Slovakian border to Kosice May 10

By Eric

We had more trouble entering Slovakia from Hungary than we've had at any border crossing on this trip. The border guard was a big guy with a mustache, earth-tone uniform and face that managed to be round and stern at once.

He didn't like our passports at all. He didn't like them even before he opened them. At the U.S. embassy in Singapore we had had pages added so we wouldn't run out of room for stamps. If you looked at the binding of the passports you could clearly see where these extra pages had been added. On the first page of the supplement, the embassy had stamped in an explanation of the supplement and added a very official looking seal. I guess the guard had never seen this before. He thought the passports had been tampered with. And he didn't speak English, so he couldn't read the Singapore embassy's seal.

He told us to wait and he took the passports into the building. A while later a younger, friendlier looking guard who spoke English came out. He had apparently explained the supplement to the guard. But I suppose to save face, the guard demanded to see how much money we were carrying so we could prove that we could support ourselves in his country. We showed him some traveler's checks and he let us go.

Most countries officially require that tourists arrive with a certain amount of money (usually US$500-1000, but sometimes just a valid credit card is enough) but hardly anyone ever astually asks to see it. Lucky for us. We often cross borders with almost no cash at all because it is cheap and easy in Europe to get money at bank machines while it's very costly to exchange currency. However, our ATM bank cards had expired so we just happened to have bought a lot of US$ traveler's checks in Budapest. The guard saw these and let us through.
 

Before we left, the younger guard asked us where we had ridden. We told him where in Europe we had been. Then the big guard said, "Clinton...Kosovo...bang, bang, bang!" We thought he was saying Clinton was in Kosovo! We hadn't read any news for days. But he just looked disgusted and waved us on.

We had heard the Slovakians were a little madder about the war in Yugoslavia than the Hungarians because they have closer ethnic ties to the Serbs. It seemed true right there at the border.

After the border we tried to exchange our last 10,000 forints (US$42) for Slovakian koruna. They had a little bank-on-wheels trailer setting just past the checkpoint. But there was no one inside. Joan just wanted to get going but I insisted that we change some money. I went back and asked the guard. He said, "moment," then ran inside the main building to get someone. But after 10 minutes no one showed up. We were getting very antsy to get out of there before they changed their minds about us and our American passports so we just left, figuring we could change money in the next town.

That was a mistake. We went through many small towns and asked at post offices and shops, with the help of the phrase book, and everyone referred us to one of the two big towns, still 50 km away.

In many of the small towns we passed appealing looking little cafes and restaurants but we couldn't buy anything. It was very very frustrating. One restaurant was very nice and filled our water bottles for us.

In one of the first small towns we went to we met a young woman who spoke a fair amount of English--unusual in that part of Slovakia. She asked where we were from and when we told her she almost didn't believe us. She seemed completely taken aback that we came from American. We thought maybe she too was angry about the war so we asked her, "America good or America bad?" She gave us the thumbs up and said, "Good! America is very good!" That was a relief.

There might have been a USA connection in the town. We passed a woman wearing a new looking T-shirt in black and gold with a picture of a baseball player on it and the words. "Pirate Fever...Catch It!" That was a slogan for the Pittsburgh Pirates from about 10 years ago.

The weather all day was beautiful, a rarity in May in eastern Europe, at least it seemed to us a rarity.

The hills, on the other hand, were probably the steepest we've had since New Zealand. At two places the road appeared from a distance to just go straight up like an F-14 taking off. The road engineers didn't want to use turns to make the grade easier. We stopped at the base of one of these hills and made lunch. We were low on water so I took some out of a stream to boil it. I had to walk through some nettles to get to the stream and for 15 minutes afterward my legs stung.

We arrived at the town of Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia, around five p.m. We had this absurd fear that all the money changers would be closed at five so we had rushed the last 25 km or so. Of course the town has places to change money everywhere open 24 hours a day so our effort was unnecessary.

Entering town we passed lots and lots of steel factors and other heavy industry. There were huge railyards and a lot of grit. It wasn't particularly scenic but I can't hold a town's industry against it. It looked like the factories were all operating. Like Grandma used to say about Pittsburgh, if there's soot on the porch, "at least the men are working."

We reached the center of town without much difficulty and immediately found a money changer. Then we discovered one of the prettiest city centers we've ever visited. City planners from all over the world should came and see how this place is laid out.

The main street is strictly for pedestrians for about one mile and it is a very wide street. In the middle it divides like a river going around an island. On the island is a beautiful cathedral, a few other buildings, and a couple very comfortable parks full of flowers and even a musical fountain.

The wide street was divided into a pedestrian zone, a bicycle zone, a cafe zone, and railroad tracks (though I never saw a train). It was all nicely paved in brick except the asphalt bike lane (very sensible). The buildings and store fronts were all different colors and architectures but appealing. It was just the most pleasant town in Europe to walk around, an Europe has a lot of great walking towns.

Next: Slovakia Chapter 2 - Four French Women on Bicycles

Slovakia Main Page World Trip