Trip to Slovakia - Part III

Here´s the third and last part of my report about the happenings in Slovakia. Next post will be about a nice experience I had in Kosice. But first enjoy Episode III of the story...

31^th Dec - new years eve
D-day finally arrived. We planned to go bowling during the day but when we heard that it was booked out completely for the whole previous day, we didn´t even try to go there. Instead one of the slovaks - the one with the two apple pies in McDonalds three days before - had the idea to play pool-billiard. We wanted to have a nice lunch before, because we weren´t sure how good the dinner would be (based on what we heard and saw from the days before…). Therefore we decided to go once again to the place with the marvellous steaks. We even convinced the other swiss delegates to come with us instead of going to paintball. Kates convincing tactic was very funny - “you get blue spots all over your body and it´s gonna last at least for two weeks…” Anyway, when we arrived in the city centre we had to notice that the place was closed. Too bad, but hey what, we went to La bomba again and ordered there US steaks, which were even slightly bigger than the ones before. And there as well, it was delicious again.

After our at least 2 hours lunch we searched the place to play billard. Unfortunately we couldn´t find one which was still open, so we ended up in a internet café. Dan & Kate wanted to write new years text messages, I wanted to check my connection to travel home and the other three planned to go aqua-city in poprad-tatry and looked up some information about it… Half an hour later when we left the place again we realized, that the christmas market was open again (which wasn´t the case the previous days we spent there). So, we ended up there drinking silvester punch and hot wine. Even though it was already dark we realized that it wasn´t too late yet and that we should stop after the second one… Instead we went to Kaufland again to buy some important things for the evening and then went back to the flat or the dorm in order to prepare for the official dinner which started around 2 hours later.

The official dinner was in the dorm itself in a cold and unfriendly room. First they served some salad with bread and a drink for the toast which was quite ok. Then it only got worse - first we realized that the red wine we bought on our own wasn´t very good. Later - actually a lot later - the dinner was served and it was already cold. So we went back to the kitchen and heated our plates in the microwave again. Then, we opened our bottle of white wine, which was even worse. In the mean time they started with a game in the official program which was as funny as a power breakdown… At around 11 o´clock when we were pissed off enough we decided to grab our bottles of champagne and go to the city centre. We supposed that there was more going on as we already saw that they built a stage next to the christmas market - and there was more going on. So, we ended our year with candles and hot wine and music from the stage. It was sort of a cover band playing there which was ok - they seemed to like Queen…

We started our new year with some champagne, a nordic circle - those who know what it is can imagine how cool it was - and then another hot wine… All in all a great start to a hopefully successful year 2007! After some partying on there we went to a club where they played some turkish music for some time. Then we let the day/night die away in the dorm room of our swiss delegates before we went to bed at around 0430…

1^st Jan 07 - I´m coming home…
Already 4.5 hours later I woke up again. After showering and packing my stuff I walked with my heavy backpack for half an hour through the deserted city of Kosice to the mainstation where I had to catch the train at 1018. What followed was a 6.5 hrs long and boring train ride to Bratislava. The train stopped more or less everywhere on the way - I´m sure I saw the railway stations of each town which has more than 5´000 inhabitants… Anyway I spent my time with sleeping, listening music or reading Vodka (nooo, I´m not drunk, that´s really the name of the book I´m reading at the moment!). In Bratislava I had to wait for my connection for approx. one hour. So I rushed to the centre, took some pictures of the presidential palace on the way, bought some dinner in McDonalds (as it was more or less the only thing opened and I didn´t have much time) and rushed back to hlavna stanica where I boarded the train to Vienna.

After this nutrition I felt pretty good so I decided to start studying which I did for around one hour! Thanx to earplugs I even could absorb the noise of the grouching kidz from the compartment next door…

In Vienna I spent another hour waiting for my nighttrain with drinking coffee and reading in Vodka ;-) Then finally I went to the platform and searched my wagon. But I couldn´t find it. So I walked up the whole platform and then again down and finally I saw it, but strange, it was the first one! When I got in the wagon I finally realized why the ticket they sold me in Kosice was sooo expensive - because the incompetent woman from Slovakrail booked a bed in a two-bed room instead of one in a 6 bed compartment. Anyhoo, the money was already spent so I made the best out of it (as I´m a student I´m used to do such things). I ordered of course a full, 4-component breakfast because it was included - not that I´m a hungry person early in the morning :) My breakfast therefore included 2 orange juices, 1 coffee and one fruit.

At around 0620 on 2^nd in the morning I finally arrived in Zürich, means at 0730 I was in Bern and at 8 o´clock after almost 22 hours on the road I finally arrived back home, where I first took a nice, hot and long shower. Afterwards I went to sleep for around three hours and then started to study - I only had 8 days left till my first exam…!

To conclude I can say, that I´m glad I finally decided to go to Slovakia. Although some parts weren´t that cool, we spent a lot of great & funny moments together. Dan, François, Kate, Kathrin & Mirjam: It was great to spent NYE with you in the city centre of Kosice. Or as a kazakh journalist once said: “Niiiice, I liiiike!” ;-)

new year´s eve in the city centre

the presidential palace in bratislava