19th of January, 2022.
Getting to and out of Čičmany it is a funny and long story. A super nice lady stops for me. Her name is Mirka and she works for a pharmaceutical company. She drives me for a long way, only dropping me about 40 minutes before Čičmany. Mirka has some pastries in the car and she share them with me.
It is a busy road and soon enough a guy stops. He has his baby in the back and is only take him for a ride so he can sleep. I though that was a car commercial thing but nope, apparently it is for real. He is not in a rush so he takes me through some not so busy roads and get me real close to Čičmany, only about 7 Km. At least that is what is saying in a sign nearby.
An old Rand Rover stops and inside are Mihail and his mum. They are going to ski in the mountains nearby Čičmany so they drive me there. Mihail is not very enthusiastic about the village. He tells me there is not many traditional houses anymore and that the village is dying because there is no job, so the young people are leaving to the cities.
But when I am walking through Čičmany I actually see many houses with the traditional paintings. I pass by real quickly though. I don’t know why. I actually have enough time to get in Bratislava. Now thinking, I wish I had walked around the village a bit more.
My initial plan was to cross Čičmany in direction to Bratislava. But Mihail told me that not so many cars would go to Bratislava crossing by Čičmany. So for better chances I should go back to the intersection where he picked me up and try to go from Žilina. It is a bit backwards, but if it will save me time anyway, better do it.
Now I am to be outside of Čičmany only hoping to get to the intersection. And there is where to Barbara tell me she can drive me. She is nice and quite fancy.
Soon enough a guy stops and tell me he can drive me to Žilina. My sign it says Bratislava. At the beginning he seems a bit doubtful about me but as soon as I tell him about my travels he become more relaxed and treat me very well. He drives me to a gas station out of town and in the direction of Bratislava.
I am at the gas station but holding my sign to the cars. There are plenty of them coming this way and they have a lot of space to park ahead.
But my lift it comes actually from the gas station. A guy in a yellow van tells me he can drive me to Nitra. Now, I didn’t check in the map when he told me that because if I had, I would have definitely had refused. Unless the gas station where I was it was in a different way to Bratislava, passing through Nitra…? I don’t think so.
Anyway, the Turkish guy (he told me he is from Turkey) is trying to be very nice to me so he offers to buy me food. McDonald’s it is! Vegetarian burger with fries and Coke. I have to admit that it does not taste bad at all! But of course that if I was to buy some food, I would never eat in there.
After delivering some stuff at an address, he drives me outside of Nitra, in another gas station.
Quickly enough, when I ask a lady in a car with another two ladies, if they can take me to Bratislava, she says yes!
The driver is the mother of Mary, the young lady in the back with me. The lady siting in the passenger seat is also called Mary, and she is a friend of them.
Young Mary was born in Italy with an Italian father but her mother is from Slovakia. She is living by herself in Bratislava now and that’s why they are driving there, to drop her off.
I try to speak some Italian with them because Mary’s mother prefers the Italian to English. I ask her to drop me in a McDonald’s in the city centre and she says it is OK.
I only need to get directions to my CS host’s house and from there to the tourist info. And that is what I do.