Leaving Slovakia

If you don't want to die in Slovakia, you have to leave sometime, and our time had arrived. Cindi's teaching was over and exams were here. I mananged to squeeze in another trip to the Slovak Paradise (this time the Velky Sokol (Big Falcon) gorge)

and to do some more bike riding into the Javorina Reserve, a huge former military training area that most people still think is closed to the public (it isn't). One of my colleagues at the University invited me along on their field trip up the tower of the cathedral in Presov, which isn't open to tourists yet. You can get some nice views of Presov from up there.

We finally made it into Spis Castle, probably the most famous castle in Slovakia (used in many movies for that authentic medieval feel). We'd driven past many times, but never been in.

One of the attractions during tourist season is the amusing display of martial arts.

After visiting the castle, I got my bike out of the car and rode home over some roads I hadn't ridden before, including the Branisko Pass (which isn't as steep as the sign says).

The last few days in Presov were pretty hectic, with packing, grading, throwing things out, trying to drink all the remaining booze in the apartment, etc. The US Ambassador to Slovakia was in town, and Cindi got a few minutes of one-on-one time with him.

Then it was back to cleaning the apartment. Here's an outside view - our balcony is the 2nd one above the 'V' in 'potraviny' ('groceries').

One of the features of the apartment was the Under The Sea toilet seat.

Our landlord came by at 1PM on Friday to check the place out and returned our damage deposit in the form of a large stack of Slovak crowns, which we then took to the bank and converted into a large stack of Euros. We actually made money over the last 4 months by having the money in SKK, which even increased in value relative to the Euro (to say nothing of the dollar).
By the time all the final details were taken care of, it was 5PM and time to hit the road. We headed south into Hungary and picked up the autobahn to Budapest. We stayed in an Etap hotel on the west side of Buda - Etaps have all the comforts of Formula One hotels, PLUS your own bathroom. The next day we drove across the western part of Hungary, skirted Vienna and arrived in Mondsee in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.