The time has come yet again to hop across “The Pond” to my native Slovakia for a bit of rest and recreation. After a year ‘s hiatus, I am joined again by Andi and for 10 days also by Francis and Lisa who will be taking a train from Switzerland to join us in Slovakia on the 27th of June. We have been here for a week now so I am using the first day of bad weather to update this thing.
On June 12th we took the train from Ronkonkoma to Jamaica and arrived at JFK’s Terminal 4 with several hours to spare. For the first time, we were flying Aer Lingus through Dublin (DUB) into Krakow (KRK), Poland. Granted, Krakow is fairly low on my list of places to fly into, but the tickets were dirt cheap. My perennial favorite Lufthansa no longer flies to Bratislava (although I was assured 2 years ago that the line to BTS will never be canceled) and the tickets to Vienna (VIE) were outrageously expensive.
Aer Lingus A330-300 (EI-DUZ) at the JFK Airport.
So we are at JFK, killing time when Andrea went to the bathroom and her seat was left open. I am on the phone with Francis when a woman comes by and sits down in Andi’s seat without asking. I politely tell her, that the seat is taken but she just shrugs me off by saying I can not hog two seats for myself. I tried to explain to her that the seat is not for me, but she just refused to listen. She did understand English so I concluded she just wanted to be a real “see you next Tuesday”. I continued to insult her over the phone to Francis but I suspect it was way over her head. We boarded the plane and found ourselves sitting next to each other but across the isle, although we eventually switched and Andi got her window seat and I got my isle seat. Thank you kind stranger. The plane was almost brand new Airbus A300-300 (EI-DUZ) named St. Aoife/Aoife and surprisingly was only about 75% full. We were a bit worried that cuntie would be sitting close to us but she got a seat somewhere in the crowded front part of the plane. I have to say this was one of the more comfortable flights I took, the 6 hours passed by quickly with the wide selection of movies and games on our personal monitors. The service was very good, as was the vegetarian meal. So big thumbs up for Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus A320 (EI-DES) departing for London - Heathrow (LHR)
Dublin airport in the first morning sunlight.
In Dublin we had to go through security again and only seconds before sending our carry-on baggage to the X-ray machine I realized I have Nalgene bottle full of water with me. I told the security agent, who to my biggest surprise said “No worries”, took it with her to the closest sink, emptied it and brought it back to me with a smile. I guess I have been dealing with the TSA agents in the US for too long and boy, that is an unpleasant bunch of people. Just as we were leaving I noticed cuntie was selected for random screening and was half-way through emptying her bag on the table. Karma is a bitch – well I actually don’t believe in karma, but it was still quite satisfying. The wait for the connecting flight was a torture, especially when another woman asked Andi if the seat next to her (mine) was taken and then took it anyway. What is wrong with people? The flight from Dublin to Krakow was about 3 hours long, not too bad. Krakow airport is pretty crappy, slightly more so than Bratislava and that’s saying a lot. My father was already waiting there to pick us up and so we started the torturous ride to Slovakia. Torturous for two reasons – a) the van isn’t really built for three people and b) the road from Krakow to Martin is nothing but a glorified local road with a lot of construction on the Polish side. Those ~200 kilometers took us well over 5 hours although we have stopped to pick up three geocaches near the town of Tvrdosin. The last one of them “Skalka“, offered a very nice panoramic view of the area. Click on the image to see the full size.
Panorama of Tvrdosin, Slovakia
We finally got home, dead-tired, said hi to my mom, chowed down on some delicious whole-wheat halusky s bryndzou and went straight to bed. It’s good to be back home again.
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Welcome back home Alex
I’m looking forward for common hikes and bike trips …