Sometimes the busses don't come in Slovakia...

In comparison to The United States, I thought the the public transportation is wonderful here! All cities, and even small towns like mine, have regular and (sort of ) reliable bus and train routes. You can go virtually anywhere by bus or train and for not much money or time.

A photo of the lovely bus station seen all over Slovakia. 

I seemed to have weekend that completely contradicted this, however.

Actually my lack of faith in the bus system began about two weeks ago when the other American teachers in my school and I were hanging out in Banska Bystrica and tried to get back home. Our bus just didn't show up... We managed to take the next bus connections, but I remember thinking how bizzare that was.

Then, early last week I was headed to Bratislava for a Fulbright conference, and on my way I made a little stop-over to Nitra to visit some old friends. I had looked up bus times earlier on the Slovak transportation website and found a bus that would leave from Nitra to Bratislava at 8:00p.m. When I arrived there was no 8:00p.m. bus. With the help of my Slovak friends we concluded that the website either incorrectly said a Saturday-only the bus would also go on Tuesday, or I read a train departing at 8:00 as a bus. oops!

Well, unfortunately the next bus wasn't coming until 9:30p.m. which would put me in Bratislava around 11:00p.m. I was really hoping my bus would arrive early, because the last city bus in Bratislava to my hotel was taking off at 10:55 (or so it said). The 9:30 bus arrived. There were 4 more seats on the bus (as it was going to Pilzen, Czech Republic) and I was the third person to get on the bus (I'm really good at weaving my little body onto busses and trains, thank you Russia!) I arrived in Bratislava on time and everything worked out! phew!

Me and my friend Sonka having fun in Nitra. I'm completely unaware that I'm missing my bus connection! 

Cut to a few days later when the other Americans and I decided to go to Poprov to buy some sweet plaid pants and hiking boots. We arrived just fine, but on our way back the bus we needed at 5:00p.m. simply did not come! It turns out the bus was having some technical problems and wasn't going to come. Our next bus connection was going to get us back to Tisovec around 5a.m. Luckily, one of the other English teachers from our school happened to live very close to Poprov. She invited us to stay the night with her in her village! YAY! She told us which bus to take. When we were buying our ticket we were informed the bus wouldn't go to the village we wanted, but would take us to another village on the way... I think all of us Americans thought to ourselves "whatever!" at that moment. While on the bus there was an adorable older lady who helped us get form our stop to the next bus traveling to the small town where our friend lived.

We ate a lot of pizza, drank a bit of alcohol and we stayed the night at our friend's house.

In the morning we tried to catch the earliest bus to get back to Tisovec. The bus was supposed to leave at 8:30 am. 8:35 passed. 8:40 passed. We all walked over to the big connection board across the street to double check the times when a giant bus went flying by the bus station! Well, it was a good excuse to go to the grocery store. I bought muffins, lots of muffins, and chocolate and any other junk food I found. We did make the next bus and got home safely around 1:00pm, which perhaps isn't that bad.

This weekend I'm traveling to visit my host parents in Liptovsky Mikulas. The bus system can't fail me again, can it?

Just call me Robin Hood...

Welcome back!


I would like to begin this blog post with some recent video footage of the other American teachers and myself hanging out in the surrounding area...

That's right, I'm pretty much Robin Hood!

Well, minus the whole, "Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor" thing... But I plan to start immediately!

How did I decide I was in fact Robin Hood, you ask? 

It all started the first week I was in Tisovec when I watched the latest Robin Hood (the one with Russel Crowe) in theaters (about 3 months after the release in America). 

A few days after that the other Americans and I went on a small hike to eat some traditional Slovak food. As we were walking through the country-side I thought to myself, "The towns of 12th century England sure do look a lot like present day Slovakia." 

I became increasingly sure as we approached the haunted forests (of Sherwood).

I looked down as we were trudging through the forests and realized... I have Robin Hood boots on!

Finally we arrived at a location called Zbojska (or Nottingham)

My Merry Men and I had a fine meal at the Nottingham castle prepared by a lovely maid 

Where we celebrated my birthday! (Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!)

And then we once again set off...

There were so many different ways to go, that I got a little confused....

But I decided that I would travel throughout all the forests, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor!

Well, after we make a hearty supply of mead!

So, from all of the Robin Hoods:

Dovidenia!

Tisovec

Hello There!

This is my first blog post (and let's hope not the last). 

Welcome.

The reason for this  blog is to document my year in Slovakia as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant. I'm very excited to see what this year will offer me in terms of understanding Slovak culture and gaining teaching experience. I hope I can share a little bit about the Slovak culture with you as I experience it. 

I suppose a tour around my new home, Tisovec, Slovakia, might be in order...

Oh look! There I am! And there's a map of Tisovec. Don't be fooled by how big the map looks.

This is the Lutheran Church.

Here's our town square, because every town should have one...

This is the school where I teach!

Here is the snazzy, brand new, community pool!

And this the "Culture House" where we watch movies that were released in American theaters about 3 months ago for only 2 euro!

This is the big grocery store in town and situated above it is the town department store. 

And the town post office... it takes about 3 weeks for items to come from the States, but I want care packages!

And finally, the town bar!

So, that's pretty much the town. It's very small, if you haven't guessed yet. 

Next up, a tour of my apartment! I live in the town hotel right above another town bar. It's nice having my own place, but not so nice being kept up until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights...

Yay! my shoes! In Slovakia you DO NOT wear your outdoor shoes inside! So this is where I keep my shoes, and then I wear slippers all day long! 

Here's my bathroom. It smells a little like the bathroom in the Hungry Tiger Too (for those who who have had the pleasure) 

Here's my kitchen, note the bright orange blinds. 

The other side of my kitchen, this is where I do all of my "gourmet" cooking. Through the doorway you can see into my bedroom/living room. It's illuminated by the bright orange blinds!

This is the bedroom half of my "room"

And the living room half!

This is the view from my bed/living room! It's quite beautiful! Tisovec is tucked away between beautiful hills.

But if you look close enough, you can see that the window frame is a little crooked... 

oh soviet style buildings...

Another photo of the view from my apartment. This looks into town where you can see the top of the Lutheran Church. 

And that, my friends, is the tour! I hope you enjoyed it. 

I'll try to post more frequently, so stay tuned!

Dovidenia!