Thursday 31st June - Eger

Eger Stream

Furtherest north evidence of turkish occupation

Melbourne Youth Chior

Cass's little friend

Today we ventured out into the town and straight away had a nice surprise – we saw a baby hedgehog (about 10cm long) .Cass wanted him as a camper pet lol

We were sat on the square having a drink when a large group of school children formed a choir and started singing. We were shocked to hear “waltzing matilda” being sung by the Melbourne Youth Choir – Cass’s school excursions were never that cool!

Wednesday 30th June - Eger

Our campsite was at the base of a hill surrounded by vineyards -extremely nice. We spent the first day washing clothes in a free washing machine they provided, the machine was unlike anything we had seen before and the clothes had to be turned by hand…put it this way it was a wet business but it was free so we couldn’t complain ! In between washing the clothes we took in the view, read and of course had a little tipple. We then walked to the cellar doors and had a lovely traditional meal. We had goulash kettle soup for starters and main course Cass had pork knuckle and Bek had the local trout which was delicious but a little garlicky to say the least !

Tuesday 29th June - Kosice to Eger

Once again on the road we crossed the Slovakian border into Hungary and straight into the wine region – yeah boi!
The drive was very picturesque and on many occasions we even saw storks making a nest on top of a power poles! (also pictured a castle on the way)

Monday 28th June - Levoca to Kosice (via Spis Castle)

Up early we headed off to Spis castle which are picturesque ruins atop a hill dating back to the 13th century and are one of the largest in Europe. We had an audio guide through the ruins that detailed the extensive history of it. Pictures: Horse drawn carriage below Spis - yes they still use them for farming; Panaroma of Spis castle grounds; View of walls and town from archers window within ruins.

The grounds of the castle had very cute small animals running around called spermophiles ,these were like a squirrel but smaller and without the bushy tail. A sign said there were endangered and were 500 euros each. We weren’t sure if the 500 euro part meant there was a fine imposed if they were hunted, anyway we said we should set some traps up and sell them for 400 euros a piece.

We arrived in Kosice and rode into town to see some gothic architecture, the town was pedestrianised and full of bars and restaurants. The campsite that we stayed at proved to be rather dodgy and someone had a crack at breaking into our van through the drivers door! Nice town horrible campsite.

Sunday 27th June High Tatras to Levoca

After four strong Italian blokes pushed us out of the mud we had an uneventful but beautiful trip through Slovakia countryside to Levoca. Pictured: The Tortoise and the Alps (after we got out of themud). After parking the van (on solid ground this time) we rode into town to try to find somewhere to watch England play. We forgot it was a Sunday and on our arrival the old town was deserted and not much appeared to be open, we managed to find a pub and walked in to see if the match was showing. Heaven forbid they were showing the Grand Prix instead! Bek asked if there was anywhere showing the match and a lady said in broken English “past wall, Arcadia and pointed north”. Off we cycled in search of ‘Arcadia’, we didn’t find Arcadia but we did find a wall at the top of a hill. We started to venture down the hill but realised after much sweat we were going into no mans land. We proceeded to continue cycling around the cobbled streets and asked every person in sight ( not many) about the match, none understood English and we didn’t even get any responses apart from “ no English” or head shaking even when we did football kicks and pointed to Beks England footie shirt and Cass’s England hat ( which Bek made her wear). Well we did have the one man who took us to a football pitch lol Eventually after much sweat and frantic moments from Bek we stumbled upon ‘ Planetcadia ‘ with 30 minutes until kick off .Planetcadia happened to be 100m from the bar where Bek thought the lady said ‘ Arcadia’ and which we had ridden past on several occasions but thought it was an internet cafe ! It was an internet cafe but it was also a bar and once inside we ordered non alcoholic beer, obviously this was a mistake and was soon corrected ! Okay lets not talk about the result of the match and the what ifs! (England obviously lost the match for all those non-believers out there )

Saturday 26th June High Tatras - Alpine mountain range

We woke up to a beautiful day and decided to venture into the heart of the Tatras. We took a funicular railway up to Hrebienok (1280m) and hiked through the mountains to some waterfalls which had crystal clear waters. We had a picnic here and then walked along the rivers edge.

Friday 25th June - Krakow to High Tetras –Alpine mountain range.

It was raining when we woke and was very foggy for the trip up into the Alps and across the Polish border into Slovakia. Once at the campsite we forgot to check the condition of the ground and drove into a very boggy bit of the camp which meant the Tortoise was stuck – oops we will deal with that another time. The rain soon lifted and we went for a walk although the camper was still stuck and sinking.