Getting to know the area

Sunday morning, we went for a walk around the village and then into the surrounding hills. There are so many trails in the immediate area that it's going to be easy to find somewhere new every day!

Harvey the dog!

So when we left you in yesterday's post, we were attempting to sleep in the Manchester airport. We've tried this before on some oddball connecting flights or like yesterday when we had an early morning train connection. It never seems to go well, and this time was no exception!

Last day in Budapest

On Friday morning, we hopped on the bus and went to the other side of the Danube River for our walking tour of the castle district. It was a gorgeous day, with clear blue sky and perfect temperature of around 24C (75F).

The Best Hotel in Budapest!

Well, we don't know if it's the best, but we can't figure why anyone would want anything better. The Casati Budapest Hotel has everything you would need, as well as a helpful staff that are proud to show off the newly renovated boutique hotel.

Interesting Budapest facts

Yesterday morning, we did a walking tour of the area on the Pest side of the Danube River. As we mentioned before, Pest is the area on the east and Buda is on the west.

Ruth has a new friend!

Budapest Tourism supplied us with two of their 72 hour Budapest Cards to try out so that we could review the services offered with the card, and to enable us to see as much as possible in the short time we have in Budapest.

Budapest at night

This is the second post of the day, so you might want to check out part one first.

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2012/09/exploring-budapest.html

Exploring Budapest

Budapest is a fairly large city, in fact the seventh largest in Europe with a population of 1.7 million people. The city is separated by the Danube River which runs from North to South through the city. On the west side of the river is the area known as Buda, and on the east side of the river is the area known as Pest.

Arrived in Budapest!

Well, we had a long travel day yesterday, but we did make it to Budapest. We were up at 6:45am and on the bus at 7:40am. Three trains later, we arrived in Budapest at about 3:30pm!

Slovak National Uprising

Got our bags all packed up yesterday morning at 10:00am and asked the desk girl if we could leave our bags in their office until late afternoon. Turns out that she didn't speak any English. So it was Google Translate to the rescue!

Half way to Budapest!

When we were figuring our route to Budapest from Poprad, we had considered doing the journey all in one day. But that would have been a long travel day since there was no easy direct route between the two cities.

Dobsinska Ice Caves

Yesterday morning, we walked to the bus station and waited for the bus to take us to the Unesco listed Dobsinska Ice Caves. Any of our regular readers will know that we like to visit caves, and the ice cave was one of the reasons we wanted to visit this part of Slovakia.

August expenses

Our August costs came in at a total of $1,087.28 and while that sounds very good (and really, it is!) it's also about $200 over our budget for the month. Almost everything else was pretty much within the range that we expected it to be, but accommodation was the category that put us over the $1,000 mark.

Another day in the mountains

We had breakfast at our guest house yesterday morning. Nice enough, but we felt it wasn't really worth the €5.00 ($6.25) per person. So we will make other arrangements for breakfast today and tomorrow.

We planned a hike in the mountains for yesterday, but first we had to get to the mountains!

Made it to Poprad!

So this time, our bus arrived on time at 8:45am yesterday morning, and it was a forty minute ride to Liptovsky Mikulas. There, we caught the train to Poprad.

What happened to our bus?

Yesterday, we sat at the bus stop for a half an hour after our bus was supposed to come by. But the bus never showed up!

Living out of a backpack.

The type of travel that we're doing right now sure is interesting, but I have to admit that I miss traveling in a motorhome.

Hiking into the clouds

Despite the fact that we couldn't see anything, there were still some highlights to this hike!

When no means yes...

There are certainly some funny issues that we've encountered traveling in a country where we don't understand the language. For example, "no" really does mean yes!

Our first hike in Tatra National Park

It's a little difficult to plan a route because there are so many marked hiking trails in this park. We decided on a 16.8 km (10.5 mile) hike with an elevation gain of about 700 metres (2,300 feet).

Travel days are never boring!

So we set off yesterday morning, headed for the village of Zuberec, without any idea of where we were staying. We walked down to the train station in Istebne, with lots of time to wait for our 9:52am train. And we waited. And we waited.

It was a hot one!

It was a hot and humid day yesterday. I think it went to 34C (93F). But that's no excuse not to go for a hike. Jana and her sister Monika came and picked us up at around 1:30pm and then we picked up Jana's boyfriend Lucas and we all went for a walk to a waterfall!

Hanging out with the young people!

Yesterday morning we walked into the nearby village of Istebne. They have one of the oldest churches in Slovakia in this village, one of only four remaining wooden churches.

What do you get for €11.00 ($13.75) per night?

It was time to move on yesterday, so we took the bus from Terchova to Dolny Kubin, a distance of only about 30 kms (18 miles). We didn't know for sure where we were going to end up staying last night, but we had some ideas.

Just another perfect day...

Woke up to blue sky and sunshine on Sunday, and didn't see a cloud in the sky the entire day! For that matter, it's exactly the same as I type this at 8:30am Monday morning.

Okay, I have a bone to pick with you ladies...

But we'll get to that in a few minutes.

We were going to use Saturday as a day of rest, but because it was turning into such a nice day we figured we shouldn't waste it just in case Sunday wasn't as nice. (So far, Sunday is great too!)

Never pet a dog who's taking himself for a walk!

We set off on what was supposed to be a 13.5 km (8.5 mile) hike yesterday at about 10:30am. The sky was overcast, but it really didn't look like it was going to rain. This hike went through several little villages in the middle of nowhere, and it was an informational trail with ten different boards to read along the way.

Terchova, Slovakia

Yesterday morning, Michal, our couchsurfing host in Zilina made some phone calls for us to try and find us somewhere to stay  in Terchova. Because Terchova is a popular outdoor destination area, there are a lot of pensions (guest houses) and private accommodation available.

But because it's a weekend coming up, some of them were fully booked!

Best Hike Ever!

Well, we think it's one of the best hikes we've ever done anyhow! It was only 8.5 kms (5.3 miles) but it took us six hours from start to finish. Quite a few people on the trail considering it was the middle of the week, but it's because it's such an interesting trail.

Slovakia!

Another new country for us, and so far, we're impressed! Once again, some of that comes down to the people you meet, and our new couchsurfing hosts here in Zilina are once again, fantastic!

We cheated.

And we're not proud of it.

We did a hike yesterday to the top of Radhost Mountain. Problem is, we took a bus 90% of the way up! Every time we've done something like this, we've been kind of disappointed in ourselves, but we had been told to do it this way. And there was some justification to it.

A hike in the mist

It rained much of the day on Saturday, so we used it as a relax day! And then on Sunday, we woke up to drizzle, but our couchsurfing host Blanka and her boyfriend had a hike planned for us in the morning with the local Jack Russell group that she gets together with.

Why we're doing what we're doing.

Many readers have commented over the past five years that we are “lucky” to be doing what we are doing at our age. But it has nothing to do with luck. It has to do with a conscious decision to do something different in life.

A record long hike!

We've done several hikes over the years that were 16 kms (10 miles). Yesterday, we planned out a hike that we figured was about 14 kms (9 miles) but turned out to be a bit longer!

What is a Wallachian?

Well, we'll get to that in a minute. Yesterday morning, we headed out fairly early because we had to meet our train schedule. The train doesn't go by that often so we planned on making the 9:35am run from Zasova to Roznov pod Radhostem. It's only 7 kms (3 miles) and we got on with no problems.

Due for a relaxing day

And so that's what we arranged for ourselves yesterday. In the morning, we walked down the hill to get some groceries, and in the afternoon we went for a two hour hike.

Olomouc, day 4

After the rain went through Monday afternoon, the temperature began to cool off a bit, and yesterday was just about perfect! Sunny, and a high of around 26C (79F). Perfect for our last day exploring the city of Olomouc.

Holy Hill and Fort Radikov

It was a baking hot Monday morning. Temperature expected to be 34C. The museums are closed on Monday's, so we decided to take a local bus up to the basilica at Holy Hill, and go for a walk in the forest to Fort Radikov.

Exploring the City of Olomouc

We slept in a little yesterday, and didn't get going until after 11:00am. Our plan was to explore the central area, and take in some of the museums and churches. Most museums are closed on Mondays, so we were going to try and take in as much as possible yesterday.

Once upon a time in the 13th century!

We have a lot to see in the city of Olomouc, but yesterday we decided to head into the surrounding countryside for a day at Bouzov Castle, only about 35 kms (22 miles) away. They were having a special day at the castle, where everyone is dressed up in period costume with displays of jousting, dancing, and entertainment that you might have seen in the 13th century.

The City of Olomouc

People who visit Czech Republic most often go to Prague. It's fine to visit the big cities in Europe such as Prague, or Paris or Rome...but there is so much more to see, and if you limit yourself only to the big cities, you will miss so much. Or at least that's what we think. So we only spent one day in the city of Prague, preferring instead to see places that the typical tourist doesn't.

The Ruins of Boskovice Castle

In yesterday's post, we showed a picture of a what looked like a castle way in the distance. So we figured out how to hike to the castle and we set off around 10:00am.

Svitavy to Boskovice

Yet another interesting day! Our travel days seem to stand out, and usually it's because of the new people we get to meet. Yesterday was one of those days.

Exploring Castles and Countryside

Our couchsurfing host Andrew was able to take some time off work yesterday and so he picked us up mid morning and we went back to his place to collect his family. Good thing they have a 7 passeneger mini van because we needed all of those seats! Andrew suggested we first go to a nearby town where there is another UNESCO listed castle to visit.

July expenses

As you know, we try and keep our expenses to around an average of $1,000 a month, but there can be a wide variance depending on a lot of factors. So we weren’t sure what to expect with a full month of being across the ocean. We stayed the first three weeks of July with Ruth’s cousin Helen and her husband Tony, so we had no accomodation expense for that period, but we did of course contribute towards expenses for the four of us while we were there. And sometimes we paid for things, and sometimes they did, so although some categories are higher than normal, some may be lower but it’s hard to know exactly which is which. Plus, we had some travel related expenses such as our flight from Bristol to Prague. Either way, we think we did very well, with expenses coming in at a total of $1,189.73 for the month.

Eating Japanese pizza in Svitavy, Czech Republic

The main reason for our visit to Svitavy was because my paternal grandmother was born here in 1905. At the time, the area was mainly German speaking, and that was my grandmother’s native language. Her father was a Protestant minister and he had accepted a vicar position at a local church. The family lived here until my grandmother was eight years old when they moved to a town 80 kms north of Prague, closer to the German border.

Kutna Hora to Svitavy

It had been raining off and on all morning yesterday and so we just sat in out room and took advantage of the internet. Our train didn’t leave until 12:20pm so we really didn’t have to rush out.

Hiking around Kutna Hora

We had enough of the touristy things and although we've probably been walking 10kms (6 miles) a day anyhow, we decided to go for a hike. The tourist office had given us a map, and there are a lot of well marked hiking and biking trails in Czech Republic.

A Cool Mine on a Hot Day

Cool, as in cooler than it was outside! We are having all the summer that we didn't get in England. It was another 32C (89F) day here in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic and so we chose the early afternoon to go on a mine tour where the temperature was a lot cooler.

Kutna Hora and the Sedlec Bone Church

Do you know what an "ossuary" is? We wouldn't have known, but after visiting one, we know now! An ossuary is a place where skeletal human remains are stored, usually to conserve space. The village of Sedlec near the town of Kutna Hora has one such ossuary. And it is strange indeed!