The Wild East

"She thinks we are Hungarians."

Kosice-Krakow
Friday 18 August
Get up and go to Showeroom. There are a few live wires hanging around, but it's not too bad. MT books us another night, and unsuccessfully attempts to retrieve our passports.
Next we have breakfast in the town square = garlic soup, with bread floating on top, and a whole egg lurking at the bottom. There is a huge fountain in the centre which comes to life everytime a new song plays (Blondie, Housemartins, Pet shop boys,Soft Cell...) it's an 80s dukebox!

It's the hottest day so far-35C. We spy a Tescos(!) and stop to buy drinks. Someone is waving a Union Jack outside, although they turn out to be Slovakian.
We sit on the steps of a museum to have our drinks.

A middle-aged woman says " Magyar?......jsem Magyar?". There is an old man standing behind her, laughing. She thinks we are Hungarians (magyar).
We explain we are from Manchester- they are impressed "Ah, Manchester United? Good team!". The museum is a little boring, all about Slovakia's history in the 9th Century.
All annotations are in Slovak/Czech/Hungarian/Russian i.e. not much use! The collection of gold coins isn't too bad.

We spend an hour looking for somewhere to eat, and end up going to a new McDonalds. In the Afternoon we go to a weapons museum, although it's all old weapons (bows and Arrows) not present-day.
We get a tram to Kosice football stadium, that is extremely accessible- we even walk onto the pitch. We attempt to talk to the manager/coach, and tell him we're from Man Utd, but he's not impressed.

When we get back into the centre Slovakian TV is filming- I have no intention of being on the news, but Mark gets himself in on the action. I think Merciar (Slovak president) could be there. He's ruled Slovakia since it was created in '93, and can close down any TV or newspapers critical of his government. Slovakia isn't fully 'democratic'.

We go for a meal (we're the only ones in the restaurant) and the waiter attempts to short-change us by 100Sk.
We have some beers outside in the square.

Sat 20 August
I get a Slovak T-shirt, and we go to the station. There's a lot of confusion about whether we have to reserve or not- there's also an hour long queue, so we don't bother.
We get on the Bucharest- Warsaw train, and manage to get a compartment to ourselves. Most of the train has Poles on, but in the compartment next door, are 2 Romanians.
They look typical Romanians- black hair, quite tanned, streetwise, and a bit gypsy-looking. When we get to the Polish border they are in trouble.

The woman is aged about 45, and her daughter? -"Miss Romania"- are quite ingraciously chucked off. They don't seem to have a visa, and start whining and complaining.
They also try and get us chucked off by continually pointing at us "Anglitsky, anglitsky ce mova dribni......" Everyone watches with interest. They somehow talk their way out of it- perhaps something to do with Miss Romania being quite attractive. 20 mins later they get back on, and MR brushes past me closely, probably trying to pick my pockets.

I get a good look at her She is approx 20-25, caked in makeup, and wearing skin tight leggings, and a purple top and has nearly all of her bra showing - looks extremely tarty- but isn't unattractive.
However she isn't a scratch on the girls of Kosice, or Prague. We don't have any photos of her- we might get our cameras stolen.
Within minutes of the train moving again, they grab their stuff, and run down the aisle. I suspect they will jump off the train illegally, and dissapear now they are in Poland (the train is only moving about 15mph)....

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