Kosice, a cute town in Slovakia

27th June 2009, Day 18 Europe Backpacking @ Kosice-Slovakia

Got up at 4.30am in the morning, asking myself again, “where am I?”  Oh yeah, I need to go Kelati station in Budapest-Hungary and catch the train at 6.33am to Slovakia. The cost of the ticket was 6800HUF(around 25pounds) and this fast train will take 3 hours to arrive Kosice. The seats and quality of the train was great, 6 seats in a cabin where I met a Hungarian girl who speak perfect English.

I was quite panic in travelling to Slovakia, mainly because Slovakia doesn’t seem to be the top popular destination for most people. The main reason that it attracts me was because I believe that the cost of living should be low and there must be many natural sceneries that are unexplored by the flocking tourist. Another experience I had was visiting Zakopane-Poland that I enjoyed the scenery and cheap accommodation and food. I believe that Slovakia might be able to offer these as well.

At 9.40am, the train came to a final stop. I looked through the window, this doesn’t look like a touristy place but an old old town. “I am I choosing the wrong place?” I am thinking if I should follow like every other tourist to go those hot popular places with top 10 sightseeing big cities with cosy restaurant and big shopping centres selling prestigious brands clothes and bags. I’ve been to more than 10 European cities, they look more or less the same so I might well try something different in a lower cost of living country.

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After I’ve got down the train, I am looking for tourist information counter but I seems to go no where because it is very difficult to speak to anyone and hard to find anyone who is able to speak English. Finally, I found a map hanging on the wall in Autobus Stancina(bus station). I look at the map and found one of the places of stay that I jotted down one month ago. Talking to duck and chicken, I found the hostel but they are charging me at 20Euro per night. I refused to pay this high price so I went down to the central of Kosice and went in the tourist information centre. Finally, found someone who can speak English.

I must say that they central has more existence of human being and made me to like this place. It has beautiful big cathedral right in the centre and plenty of shops surrounding it. Other than local Slovakian food, you ca also find Turkish, Chinese, Hungarian and English fast food too. It is not place that I would stay for too long due to its size and quietness but this is more than what I’ve expected. Don’t listen to those who had never been and say that Slovakia is dangerous place, I think it is safer than most of countries in Europe.