Several days later Zuzka, Zane and I drove into central Slovakia where there is a beautiful mining town in the mountains. It has an expansive history, filled with big names and important events, but that is when the gold and silver flowed from the earth here, now those days are gone, only the beautiful town and the many empty mining tunnels beneath it remain. Upon arrival Zuzka and Zane check into their hotel and I check into my hostel which is just up the street from them. We go to a brewery and I have a craft 1L beer for 5€ while Zane has a .5, he was bummed because he thought he was getting the large too. They have some chicken wings and bread and then we decide to leave the pricey establishment. They go to rest in their hotel while I go straight to the super market to get another liter of beer and some garlic bread, both sub par by far, in comparison to the restaurant we just left, but it kept me going.I return to my hostel and decide to hang out in the office, where I end up watching one of the Georgian volunteers there play World of Warcraft, with his Ukrainian girlfriend looking very bored and annoyed on the couch behind him. We talk about Warcraft and then about Russia and it's involvement in both Georgia and the Ukraine in recent times. They were nice kids. I was supposed to meet Zane and Zuzka at around 8 at this one bar called strange girl, but it was 8:10 by the time I realized and I had to run down the street to meet them. It was quickly apparent that they really didn't serve food there so we went to a place called Arch Angel, where vegan fast food is delivered, Vegan fast food? Never had that before. I ordered the stir fried wok noodles and carrot, ginger soup, totaling 5€, it was nothing special, but it did the trick. The next day it was snowing almost the whole time, the mountain town became very picturesque and pretty cold too. Zuzka was really hankering for some sweets, so we went to a little cafe so she could buy coffee and cake. From there we found the office that organized tours into the mines and walked to the meeting room where a Slovakian family of four were seated patiently listening to the guide. Then we donned our rain jackets and hard hats to descend into the mines beneath us. Naturally we had our 20 minute history lesson and safety briefing by the burly Slovakian man first, who of course only spoke Slovakian. Which is a real shame because I thought lots of his jokes were very well delivered, funny how you can tell those things even though you don't understand a single word. Zuzka said she'd translate what he said later, but that never happened. The mines were accessed from the street through a famous metal clad door that mine workers, tourists and Slovakian Presidents alike have all walked through. It was dark down there, very dark and wet, with water seeping from the stones and dripping down from stalactites. Its a very good thing Zane had his hard hat on, because if he didn't he'd likely be a vegetable now. He was hitting his head all the way down and all the way up. Being 6'4" really has it's draw backs I guess. The most interesting things we saw were the hallways leading to collapsed shafts, crazy looking fungi and frightening, big, black and red spiders with long powerful looking legs. We thought we heard bats too, didn't see them though. The tour only took an hour, but if you've ever spent time underground, you know time flows at a different pace there, and we were all happy to be outside again, even if it was still cold and snowing. Before going out to dinner we returned our gear and thanked the guide, who told Zuzka we were the first Californians he's ever taken down into the mines. We went to a pizza place that had modern decor and synchronized alternating lights beneath the bar, on the ceiling and the floor. I asked for a veggie pizza without cheese and I must say they did pretty good. I devoured the whole thing before either of my friends even halved their own pies, so that must mean it was good, right? But I'm known for inhaling food, so who can say?We walked to the first engineering University of Slovakia where they have a large garden that is home to special varieties of plants found throughout Slovakia. We had a snow ball fight there and in several other places in the town, that was pretty fun. Next we return to their hotel for bowling and gin and tonics. I wreck Zane the first game, while I'm sober, the next game he wins by a little and the last two games he mops the floor with me. We play one really fun game of fusball that I lose by one point, and then I walk up the street to my hostel and fall asleep.
The Bloody Countess
It was a rough time settling back into Slovakia. I got a devilish cough right after leaving Hungary, coughing up putrid yellow muck every couple minutes all day. Maybe I got it from drinking and smoking for so many days straight or maybe from the Hungarian Baths, either way it looks like it's here to stay a while, I actually know it will because this post is so long ago now, it lasted two weeks! Zane and I haven't been seeing much of each other because he's always on the other side of the city, but its cool because I get to talk to Pedro and check out more of the city on my own. Which isn't all that interesting actually, being in the industrial zone of the city and all. But people watching is always fun and highly informative. It was actually very pleasant outside today though, didn't even need my extra jacket or scarf when I walked to the super market to buy a water melon, which came from Brazil, beat and carrot juice in a tetra pack and a bag of oranges to boost my immune system. The watermelon was excellent! It was so good I ravaged through it in total absence of manners or common decency, eating it much like you see zombies munching down on fresh brains, gruesome and yet so refreshing... I was sure that I lost my scarf, which I've had for over 10 years now, my sister Michelle gave it to me for my birthday before going to study and work abroad in South Korea. I went back to the store to look for it, they hadn't seen it. So I bought another watermelon and pumpkin seeds, as I was putting the seeds in my laptop pocket of the pack I found the scarf! So happy about that.Anyway Zuzka's parents invited us to the countryside over the weekend where we'll be staying at the cottage they've been remodeling over the years. Looks like we've been recruited to help, should prove interesting. The day we left we all met at Zuzkas and then took two cars to the cottage. It was a short drive, 2 hours or so, with lots of highway and then a 40 minute drive through the Slovakian countryside, which was pretty standard as far as the sights were concerned, especially since it was night time. Entering the old house, one could see its features flowing from old rustic farm cottage with Soviet era decor to modern construction. It had a powerful wood burning stove that kept us all cozy and a lovely kitchen that had a dragon carved into the wall by Zuzka's father. We sat down for a candle lit dinner and some homemade palinka, the national liquor, while watching something on television in Slovakian, which I randomly guessed to be Final Destinations 5, and was right. Not that I've ever seen it, but it had all the classic signs of the franchise. A little chit chat and we were off to bed. The next day we all worked moving the building supplies from the shed into the second story window of the cottage. It wasn't very hard work but it was so cold that even with gloves I couldn't feel my fingers. Once finished it was time for food and drink, which always included polinka, no matter what.. Wake up? Have a polinka. Finish work? Have a polinka. Finish eating? Have a polinka? Finish up in the bathroom? Good for you, have a polinka... And on and on it goes.Zuzka told us about a place not too far away where the Bloody Countess of Slovakia once lived and tortured her victims. Having both fought this same Countess in Diablo II, a video released in 2000 on pc, and a game of some renown, Zane and I were very interested in her true history. So we got in the car and drove further into the countryside, eventually coming face to face with the ruined tower of evil. The verifiable history of the countess states that with the help of her aids, she was able to kidnap, torture and then bath in the blood of over 40 Virgins found in the villages surrounding the castle, and that these murders took place while the countesses husband was off at war. Needless to say the pictures and diagrams depicting these events were less than savory, and easily exemplified the worst attributes of human existence. Most of the tower remains buried to this day, so many invaders came through the area over the last 300 years that very little of the structure remains. A park service runs the ruin now, I think we payed 2.5€ each to get in. It was really interesting actually, being in a place repeatedly, digitally of course, and then to finally be in the actual physical space some 16 years later. Zane had lost the last nug of his tree somewhere and we looked for it on the way back to the car, we also looked for a place to eat but the city was dead. When we got back to the cottage he scoured the earth for that nug, eventually finding it against a fence boarding the neighbors yard, he was so happy then, like a child on Christmas morning. He went to enjoy the booty in the broken down barn next to the cottage and I went inside where dinner, warmth and Palinka were waiting...
American Outlaws in Hungary
I had a long night out with a Vierka and two French couch surfers who are riding their bicycles through Europe for 6 months, thats these guys:https://m.facebook.com/Electripdream-246190632219484/?ref=bookmarks . It was rough having to be at Zuzkas for a ride to the train station the next morning, especially having to walk through the rain. We got to the station with less than 10 minutes to buy our tickets and board the train, so we split up into two different lines in case one was faster. With 1 minute to spare we stood at the platform, tickets in hand, the train was 2 minutes late. The cabin was clean, air conditioned and very nice in general, there were already four people there but we squeezed in, which was fine because the train would empty more and more on our several hour journey to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.When we passed into Hungary the border security guards got on our train and went cabin to cabin asking for "Papers please?" Zane and I totally spaced. "Um papers?" Having just crossed international borders without passports they could easily send us back to Slovakia on the next train, or worse, and more likely, detain us until confirming our identities. We both handed them our California drivers licenses hoping beyond reason that this would not spell disaster for us. "These will not work, where are your passports?" The black clad duo bellowed, each now resting their hands on their service pistols. "Were sorry we totally forgot them, we didn't even think about it." They looked at each other, said some scary sounding adjectives in Hungarian and continued in English "how long will you be in Hungary?" "Two days.." Another round of harsh sounding language and questioning fascial features to each other."If you travel internationally you need passports! Don't forget!" The large lady officer said, and then slided the door closed. It was a miracle of modern security standards for sure, had this occurred in the United States of America we would have experienced a very different outcome. The rest of the trip we wondered if they would change their minds and send us back. After this the train came to a slow and time consuming crawl through the suburbs of the city, an hour later we finally made it to Budapest. The train station there is actually pretty cool, certainly much better than the one in Bratislava. We made it to the city center and walked in circles around the block that supposedly had our hostel, once we found it, we checked in and met a very passionate and smiling Hungarian girl who worked there. She was telling us about all the pub crawls and crazy drunken nights she's had recently, how much she loved krakow Poland and that I shouldn't miss it for the world. We had a welcome shot with her of homemade Hungarian liquor and then in walks Barak! The Turk who I got all political and religious with at the couch surfing party in Bratislava, Lol what a coincidence. Then we have welcome shots with them. Also joining in are two Canadian girls whose first question for us is where they can buy tampons? As Zane would so aptly put it to me later, "this should have been our first clue.."Even though Hungary is the harshest on drug laws out of all the countries we've visited yet, Zane's priority is still trying to get marijuana from a friend of his that he met here the last time he came. Somehow we talk ourselves into bring the Canadian girls with us on our walk. They see a pharmacy and head for it while we continue on. The place we have to go is several blocks away and once we find it we almost don't get anything because we couldn't get wifi and were waiting at her door without any information or clues. So we buy a small beer from a bar to use wifi, contact the contact and zane meets her while I drink his beer. After getting the weed and liquor from the store, we head back to the hostel, at this point we see two grown women, obviously drunk as skunks, holding each others hands as one was about to black out, they were leveraging all their weight against each other until their hands slipped and they both fell backwards, one hitting her head on the uneven stone road right away and knocking herself out, the other landing ass first, tearing her pants open from the crack up. Im closest to her so I give her a hand up, while Zane and the girls tend to the other.One of the Canadian girls was obsessed with helping this lady, talking to her passed out body repeatedly in English as if it made any difference. "Honey I need you to get up now. Can you tell me your name? Do you know where you are?" This lady was literally out cold, and Canada just couldn't let it go. Finally a group of locals came and she woke up. For me this was the perfect time to walk away, but not for Canada, oh no, now that this barely conscious person was aware of her surroundings Canada had to make sure she could cross all her T's and dot her i's, in English of course, a language I'm sure she didn't speak, because her other friend, who never lost consciousness, responded to my questions in pure Hungarian. I tore Canada away at this point and left the Hungarian ladies in Hungarian hands, we then returned to the hostel. We smoke, drink our bottle of gin and juice, talk to a few people in our hostel, then go out to a few places with the Canadian girls. Zane also meets up with a polish girl who comes along with us, even gifting Zane her small bottle of Vodka. She seemed to really enjoy the Canadians company. We end up smoking hookah like sheiks in some dark corner of this extremely large, three story club, with the walls heavily drawn upon by staff and guests alike I imagine. They must have been going for the classic dark art noir of heroin come downs, because thats exactly what it looked and felt like in there.We play team foosball next, the results of which I can't recall. At which point Zane and I left to dance elsewhere, but we just ended up going to get pizza two different times, at the same place, before going to bed.
Another side of Bratislava
I woke up in pain. This couch needs to be thrown out the window on to a pile of burning coals, it's a death trap! As soon as Pedro woke up I asked If I could sleep in his room, he must have known how bad the couch was because he apologized if it was hard to sleep and happily agreed to sharing his room with me. Pedro left for work and I left at around 2 pm to meet Zane in the city. I waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes and got on board when it arrived. There wasn't anyway to get a ticket on the bus itself and the driver gave me the precise look one gives a stranger in whom no fucks can be given. I got the message and sat down promptly.Within moments we were at the substation for several bus routes in our area. A young lady attempted to help me but gave me instructions of a complicated nature that involved several transfers. None of which I understood because she barely spoke English at all. Even if I wanted to join her on the bus she was about to board, before our conversation ended a technician came up to the ticket box and started disassembling it before I could buy a ticket. Thus I was left with the only option I had left, take Pedro's advice and board bus 70, and so that is what I did. Along my journey through the barren fields outside of Bratislava, I witnessed the faces of local people from a region of the world half familiar to me from my own heritage and half alien. This being my first time in Eastern Europe I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I immediately Sensed a coldness and sadness to it, unlike that which I've experienced in Germany or Korea, both of which share their own brand of national shame and regret, but this, this is something different. Korea deals with its eternal sadness as it being apart of their cultural identity, a fact easily seen through their everyday lives and also their excellent entertainment of the dramatic variety. While Germany's shame is mitigated through the eternal pursuit of order, and excellence, and all whilst living with constant reminders that they once hailed the banner of earths last great boogie man. In Slovakia though, the sadness and shame are to be found in the attitudes of the people in General. Many seek to be totally separated from anything Slovakian, preferring to call themselves European. The second world war ended with Czechoslovakia becoming two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovakia getting the worst end of the bargain. After that communism came and all semblance of life as they once knew was eradicated through strict and brutal Soviet policies. To top it all off they were quickly dropped into "capitalistic democracy" when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 90's and are even now slow to meet this new paradigm. After all they've been through I imagine they're reluctant to believe in any new system that is handed to them. Once I reached the station I checked my messages and realized that the last thing I had told Zane was that I'd meet him, but I didn't specify the time. Not one to twiddle my thumbs I went to the nearest pub and got a beer so that I could use their wifi. Which I didn't need to do because the bar tender gave me the password before I even ordered anything, but I felt obliged non the less.Once contact with Zane was made, I stood on the foot bridge waiting for him. Many people came and went, but Zane took a long time to arrive, and since neither of us had cell phones we couldn't contact each other unless we got wifi. It's a throw back to the good old days when no one had cell phones and if we planned to meet somewhere, we damn sure would, or somebody would be waiting and then leaving without ever knowing what happened, until they got home, or talked the next day. I miss those times. Zane arrived 40 minutes late, I met him and smiled as he told me about how he had lost track of time, he couldn't see then that my German blood was boiling from this affront to punctuality, order and reason, because my face was the picture of calm and tranquillity. A skill I have barely learned to use in the last year or so. Usually I just blow up and live up to the title Blake gave me once during a mushroom trip that I told him not to make a scene in, "Daniel Maddox, the KING of making a scene, is telling me not to.. Ahaha!" He said.We found a nice little pub in which to eat and drink, that was darkly lit and furnished with equally dark furniture and giant wooden spool tops hanging from the ceiling. We drank 1.5L of IPA beer, then bought a bottle of Gin and juice to bring to the couch surfing party we were heading to next. We got directions for how to get there from the bar tender but she suggested we just take a sanctioned taxi from their pub. Which would be cheaper, safer, and faster than the unsanctioned kind.We being the rebellious, trail blazing Californians that we are, totally ignored such sound advice and headed out in the parties relative direction. After walking for quite a while, and seeing no point in going on, we hailed a cab, presumably unsanctioned, and then obviously so, when he charged us 17 dollars to drive 7 kilometers... But we made it there safe and sound, thats the important thing. At the door to the apartment building we rang upstairs and a young ladies voice answered, "whats the password?" "Um... We have no idea" "Daniel?" "Yes it's me" "come on up" and the door buzzed open. We started climbing the stairwell when Vierka met us half way. "My names Vierka, pleased to meet you." She said enthusiastically as she led us up the stairs to her apartment, which was packed with 8+ couch surfers from the world over. We entered into a kitchen set ablaze with several international dishes at work from a few different chefs. Vierka had set up a cook off between all her couch surfers and we were witness to it. The alcohol driven merriment was also in full swing, as several massive bottles of beer 2.5L each were already empty at the table. Once we added our gin and juice to the mix things really picked up. As usual I was immediately sucked into the most philosophical and political discussion possible, this time with a Turk named Burak, as we heavily debated world politics and religion, the others tuned out and discussed their own lives and travels, this being the usual case, we continued on unabated. Vierka told us of a cool bar in town with live music, so five of us, including Vierka, Zane and I, decided to go. While several others, including Burak remained at her house. We left her apartment, took the city bus and made it to the city center. There we came to Zborjnas bar, where Zuzka was already waiting for us. It's a small little place with a tunnel like shape and feel. Zane left early because Zuzka wasn't happy about us arriving at 11 when we said we would be there by 10 or 11, and she arrived at 10. I stayed with the crew and rocked out to the hip band until near closing, then we took a trolley and then a taxi home since the busses had stopped running. I got to Pedro's and passed out in his bed.
The march to Slovakia
I woke up at 6am, having little desire to move I laid in bed comfortably until 7:15, when I heard Oma's voice calling from down stairs, "Danny! It's 7:15!" I had told her I'd be awake at 7, to her that meant I'd be fully mobilized at 7 ready to go. She was very generous waiting the extra 15 minutes before calling up to me, usually it's within 15 seconds of the appointed time. Germans are so exacting.At any rate, I pulled myself out of bed and took a shower. I didn't really feel like one, but seeing as how were going to be sitting in one place on a bus for 10 or so hours its better to be clean than squirming in your own filth. After all this time in Germany I haven't once gone to the bakery for some pretzels, this will change today, and luckily so, because it saves our butts for the first leg of the journey. Dani comes to take us to the train station and we hug Oma and wish her well before leaving. The trains in Germany are well known for being on time, this morning was not one of those times. It was 10 minutes late, and even after 1 minute I could sense the general panic and searching, wondering gazes of my fellow Germans at the station. At 5 minutes passed the expected arrival of our train it seemed that the level of cigarette smoking had nearly tripled, and eyes were glued at the bend in the tracks, searching for the lights that would restore their faith in order and civilization. At 8 minutes passed cigarette smoke had replaced the fresh air completely and even I thought we'd miss the bus. luckily though, the lights turned the bend and we were shortly on board. Not long after that we found our bus bound for Vienna and got the best seats, those at the very front, with a panoramic view and no one to recline on us, which is a real pain for tall people like Zane and I. Zane was playing hungry shark evolution on his phone, he let me play, I broke his high score twice then he took back his phone and doubled my high score. Nothing like a little competition to get your game up! I Was getting really sleepy but resisted the urge, I really hate "sleeping" on buses. It's not really sleep, it's like being drugged. Drinking water really helped, luckily I got a big bottle of it at Karlsruhe station. Once we arrived in Munich we found a Kebab place in the station and ate there. Zane was contemplating McDonalds not 15 feet away over the Kebab place because he was afraid if getting sick, I talked him out of it, but he still ended up feeling sick after. Im still glad he chose the kebab, it was the better choice. I read Worldbridger for the majority of our trip from Munich to Vienna, saving the last chapter for later because I was tired, which was fine because the overhead reading lights were turned off soon after and we arrived in Vienna's main bus and train station at around 10:30pm. We couldn't find Zuzka anywhere for some time, she was supposed to meet us right where the bus dropped us off. Luckily Zane was able to pick up some wifi and contact her. She was lost somewhere in the city and would take time to get to us. We both had to pee, all the businesses were closed and the bathrooms at the station were locked, so we walked into the park adjacent the station and made use of the fine trees growing there. Zuzka finally found us and we sped off down the highway, away from the city of Vienna, which I've never visited except for this one time, and actually have no idea what its like in the day, or really in the night for that matter. But one day I will, maybe...As we headed for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, we passed a large farm of wind turbines. You could see their outlines in the night sky for miles. Each with large red flashing beacon lights perched above them, like flares pulsating in the night. It was a beautiful sight. Especially since we blazed up for the first time since Amsterdam and I was high as a kite. Listening to Zuzka and Zane talk in their special way, a love hate relationship incarnate, I zoned out and spun away with each turn of the many massive blades spinning endlessly beside us. For some time I slept, and awoke when the bright lights of Bratislava hit my face. Once in the city we got beers, cookies and rice milk then parked the car on the sidewalk because all the parking spaces were used up. I don't like to meet people for the first time while high, actually I prefer to be alone or with great friends, but Zuzkas mom was very friendly, open and excited to have us over. Despite my paranoiac state It was very chill. She had prepared rice and chicken for us to eat as well.I had some of the rice with sauerkraut but was happily surprised when she offered me musli and coconut milk as well, which apparently she had bought just for me. I even splurged a bit and used the coconut milk to dip the two chocolate chip cookies with that Zane gave me. Zane and I each had a Liter of Czech beer that was already at the house, everyone went to sleep and I easily fell away into a deep dreaming state on the couch.