16th of January, 2022.
Only 2 or 3 cars pass before somebody stops. And it does not takes long either. They are a very nice couple but they cannot speak English. They drop me exactly where I want to go, in the middle of the city centre or Banská Štiavnica.
The building which I though it was a tourist info is actually a Museum. Love Museum. But they are also a bank. What? Yeah. But the only difference is that here, you don’t keep money but you store love. Andrej Sládkovič was a Slovak poet and his most famous work is Marína: the longest love poem in the world, with 2.900 verses. Now you can visit this place and experience a interactive tour, where you can get to know more about the poem in some very interesting ways. And the volt is full with little boxes, one for each of the letters Sládkovič wrote, and you can store on them whatever represents your love to you. I haven’t done the experience itself because yo have to pay, but it seems cool!
And the lady with whom I talk in there is so nice! She tells me how to get to the Tourist Centre but she is not sure if they are open. So she tells me slightly where to go and how to get there without a map. And when I ask her if I can leave my backpack in there, she promptly say yes! Great!
Banská Štiavnica is a very cute little town. The Old Castle is gorgeous and you can see the bailey from the entrance door. Walking through the small cobblestones streets it is very nice, admiring the old buildings and churches. There are even a few tourists in the streets. Actually, according to the small shops which are all over the place, I say that Banská Štiavnica is very touristic.
The New Castle is not so cool as the old one, but still it worth the visit. It is so close to the centre plus you have a view of the town from there. I wanted to take a good photograph of the Kalvária Banská Štiavnica, which you can see from many place is the town, but I cannot because my zoom it is broken, right? It looks gorgeous and I would like to go there but I don’t have enough time.
I come back to grab my backpack and the lady from the museum wishes me very good luck on getting to Spis Castle. She is so nice!
Walking to my hitchhike spot, I pass by a lovely old building, huge, and later on I realize there is also a small park so you can walk in and enjoy some relaxing time in there. Actually, the buildings are Schools and the park is the Botanical Garden. You should definitely check it out.
It is not so late, is just after lunch time, so I am confident that I can manage to at least arrive in Spišské Podhradie, the town by the castle I want to visit. A van passes by but then come back. There is a family on it: Rasto, Daša, Lea and Ivo. They are going to Zvolen but it is in the way and a bigger city then Banská Štiavnica, so I figure my chances will be bigger from there.
We talk a lot on the way and soon enough Daša invites me to have lunch with them, in their house. I accept.
They leave in a very peaceful part of Zvolen even though it is only 5 minutes walking from the main square. They have a huge and lovely house, which they restored by themselves. We talk about my travels and travels plans for Slovakia over lunch. We have potato dumplings, with a dill sauce called Klasická omáčka (traditional Czech) and they have cow meat while I have eggs. Lovely! For desert, I try on the cakes from Ivo’s birthday party, which took place the day before.
They invite me to stay overnight, under the justification it is getting late so not the best time to hitchhike. Tomorrow morning Rasto can drive me out of town and I can have a warm place to spend the night. I accept.
Before sunset, me and Rasto go to quickly check it out the castle and a bit of the town. The castle is gorgeous! And you can walk through the bailey. Sunset is amazing and the town of Zvolen it seems like a nice place to visit if you have some time.
Back at home, Rasto start to tell me the story of their lives. He had cycled from Bratislava to New Zealand when he was younger. He invite Daša to join him in a short travel, also cycling, around some Asian countries. After that, they went cycling for 3 months in some South American countries. And last, they cycled for 1 year from Mexico to Colombia. They have photographs of the travels around their house and Rasto also showed me this kind of book albums they have made to give to the family members. The photographs are amazing! The places where they have been in Latin America are simply gorgeous! I am sure they had a wonderful time doing that!
Daša got pregnant when they were in Costa Rica so they came back to Europe to start a new family. Now they have got two kids, a big house and a regular life. They both work from home: Daša is a doctor on call and Rasto is a computer engineer.
I am happy to get to know them and learn so much form their adventures. But some thoughts keep crossing my mind during my stay. Are they really happy now, with this while “settle down having a family” kind of thing? How can someone who had had such an adventure like them, travelling around the world, simply one day decide to let it go of everything and have kids, a job? Will that happen to me?
Next morning Rasto drives me to the road which leads to Spiš Castle.