Slovakia wasn't quite what I expected - granted, my only real knowledge of Bratislava comes from the major motion picture 'EuroTrip', so I know I was a little bit lacking. Although, our first night into town was a bit rough - kinda felt like EuroTrip. Our flight in landed a little late, no one in the airport wanted to give us change for the bus into town, missed the bus stop that we were supposed to get off at, walked around dark streets at 11pm looking for the hostel, and finally, the hostel owner pretty much appeared out of no where as we wandered his block (the sign for the place was non-existent). But, luckily, Juraj's place was absolutley great. Bratislava itself was so-so, I'd say. The old town was nice enough to walk around, with plenty of sidewalk cafes and restaurants, some strange sculptures were scattered here and there, there was a parade almost everytime we walked past the presidential palace, and there was one very strange bridge, but it didn't have any huge attractions. The best thing we saw in Bratislava was actually just outside Bratislava, and that was Devin castle. These ruins sit at the meeting of the Danube and Morovia rivers, and lasted for quite some time until the French blew them up in the 1800s. They have even found a loaf of bread from the 6th century AD at this site. Devin was also the first place that we had a dark Slovakian beer, and this was like drinking delicious beer flavored ice cream. Very good.

After Bratislava, we took a short train ride out to the town of Trencin, which is pretty much just on the border of the High Tatras, the Slovakian Alps, and after a little difficulty in finding lodging, and getting soaked in the freezing rain while trying to buy train tickets to Olomouc, we had a nice time in this quiet town. And quiet it was - if it wasn't 11pm on a weekend night, at a student bar, the place was pretty much devoid of all life. The reason we came out here was to see Trencin castle though, which is perched high up on a hill overlooking the town, and has been a military outpost since the time of the Romans in 2nd century AD. The inscription in rock behind Hotel Trencin reads "To the victory of the emperors and army wich, in the number of 855 soldiers, resided at Laugaricio. Inscribed by the order of Maximianus the legate of the II Auxiliary Legion", and I'm not sure which is more impressive, the inscription, or the hotel itself (we didn't stay here). During summer nights, they hold a kind of theatrical performance of sorts at the castle, and we stuck around an extra day to check this out. Well worth it. As you can see by the pictures, it definitely needs some explanation.

We chose the earlier of th e two 'nighttime tours' of the castle, because we're old and we need to get to bed early. First, it should be noted that the 'tour' was completely in Slovak, so we really had no idea what was going on at any point. It started with a speech given by the Roman commander to a bunch of Roman soliders (everyone was in costume). These Romans then had a battle with the local Germanic tribes, complete with flaming arrows and sword fights. After the tribes lost, (I think) they became friends with the Romans, and took them to see the villages, which really just consisted of a witch. The witch raised someone from the dead (he was hiding in a hole in the ground) and then had a sword fight with the Roman's new friend. Then they went up into the castle and had a sword fight with the tribe leader's wife. Long story short, long on the sword fights, short on the understanding on mine and Ashley's part. At the end, we went up into the tower for a view over the city, and then they turned out all of the lights and ghouls and other scary things jumped out of dark corners while we were descending the stairs. The little children on the tour were not very happy with this turn of events. But good fun all in all.

Slovakia really is a beautiful country, and I really wanted to spend some more time heading out into the mountains, but time in Europe is short, and we must move on. The High Tatras will have to wait until next time.