Slovakia (4): Waterfall

Since it was our first day out in the field, we had a leisurely start, leaving the chalet at 7.30 take the funicular railway up to a spot where we could photograph a waterfall.

We walked from the railway terminal, down along the path of the stream, continuing on past the point where everyone else was posing for their cameras in front of the waterfall. We started low down the waterfall and slowly worked our way upstream. The day was fairly freeform, with Chris on hand to give advice, but basically leaving us to our own devices.


There were some good shots in the waterfall, but many necessitated contortions of both body and tripod to get a good composition. I also spent a little time trying to work on some macro shots, with limited success.


We spent the whole day photographing in the area, following upstream and then taking a loop which brought us back to the railway terminal. Eric took a scooter back down on the hill, but the rest of us were a bit more circumspect, deciding to walk down back down to the car. After a good dinner, we all went early to bed, to prepare ourselves for tomorrow's 4.30am departure.

Slovakia (3): Velka Lomnika

Today is the start of my photography trip so, after spending a final couple of hours working on my assignment, I was picked up at midday by Tereska, from Mountain Paradise to join up with the rest of the group who had flown in from the UK. During the drive, we got to know each other a little, and I was surprised to find out that she has lived for four years in the Manchester area, including a stint as an au pair in Bowdon, just down the road from where I grew up.

We're based in a village called Veľká Lomnica, 15 minutes away from the town of Poprad, close to the Polish border. In fact, the Polish town of Zakopane, which Dad and I visited on our trip to Krakow a couple years ago, is only half an hour away, and turns out to be a favourite day trip spot from Slovakia.

The rest of the group were waiting at the chalet along with Chris, our photographer-guru for the trip, and Matt of Mountain Paradise. With the addition of Eric, the driver, we have a total of 4 support staff to support the 4 clients - pretty good service!

I spent the afternoon getting to know the other 3 participants on the trip, and catching up with Chris, who I haven't seen for a couple of years, since I went on a trip he organized to South Africa. It turns out that two other participants, Bob and Alison, have also travelled with Chris before, doing similar trips to Alaska (grizzlies) and South Africa as I have done. It was particularly good to hear news of Chobe, the orphaned lion cub I played with in South Africa, and Savannah, the cheetah, who has had cubs since I visited.

The photography starts tomorrow, with a leisurely start (we leave the chalet at 7.30) to visit a waterfall.

Slovakia (2): Košice

I spent this morning holed up in my apartment, working on my biological psychology assignment (yes, I know should have finished it before I left).




After spending the morning in a quiet air-conditioned room, the outside temperature, not to mention the streets full of people (including a large number of teenagers, all blowing whistles - not sure what that was all about) came as a bit of a shock.

I spend a few hours wandering around town, and visited the park, where it was a relief to escape into the shade of the trees. It was quite an overcast day, not ideal for taking photos, although of course that didn't really stop me.


I also visited St Elizabeth's Cathedral, and St Michael's Chapel next to it. The latter was lovely - small and quiet, with murals painted on the walls, and I spent a little time there in quiet contemplation of life in general.


Before heading back to my hotel, I found a bookshop, which after some searching proved to have a reasonable collection of English books. I picked myself out a couple readers for the coming week, and then had a look at what else was on offer. As ever when I travel, I was surprised to see just how many English/American books are translated into other languages, and amused to see that not only titles, but in some cases, also author names had been translated to appeal more to the Slovakian eye.


After a bit of a rest, and a half-hearted attempt to continue with the assignment, I went back into town for dinner, deciding this evening to find myself something that was (in my mind at least) typically Eastern European. I found myself at a small restaurant on the main street, sampling borscht with perogies (ok, technically speaking, that's Polish), followed by pork with stewed sauerkraut and dumpling.

Slovakia (1): Košice

When I dropped off my bag at Schiphol this morning, the check-in agent squinted at my confirmation, hmmed and aahhed a little and then pointed to where it said Košice and said "so, you're travelling through to, uh, this place then, are you?" He then looked a little apologetic and said, "sorry, I don't know how to say it". The same issue has been troubling me every time people have asked at work where I'm going. Having listened carefully to the announcement on the aeroplane, the answer seems to be something along the lines of "Ko-shee-suh".

My flight itinerary took me first to Prague, where we had a wonderful view of the city, the bridges over the River Charles and the castle on the hill as we came into land. After a short wait, I boarded a 50-seat turboprop (ATR-42), which had the distinction of being the first plane I've been on with business class seating at the rear. This makes some sense when you take into account that the door was also at the rear of the plane, with cargo loaded at the front.

Košice airport seems to be quite a quiet place - we were the only plane on the tarmac (there were a few light aircraft at a hangar), and I was in downtown Košice within 10 minutes of leaving the terminal. My acommodation for the next two nights came as a surprise - I booked the hotel on recommendation of the photo tour organizers a couple of months ago, and didn't look too closely at the details. Instead of the hotel room I expected, I have a spacious, air-conditioned apartment.

After dropping off my bags, I headed off into town, only a five minute walk from the hotel, to find some dinner. The main street was lined with little terraces where you could eat or have a drink - most seemed to be linked to restaurants somewhere out of sight. After a stroll down to the church and back, I settled on one at random, and had a very good steak with goose liver and almonds (I was tempted by the "irreplaceable salad", but the steak won out).

Carpet

Finally, I managed to clear up the living room enough to take a photo of the new carpet!

French Exam

Hurrah, I passed!

Oops, new gadget

Garmin Forerunner 405 with Heart Rate Monitor. Saw Emmy's in Leiden on Sunday, ordered it yesterday, and tried it out on the bike ride home from work today.

Playback the route on Garmin Connect.