Lizzie + Burke: Slovakia

So there were two things that surprised us immediately upon arrival in Estonia. First, we disembarked the ferry in a rainstorm putting all of our new rain gear to the test. I quickly discovered my love for my obnoxiously bright yellow rain jacket. As I explained to Burke, when I get scared that the cars might hit me, I just look down and feel comforted because EVERYONE can see me in my jacket from a mile away. Second, when we pulled up to the hostel the people sitting outside told us we could take our bikes in with us. It was up a set of stairs and our bikes were still loaded, so we didn’t bother and just went inside to check in.  As soon as the receptionist saw us she said, “Don’t leave your bikes outside or they won’t be there next time.” Yikes.

Center of Old Town, Tallinn

With only the evening to spend in the capital, Tallinn, we started exploring as soon as possible. The old town was extremely picturesque and quite touristy. It actually felt kind of like Disneyland because the vendors, club promotors, and waiters were all dressed in medieval garb. Very thematic. As we were walking back to the hostel, we were cautious pedestrians waiting for a safe time to cross the street, but apparently we stood out as tourists by waiting too long. A police man in a nearby police car rolled down his window and called out with his microphone, “Go. You there. Go now.”

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Rain threatened us into a reasonable starting time the next day too. We rode around in search of an alleged bike route map only to be told by two different tourism info centers on opposite sides of the town that they don’t have that map, try the other center. Eventually the man just gave me a map of the country. Guess what it had on it. Bike routes. As we rode out of the city, we did some last minute site seeing and experienced the worst roads of the trip thus far: no bike lanes, busy streets, and big curbs. At some point leaving the city we veered when we should have gone straight because we ended up missing the costal route and going inland and about 30km out of our way. We caught back up with the bike route as quickly as we could with the motivation of a dark storm cloud at our backs.

Along the coast on EuroVelo 10

We rode on into the afternoon and evening with our sights set on a campground that was along the trail. Riding along EuroVelo 10, we saw some beautiful sites: an old church, the shore, and more storks than I’d ever seen in my life. We also rode by a real cute dog who barked but disappeared as we got closer. I recognized it as a similar action to the sneak attack that Niči tries to do while attempting to scare me when I come out of the bathroom. I said, “I sure hope he’s not a bad dog,” just as he leaped out from behind a bush ferociously barking at my ankles. Undaunted, we continued to cycle following signs for the campground, even when it took us down a gravel road that steadily worsened in quality as we went. After five or so kilometers at a pace barely faster than walking and no other sign, we started considering other options. We eventually stopped at a house with a girl gardening. She happily refilled our water bottles and gave us directions to the beach.

There was an abundance of storks making their homes on random telephone poles.

The gravel path was quite picturesque (too bad I had to focus on the road)

On the beach we set up our tent, made dinner and depleted our water stash once again. Burke went off in search of a refill and came across a friendly Estonian man named Tiit. As the story goes, Burke was caught off guard by his name and asked him to repeat it and the man said, “You know…. Tiit,” while squeezing his chest with one hand. So Tiit pointed Burke in the direction of his house and told him that he could find water there. When Burke got to the house and talked to Tiit’s family, they went inside for water and took a very long time and when they came out with the bottles they also came out with a bundle. “We have gift for you. Smoked fish.” Burke had to turn them down because we are vegetarians and don’t eat fish, but aren’t Estonians just the nicest people? When Burke got back to the beach we decided to go for a quick swim before going to bed. We were surprised by several things:

Camping on the beach

Rock City!

The next morning we were back on the road, or rather the gravel. Gravel is miserably hard to ride in because it is so unstable and unpredictable. Even with somewhat thick tires I still always found myself having to concentrate on every bump. Despite the attention I paid to the road I still fell nearly every few minutes over the course of the hour it took us to get off the gravel road. Then finally, we were on concrete again! We rode so fast and joyously for a kilometer until we came to road construction. Guess what was there: sand. If you’ve never ridden your bike on sand, it’s worse than gravel. We pressed on for the rest of the morning (we only covered about 10km) until we found a little grocery store in a town called Nova. We bought typical lunch things and a small tube of “extra-strong mustard” which I think was just wasabi mislabeled. It was horrendous and could only be consumed in pea size amounts.

We pedaled on to a city called Hapsalu where we stopped for a bathroom break, a park bench break, and a rest from the third patch of construction we hit that day. We rode by the city’s castle and eventually decided that we were done for the day. I’m sure Burke could have easily continued, but all the bumps in the road really did me in. At our campground that night we met some other cycle tourists. One set was a German couple traveling with their eight year old daughter. She even had panniers on her bicycle. A quick swim and we called the day success as we went to bed.

When we left off, a Finnish man had just invited us to stay in his home for the night. Guess what, we agreed. We knew there were some risks involved, but we told ourselves that we could always leave if we weren’t comfortable; ultimately, it was the promise of my first real shower in almost six days that won me over.

Our host Marc was a half-Finish, half-German character whose family we met immediately upon arrival at his house. We relaxed and talked on their patio for a while, and they told us that everyone in Finland speaks English because most TV shows are not dubbed over, so eventually you just learn it. He took us to a big lake that was incredibly brown, but had the warmest water I’ve ever swum in (save the Darke County YMCA). While we were there, we witnessed him having an entire conversation with his dog, who ran away to chase a large bunny. I swear that dog understood every word he said and responded with an appropriate facial expression to every phrase. After swimming, Marc even made us dinner. He invited his neighbor over who is also a vegetarian and she brought a salad to the dinner party. It was made entirely of weeds from her garden. She explained to us that weeds can grow anywhere because they have a lot stronger systems, which makes them more nutritious than regular greens. She was impressed that we were so open to trying a salad of weeds and we were impressed at how delicious it was.

Marc was so incredibly hospitable to us the whole time we were there; one of my favorite parts was that he told us a lot about Finland. We asked him about how much sunlight they got in the winter and he said about an hour, and then he clarified and said that the sun doesn’t actually come up, it’s just an hour of not complete darkness. Marc warmly invited us to stay another night at his house, but sadly we had to get on with the trip or we would never make it back to Slovakia. So we left the next morning, but I did leave a shampoo bottle as a thank you, albeit accidentally.

Helsinki Cathedral

We took the bus the last bit of the ride into Helsinki, and were happy to see that the architecture in Helsinki did not disappoint. I know very well because I waited with our bikes outside of the tourism info station for about two hours while Burke went in to ask some questions. While I was there, three groups of Americans and an Asian girl asked me for directions. I don’t know if I looked American to them, or friendly, or knowledgeable, but when I ask someone for directions, I don’t ask someone who is clearly a tourist. We made our way to a hostel where we met another cycle tourist who had been cycling around Europe for an entire year! Although his trip sounded interesting, I would have much preferred to have conquered a serious part of the world in that year rather than spiral around Europe.

Sororities must pomp in Finland too.

The rest of the evening we explored the city and blended in with the locals. Finland is so expensive that it’s even expensive for its residents, so rather than going to a cafe or a pub for the evening, people, young and old, just bring their friends to a park and hang out. We sat on a bench near Market Square which was as densely packed with relaxing people as the beach on a hot day. There were minstrels and performers trying to earn a few euros, but my favorite people were the ones going from group to group collecting empty bottles and cans from the patrons.

I don't think the people on the bench were ending the serenade as much as the troubadours.

fake beach.

Back at the hostel we were thrilled to use the washing machines. There was no soap in the vending machine and rather than ask the desk if they had more, I took Burke’s suggestion of scraping all the discarded soap around the tray and using it. Definitely not my proudest moment, but it worked:).

After being there for a few days, we discovered there are some funny things about Finland.

Our last day in Finland we rode along the coastline of Helsinki and went to a giant flee market. Burke and I developed a tag team haggle system. I find something I like, ask how much it is, ponder, and then offer a little less. They agree and I say alright I have to go get money from my husband. Then Burke comes over with me and, uh oh, we don’t have as much as I offered, maybe they’ll take this slightly less amount? Yes? Okay? Great. I’m excited to use this system in future travels.

Buildings in Finland are always on a slant of some sort.

Finally, we headed to the ferry and the last few moments that we spent in the country it began to sprinkle on us. Once we were on the boat the sprinkle turned into rain and eventually a rather heavy storm. Fortunately, we avoided the first storm of our trip by ferrying across the Baltic Sea right into our next destination, Tallinn, Estonia.

At 7 am our ferry docked in Turku, Finland, and we were the first ones to roll off of the boat. We had a small map of the city that helped us find a grocery store and then the main cathedral, but we had the hardest time figuring out where to go from there. Our next stop was for a bathroom break, followed by breakfast on the side of the road. This is where I first found the tiny wild blueberries and strawberries that Finland is known for. They were spectacular.  Next, we stopped at a bicycle shop to confirm that we were going the right way, thinking we were set with our two tourist maps (remember, we had none in Sweden).

After one more bathroom stop we were finally on our way! As we left the city we passed several groups of cycle tourists, shocked at the number of loaded panniers we saw. We rode for about an hour before we saw a big detour sign.  We decided to take a chance because detours don’t usually affect pedestrian traffic.  So we peddaled along for about 10k until we got to a big river and a very dismantled bridge. Distraught, we turned around and backtracked for half an hour and then had to take the HUGE detour to get back on the desired road (any detour on a bicycle is significant, but this one was legitamitely quite large). We stopped at a grocery store for some snacks, but ended up extending our break to include lunch. Finally, we were on our way again and ready for some serious riding.

Thank God for our post lunch energy because only 5k into the ride the wind hit us. We were still on the detour, so we hoped as soon we turned onto our road the wind would stop pounding us in the face.  Wrong. There was a strong headwind that just about couldn’t get any worse until we got to the first hill of Finland. Then, all of the sudden, we were in the hills. There was a steady one kilometer climb, an immediate descent, and then another immediate climb. It went on like this for hours. We still had pretty high morale considering the unexpected terrain (note: free tourist maps definitely don’t have marked elevations). I impressed Burke with my persistance on the hills, despite the fact that I was clearly struggling on every climb, my secret was singing praise songs in my head. To keep it fresh, I changed the song on every hill, which was actually quite difficult because the hills were so frequent. Once I explained my coping methods to Burke, I taught him an old camp song and we sang it together as we rode (some of us slightly more reluctant to sing than others).

I thought we were leaving the hilly areas because this one was a baby hill, so I wanted to take a photo before the hills disappear altogether. They didn't.

Romans (yeah) 16 (yeah) 19 says (yeah yeah!)

Be excellent at what is good, be innocent of evil.

And the God of Peace will soon crush satan,

God will crush him underneath of your feet (huh!)

Along the way we would stop at the big maps on the side of the road just to see our progress. We looked and talked about where we should stop for the night, I jokingly said I would like to stop in Espoo for the night (it’s right outside of Helsinki and about a day and a half away). Burke said it would be Espoocially impressive if we could make it that far.  Instead, we set our sites on Nummi, a town with a lake, and rode on along the peaks and valleys of south Finland. When we finally arrived in Nummi, we were shocked that the grocery store was closed- it was after 10 pm but the sky hadn’t changed since noon.  Instead of groceries, we settled for getting water from a nursing home and bathing in the brownest lake we had ever seen. Even with the hills, we managed to ride over 100k that day.

Riding along the next morning, our understanding of Finland scenery was cemented. Tall skinny red pine trees, tall skinny birch trees, and tall skinny purple flowers. There was also a very nice smell all along the road. It was just the same style of riding as the day before: up, down, up down, up down. The worst part was that because it was still very windy, we had to pedal just to keep going downhill. There were no breaks except for when we stopped to get off our bikes. Generally I prefered not to do this as it resulted in a loss of my “bic legs” (beets legs noun: the rhythm and flow of cycling for a long period of time, easily lost by stopping or resting, not easily reacquired).

After riding for a couple of hours, we stopped at a gas station for a break. We saw a clock and were shocked to see that it was 4pm. We thought we woke up around 9, but apparently it had been a lot closer to noon. Ooops.

We rode on for another two hours and stopped for lunch. I was so tired of our regular sandwich lunch I happily splurged on a potato salad container only to discover it was a chicken salad just a little too late. I guess the chicken on the package should have clued me in, but what made it worse is that Finland is even more expensive than Sweden was. So we had our regular lunch in the limited shady grass on the side of the grocery store. Just before we got up, a barefooted man walked up to us and said some Finnish gibberish and then asked us where we were from in English. About one minute into the conversation he invited us to his house and to stay the night. Caught off guard by his candidness, we agreed to watch his dog and think about it while he went in to do some shopping…

So, we’re back! We successfully cycled through six countries over the last 26 days with few difficulties, no accidents and big smiles.  I’m beginning this series of posts with the start of our trip: Sweden.

We arrived in Nyköping, with our completely disassembled bicycles and seven of our eight bags. As we (Burke) reassembled our bicycles, a Swedish hippie girl pulled up and asked us where the arrival terminal was. She talked with us for a while and then told us that she asked us because we looked like the nicest people at the airport. We wondered later if that meant we looked hippiesh as well.  We’ve been living abroad for a year and we were sort of backpacking, so we supposed it was possible but not likely.

Outside of Skavsta Airport

The city of Nyköping is very picturesque; with its wide pedestrian-only downtown and bicycle lanes as roomy as those designated for cars, cyclists abound. Oddly, the largest demographic of cyclists was the 60+ female.

Our first morning came with a bit of a shock. While living in Slovakia for a year has helped us get accustomed to shopping abroad, we were not prepared for shopping in other countries. I’ve never been more confused in a grocery store than I was that morning. Between converting Swedish krona to euro and the fact that Sweden is shockingly more expensive than Slovakia, I was overwhelmed by the fact that bananas cost 2.75 euro/kg ( about $1.65/lb). So once I paid twice as much for the groceries than I would have at home, we had our breakfast on the harbor before making our way back to the airport to pick up our rogue bag.

Finally, being on the road after the delay was an exhilarating and freeing feeling. It was just Burke and me and the open road. The scenery was beautiful. A myriad of flowers and gorgeous rolling fields and plush meadows. Along the road, we passed other cyclist tourists going the opposite direction, there is a peculiar sense of camaraderie among bicers (beets•er noun English adaption of the Slovak word for a bicyclist).

Burke’s phone wasn’t on as we rode, but when we started getting really hungry for dinner we decided it was probably about time to stop for the evening. The ride was so interesting because in June and July in the Nordic countries they experience “white night.” The sun merely isn’t in view for a few hours of the night but not long enough that it ever actually gets dark, making it very hard to guess what time it is. So we rode on towards the lake we had seen on the map and made our home for the night.

Now’s probably a good time to mention that Burke and I didn’t actually carry any maps with us. This may sound quite ludicrous to you, and to just about all the other cycle tourists we met, but overall we were going long distances on country roads so it wasn’t ever necessary. Sometimes it got tricky in cities. For instance, just outside of Stockholm we stopped at a gas station and asked the attendant to point us out on the map. To our surprise he didn’t speak English and instead offered Espanol. We mustered up all the Spanish we remembered to communicate with him and again we were on our way.

When we arrived in Stockholm we went to the edge of old town and sat on the end of the island just relaxing and talking. When we finally made our way to the camping area, we were told they don’t take tents but to check out a nearby hotel that operates out of an old prison. We did. It was just like the rest of Sweden: expensive. So we went to the house next door and asked the lady outside gardening if we could sleep in her yard. Reluctant at first, she agreed and eventually opened her home to us. After dinner Burke and I headed towards downtown, we passed a girl sitting on a bridge reading with no lights just before midnight. Only about 100 meters shy of downtown we turned back because we were so tired from riding.

The next day we explored the city and rode all over a few of the smaller islands in the city. We sat in a cafe overlooking the harbor to kill our last hour or two before the ferry to Finland and met a man who gave us some insight into why Sweden is such an expensive country. The way he saw it, it’s because the winters are so long and dark everyone must have a garage and in it, some hobby that eventually leads to a lucrative side project.

Woodworking was the hobby of the man whose yard we slept in.

Overall, Sweden was beautiful and perfect for cycling. The only thing that did disappoint me was the lack of traditionally Swedish things. I didn’t see the alleged extra large Nordic people I’d heard of, Swedish Fish, or even Swedish Pro swimming goggles. Burke said he did see Swedish meatballs later on the ferry, but those obviously weren’t on my list.

We were told by our Swedish friends that the best way to approach the ferry to Finland was with a running start. Unless you pay for a cabin, there are few comfortable seating areas, so you must be first on the boat in order to get one. We followed their advice and had dinner in a room with about twenty other people, two of which were Finnish deaf girls named Silva and Aina that we befriended and talked with for an hour or two before bed. At the end of the conversations they gave us sign language names, Burke’s was bicycle and mine was clever.

When it was bedtime Burke and I decided to go through with our plan and brave the top deck for an amazing night that would be different than all the rest. So we inflated our sleeping pads and climbed into our sleeping bags and laid down unexposed in the Swedish night as we traversed the Baltic Sea. We were woken up around 2am by a frightening amount of wind and decided to head inside before something expensive blew away. So we slept the rest of the night and woke up in Finland!

Well, we’re leaving for our summer holiday tomorrow morning. I guess I am long overdue for updating you on our lives.

School finally finished on June 31st. The last week the kids went swimming in the mornings and had really relaxing afternoons. It made for some very slow days for us. Then we spent the last week preparing Narnia for next year. There is SO much work that goes into the school, mostly because rooms have to be transformed into classrooms or made from scratch. I didn’t mention this in my last post about differences between Slovakia and America but here’s a big one: Paint. If you touch a wall, a little bit of paint comes off. It’s like chalk. So if you repeatedly rub up against a wall, you will expose the layer under the paint.  So when I had to paint at school, I wasn’t really that surprised when they said that we had to pour equal amounts of water into the paint.

Last weekend two of my sorority sisters came to visit! Kjersten is studying in Spain for the summer and Melissa has an internship in London. They got in late Thursday night and on friday they explored the city downtown and went to the museum while Burke and I were at work. Saturday we went to Strečno castle. It was pretty cute except that on the way back we discovered that the alleged 20:24 train doesn’t exist. So we had to take a taxi through the low tatras and when you combine taxis+mountain roads+Slovak driving… yikes I wasn’t the only one with an upset stomach. The girls left early the next morning, but we squeezed a lot in during the visit. Kjersten has already posted a blog about it with much more details and pictures so you should check that out. I stole this one though:)

Credit to Kjersten

Yesterday there was a little unexpected incident. It shouldn’t inhibit our trip much, but I was laying on the bed and my hair was loose, enticing Niči to swat at it. No big deal when I had long hair, but now that my hair is close to my face it was a bit more dangerous and when he pawed at it, he missed a little bit scratching my eye and just piercing my eyelid. I went to the doctor right away and she said I she didn’t think I would need any stitches and should be fine with some drops, but I spent the rest of the day with a patch on my eye. Arrrg.

So now that we are on the brink of leaving, we have been busily preparing our apartment, our bikes and ourselves for this trip. We are still hoping to get two packages yet today or else we’ll have to buy a few more things or go without. Anyway, here are the long awaited details of our trip!

We will take the train to Bratislava and then fly to Stockholm. We’re flying Ryanair, which keeps its prices low by using airports way outside of the city. So we will spend the first day riding to the Swedish capital and then spend a day or two there before taking a ferry to Finland. We’ll arrive in Turku and spend one night there and then immediately leave the next morning for a long ride to Helsinki where we’ll spend another day or two. (I used to LOVE the band Architecture in Helsinki, so I am excited about this) Then we’ll take another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia and the bicycle trip will really begin. We’ll follow the coast of the Baltic Sea through Estonia and halfway into Latvia to the capital Riga. Then we’ll cut across to Liepaja and ride the coast across the border into Lithuania to Klaipeda. Then we’ll cut back inland and go around Kalliningrad (We would have loved to go through, but visas were an expensive pain so Russia will have to be another trip altogether). We’ll go into Poland and depending on how long our trip has taken us so far, we’ll either catch the train at Suwalki or continue on to Warsaw and get the train there, or maybe ride all the way home.

The plan is to ride about 100 kilometers (60 miles) a day and stop every three days and rest for the entire day. Our bicycles are official touring bikes and are outfitted with four panniers each. In our bags we’ll have everything from a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, extra clothes, camping stove, waterproof pants and jackets, first aid kid, bike repair tools, food, pepper spray, etc. You wouldn’t believe how much effort goes into getting all this stuff together, but extra thanks to our parents who have helped by sending some things from the US to us here:).

If you are the praying type, we would love for you to pray for us and our trip. There are a lot of variables going into this but we are mostly concerned with safety and health. We will be doing a daily devotional in the morning and working our way through different stories in the Bible as we go. We are hoping that this will bring us closer still to our Lord and Creator, without whom certainly none of this would be possible.

Well, we had our first night last night in our new apartment. It was surprisingly pleasant considering the circumstances. The only furniture we have is our bed, so our sleep was nice despite the lack of curtains and the overlooking apartments. We also had an enjoyable picnic dinner on our floor utilizing our microwave and my lunchbox. The kitchen was supposed to be done by today, but it’s not looking too promising. All these things compromise the comfort of our apartment, but the real roadblock is that we don’t have hot water. Yikes. I’m just glad we figured it out before I went for a run. We’ll post photos of our apartment and the area once we are settled in.

In the meantime, this is a video that I finally finished from school. It is pretty cute.

Základná Škola Narnia 2009-2010 from Zakladna skola Narnia on Vimeo.

This post may look long, but its not, and there’s a surprise in it if you read all the way to the end:)

It may be spring in your part of the world but we are actually still waiting on it here.  Maybe it’s that pesky volcano, but we have experienced a month long span of daily rain storms.  Along with the rain comes beautiful flowers (I’ve never seen so many tulips) and Burke’s birthday!  For his birthday Burke requested a touring bicycle which will be put into very good use this summer.  We have an epic trip in the planning stages and we will be sure to inform you as the details come.  A lesser trip we are taking is one across town: we’re moving out of our tiny apartment!  Its been a nice first home to us, but we outgrew it before we ever got settled so we will be living in a brand new apartment with room for visitors!  Incase it isn’t obvious yet, I should mentioned we have officially decided to stay another year and with that I figured it is time to tell you some of the fun things about Slovakia.  Here you go:

-The word for “Yes” is “Ano” and can be shortened to “No.” Surprisingly, it’s not that confusing.

-They don’t use articles: the, a, an, etc.

-Kids pee outside, and parents think its just a part of being a kid.

-They use cassette tapes and VHS tapes on a regular basis.

-Glue is strange here; it’s either watery or cement-like.

-Slovaks LOVE backpacks. A given slovak might wear a backpacking backpack just for a daily commute to work.

-When they ask for a signature, they only want a last name. No one signs their full name.

-The most common informal salutation is the piratic “Ahoj” (As in, Ahoy Matee). The other friendly greeting is the ever popular čau (Ciao).

-Maternity leave is three years.

-Most Slovaks never learned official typing and have adopted a dexterous hunt and peck system.

- Older people do not use canes, crutches, or rarely even wheel chairs, they use this type of crutch.

-Not only do they take off their shoes entering a house or even a business, they sometimes bring their own slippers with them.

-Slovaks are emphatic about their use of jackets and especially hats.

-There is a strange infatuation with plastic paper sleeves. Similar to the need for people to have jackets, apparently so do papers.

-Their main meal is lunch. This is a common difference between foreign cultures and our own American ideals, but after 9 months of living here we are beginning to see that the “main meal” might actually mean the only meal.

-Slovaks love dogs and nature as a whole.  I mentioned in an early post that to “go for a walk” can mean an unanticipated hike.

-They like french toast, but they call it eggy bread and do not sweeten it.

-Slovaks LOVE poppyseed anything. Not like an American style poppyseed muffin, but thousands of poppyseeds making the consistency of a spread.  (BLAH! Every time I read this sentence it turns my stomach. Burke likes it though.)

-They rarely eat raw vegetables, something I am still not happy about.

-We heard this before we came, but its true: sometimes the vegetarian section of the menu includes pirohy or halušky, a boiled potato dumpling with bacon on top.

-They eat french fries with tartarska omacka, aka tartar sauce.

-Slovaks have sweet lunch or dinner on a fairly regular basis. Sort of like when an American family may occasionally have pancakes for dinner. The funny thing is though that Slovak desserts are not very sweet so lunches are sweeter than cakes.

In other news, I finished both of these videos a while back. First is our wedding video, pretty self explanatory:)

My Wedding from Elizabeth Falknor on Vimeo.

And this second video is from School in Nature. The kids go ski camp for a week, have semi-regular classes in the morning, ski in the afternoons, and have an evening program. This year’s theme was Multicultural week, kicked off with America day. Burke and I put on a nice program for them, my favorite part was when I gave the kids each a state and had them tape the paper to where they thought it was on the map. I prepared the activity in my room with two first grade boys nearby and as I wrote they took great interest in what I was doing. They pronounced each state as I wrote it, “Meess-ees-see-pee. Mee-so-ree. Mon-tan-a. Montana? Hannah Montana?” It was adorable.

This video is from the whole week and you can see the map the kids created too. Check out Ohio:) one of my kids made me really proud.

Škola v prírode , from Elizabeth Falknor on Vimeo.

Here’s a real cute kid from school. Check out this outfit!

Surprise!

Also, by request there are some new photos of our kitty in the Nici (Nee-Chee) folder so make sure you check those out.  He became the most popular cat in our part of the city by greeting people from his perch outside of our window.  Lazovna 58 will miss him dearly, I’m sure.

Христос воскресе aka Christ has risen, or Happy Easter! in Macedonian. Our most recent trip was the most spontaneous of all of our trips so far. We finished school on the Wednesday before Easter, bought our train tickets that night, and were on the train the next morning at 5am. We slept some, played some games, read, and observed the people around us. One couple made a lunch entirely of a can of olives and bread roll. After some sixteen hours on the first train we had to get off and find our next train in Belgrade. Although the memories of that train are not pleasant, they are still very distinct. There was a pair of American girls who, unfortunately, were the type who made us wish we were not American. They were speaking so loudly about their private lives that a Serbian man said “You should not get too personal because we can all understand you.” Another young guy nearby said, “Why did you have to tell them that, I needed something to pass the time.” It was terrible.

After about twenty four hours of traveling we finally arrived in Skopje, Macedonian, most notabaly known for being the birthplace of Mother Theresa. A friendly local named Nikolovska helped us find our hostel and from there we explored the entire city. It didn’t take long to realize that just about everything in town was closed for the holiday so we began contemplating a change of scenery.

The next morning we left for Greece. It was a four hour train ride and at the train station we met a man who overheard us talking. He asked if we were from the states and when I said yes he inquired further. I told him I was from Ohio and he said he was too. He was just coming back to Macedonia because he had a rental there. Kind of a coincidence, but then we found out he was also a vegetarian. A pretty big coincidence now, right? Then he started asking about our astrological signs and I told him that I was on the cusp so it didn’t apply to me and he said, September 23? YES. So we met a vegetarian from Ohio with my birthday. Just crazy.

Thessaloniki was pretty amazing. The first day we were there we walked to the water and the market and explored some of the streets closer to the sea. We found out that most people in the city are Greek Orthodox and would be going to their Easter church services at midnight. We were excited to take part of this celebration with them, but unfortunately, we fell asleep at 9pm and didn’t wake up until the next morning. We did see some very authentic Greek life on Easter though. We walked the route of a tour bus through the city and saw all of the main highlights including my favorite, the highpoint of the city.

As we walked through the city, we were accompanied by various dogs. They would meet us, apparently approve of us, and walk with us for some amount of time. My favorite was a big shaggy brownish dog who walked with us for about an hour. He walked with us through both the big streets and the pedestrian paths where the locals lived. We quickly noticed a pattern: every family was out having lunch: fresh tomatoes, lamb on a spit, and loud music. One robust character was even dancing and invited us to join. They are a loud culture, and definatly loveable.

We spent most of the next day seeing the last sights of the city and trying to soak up the sun. We hung out by the White Castle near the water where all of the peddlers work. Africans selling watches and sunglasses, Indians selling electronics, and Chinese selling various tchotchkes abound. Undoubtedly their business was illegal and sadly the Chinese took the brunt of the scolding because they could not just fold up a briefcase and walk away as the others did. They tried to repackage and pack up all of their trinkets before the police would come and tell them to vacate the area. The bolder of the merchants waited in hiding for a while in hopes of pouncing on the most coveted selling spot. We left before we saw the entire event play out, but we wondered how often did the police men make this sweet through the boardwalk? Weekly? Daily? Hourly? About an hour later we saw three women walking through the park with their large bags of goods to sell… the police fifty meters behind them.

As the end of the day approached, we got back on the train and made it as far as half way to Skopje, but then the train broke down. We waited at some stop for about three hours before getting a new engine and traveling on. As we learned from the way down, the farther south you get, the more likely the trains are to be late. We missed our connection in Belgrade so we spent the next twelve hours exploring the city. I was especially happy because Burke told me he never wanted to go to Serbia (win) and Belgrade is a surprisingly beautiful city (double win). It was a very rainy day so we explored for an hour and then spent two hours in a cafe, explored for an hour, spent two hours in a cafe, etc. In one cafe, Caffe Padre, I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. FInally we made our way on to Budapest where we killed about three hours in a mall that was not technically open for buisness. We were very entertained by the window washers though:). And finally, almost fifty hours later, we were home in Banska Bystrica!

Since I started snowboarding some ten plus years ago I always dreamed of riding the sorts of mountains you see in the ski/snowboard films. This was my dream.

I very quickly learned that I was not on the trend for what was cool in snowboarding. I have spent the last ten years out of the park and away from the rails and kickers. Instead, I focused on tree skiing and finding untouched patches of snow in remote areas. I managed to convince my best friend Jon that my dream could be his. It wasn’t a hard dream to grasp once he learned to ride the powder with me. The groomed runs quickly became dead to him as they had been for me as we turned our sights elsewhere. We watched the films, road down what was available to us and made the decision that helicopters and Alaska would be our ultimate goal.

I never lost sight of the European peaks either. The stories of mountains like the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc are legendary. I wanted to be a big mountain snowboarder and last Saturday I made that dream come true (to some extent) and oh what I would have given to have shared it with you, Jon.  Since I arrived in Slovakia I had been looking forward to the winter ski season. When it arrived I was rather disappointed with the snow conditions and the quality of the resorts. I come from the land of chairlifts and the vast majority of resorts are well above 6000 feet (2000m). But I got used to the awkward button, anchor, and cable tows that are so common here and eventually I got my fresh powder too. But I wanted to ride something more challenging then the family friendly resorts that seemed to be so plentiful in the Banska Bystrica area. So I started looking for resorts higher up and when I found Chopok (the second highest peak in the Low Tatras) I knew I had to go. The icing on the cake came when I looked up the maps for the area and found that it was fairly well known for its freeride areas, which are areas accessible but left untouched for the most advanced skiers. Even better though was that they looked like this.

That picture was taken at the bottom of my second run of the day and needless to say I had been waiting a long time to ride stuff like that. The snow was deep, challenging, and steep but most importantly, it was untouched. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, extend your arm out in front of you. Now imagine standing on a mountain so steep that you could touch it with out bending over at all (30 degrees and steeper). As Jon would say, “so steep you don’t fall down, you fall off.” I felt the biggest surge of adrenaline in my life on my first run on Saturday. It was so far up in my chest I didn’t know if it felt good or it hurt but I knew that I liked it regardless. It was all the sort of stuff Jon and I had dreamed of. Snow covered rock chutes six feet wide and four stories tall. Cliffs, gaps, and so much fresh snow you can’t even imagine how deep it is. This all became real to me this week and I am happy to say I want more. On Saturday I had my first truly big mountain riding experience and while it wasn’t Alaska, it was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. My biggest disappointed was that I experienced it alone. Jon, I missed you buddy. I promise, Alaska will be ours, together.

If you havent read my last post about Israel and how we got there, you should start there before continuing. If you have, you know that where we left off, Burke and I were stuck at the Israeli Jordanian border without enough sheckels or dinar to get our visas. Remember the people I said we talked to on the bus? Burke asked them if they coud loan us any money and one willingly gave us about 5 USD worth of sheckels. We were so thankful!

Once we arrived in Amman, Tomas met us at the bus drop-off. We went with him back to his house and rode in the first taxi of our trip, they are ridiculously inexpensive there. We spent the afternoon with Tomas, his wife, and their three amazing children. It was very nice to rest and just have a place of our own again for a little while. Later on we went to the English Language school they were helping to run there. We met up with the people from J Team that we had met in Slovakia and had a nice time catching up and meeting some Jordanian people who were proud to use their newly acquired English. Then we took a walk around the city for the rest of the night before going back home.

A few fun facts about Jordan:
1. They don’t flush toilet paper.
2. They pay for every drop of water they use. Every apartment has a big tub on the roof that they pay to have filled once a week and if they run out, they run out for the week.
3. They love to heckle. So much so, that shop keepers don’t even mind working and will work late into the night just because it’s enjoyable.
4. The country is ridiculously cheap for everyday expenses, but the attractions are painfully expensive. Details below.
Our first full day in Jordan, we hired a taxi for half a day to chauffer us around and it only cost us 30 Dinar, amazing! So we first went to the Baptism site of Jesus. It very dried up, but pretty cool nonetheless. There are four churches on the site and we were able to go into one of them. Just across the river is the West Bank. By request, I’m including a small map to give you an idea of where all we went. Perhaps it will help you better imagine our trip.

After the Baptism site, we went to the dead sea. The water was very warm and we floated around and I tried to swim a bit. It is a very strange sensation to try to swim because I floated so much that when on my stomach, my feet floated right out of the water, making kicking sort of inverse, but knees don’t bend that way. So swimming isn’t really possible. Also, the water is allegedly therapeutic and good for your skin, but I felt disgusting afterwards. It took four showers to feel like I got the salty film off of me. I suppose I should mention at this point that Burke drove that night in Amman. He was excited about the opportunity. The streets there seldom have road lines, even downtown, but when there are street lines, they are entirely ignored.

The next morning we woke up and started heading south to Aqaba with a stop in Petra on the way. Petra was so beautiful and unlike anything I had ever seen. It is basically a city carved into the side of a canyon. We were very limited on time, so we were happy to take a horse ride down to the opening of the canyon (my horses name was Luca). We practically ran through so that we could see as much as possible, but it was worth it. On the way back up, we heckled our way into another horse ride to the top. The owner of my horse was very friendly and talked to Burke and I about our lives. He asked if we were married and when we said yes he asked how many children we had. We said none, we’ve only been married for six months. Then he said, if you married an Arab woman, she’d give you two kids by now. He sure showed us.

After Petra we continued on to Aqaba, but were deterred by obnoxious amounts of rain… in the desert. Obviously that doesn’t happen a lot so their roads are not prepared for it, making for a scary hour or two of driving. We settled in at our accommodation and the next morning we went to the Red Sea. The water was so warm and Burke and I took a nice long walk along the beach. Along the way, there was a man looking forlornly into the sea at his soccer ball which was just out of reach. I was wearing flip flops so I retreived it for him and he was so happy that he called all his friends over and they asked to take a picture with us. Loved it.

The rest of the day we walked around the town and mingled through the various markets and shops. It was especially fun to shop in Jordan because the people working take such an interest in their shoppers. We even had some sweet tea. In the evening we walked down a street and asked a shopkeeper where a good place to get falafel was. He pointed us to a place around the corner and we went. While we sitting there I said, “Burke, if you feel out of place (we were the only caucasians in the restaurant), imagine how I feel (the only woman in the restaurant).” Regardless, our falafel sandwhiches only cost 25 cents each and were spectacular.

The next day was the last day of our vacation, and we went out with a bang. We visited Wadi Rum, which we had never heard of before, but it was incredible. It is a desert with mountains and canyons and sand dunes and was so beautiful. At the end of our time there I even accomplished my Middle East vacation goal: I rode a camel!

After we left Tomas took us to the border where we proceded to walk from Jordan to Israel and into Eilat. From there we just had to make our trip to Israel in reverse. We have been very very blessed to have been able to take such an amazing vacation and safely:) And we are VERY thankful to the Sipocz family for hosting us during our stay in Jordan.