New language, new luck

So on Wednesday we left in the rain for Bratislava – in pretty stylish outfits: waterproof socks in trekking sandals. 😉
But already the first stop was the airport for buying some medication for Stefan; and, of course, some snacks which is always good.

The closer we came to Slovakia the better the weather got. And after around 5 h 40 and nearly 107 km we arrived, exhausted but happy, in Dunajska Streda. There we had a little snack on the terrace of our accomodation enjoying their WLAN, yeah!

the first border has been crossed

offroad in the Slovakian jungle

The following days in Slovakia we had no luck with the internet.
There was none in any of the places we stayed, neither restaurants nor accomodations, and so we had to do without it.

Regarding the language we have some difficulties in Slovakia.
At least Alexandra has once tried to learn Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and does recognise some words, but we do not really understand a lot – although it is a neighbouring country! Embarrassing…
Anyhow, we get through somehow and our vocabulary is improving: Dobry den, ano, nie, pozor, dakujem, prosim – moze bytˋ! (Good day, yes, no, attention/caution, thank you, please – it works!)

Alexandra is happy about not seeing any mountains yet

Then on our way to Nove Zamky the first accident happened: Alexandra tried to handle the box of the cleaing tissues – and her finger got stuck in it. Stefan stayed strong and could smother his laughing while Alexandra was nearly rolling on the floor hurting – the plastic of the box is pretty hard and the spikes of the opening were digging into her finger trying to crush it.
Thankfully, Stefan could rescue her with a fitting tool. Today Alexandra can laught about this event too. 😀

What’s in the booooox????

After too many kilometers on meadow paths we could stay with a very friendly elderly lady in Nove Zamky – more on than later.
The following day we wanted to get as close to Zvolen as possible, as our next hosts were waiting there for us.
In the middle we had to pause in Nova Bana where we were lucky to stay at some kind of a health resort. It was a bit strange, but very quiet. 😀

the weather was not always perfect, we also had low temperatures, wind and rain

view of a nuclear power plant

accomodation at a health resort in Nova Bana

On Saturday, 16 May we suffered a small setback. We had entered the address of our next hosts in our navigation app and were lead to the wrong place. We were standing in a street with the same name but in Banska Bystrica, although we should have been in Zvolen which we had passed 20 km before. Well, s**t happens! 😀
But it was previously arranged, and as we had already made 80 km that day, we bought some tickets for the next train to Zvolen. Ooook, in retrospect going by train with our heavy bikes was not that much easier, but who cares.

In Zvolen too we have been accomodated in a very friendly way and in the evening we could also have a beer in the city.

We are still in high spirits!

church in Zvolen