"And if you look to your left, you will see the Slovak Mountains..."

This past weekend was the 4th and final excursion organized by the school. We went to the mountains of the Slovak Republic and stopped for a few random things along the way (of course!) Here's a little recap: *Trenčín Kost (Castle) -Not really much to write home about, mostly a bunch of cold rooms filled with paintings of dead, old people. (okay, so i'm being a little pessimistic, it wasn't so bad) In fact, it was a pretty fun adventure. But here's why. So, we're walking through all these rooms, following our tour guide (who is speaking only czech) and I had a pretty bad headache and had been coughing and sneezing all day, so while the rest of the group looked at more pictures, I sat on a stone bench in a little alcove by the window. There were a few other people sitting there, but we were all just kind of staring off into space. Well, little by little, the group begins to dwindle out and onto the next room. This australian girl Angela and I were the last two to leave. As I was about to stand up, I noticed Angela looked like she was about to cry, so I asked if everything was okay. She nodded at first, then slowly shook her head and began to cry. At this point, all thoughts of the rest of the group left my conscious. I waited for her to feel ready to talk, and when she did, she told me that her boyfriend from back home in Australia had died the night before in a skydiving accident (something like his 83rd jump). She then proceeded to tell me how lucky I was to be getting married. That's when I lost it too. We ended up crying together for a good 15 minutes or so, with Angela sharing her feelings every now and then as she was able. It was a pretty intense moment (and definitely ordained by God because up to this point, Angela and I had never been friends. In fact, we had never even really had a conversation before!) By the time we were able to compose ourselves and join the group, we realized they were nowhere to be found. We had about 4 different doors to choose from and found that all of them were LOCKED. We were trapped in this cold chamber at the top of this old castle. After a few minutes of laughing at our situation, we really started to worry because the next tour wouldn't be coming for another 2 hours and our bus was set to leave for the next place in an hour. We tried sending an SOS with the lights (though, it was the middle of the day so nobody noticed) and FINALLY found a spot where my cell phone could get service. We called my friend Stephanie who, after 2 dropped calls, was finally able to understand our situation and sent the guide looking for us. After probably 30 minutes (total) of being locked in the castle, the guide finally found us and we were free. Definitely one of my best memories so far. After the exciting castle experience, we went to our sweeeeeet accomodation chata Lúčky in the Demanovská dolina valley where we stayed in cottages again, only this time they were cleaner, bigger, and warmer! (we even had a little mini kitchen and eating area!) On Saturday, we started the day out with a "hike" through Fatra valley in the mountains. It really ended up being more of a stroll through some hills, but it was a beautiful day and the air was fresh, so it was fun! After that, we went on a "romantic (wooden) rafting [trip] through Strečno valley (plte) in the river Váh. Apparently, the river was used to transport wood from the forests to other places along the river for use in building houses and making paper and such. What they would do is tie the trees together, then float down them on the river. So our raft was supposed to be a sort of re-creation of this. I felt like Tom Sawyer on the Mississippi! It was fun though :) Sunday we visited the Demanovská caves where we basically gave ourselves a tour and the tour guide just pushed the button to start the enchanting music. It was neat.

Finally, we went to an old Slovak village that was flooded in the river but then dug out and recreated - Pribylina. It reminded me a lot of Cades Cove. A lot of people didn't like it and were pretty grumpy at this point, but I thought it was really cute and charming. But I kind of like old things like that. Maybe because I have a slight obsession with Christy and Laura Ingalls... Anyways, it was pleasant :)
I got bit by a goat :( I ALMOST FORGOT! On the way to the hostel on the first day, our guides surprised us with a trip to the EASTER EGG MUSEUM! We were pretty surprised. Mostly because none of us had ever heard of an easter egg museum. But apparently Slovakia is really famous for their easter eggs and sell them for an average of 1,000 euros an egg. Crazy.

I really loved the Slovak Mountains. They were beautiful. But I have to admit, I am pretty glad it was the last group excursion. It can be really tiring to travel in huge groups like we did because we spend the majority of the time waiting around for everyone. So I'm looking forward to smaller groups for traveling in the future :)


We were all pretty stumped by this sign. What do you think it means?