.to Nitra and beyond...

.this day was not an easy one. I'm really tired, while writing this done. Yet it was completely worth the pain ;).

I needed to get the car from Kosice to Prague (as it'll be needed for some planned trips to Krkonose and Germany). We had a deal with two other people that they'd keep me company but at last I was about to drive alone (it's 750km so someone to keep you awake is a big help...). So what...

It takes approximately 7,5 hours to get to the destination. So I took off at 7 AM and got to Prague at half past 10 PM. Kind of not making any sense to you :)? It has a pretty straightforward explanation. I did a short stop at Surany and Nitra to meet with my very, very special friend Lubica. The weather was not very friendly, it was cloudy, very windy and cool all the time. Nevertheless we have spent a wonderful time together and have had a lot of fun (as always) :)...
Nitra is a nice historical town. As I was running on a bit tight schedule, we have seen only the most important sights (Kalvaria, Castle, historical town and hill Zobor with its beautiful views on the whole town).
Sadly, after 7 hours of fooling around and one farewell cappuccino I had to go. Prague was awaiting me and it was still 350kms to go. On the other hand it was a beautiful time spent behind the wheel, as I was driving towards the setting sun :). Really nice!

Wow, what a day this was :)!

.danube beauty

.there were huge plans for this weekend. I visited Vienna, where I was supposed to meet with my classmate from the times long forgotten (91-94 in Kiev!). We've not seen each other for 14 years but this blog enabled him to find a contact on me. So I guess blogs are good for something ;).
Jurij is currently on internship in the UN centre and therefore we went for an interesting dinner with many more students the first night. Restaurant chosen was specializing on grilled ribs and everybody tasted it. I have to admit, it was not bad at all :). Evening was nice, with all the new faces, I've never seen before and probably won't see again... Once again I was forced to use foreign languages for a couple of days (English, Russian and a bit of German), so it was an inspiring training session ;).
Saturday was set to be warm and sunny. Thus we decided to do some sightseeing (as I knew only a little about Vienna from my previous visits). Luckily the public transport is quite comfortable, you can get whenever you want fast enough... Plan of the day consisted of visiting Schonbrunn, Belvedere, Stephansdom, Votivkirche, Hofburg, Rathaus, Museum Quartier and many more. I'm quite proud to announce that we did it :). It took a lot of energy and one sunburn, but everything was covered. We were accompanied by a beautiful girl Natasha, so the whole day was brighter ;). Because this trip was so short, we decided to see also some nature and leisure zone of the capital and walked along the Donau Insel, where many bars are, people are sunbathing, roller-skating, biking or just chatting and relaxing.
On Sunday I was leaving at midday so not much was possible to visit any more. Yet I've taken some photos of the famous Hundertwasserhaus (really not an ordinary block of flats) and the river Danube. From what I've seen, Vienna is a really nice place to live, with plenty of exciting places to visit, enough possibilities to relax and spend some time with friends. Maybe I'll visit this town soon again :)...

Some more photos can be found here.

.her majesty, Paris

.it's very hard to find appropriate words to describe Paris (12 millions inhabitants, metropolitan area)... I think that the best would be "wow" :). This city is really beautiful, a must see for every tourist interested in architectural sightseeing. There was a possibility to visit Paris by bus (one day trip) directly from Saarbrucken and we took it. So this is our little story...
The weather forecast was quite sad, rainy and cloudy with low temperatures :(. At the beginning of our trip it looked precisely like this. Bus was leaving at 5 AM (return was planned for 12 PM). The distance towards Paris (375 km) was covered with only one remarkable incident (driving few meters with baggage door open ;) ). A few kilometres before entering the city rain suddenly stopped. We arrived at the central part of Paris (2 millions) around 10 o'clock. Some free time sightseeing was scheduled for afternoon and so first we took some photos during bus drive around the most interesting sights (Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Eiffel tower, Notre Dame de Paris...) . After some stops and obligatory photo shoots :) there came a new attraction: boat trip on Seine, to show us all the most important from a bit different perspective...
Suddenly the clouds started to tear and we have seen the sun ;). With such improvement in the weather situation the boat trip was an absolute must. It was superb, we cruised along the sooo long Louvre, under the nice bridges, around the oldest part of Paris (Ile de la Cite, island first inhabited by the tribe of Parisiens, thus the name of Paris is quite well explained :)... Now we can see here for example the famous cathedral of Notre Dame, built in 12th century), etc. It was an interesting sail, with plenty of photo taking opportunities.
And finally came the time to walk through the heart of the town on our own. We were free to go, just after parking the bus under the Louvre. I've recharged my energy with tasty and fresh baguette. We sat for a while in the gardens near the Louvre, watching pigeons and seagulls fighting for bread crumbs and bathing in the winterly warm sun :). Then I've met some Senegal guy, who was really persistent to make me a bracelet of luck, "hakuna matata, man ;)!". So, why not, maybe it'll work :)... Then we walked through Louvre courtyards (visiting this great museum requires more than a day and we had only a few hours, so we decided not to enter). Even this way is the building awesome with it's monstrous 1,8km length. Along the river Seine banks, many artists were selling their pictures, which reminded me of the wide spread romantic notion about Paris. The next stop was the Notre Dame, it's nice and crowded with tourists (who, as always, absolutely ignore the signs forbidding using flash when taking photos, are noisy, etc.). Unfortunately we didn't find the way to get upstairs, on the roof and to see Paris from the hunchback's perspective :(. It was getting late and so we had to move on. Another stroll through the streets full of perfect mixture of people from all around the globe. Yeah, Paris is multicultural. Final glance at the fine Opera, then river Seine covered with setting darkness, which uncovered the night beauty of this pearl of a city. After that only the return trip was on schedule...
I hope I will have an opportunity to visit Paris once more in the future, there is so much not uncovered left... So, maybe next time ;)!

Some of the better photos are available here, to give you a taste of this place ;)...

.peaceful Karlsruhe

.morning welcomed us with shiny and warm sun peaking from behind the hills. Finally some nice and smiling day! Today we chose to discover beauties of the town called Karlsruhe. And it was really different than previous sightseeing journeys...
First of all, there is no direct highway connecting Saarbrucken and Karlsruhe (in Germany you have speedways absolutely everywhere, so it's highly untypical to use other roads for long trips). The drive was much more interesting this way, leading it's way through woods and mountains with charming views on natural sceneries. It's a balsam for a driver bored with unending hours of highways, where the only thing changing is the level of traffic...
Then we entered the city, with its castle built on the verge of a huge forest park. Sun high above our heads, spreading life giving warmth... Walk under the mighty trees, through glades, enjoying wild ducks and geese, it all recharged my energy. If you want to relax a bit in a town without millions of tourists, yet beautiful, this is the right place! I guess the name is right (ruhe means peace, rest in German) ;).

Would you like some more photos?

.jewel of Nancy

.i'm not sure what name would be the most suitable for Nancy... Jewel of Lorraine (province in France), golden city, or something else? French dominance here during the 18th century is so visible. The main square (Place de Stanislas) is huge, full of beautiful golden details, lamps, fountains... All you need is to let this amazing sight overwhelm your senses. Polish king Stanislas, duke of Lorraine really knew how to surround himself with artistic masterpieces and luxury. This place is a rival to the famous Paris sights.
But Nancy is not only about 18th century architecture, many Art Nouveau buildings are spread around the city, as well as sights from medieval times. Unfortunately the main cathedral is undergoing a huge reconstruction and so it's closed for public...
Our group was smaller this time, only 3 people (Sasa, me, Igi). The weather was really unpleasant, but it was definitely worth the risk. After cruising around the town centre we took a break and drank a coffee in a really tiny café. It was nice and refreshing and that's true about this whole trip :).

As always, some additional photos can be found here.

.medieval (modern) Strasbourg

.our travel diary was expanded even further. Today we visited important (historically and also now) city of Strasbourg. It's famous for its 142m high cathedral (the highest building in Europe for a long time), beautiful centre, called Petite France (UNESCO heritage). From the modern history, town hosts many important structures of the EU (European Parliament, Council of Europe, etc...). Even though it's not a big city (272,800 citizens, metropolitan area 612,104), it's definitely among the prettiest ones.
This time 5 people took part in the expedition into the French territory. Surprisingly, finding a parking place was not a problem and so we started the sightseeing before the lunch time. Exploration is not an easy thing and so after strolling around some parts of the city the hunger drew all our attention and we're forced to stop at one small restaurant and taste some local specialty (Tartes flambee). After recharging the energy we finished what was left of old quarter of town.
Being here, it was an absolute must to go to see European parliament and take some photos. There we met a neat French security guy, who was not able to speak a word in other than French, yet we had some nice conversation about Slovak and Czech deputies in the parliament. So now we now that Monika Benova-Flasikova is bella bellisima ;)...

More photos available here.

.ancient Trier and lux(ury)

.today we've finally found enough courage to face the oldest town around here. It's Trier, founded at Roman times (16 AD). This city was really important in ancient times (had 80,000 inhabitants already in 300AD!). Favoured by emperors of Roman empire, many ancient sights are still spread around the town (amphitheater, imperial baths, Ponta Nigra, etc.). The interesting mix of ancient and medieval is apparent everywhere. If you have a chance of stopping by, I really recommend you this place!
We had a really nice time (apart from the bad, cold, rainy weather following our every step...). We did a nice walk around the old town, took many photos. If you want to know more about Trier, check this site.
But it was not all, what was planned for this day. Next stop was Luxembourg (really close, only some 40km). We've already seen this attractive town, yet our friends have not so it was a must see for them ;). This time finding a parking place was absolutely no problem. Because we knew the city, we've led some shortened version of sightseeing around the centre (weather was getting worse and worse). Hopefully it was enough to get a feeling, what is Luxembourg like. It's definitely better to visit such places in summer or spring, but we cannot decide about that...

More photos available here.


And I have almost forgotten, this morning the whole Saarbrucken was covered in snow!!! It was beautiful. It's a shame it didn't last though, rain has ruined all the beauty :(.

.arrival to Mannheim

.today was a big day. Guests arrived! To be more precise, my little sister Sasa and our friend Dano :). There are no direct bus lines to Saarbrucken so they were picked up at Mannheim. This was also a possibility to walk around another city. Due to the big traffic problems because of snow in the Czech Republic and also partially in Germany (only partially, Stuttgart and all the south east Germany are fighting with snow, yet here in Saarbrucken we haven't seen any so far this winter) the bus arrival had a big delay (3 hours). We've almost frozen during our wait on the parking place with Igi (temperatures are below zero after a long time)...

Anyway, after all the waiting we were ready to start our crusade into the old city centre ;). Mannheim is a very old (766 AD) and relatively small town (307,640 inhabitants). Main district consists of strictly regularly shaped streets and of a few sights (very few, to be honest). Worth of mentioning are Wasserturm (water tower, on the pic) and big 18th century palace (now a university)... So all the tourist stuff can be done in about an hour or so :).


So now I have my sister here (at least for a week) and that means a lot of traveling and other interesting stuff is going to happen, so stay tuned ;)!

.exodus, part II

.after a few days in Prague came a time for the final part of journey home (669km, Prague - Kosice with short intermission in Kezmarok). The time of departure was set to midday. Weather was not very pleasing but this is the thing we cannot influence... So far the car was not showing any new mechanical problems. But this was to change ;). We (me and Igor) were leaving the city in a small drizzle, temperatures slightly above zero, yet happy for being every minute closer and closer to our homes...
First problems (luckily also the only ones) appeared only after few kilometers on a highway. Eventhough the anti-freeze tank is full, the liquid was not sprayed on the windscreen (something has probably blocked the hose :( ), thus lowering the quality of work of wipers... Roads were dirty and wet and so wipers were used a lot. With this handicap I had to stop few times just to wipe the windscreen clean (it's even more distracting in the night with all the light from the cars driving in opposite direction). This made whole journey a lot more entertaining, we were luckily not involved in any accidents (while this was a really bad day on Slovak roads, 7 deaths, we passed along the worst accident, it wasn't a nice look :(... ).
This time I tried the north way across Slovakia (because of the needed stop in Kezmarok, Igor's destination). I have to say, it's much worse than south way. Lots of roadworks, traffic, etc. Last part was quite enjoyable (Poprad - Kosice, 115km), but that's mainly because I knew it and Kosice were really near ;). So finally I'm home!

I have to admit that this road trip had also it's beauties. There was an inversion in border region and frozen mist created amazing pictures in the landscape (this is the reason for the photo ;) )...

.exodus, part I

.thus, the judgement day finally came. Trip back home was planned for today (at least it's first part, Saarbrucken - Prague, 670km). After some boring lectures and quite enjoyable lunch at mensa we boarded Clio and left campus.

Luckily, the weather is still very unusual and pleasant, roads were dry and relatively empty. I have to confess, I've feared a bit that some unexpected mechanical car problems will appear... But nothing like this happened and at 2100 CET we arrived into well known Prague :).

The only things worth to mention were many kilometres of roadworks in Germany (and incapability of German drivers to drive fast through narrowed road sections), quite amusing affection of Czech truck drivers to by-pass slower trucks with the same or lower speed (so the highway is blocked and slowed for 5 minutes...) and 'funny' customs officer on German-Czech borders. Our appearance was probably quite suspicious because we had to stop the engine, get out of the car, show every gadget from our pockets, etc. He was looking for drugs and other stuff... This is the first time something like this happened to me.

Nevertheless, Prague, be aware that we're back! :)

.car (adrenaline) adventure

.this couldn't have come at a worse time... On Sunday evening my car broke down. Suddenly the petrol started to leak from some hidden hole in the fuel system. I've noticed it by quick dropping of the fuel indicator and by a strong petrol smell inside the car (air-condition was turned on). I had to park in one village close to the campus. One glance below the car showed, that it had been worse than I'd ever imagine (petrol was trickling really quickly from the front part of the vehicle). Of course on Sunday no service shop was open. We are planning to drive back to Prague on Thursday afternoon, so the timing was really worse than bad :(...
Adventure continued on Monday, I've found Renault service close to my parking place, yet the question was how to get there (no fuel left meant I needed to find someone with car to pull me there). After some tries finally one friend (Honza, big thanks for helping me!) had answered my call and promised to come as quickly as possible. He was there some time after midday. Bad luck was still not loosing it's grip on me, i've discovered, that the pulling rope was left back home in Kosice :(. And so a small ride around city was needed to find a place where they were not only selling such things, but actually also had one to sell... After some time we were lucky and have bought the rope. Not that we had big experience with pulling vehicles and so the drive was not as smooth as it could have been ;). Nevertheless it was successful! Anyway, it had to be a funny sight: Czech car with cracked windscreen and missing wiper was in quite extensive rain pulling Slovak car without petrol :). Mission was accomplished, the car was in professional care and the problem was quickly discovered (crack in the fuel system tubing). As the flawed part was not on stock, it was due to arrive today...
Finally my short story is over, it has a happy end (a little bit sour, because prices for repairment work are so high in this country - spare part 50€, work 80€...). So far is Clio working without problems, testing drive was successful. Hopefully no other problems will occur and we'll be able to spend Christmas back home...

P.S.: the car photo is only illustrative ;)

.meet Metz

.another intrusion into French territory was successful! Today's destination was a small but historically important town of Metz (123,776 inhabitants, founded in Celtic times). Situated not far away from Saarbrucken (78km), it is an ideal place to go after lunch ;). And so after some tasty pasta mixed with Monty Python show off we went. Fortunately, the weather was quite good and warm for this time of the year. Dry roads, blue sky and shining sun accompanied us on the way.

The city welcomed us with huge crowds of people, quite in contrast with what we have seen here in Saarbrucken (and Metz are even smaller...). Probably every living person able to walk was there :). Thousands of people shared narrow old town streets with buses and cars (lack of accidents was really surprising, everything was moving in some harmony). City is nice, cathedrals, old fortification and unstoppable all around buzz. We took some photos, walked around major sights and satisfied with the trip returned without hesitation back to our temporary home in the capital of Saarland.

More photos available here.

.night drive

.this is a very quiet and boring week (as opposed to the last one), practically nothing to do. Out of this boredom we decided to do some night "need for speed like" race Saarbrucken - Luxembourg - Saarbrucken. Everything was exactly like in the game: high traffic, wet roads, some road works, except that I couldn't choose a car :(, not even tune it a bit ;)...

And now a little bit more serious version for this announcement. I was asked by a friend to drive his girlfriend (she was visiting him here in Saarbrucken) to Luxembourg, because there she could catch a direct bus to Prague. I had nothing to do, so i agreed. Another 200km done successfully :). So far I've driven 3400km! this semester (it's very close to the whole amount of not Saarbrucken kilometers).
And of course being there we didn't hesitate and tanked as much gas as possible (it's cheapest in Duchy of Luxembourg)...

.beer + chocolate = belgium

.after 3 days and more than 900km is our trip to Belgium over. We're back in Saarbrucken, tired but full of new exciting experience ;). But let me start from the absolute beginning.

It all started many weeks ago, when we decided to pay a visit to our friend, co-student from Prague, who is now studying (Erasmus of course) in Hasselt, Belgium. He invited us to come to see him as well as this interesting and very expensive european country (petrol costs 1.272 euro/liter, for example in Luxembourg you can get the same for 1.005 - that is what I call a big difference...). The final date agreed upon was this weekend.
With the hope of relatively good weather and packed with good mood we arrived to Hasselt. After the meeting with Michal and hearing some of his bizarre recollections of previous night (some nice party ended with him beaten and his bicycle hanged on the traffic sign somewhere in the city ;) ) we went to local Carrefour to shop for needed supplies (you know, the liquid and other stuff...). First thing you'll notice in the grocery shop in Belgium is HUGE number of brands and types of beer. The second sight will uncover some never seen before amounts of alcohol in belgian beer (ranging from 8 to 12%!!!, in Slovakia the normal beer has 4%). So we tasted a few pints and talked about life, etc. :)
After seeing the really nasty and bad weather on Saturday morning we decided to leave our plans of visiting Amsterdam unfulfilled and visit Antwerpen instead. This was a superb decision. Not only is this city much closer but the rain stopped after leaving Hasselt and even some sun broke through the clouds. Finding a parking place relatively easily we started our exploration of the old merchant town and harbour. City (800,000 inhabitants) of long maritime and merchant history, typical architecture (like the guild houses on the picture), tradition of diamond processing and the biggest jewish community in Europe has a lot to offer for tourists. Plenty of sightseeing beauties as well as hundreds of nice little pubs and luxurious restaurants. Everyone can spend here a nice day or two... We had a relatively good weather with periods of sun and clouds accompanied by cold wind (but you can't expect better at this time of the year, can you?). After a long and exhausting tour around the city's centre we relaxed for a while in the oldest pub they have here :). Some homemade beer was drank and with this we returned back to our home for a weekend in Hasselt.
For Sunday we planned trip to a Bruxelles, the heart of European Union because we as good Europeans wanted to see where our taxes are going to ;). Again it rained in eastern Belgium, but the capital was lit with sun (good for us). Bruxelles is quite a big city (1,019,000), with absolutely confusing traffic sign system (we're unable to find our way back from the centre for some time...). Until today I thought the worst traffic signs are in Hungary (no offense meant) but this is my new favourite :). Maybe starting our tourist route directly on the central square was not such a good idea. After seeing those beauties the remaining parts (except for grandious cathedral, on the pic) were not very inviting nor interesting. Lots of churches in desolate conditions, many gay bars, some modern banks... Of course we didn't see everything, our time was running out quickly, but from what I've seen, it's not at all as beautiful as it's neighbour Antwerpen. Yes, there is one more thing worth of mentioning, we've found here cheaper famous belgian chocolate ;) (500g are awaiting it's chance to prove it's quality on my shelf right now).
And that's probably it. I'm pretty tired (after many hours of driving) as I'm writing this. But hopefully it was worth the pain and you've enjoyed my little story... Good bye Belgium!

In case you want to see some more photos, visit this link.

.sarreguemines

.we've been to France!
Yeah, not for a long time, not too far from the university, but what counts is another foreign land ;). It took a long and hard brainstorming, but at the end the great idea to use today's nice sunny weather and expand our knowledge of european countries came to our minds. Only a few minutes after this superb decision we we're heading towards the border in the special tramway 1. In some 20 minutes we're finally there. The new world showed it's secrets...
On the other hand, it was not so different than Saarbrucken. For example, the problem with shops. Yeah, you're right, they are closed also here on Sunday. Absolutely ridiculous in eastern Europe, but absolutely normal here. So are dreams about buying some super delicious french cheese and wine stayed the way they were, only a dreams :(. Maybe next time.
Anyway, architecture is nice, town is quite and peaceful. And sun was really beautiful, optimistic :).

And of course some more photos.

.luxembourg

.finally we did some longer journey and left this country for almost 10 hours :)
Our destination was small, yet famous and prosperous, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It's capital, Luxembourg city (76,420) is only 82km from Saarbrucken, so after only an hour of fast speedway drive we've entered the old parts of the town. And after another 30 minutes we've successfully found some parking place (the chaos of traffic signs was huge...). So, close to midday, after eating some 1euro cheeseburger (and ending the threat of dying from hunger ;) ) we began an ascend into the center of the city (it's on a hill, bind with the other parts by numerous bridges). Around it lies ravine with beautiful natural parks, favorite place of relax for the inhabitants of the capital. After some time, the weather decided to be nice to us and the sun shined for the rest of the day. We spent some 4 hours among the old walls and superb views, traversing almost every street. It was worth it, definitely. As a result we have nice photos and exquisite memories. What we found as very unexpected, was an absolute absence of tourists in the streets and that the all shops were close (it's the same in Germany on Sunday?!).
But our day was not over yet, another stop was a small provincial town of Echternach (some 30km NE from capital, 4,507 inhabitants). Small in size, but not in turmoil. Exactly this day the apple festival was taking place here. Thousands of people everywhere, all shops open, it was like awakening from the capital's illusion :). As always we did some sightseeing, took some photos and tasted the fresh apple juice (soooo refreshing in the hot day like this :) ).
And then it was the time to go back, we took the shortest road along the vineyards (that was a beautiful sight ;) ). That's it for today, folks.

More photos available here.

.saarbrucken, city

.today we went on a small exploration journey Campus -> Saarbrucken (to explain, the city lies some 3km from the campus, which is surrounded by forest). Nature is gorgeous here, all the smells and views of coming autumn, wow. And this forest park is great for all the kinds of outdoor sport activities (running, mountain bike, etc.). After some troubles with finding our direction and few annoyed looks (saying "why does I have to walk there?") we entered suburbs of the capital of Saarland. Cute little houses, lots of green areas... I like it :).

Saarbrucken is not a big city (population of 179,000), yet it has it's beauties. It was an important capital of the frontier region between France and Germany. City center is nice and french influence is visible on every corner. Picturesque narrow streets mixed with grandiose sights over city's cathedrals. Many cafes and restaurants give you an opportunity to relax a while. Not to mention the shops with handmade chocolate and pralines (Belgium is definitely not far away ;) ). And of course as in each important historical city, also here you can find a castle, watching over the city from the other side of a river Saar (which a natural border between Germany and France for many kilometers).

Saarbrucken's public transport is not as cool as that in Prague but it still has one unique characteristic. It's the only place (from my experience), where you can find lines ending in another country :) - for example tramway (called Saarbahn), which terminates in french city of Sarreguemines (we are planning a trip there). Or you can go by bus 11 to Forbach, also on french territory...

More photos from Saarbrucken, university and surroundings available here.