Slovakia

Last week I was fortunate enough to go on a trip to Slovakia. I say "fortunate" because I loved it. Besides the warmth of the people, the beauty of the women and the delicious food in pantagruelic portions, I had the chance also to visit some beautiful places. One of them was the 14th century Castle of Stará Ľubovňa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star%C3%A1_%C4%BDubov%C5%88a )

 The castle is very well preserved and accessible for tourists. It has so many rooms and exhibits there that a few hours proved insufficient to see everything. Also the view from the tower was magnificent. You could see for many kilometres around.

A surprise was the rafting in Červený Kláštor, down a river separating Slovakia from Poland. It was clearly out of season for this, but the raft ride was even more special like this. We had the privilege of admiring the colourful autumn mountainous landscape at sunset and of listening to a lot of local legends about those places from one of the boatmen (I don't know how come, most of the stories were a bit misogynist...). The ride ended in the night under a gorgeous moon with some wolf stories. The unplanned walk in the dark towards the point where there was a car waiting for us, was the cherry on top. It was unique.

The High Tatras were another great experience. You didn't know where to look...there was a gorgeous scenery everywhere.

The visit to the Count Andrassy's summer mansion, brushed my history and showed me a style of life in which everything was unique and priceless. It reminded me of some memorable historical characters related to the location, like the Empress Sissy of Austria-Hungary and their influence on Romanian history. I realised that Romanians had in common with Slovakians the fact that both of them had been under Hungarian rule at the same time. That explained to me the similarities I had seen in towns- both had received an infusion of  German population and  implicitly style from the Austria- Hungarian Empire.

I saw the same similarities in Kosice. I found it very similar to Brasov and I felt like home. I enjoyed a guided walk around the center with a very nice lady who, I found out, shared my contempt for Francis II Rákóczi buried in St. Elisabeth's Cathedral. The city was under renovation preparing to be one of the European cultural capitals of next year.
 All in all, I found Slovakia to be like a 2.0 version of Romania - with more forests, bigger plates and fairer ladies.