Slovakia - Zilina/Trencin (18-19 Feb)

Sunday morning I arose at the (ironically) ungodly hour of 6 AM in order to leave the hostel and catch my train out of Poland. This involved, for reasons unfathomable to me, a change in the Svinov suburb of the Czech city Ostrava. I got there at 11 in the morning, and took an hour's strolly before deciding there really was nothing there, and relocating back to the incongruously modern train station for a couple of hours. Not ideal, but travelling has it's ups and downs, I guess! Anyway, my trains all ran smoothly, and I arrived in Zilina mid-afternoon in gorgeous weather. On the train from Ostrava I'd been impressed by the spectacular Slovakian scenery - all mountains, forests and lakes - and there was plenty of this overlooking Zilina, so i took a few decent pictures of it all. I had a feeling I was going to like Slovakia!

As there are no hostels in Zilina, I'd got myself a hotel for the night, and after my busy weekend in Krakow, the rest was certainly welcome. Zilina's a small but very pleasant town, and most of my exploring was done on the way to the hotel, giving me plenty of time to kick back, save for going out for something to eat. I did this at a lovely little guesthouse, where my German came very much in handy, as they spoke not a word of English! This seems to be a common theme in many places in Slovakia, and they even have German TV in the hotel rooms! All very useful for my next semester, I'm sure :)

The next morning I awoke early as usual, to try and fit in a stop in another town, Trencin, on my way to Bratislava. Even smaller than Zilina, Trencin was nontheless very pleasant in some places, though not in others, and it only took me a couple of hours to "do" the place (save for climbing the hill to the castle - these things all start to look a little insignificant once you've seen Malbork!) however, in this time, I did notice a disproportional amount of both wedding shops and strip clubs in relation to the size of the place. how odd!