Travel Pictures - Slovakia, 2002, Page 1/2

I left home on 28.8 around 8AM and arrived to Žilina 30.8 at 11PM. 18 hours in a buss, 9 hours in a train. And lots of waiting... but it was really an excellent trip :)

Some pictures taken in Zilina during 15th and 16th of September 2002. The panoramas are from the upper and lower squares. Police had a word with me after I took the lower square panorama. I "accidently" photographed three policemen (as a part of the panorama picture), and they didn't like it. At the time I didn't understand what the policeman was complaining me (I still don't speak Slovak). I didn't notice the policemen in the picture until I was back home checking the pictures.

There seems to be a lot of homeless dogs in Zilina. Here you can see three of them.

We trainees (I, Howard, Ed, Danni, Joy and Anja) spent an immemorial weekend (21 - 22.9.2002) in the beautiful city of Bratislava. "Everything" was "organized" by Howard in a very short time. This was an expensive weekend... :) But we will do it again - maybe some other place, definitely some other time.

I made surprise visit (a surprise to me) into Poprad. This was surprise, because I heard about the whole event 10 hours before going there. I was also sick, and traveling probably wasn't the best idea in that condition. But I felt so much better at the end of the day... :) I seem to be loosing the point here, so I'll continue...

There was an AIESEC info meeting and I think it was a success. I'm sure I'll go back to Poprad before I leave Slovakia. If Lora or Zuzanna could send me one special "accommodation" picture, I would be a very happy man :)
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Howard, Ed, Berki, Ivo and I were requested to play with children in the small Village of Štiavnik. Again I wasn't sure what to expect. Maybe you can see from the pictures, what we did and how much fun we had. One small girl said to me afterwards, that she hopes she had a big brother like me. Wau! Well, she doesn't know me that well :) Please, also look at the scenaries. Unfortunately the weather was somewhat cloudy on that weekend (28th-29th. September), but I think I managed to capture couple beautiful views :)

Lora asked me to join AIESEC LTC (Local Training Camp), which was held in Turzov (1 hour drive from Kosice) during 4-6th of October. There was similar thing here in Zilina, but Lora asked me before Ivo, so to Turzov I went. They didn't have any trainees, and Žilina had, so it was also important to bring this aspect to Kosice's LTC.

And what a fun it was. People, parties, topalky game(?) and The Bed. For us foreigners the bed became important place, and we shared many wise thoughts. The three most beutiful, important and special people for me in these pictures are Lora, Katja and I (in no specific order). But of course Tami, Danka, Pivet, Ivo, Whisky, Tinka, Yvett, Stevo, Peto and many others who hate me for not remembering their names or remembering them wrong, were great and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this LTC :)

Ok. Last week, LTC. This week, LTC. But LTC are fun, so why not :) The LC Bratislava, LC Brno and LC Zli held this LTC. The location was about one hour drive from Brno in a village, whose name I don’t remember. I hope I managed to take at least one picture of everyone, who were in LTC. Actually, I’m pretty sure I got at least one. When I went to LTC I haven’t had any sleep for 26 hours. But I hope you didn’t notice, že ja som trochu unavený. There was a lot of love, fun and excitement in during the weekend. I hope that everyone else also enjoyed this LTC as much as I :) I had small problems coming back home, because I didn't step out of the train at the right station. So, I found myself (AGAIN) at Hranice na Moravé. Which was really good. I could easily catch the same train, which I was supposed to catch already at Prerov. And I had a change practice my Czech… This was not exactly according to my plan, but still it was quite interesting experience :)

I spent my second weekend in Žilina during 19th-20th of October. I had no special plans for the weekend. Well, I was thinking of resting a bit. So I started it slowly. On Saturday we went to the center to buy some stuff, then I had a 50 minutes run around Žilina. Then four hours of studying Slovak and teaching English with Vlasta. On Saturday night I and Genia decided, that if the weather would be somehow ok next the morning, we would go hiking. On Sunday my alarm clock was ringing at 9AM. The weather was fine, but I wanted to sleep more. No can do, since you got to stick by your decisions. We still tried to get other people join us, but had no luck. At 10AM we left dormitories and headed to Strecno, which is about 15 minutes rain ride from Žilina. At this point it was raining a bit. In the first picture you see the "new" castle of Strecno. Quite impressing :) During the way we Suchy, we visited the old Strecno castle. After that we experienced a little hail. Next site was the cottage, where we had some warm tea. Then we had to decide, whether to go up or head down. Hmm. Easy. HORE (UP in Slovak)! After some walk we saw the peak of Suchy for the first time. It was just coming out of a cloud. Still more than 300 meters to go... We reached the top around 3:10PM. Genia received a call from her boyfriend just when we reached the top. Good timing Gunther :) I had time to take two pictures, before the cloud came and weather conditions changed quite a lot. Just see the difference between my and Genia's picture. We headed down (DOLE!) and rested at the cottage. We enjoyed some cabbage soup and snaps and then we had to hurry down. In the last picture you can see Varin. As you can see it was already dark. We managed to get out of the woods just before daylight was gone. Good planning :) We were back home in the dormitories just before 8PM. What a fun way to spent 10 hours! I highly recommend. This kind of weekend is good way to spend any extra energy one might have :)

We visited Vienna during the 26th of October. It is an impressing old city with fascinating history. 26th happened to be the national day of Austria, so a lot of people were out in the streets of Vienna. Visiting a EU country after two months outside EU was an ... pleasant experience :) Well, I didn't fancy the prizes, but otherwise it was ok. In our group were the trainees Anja, Joy, Henrik, Howard and Erasmus students Gregor and Milo and also english teacher Ben.

Have you ever wanted to visit Krakow? Well, want more! My friends had told me great things about the city and finally I had a change to see, what my friends had been talking about. Beautiful old center, international atmosphere and lively night life in the "underground" clubs :)

On Saturday we went to visit Auswitch Concentration camp. We didn't go with the tour guide. We just walked the tour by ourselves. It was a quiet visit :(

We were in Krakow from 1th to 3rd of November. Our group was kind of divided into two small groups. The other group had car. We didn't. As we, I mean me, Howard and lovely Ayako. Joy, Anja, Henrik and Johan were the other group. In the train I and Howard met some interesting people, and even one AIESECer ;) . Too bad, I don't remember all of their names. Ou, well. You know, who you are :)

Reception weekend. Ostrava. One night. 44 pubs - Stodolni. I didn't remember to take my camera with me on Saturday night. I didn't loose my camera, so maybe it was a good thing :)

I was positively surprised by many things in Ostrava. What I had seen before from the train wasn't that much. What else can I say. I think I will visit the city again :)

Orava 30th of November to 1th of December

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"Why not to go to Duben" was written in SMS I got from Genia the 18th of January. "Why not" was basically my answer and in one hour we were on our way. Just a quick search for Anita, buying enough food for small army and remembering how to get up there. I was the guide, because I hiked this route with Veronika in December. Crossing the bridge in Zilina turned out to be the most challenging part of our adventure. Though girls were a bit complaining about the icy paths. However we survived and had a excellent hike to Duben. Too bad we didn't have time to climb up to Stranik. For me and Anita there will be next time. Too bad, this was the last hike with Genia. To make the story short... we survived and got home before midnight.

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Have you hitch hiked in Slovakia. I have. It took 1h 45 minutes for us to get picked up. Maybe we were looking too happy, scary and not friendly enough. However let the record show, that I was holding the sign when a car finally stopped. The plan was to hitch hike from Zilina to Bratislava, but we managed to get ride only to Trnava. We tried catching a ride from Trnava to Bratislava, but in the end, we had to take the bus. At any rate, hitch-hiking with good company is good fun. Though I think I won't do it again any time soon...

I have to say, that this was one of the best weekends after I left Finland. Vienna is truly a magnificent city.

The theme of the weekend was kind of not planning to do anything, but ending up doing everything. Here are some keywords, which most of you will not understand: Action, Toilet paper and full membership, "let's go to sleep", "Ruska maska (still)", ice cream. If you Ivo, Genia, Ieva, Andras or Peter remember some other words, please let me know :)

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A week before I went skiing (not cross country) for the first time. People and even I noticed I have some talent for this sport, so I decided to go skiing for the second time. Genia was also keen on idea to visit Žilina again, and finishing the skiing (or in her case snow boarding season) here. Also Ivo and Anita came with me. Though Anita did her best to miss the bus ;)

Skiing in Velka Raca was wonderful :) Though the weather was somewhat against us. This time I managed to come down almost all the hills. Of course I fell down several times, and was quite sore after the day. Anita also managed to improve her skiing skills, I think :)

In the bus back we decided to make some dinner for us and people interested in eating. We ate in the corridor of the first floor in H-block. Seems to be a traditional place for us. Some creativity was used for creating a big enough table for all the people. Thanx again Genia, Ivo and all other friends of making this weekend so SUPER!

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Will the waste consume us? We were looking answers to that question in Banska Bystrica during the weekend of 22th-23rd of March. We visited one modern dump (skladka), had presentations, did some night time hiking (?) and saw the rings of Saturnus with our own eyes (wau!).

In some ways it was a funny weekend. In some ways really terrible. I hope we all learned something - not only about waste.

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AIESEC organized SOS (Student Outgoing Seminar) for students going for traineeships. Also returnees and current trainees were invited. All Zilina trainees attended SOS (Anita, Kristen (the feminine part of Carlsten) and Howard). Too bad, all Bratislava trainees missed this weekend, because it definitely was a lot of fun. People, parties and night time activities: this is the way it should be done ;) It was nice to meet returnees and people going for traineeship. One can easily see the difference. This reminded me of the reasons, why I'm here in the first place.

After SOS we visited Esztergom on Hungary side and we found this absolutely beautiful church. We were kidding that it is the nicest thing in Sturovo, even if it is on the other side of Slovak border.

Sturovo was also quite nice. And spring was there much further than up here in Zilina. Prosim jar. Pod rychlo sem! :)

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Wroclaw 11th - 13th or April

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Finally I had the change to visit Prague. I'm happy to report, that I wasn't dissapointed. Prague is really nice city. However this time it turned out to be a dangerous place for me. I managed to twist my ankle and hurt my back. Bad. But I'll be back! Big thanks to Emily for providing us accommodation. I very much enjoyed consuming pivo with Ivo, Hoger and Anders :) We acquired good basic knowledge of the krcma in Praha :)

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Howard's Pictures