escapades with some monkeys

so in my last post i mentioned that we finally arrived to our destination in the high tatra mountains of slovakia, in a little town called zdiar. we arrived at night, so we really couldn't take in the beauty until morning. it is just wonderful. but i digress. we will go back to the first night at quite possibly the best hostel EVER.

basically, we arrived, explained our terrible travel tales of missing trains, no-show buses, and very unhelpful and/or confused people. richie, one of the two british co-owners was waiting for us with his mum angie, and suggested we just drop our bags, not worry about anything, and head down to a local pub with him, "the other guys are all down there". since we were tired, cold and starving, i'm not sure any of us felt quite up to it, but when it was mentioned there was the "best pizza in the world. or at least slovakia," how could we refuse? after warming up a bit with some good old fashion british tea, we were off to the bar, trying not to slip on the snowy and icy ground along the way. apparently zdiar had just been dumped on a few days prior with heaps of snow. though it got our taxi stuck, it was nice to see some white stuff on the ground.

the bar was.. very fun. we originally sat at our own table, as richie was tying up wally the dog (who i was very close to stealing and putting in my carry-on) and we didn't know who "the other guys" were. but when richie came in, we all joined together at one table. there was johnny, one of richie's friends visiting from england; rick, a welsh ex-pat now living in slovakia; and vlado, the owner of the bar/local friend/instigator of long nights drinking and not going home to wives. the three were already completely wasted. it was hilarious. in we joined and so began our funniest night in slovakia. questions flew at us, where are you from, what made you visit here, were you the ones that emailed about the sleeping bag, why would you email that? and on and on it went. and the drinks kept coming. by the way, the pizza was actually very good, even by nyc standards.

eventually, discussions turned to politics. you all know how much i love that subject. truly i tried to stay out of it, but eventually was dragged in - i think you can't judge an american by the stereotypes of america, you have to look at the person as an individual. and then came the most awkward moment of the night from rick - when i was told how i could personally help to heal the rift between the states and europe. i will not divulge details here. just know that my response was "i'm not sure that would help".

and so the night went. before we knew it, it was close to 12am, 1am, 2am. and every time we all decided to leave, someone would order another drink, and then everyone else would follow in their footsteps. rick was supposed to be home after 1 drink around 19:00, and of course that didn't happen. and he never called his wife to let her know. she rang a couple times, but he just happened to "miss" the call. so, to put it mildly, she was quite peeved when she called him around 1am to see where the heck he was and johnny answered to try to mediate the situation. when he passed the phone to rick, she hung up on him. yikes. so glad i'm not married :) but of course, we didn't leave then either, and another round of drinks was brought.

apparently, the brits were busy teaching good friend vlado some interesting phrases. we all got a lesson in his spoken english. some phrases i can type here include, "do it!", "ho ho ho eff you", and "mind your own effing business." of course, the eff was actually what you think it is. i nearly peed my pants a couple times when he came out with such sayings, as i can only imagine how useful they are in the real world. great times.

eventually it was time to go home. so back we trekked to the ginger monkey. hello slovakia. when can i come back to visit you?

ahoj slovakia

so we finally made it to slovakia, and alot has happened in the mean time. i'll try to catch you up on our latest adventures..

best news so far: THE PACK IS BACK!

so - by the grace of something above - joslyn's luggage came in. who knows how they actually found it, considering we had no tracking number or flight information to go off of, but it did arrive. it was quite a long wait, though, calling the airport multiple times and crossing our fingers. during the wait, we managed to meet up with a friend/past language teacher of mike's and walked around budapest. walked in circles quite a bit, but eventually found our way to a turkish restaurant, before making our way back to the hostel to await the lost pack.

afterwards, grabbed some food and made our way to the train station to get our train to bratislava. it wasn't a bad ride there, but as we were to find out, our adventures were only beginning. we managed to walk around the city for 2 hours looking for our hostel. don't ask.. because i'm not telling. we saw parts of bratislava i don't think even the locals go to. exhausted, we finally found our way and checked into hostel blues. definitely slept well that night. the next morning we headed out to explore the town, which actually is quite beautiful. it reminded me alot of the towns in czech republic. we saw the castle, various churches and historical buildings - the usual european deal.

the next morning proved to be the start of another long day of traveling and mis-adventures. i seriously think we're just cursed with bad timing in slovakia... we just missed a tram to the train station (we were not about to walk and get lost for 2 hours again..), and when we got to the station, we were told we couldn't get on the 10am train we wanted. so we had to settle for an 1147. which meant hanging out in the stations for 2+ hrs. later we discovered that we were in the wrong line - we were in the reservations only line, and since reservations weren't required for the 10am train, that lady couldn't sell us one. so the train wasn't exactly full, just not available from that line. ah well.

arrived in poprad, a mountain town, without too many problems. then easily found the electric train to stary smokovec, from where we were supposed to catch a bus to our hostel town of zdiar. but of course, nothing can be that easy, right? the bus was supposed to come at 1815, so since it was 1730, we headed inside a pub for a cup of hot tea. back at the bus stations at 1800 and waited. and waited. and waited some more.

the bus never came.

so we tried to call the hostel b/c that was apparently the last bus to zdiar. but the number didn't work. so back to the train station to try to get some help. not much found there. back to the pub to try to get some info on taxis. even though we just provided them business a short while ago, not much help was found there either. back to the bus station. found some locals, and in broken english and broken russian, managed to get out that another bus was coming in 30 mins. well, that bus came, but it was not going where we wanted to go. the bus driver told us another bus in 10 mins would take us to zdiar. but after 20 mins, not another bus was to be found.

so we gave in and called a cab. boy what an experience that was. it was actually just a local's car, and he merely put up a lighted sign on his roof. he also had a tendency to drive on the wrong side of the winding mountain road. i just kept my seatbelt tight and hoped we'd arrive in one piece. got to zdiar, but couldn't find the hostel b/c the driver wasn't familiar with the town, and obviously neither were we. eventually found the church the hostel was near, and drove up a steep driveway to what appeared to be our hostel. YAY! we made it. but the car did not. it was stuck in about a foot of snow. so out we all got, and pushed the car while the driver floored it. it took a little while, but we eventually got it unstuck.

cold, tired, hungry. after an entire day of traveling and not eating and standing in the freezing temperatures for hours on end, we had arrived at the Ginger Monkey. more on that experience later.

we´re here!

i had some down time while waiting for mike to meet us at our hostel, budapest bubble (owned by olga, who is fantastic!) so thought i'd start an entry.

so we arrived today in budapest after a long flight from the states. i took a plane from newark and joslyn took a flight from jfk, we both connected in rome for our flight to budapest. luckily we saw each other in the security line, so things were going smoothly... or so we thought.

if you remember my blog from last year, this will sound familiar. i need to clarify something: we arrived in budapest. joslyn's luggage did not.

i'm starting to wonder if i am bad luck to travel with. the same thing happened to theresa last year. so we're off to a fantastic start. fortunately, the airport has our hostel information. unfortunately, we are only in budapest for one night, and will be heading to bratislava, slovakia tomorrow at some point. soooo, we'll just have to wait and see.

one day to go...

we leave tomorrow, very exciting. however i'm kinda getting nervous i won't be ready in time. or that everything i want to bring will fit in my pack. oh well. i'm sure it'll all come together eventually.

wanted to share some pictures - i chopped my hair off! i decided long ago that i wanted to donate my hair. 3 friends of mine in college did, and i think it's such a great gift to give to people. we take our hair for granted, and even curse at it when it doesn't behave. i know i often would complain about my hair and how i wanted to shave it off and just use wigs. (this was prior to britany spears going crazy.. i no longer want to shave my head). however, to women and children who suffer the misfortune of having to go through cancer treatments - hair means alot more, it symbolizes hope, health and happiness.

so here they are!