Wrong City, Wrong Country

Day 506
I was up early and packed. I ran into Sam. We grabbed some breakfast and then went to the main square. Sam wanted to shop and marveled over every tacky item that you see all over the world. I eventually said that I needed to move on to the supermarket and he got the hint.

After picking up provisions I chilled at the hostel until it was time to leave for my train. I was a bit panicked from the beginning because it was late and I had little room for error.

As you can imagine my train was late and I missed my connection to Lviv by about 2 minutes. I actually saw the damned thing pulling out as we pulled in. I then had a highly annoying 45 minute wait to change my reservation and spend an extra $25 on a new one. After that I got a hostel thru the tourist office and a van took me there.

The hostel was actually a college dormitory that rented beds during the summer Here I met Welsh Tom and we headed out for drinks. Not only was I in the w wrong city, but the wrong freaking country. A few beers felt justified.

When we went back to the hostel room 3 Germans from Leipzig were there. They traveled around Europe to support the Leipzig soccer team. In each city they would graffiti the teams name somewhere. Why can't I ever have normal roommates?

It had been a long day and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Bloody Hell

Day 505
I was up early, but lounged around in bed a bit before getting my act together. Sam joined me for breakfast but then headed back to the hostel while I headed to the train station.

Soon I was on my way to a small town called Trencin. It was really adorable. There was a big castle over looking it and a really cute town square that reminded me of all the cute little towns that I went to in the Czech Republic. There was also a small renaissance fair going on. After some lunch I found the tourist office and asked for directions to the castle I wanted to see. It turned out that both my guidebook and the internet were wrong, I was in the the wrong town. Surprise, surprise.

I had to get back on the train and got 30 minutes closer to Bratislava to a small place called Nove Meto. My goal was to see the ruins of Cachtice Castle. In the late 16th century Countess Elizabeth Bathory killed and tortures as many as 650 women here. She felt that bathing in their blood would keep her young. Bathory got away with murder until she started to kidnap girls of the lower gentry. As the investigators explored her castle they found evidence of her brutality everywhere. Women were found dead or close to it, drained of their blood and covered in wounds. Bathory's noble rank prevented her from the death sentence, but she was held under castle arrest for the rest of her life here. She is the most prolific female serial killer of all time.

You might wonder why in the world I would want to seek out such an obscure and gruesome ruin. The castle's obscurity is definitely part of the appeal. However, I also learned about Bathory in a class at college called Human Cruelty about serial killers and psychopaths. It's always interesting to see something that you learned about in school.

Nove Mesto didn't have a tourist office so I went to the only museum for directions. The nice woman there drew me a map and I was off. After about 10 minutes of walking I was out of town. Soon I was in the woods and I had three paths to choose from. I went with the wider and less dark path. I walked and walked and walked. No one was around and I began to question how smart it was for me to be there at all. I mean, what if Bathory's ghost was around? After over 90 minutes of walking I hadn't found anything and just headed back. I definitely didn't want to get caught there after dark.

Once back in town I caught the next train back to Bratislava and was there in no time. At the Bratislava train station I bought my exit ticket for the next evening. On the way back to the hostel I grabbed dinner.

I had wanted to take advantage of the large number of movies to choose from at the hostel, but everyone was so loud that I couldn't hear it so I just went to my room to watch stuff on my ipod. I also charged my ipod and got upset when my wall plug thing sent out sparks and stopped working. It was definitely time for bed.

Back on the Original Path

Day 504
I was up early and had to pack up to move to another room. After breakfast I headed out to explore, I had been here before but it was a Monday and everything was closed.

Bratislava is a cute little city. I wandered thru the old town and then up to the castle. This is what I ha most wanted to see. It was closed for refurbishment. I will not be coming back here again! The travel gods just don't want me to see the stupid thing!

After some lunch I headed back to the hostel and met Sam, I can't remember where he was from. The hostel has a BBQ every other day and just before it started the two of us headed down for some beer and sausages. After eating the hostel sponsers a free pub crawl. I was a real bum and left after my first drink at the second bar. I just wasn't feeling it.