Part 3
There are certain pieces of technology that we just ask how we ever lived without it. Internet for me is one of those new technologies. But why can’t we just connect anywhere. I prefer internet even to the phone. You can write, read, listen, watch, send documents of all sorts, see each other, just so many things. Why am I thinking of that just at this moment? Well, I got something wrong with my marks for one of the classes and am waiting for Bridget to call me as to give her the missing mark. Not only will I have to give her the missing mark , but I have noted that I added a student to the list and will have to give her all the marks again as copy paste has caused a prob! Could I just log in to the net I would be able to send them to her again. Hotspots, Internet hotspots. I remember the hotspots when cell phones first came out. That was how you phoned. You had to get to a ‘hotspot’ or ‘rabbit point’ in the UK before you could make a call. I do hope that things like that will change for the net too. I suppose that 3G or whatever already exists. I know that Thierry is able to connect to the net with his iphone but on me, well not just at the moment, perhaps things will change.
What am I doing here? I’ve just stopped after a detour to get to Kutna Hora, was about to get my bike off the back and the heavens open!! I just hope the place is worth the visit.
And it was worth the visit. The town is quaint and obviously being refurbished for the tourist but the church and the walk up to it were stupendous. It is on the edge of a mountainside and the mountainside is a vineyard. Really beautiful.
Brno, I wondered why this looked familiar! Like most cities, the modern or not so modern rundown area and then the centre of the town which has been made into a pedestrian walkway. But you don’t have to go far out of the centre to see some lovely buildings in really bad repair.
Before visiting the town I went out to a village: Slavkov most of us know it under the Austrian name and is associated with 1805! No, not Trafalgar! It is where the two Emperors, Russian and Austrian stayed the night before the battle on the 5 December, I think, and where Napoleon stayed after the battle!!
I am now, waiting once again for the thunder storm to pass here in Olomouc. There seems to be good weather in the morning, when I am taking time for me, and then it rains in the afternoon. I am on my way to Oswiecim in Poland. It is quite a way so I think it will be tomorrow erhhhhhhh! Afternoon!
Things are going well. I had a few days when I had the blues but that seems to have passed. I need a few days somewhere, where, I can just rest up and take it easy. I am also thinking of not going quite so far and returning south west to Croatia to spend some time on the coast before going back to France and spending some time on the coast. But who knows what could happen?
Getting to Auschwitz was not easy. I mistoke the name on the map and merry went off in the wrong direction, some 60 kims!! I hate it when I do stupid things like that. So, when I finally arrived it was dark and I just couldn’t find a sign to the camps. I set Mio to take me into town where I was gong to sleep for the night but everything was paying so I decided to go back to Birkanau, where I spent the night on the car park in front of the camp. At first it felt very strange, laods of things went through my mind, not ghosts and that sort of thing but the fact that there had been up to 90,000 people in the camp. So this morning I was up and took 4 hours to go around Bikanau and then went 3kms to Auschwitz.
The camps are quite something. First of all the size of Birkenau, it is enormous. And to think there was a time when there were 90,000 people living and dying there. Much of the camp is no longer standing
It’s been a couple of days since I sat down to do some writing. A good thing perhaps, verbal diahorea! Today I am in Slovakia. I knew one of the countries in this area had changed over to the euro in January, now I know which one it was!
I don’t really understand how the whole thing works. There is something about 3% of GNP, anyway, an economist I am not but looking about I really do not understand how Slovakia has managed to get into the euro and the Czech republic not. Just coming over the boarder the place changes. Not quite Thailand to Cambodia, but there is a definite change. In my book they say that no country can wipe out the face of 41 years of communism and here I really feel that. Over there, there is a beautiful horizon of the mountains and just in the foreground some kind of horrible black factory! But the countryside is something. Quite French in a way, free, liberated to do as it likes not Swiss or German, everything in its place, everything mown, everything just like a film set.
I came through what must be one of the 5 main towns of the country, Zilina. A rather ugly looking place although I did just pass around. Then on to Cicamy a quaint little village tucked away in the mountains. Half the village is made up of traditionally built wooden houses painted with Slovakian designs. The other half is relatively modern. I would have liked to have spent the night, but couldn’t find anywhere to put the camper.
That is another thing. I have not found any water around! I might even have to go to a campsite again to get water!
The weather seems to have changed it is sunny and reasonably warm. I have decided to calm the driving and will stay in the area for a few days. There is a spa town not far away Bojinice (not pronounced anything like that!!) and I think I will stop there and have a swim and perhaps a massage.
Being alone is giving lots of time to read, to watch ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and of course to think. I am a person who loves people but people just don’t seem to love me. I realise that I have spent a lot of my life alone. At school, after Lynn left and even to some extent during my life with Thierry, some time was spent alone. Now, I am alone once again and see no end to this tunnel of being alone. Unlike some people I talk to and have convinced themselves that being alone is just great, I do not think that. I despise loneliness. Funny, we think with words but when it comes to trying to express my feelings and emotions I am left with writers blank.
Enough of that, it is depressing me. I have decided not to go all the way over to the Black Sea. At the moment I am aiming for the Croatian coast passing through Bratislava, Budapest, Zagreb, (not sure if that will be on the way south or north), Sarajevo, Mostar and then the coast. I need a little sun and sea. I don’t somehow think I will get any of the other!!
I wonder how Davey Wavey would cope with silence, not talking for days and days and days? For me this is one of the hardest parts of coming away alone, you never if rarely speak to anyone, share anything with anyone. That is one of the reasons people who are alone go into restaurants, so that they can at least speak to the waiter or waitress.
Today, at lunch, I ate out. Passing through a little town I saw a statue that I wanted to take a photo of, so pulled up a kilometre later on where I could park, and cycled back to take the photo. It was on my way back to the camper that I decided that I would have lunch. After all, part of being abroad is to mix with the locals, which of course I never do in the camper, and to try their food and drink. So I decided to splash out and to eat in a restaurant. The eating house I chose was really eye-catching as it was just covered in all sorts of household items from the past. Not just household items, farming forks and rakes and so on too. One of the waitresses could speak English, which was good as I do not understand anything at all. Even reading it, nothing! Anyway, I wanted something Slovakian so she showed me the dishes, there were three. She couldn’t describe them except that she did ask me if I wanted meat. I had read in the lonely planet that Slovakia is a nightmare place to come for a vegetarian, however, from my experience, that is not true. I ordered a Coke, the US variety, but the saw something on a menu that I had seen in the last Tesco supermarket I had done my shopping in, something called Kofola. So I tried some of that too. At first it was strange, either there is no sugar or there is very little. I bought some Slovakian lemonade at that was the same, not sweet sweet like we are used to in France. Having read about garlic soup and how it is a speciality, I asked for some soup, hoping it would be that. The waitress had said it was a vegetable soup, perhaps! But no, it was a sort of Knorr soup with noodles in. Odd eating soup on such a hot day. I think today must have been the hottest it has been since I have been away and the sun is still shining. The main dish was a sort of nochi, the Italian potato thing, with a sheep’s cheese and some really well done lardon in the middle. Before ordering the young waitress had asked me if I were sure I really wanted that as some foreigners found it not so good. I quite liked it, although it was really filling. Then came the time for the bill: two drinks, soup and a main course came to €4.63!! I couldn’t believe it as other things seem quite pricy (a litre of diesel is more than in France, at least when I left at €1,12). I asked if she had taken everything into account. I loved her answer ‘Slovakian prices!’
Ce matin j’ai visité le château de Bojnice, c’est vraiment un château tire d’un compte de fée! La visite a commence en slovaque mais après la moitié un groupe en anglais nous a rattrapé et j’ai rejoint ce groupe. Un château très intéressant et joli. Je suis même venu à Trencin, où je suis en ce moment, pour voir le château ici. Pas aussi spectaculaire! En plus j’ai lu que la plupart du château que l’on voit c’est une restauration des années 50! Mais j’ai pris on vélo et j’ai fait un tour de la ville et de la colline. Sur la colline j’ai retrouvé un monument aux Slovaques assassinés à la fin de la 2° guerre. Voyager fait apprendre les choses car je ne savais pas que la Slovakie était allié avec les Nazis pendant la guerre et que c’était surtout en 44 que les partisans ont été arrêté. Je ne dis pas plus car je ne veux pas faire des erreurs de faits.
There is a problem with my SIM since I got into the Czech republic for a reason that I do not understand I cannot call out from my phone. I can receive calls but the last call I had was a week ago. I suppose that it is when you are alone that you obsess about the fact that noone seems to give a shit for you as you get not calls, not sms nothing ! It is in times like this that I think how really alone I am. When you see people in families that I really do wish that I was straight and sometimes think that if I had to do it all over again, which I won’t, I think I would cheat. I don’t know a single gay couple which is completely happy, I am not sure that any couples are happy after the first few years ! Anyway, noone seems to think enough to give me a call and to let me know that they are thinking about me. Yes, I am in one of those moods, maybe its the vodka letting my real self out, the selfish self that I am.
Wednesday and in Bratislava. Arriving in a square just outside the Magistrates court there are loads of people with their laptops and iphones so I just presumed that there was an internet access but the mac doesn’t see anything. What have I done to the configuration ?
jeudi, juillet 16, 2009
Thought I’d start putting dates, at least for me if I ever reread this.
Donc, hier après midi j’ai passé 4 ou 5 heures à parcourir les rues de Bratislava. Cela m’a donné une vision différente de la dernière fois ou je suis entré à Bratislava avec Marie et Robert pour visiter la ville de ‘Bel Ami’ !
La veille ville est en rénovation. La plupart est très jolie et très chic. Vers les 17h30 il y avait les gens, plutôt les femmes, qui sont sorties bien habillées, soit avec des mecs soit en groupe de femmes, même j’ai vu trois mères avec trois poussettes et trois enfants. Drôle de spectacle. Mais il y a toujours les rues qui n’ont pas été rénovées et on voit ce qui Bratislava aurait dû se ressembler il y a 20 ans. Autour il y a des tours, des casernes comme dans toutes ville européenne. J’en ai vu pareil et pire en France. Bien sur je suis allé voir les deux pont célèbres et même du pont OVNI il y a une passerelle piétonne sous le pont. Drôle de sentiment en entendant la circulation au dessus. En ce moment il y a des concerts gratuits dans la rue mais malheureusement rien le jour de mon passage à Bratislava. J’ai vu le magnifique Opéra aussi bien que le palais de musique. J’ai lu que la salle de concert était un palais. J’aimerais bien passer un weekend à Bratislava aussi bien qu’à Prague. Je pense à l’hôtel on expérience mieux l’atmosphère de ces villes. Sorti après une bonne douche, au lieu d’être puant et transpirant d’une journée de visite. Je suis parti de la ville, car je ne voulais pas passer la nuit en ville, vers des lacs dans le Danube à Rusovce. J’ai trouvé son nom dans le Spartacus comme lieu de drague mais c’est tellement grand que je pense qu’il faut avoir le flair ou savoir. Moi j’ai vu plein de monde en train de faire du roller et du vélo que je me suis arrêté pour faire du vélo ! Je ne sais pas comment Hervé, tu fais tes 74 kms dans un après midi, moi hier soir j’en ai fait une dizaine maxi et j’étais épuisé ! Je suis en train de me demander si je vais en faire ce matin mais il y a du vent et je sais que mon retour sera contre le vent. (Il y a des, oh c’est quoi ? Les trucs que l’on voit dans les aéroports pour montrer la direction et la force du vent. Même en anglais je n’arrive pas trouver le mot. ). Donc je ne suis pas certain que je veux faire du vélo dans ces conditions mais j’aimerais voir ce qu’il y a dans la direction opposée de celle que j’ai pris hier soir. Une route a été condamné et il y a aussi une iste de roller qui a été construit. Si on aime les filles il y en a plein et hyper joli en train de faire du roller. Les mecs en font aussi mais la plupart des mecs c’est du vélo qu’ils font.
Hier soir il a plu donc il fait beaucoup moins lourd qu’hier. Je pense qu’il doit avoir un lieu de drague ici car il y a un mec qui vient d’arriver dans une porsche et il s’est dépoiler et à mis un short sans slip !!! Bon, peut être je ferais du vélo après tout !!!!
