Travel Tips

Slovakia wont win any personality awards any time soon I felt. Passing through the villages curious looks turned to hard, cold stares. Enquiries into directions were met with curt, off-hand responses. I was finding it hard to like the place.

We travelled midway down the baking country to a lake with a large campsite – which was closed. Our efforts to find a spot to wild camp were thwarted by numerous tiny holiday homes and our desperation for a shower.

The only option was to double back the way we had come for an hour.

Another campsite and we were told by the woman in charge it was a private campsite and we must leave. But to where? Back to the nearest campsite north, in the Czech Republic, the one we had left that morning.

It was now dark as we stood with our bikes in a field. I stared at her in disbelief. A flash of lightening cut the night sky and ten thousand gallons of water fell onto our heads. My lower lip began to wobble. With a huge sigh she agreed we could stay one night. And after all was said and done, they didn’t even have a shower.

We made Bratislava and a jolly ‘eurocamp’. I became quite optimistic when Juliet said she had seen a poster advertising a live band playing that night on site. I was in the mood for a bit of rockin’.

The band at the main bar had the crowds going by the time we arrived. Their rendition of Tom Jones ‘Sex Bomb’ had them dancing in the isles. And when they did YWCA the crowd went absolutely wild!

That’s Europe for you.

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