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?