fence and roads give a full sense of what cannot be conveyed in words: infinite baseness, cruelty, and human criminality, and the specific camp architecture that served one purpose alone: the destruction of human beings.

We were allowed into one of the wooden barracks where hundreds of men would have been crammed into to sleep, and one of the barracks where the toilets were.  So very basic and when you consider the clothes and shoes they were forced to wear it is no wonder so many of them froze to death in the winters.  We then went into the watch tower and what I found hard to believe when looking over the whole site was that only 149 people managed to escape - out of 1.5 million prisoners...  Unfortunately the last bus was at 6pm so we couldn't look around for too long.

For dinner on the way home we stopped off at a restaurant where we both had an absolutely divine 'fat boy' steak.  I had mine rare as usual and it was delicious - my best steak ever!

Friday 7th September

My last day :-(  Despite planning on getting up early none of us surfaced until about 10am!  We had a lazy morning around the house and then decided as it was still pretty miserable weather to drive over to the Tatra Mountains on the hunt for white gold (snow!)  We drove up to Strbske Pleso where Martin and I had started and finished a hike from in the summer of 2005 but there was no snow there - just lots of cloud!  We then drove up to Tatranska Lomnica where there was a chair lift which could take us further into the mountains - surely we would be able to find snow up there which hadn't yet melted!

Excitedly we looked around us as it climbed higher.  First stop was at 1,150 metres and unfortunately there was no snow to be seen.  The next stop, before it turned back round, was at Skalnate Pleso and guess what?  We could see snow!  A few months too early but we were excited anyway.  We took a few photos whilst keeping an eye on the time - the last cable car down was at 5pm - otherwise it was a very long walk back!

Once back down we drove to Flora for dinner - a restaurant near Besenova where we have eaten quite a few times before, normally after an afternoon in Besenova!  Unfortunately though with the higher prices and strict time limit we have been pushed away from there somewhat, as have some of the locals no doubt.

After dinner we quickly popped into Tesco, then home to pack and go to bed..

Saturday 8th September

My flight home was at 10.45am, meaning we had to be there at 8.45am - meaning we had to leave the house at 6am - ergh!  The alarm went off at 5.30am and as I was already pretty much packed already we more or less left on time.  The journey to the airport was very smooth and we got there just after 8am.  I checked in really easily so Martin and I then headed upstairs for breakfast in the restaurant.  Martin chose the English breakfast whilst I went for the vegetarian breakfast - cereal, fresh bread with honey and a huge chunk of brie, mmm mmm!!

My flight was due to start boarding at 10.05am and during breakfast we kept on checking the boards to see if the gates were open yet - they weren't, so once we finished we headed back downstairs so I could go through passport control.  Unfortunately we didn't foresee the HUGE queue!!  We started to queue up and at 10am I was still waiting to go through!  Only two passport control desks were open, and then behind them only two security desks were open.  Crazy when there were 4 flights taking off all within one hour!

Luckily after a tearful goodbye to Martin I made it through in time and got to the gate just a minute before we started boarding.  I was one of the first on the plane!  I had a window seat again and by midday we were touching down in Stansted.  For once passport control on this side was a lot quicker, my bag came through pretty quickly and before I knew it I was in my sister's car with my nephew being driven back home...