Slovak 2007

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Friday evening after drinking beer at the pub, Jeff stepped into a sewer drain that didn't have a grate on it. (It was noted to us that throughout Kosice this is common due to the gypsies stealing them for scrap metal). Saturday morning he couldn't walk. After contacting Stefan who thought it was best to have it looked at, Jan and Stefan took us to the hospital in Kosice. Everything turned out OK, just a bad bruise. After a couple hours and some medication from the lekaren (pharmacy), he was good enough to climb up to the Slanec Castle ruins.

The amazing part of this experience is that at the hospital, he was seen right away, x-rays given and we were in and out in no time. I was expecting a bill for at least $500 - $600 being that we had to pay out-of-pocket on the spot. However, the emergency room visit and the x-rays cost 250 SK (Slovak Crowns), the equivalent of about $10 US. Seems the day didn't start off too bad after all. :-)

We then went to the village of Slanec which is a mile or so north of Novy Salas to climb to the ruins of Slanec Castle which was built in 1270. With us was Jan, Misko, Marcel, Ludmila and little Lud'ka. We drove up about half way and parked our cars next to a little pond and started our trek up to the ruins. The view from the top was magnificent. In the one picture below you can see the villages of Novy Salas and Slanska Huta. The top of the mountains in the picture below, Jan told us that it was the Hungarian border.

In Novy Salas, Jan's father opened the church for us to view. Although I saw the church in 2005, it was still wonderful experience for me again this year. We visited the cemetery and was interesting to see the condition of the grave that I saw being dug during my visit in 2005 is much different than here in the US. Afterwards we visited Jan's grandmother and his uncle who is moving into a new house in the back of the property, and again, many "na zdravie" !







				2005				2007

We finished the evening visiting with Peter, Iveta, Bianka and Mirko in Kosice. Again...a LOT of Na zdravie's