Kemping Monstar

We made it to Slovakia and out in one piece. We found a great camping site by a lake just 7km from the town centre. We stayed there for two nights and just relaxed by the beach and shopped at Tesco three times a day. ahha. I'll explain that....

The train to Bratislava was fine. Our car had a bunch of Czech 8th graders on some sort of trip so they were squealing as they do....Lucas you remember that time right....but otherwise the ride was good..another stamp on the passport.

It took us a good while to figure out how to get from the train station to the camping site as our tour book seemed to be a bit out of date. Finally we enlisted the help of a man who had tried to convince us to stay at his hostel. He spoke english so he was a likely target. We thanked him by falsely saying we would try to come to his hostel.

Then it took us about 30 minutes to find the reception desk. You should see the GPS map for that trek! Finally we set up our tent and went to explore the lake. We found a lake side restaurant with a menu also printed in english and had a terrific meal for a good price. They had this crazy contraption on the lake to tow wake boarders. It was quite the site. We hung out in the hammock for awhile and then retired early. It rained in the morning but we got up eventually, went for some groceries and by the time we came back it was beautiful. We went straight to the lake to make a picnic lunch and put away a bottle of wine. The water was quite warm and the beach was pretty empty. We were amazed at how many restaurants and bars were on the camping site. So many shirtless men drinking beers all day.

Our adventure of the day was trying to get enough change to take the tram back to the train station for the next day. We went to Tesco three times until we accomplished our goal. Food for days, two bottles of wine and ice cream were the cost. No complaints!!

Our other adventure will be told by erik as he was immediately responsible....

So, after arriving at the camping site the first night, we quickly setup the tent, left our bags, and went for a swim. After dipping in the lake, we briefly explored the campsite before returning to the tent to change out of our swim wear. So, I've just finished taking off my swimming trunks and we hear children walking near our tent. I quickly cover myself up with a sleeping bag as they approach and Erin starts laughing at my concern. Sure enough, next thing I know, we've got three curious little kids looking into the window of our tent and trying to talk to us in a language we have no hope of understanding. My first thought was, "Haven't these kids ever heard of a little privacy? Who looks into someone elses tent?". I'm still naked. I start yelling back at the kids in an angry tone, trying to convey the fact that they should buzz off. Well, that was a big mistake, as I just peaked there curiosity with my foreign tongue. Now we've got three kids (I'd say age 4, 5, 6) running around the tent, mocking everything we say, peeking into the tent and making funny faces. At the time, it wasn't very funny to me. Next, I try scaring them by yelling and banging the tent. Again... big mistake. Now we've got 3 kids hitting my tent and screaming back at us in Slovak. Great! Finally, Erin opens the tent and walks outside. This scares the kids enough that they run away. Apparently, we just make our first Slovakian friends...

The next morning we walked down to the beach and had some breakfast. Afterwards, we crawled back into the tent and had a little nap... only to be awaken by our 3 little friends... Learning from our mistake the previous days, we just decide to ignore them. So, we lay in the tent, with three little heads poking inside watching us "sleep". Once they got bored of watching they decide to start making weird annoying "kid" noises. Eg. ooogahhh, na na ana, oooohhh, blaawww, etc... Thankfully, one of our motorhome neighbours finally yells at the kids (or so it seemed to us) and they left momentarily. We have our suspicions that the neighbour might have been related to the kids, but it was really hard to tell. This whole time, I'm thinking, "Whos kids are these? Didn't the parents teach them any manors?". I know, if I was a curious child and interested in someones tent, the sound of someone yelling at me in a language I didn't understand would probably scare the hell out of me... I guess apparently not these kids.

Finally, I give in to the dark side (although, I don't exactly remember making this decision) and in one swift motion, I flip over, unzip the tent and lunge at the kids. They take off running at screaming, but not before I'm able to pickup the youngest child and pick him up. Now, I basically freeze, not really knowing what to do now (I told you I didn't really think this through - it happened very fast). Now, I'm holding the kid in the air with two hands in front of me. The kid is looking back at me with a look of compete terror on his face. A look I'll never forget. And he starts crying... His two older sisters look on, from about 15 feet away and are also screaming. I put him down about as quickly as I picked him up. By this time (only a couple seconds before, I was laying down in the tent), a man come out of the moter home trailer and starts yelling at the kids again. I only wish I knew what he was saying, but I'm sure he understood our plight. Anyways, for the rest of our stay, the kids still showed an interest in us, but kept a fair distance. As we were packing up the tent, they came to wave goodbye to us, and I snapped this photo of them. They kinda ran and hid when I took out my camera, but you can see the boy and his oldest sister in the photo - the middle child is hiding behind her brother. I felt guilty for scaring them, but was glad to see they still found us quite entertaining.

Got lost taking the tram the next day but made it in time for the train. We had a 6 person private car with 2 others which was a bit different from our first train. Beautiful scenery. On the hills of Hungary we saw many old structures.

Finding our hostel was another bit of navigation nonsense but when we found it we were pleased. It is a flat turned hostel so it is quite small and quiet. It is in a great location and we have a beautiful room...kind of messy right now but we will show you it later. (we had to hang up the tent to dry as it rained the morning we left). Last night we walked down to the Danube river from the Pest side to the Buda side where we walked up to the citadelle....a terrific monument with a fantastic view. It was a great time to go as there were less tourists and it wasn't' as hot.

Today we are taking out time getting out there...catching up on correspondence a bit and planning the next leg of our trip. We should have computer access for the next few days.

P.S. if you want a post card send us your address...we are on a mission in archaic communication styles...jk.