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july 28th

on a train right now from Budapest to Zagreb. We’re unsure of what we are going to do when we arrive in Zagreb. We want to go to the coastal town of Zadar. But that’s another 5 hours from Zagreb. Whatever. Future Tim and Galen can decide these things. We’ve just come from Slovakia for the last 5 days. We we’re visiting a Family friend of mine. Adam. He lived in California for quite a few years, and worked for my uncle. He doesn’t really fit in very well in his home town of Martin, Slovakia. There’s around 60.000 people living in Martin, and it’s a beautiful city surrounded by the Mala Fatra mountain range. Adam doesn’t fit in, because he rides a 1400 cc , custom, Hell’s Angel’s chopper. He also has Hair past his shoulders, and full-sleeve tattoos. Adam is a middle school teacher. But his looks are deceiving, and he has been one of the most welcoming and nicest hosts we’ve had on our whole trip. And the first night we got there he took us out to a nice bar and restaurant. We’re Tim and I got cabbage soup.

We went hiking with Adam in the High Tatras, a mountain range with similar qualities to the Sierra Nevada’s, but about half the size. The day started off with driving 2 hours to get to the mountains, only to have the weather crap out on us. As tim and I started hiking it began to rain. But not in the Oregon, drizzle style rain, the Thunder and lighting downpour, of large mountain ranges, mixed with marble sized hail. After standing under a tree for about half an hour, while getting soaked. We decided to hike back down to lake where adam parked the care, and was spending time with his Wife and Son. To kill time while it rained, We all went down to a small restaurant and ordered some Borsch to warm up. After it stopped raining Tim and I went on a 3-4 hour hike up a big glaciated valley.

Tim and I in the High Tatras.

On the drive home we stopped at a small Slovak restaurant and got cabbage soup, and french fries. We we’re served (we’ll we payed for it) ketchup and Tarter sauce, with our fries. Tarter sauce and fries is boss. You can even mix in a little ketchup. I defiantly recommend it. Also cabbage soup= awesome.

The next Day we went to the Mala Fatra mountain range with Adam’s Parents, Pavel and Eva. They are about 60 years old. The Mala Fatras are only about 1700 meters tall but the are still really beautiful. We went on about a 6 hour hike, with a break about two hours into the hike, to get, of course, cabbage soup. (That much cabbage soup in three days was tough on my stomach…)
Later that night we went to a big concert. With punk music, and Techno and House.

Adams parents hiking in the alp-like Mala Fatras

On saturday we had a big Barbecue at Adams Garden with his friends, to Celebrate a good friend of his’s, birthday ( that’s really hard to write and make any sense)
We made pork steak, and cooked goulash over a real fire (that Tim and I started, despite being “City boys”)
We were planning on heading to Budapest the next day Via train. But one of Adams friends offered us a ride. Peter, ones a business that sells stuff in hungary, but it needs to get driven from Poland. So he has drivers that drive between Krakow and Budapest that stop in Martin. So he offered us a ride with one of his drivers for the next day. Free ride? Hell ya. Only catch was that the guy spoke no english. or german. or french. or spanish. or even slovak, ( we knew a couple of words by this point) only Polish. But everything worked out, and he ended up dropping us off right in front of our hostel!

Adam, cooking, as always.

Slovakia is an amazing country. Over 80% of it is lush green mountains. And in the winter almost the entire country get’s covered in snow and get’s ski-fever. If there is anywhere I will defiantly come back to (of course I want to go back to Germany and Czech Republic!) it would be Slovakia. Our guide book said Slovakia is known for Ice hockey, Beautiful Women, Mountain hiking, and Folk traditions. I would add one more (other than putting beautiful women first on the list…) Amazingly friendly and welcoming people. (That’s one thing, it just has two adjectives)

Ciao,
GCP

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