Introducing East Slovakia...

We arrived in Kosice at 10 pm on Thursday night, a 3 1/2 hr trip from Budapest. Deciding it was too late to go wandering through an unfamiliar city, we grabbed a taxi to hostel K2, our home for the next few days. The hostel's location wasn't what you would call obvious as it was through an unmarked door in a quiet courtyard, but at last we were able to dump the bags and hit the sack.

The following morning gave us the opportunity to explore Kosice after a bizarre breakfast of strudel and cappucino. It is the so-called second city of Slovakia, right at the eastern end of the country, 21 km from the Hungarian border. The outskirts are very Soviet - lots of high rise flats and signs of poverty, but the main square is beautiful. It's very like Sibiu; pedestrianised with beautiful pastel coloured buildings and of course the obligatory Tescos. It is dominated by the Cathedral of St Elizabeth, a beautiful gothic church started in 1378 with a gorgeous tiled roof and cupola, which make it the most striking landmark in the city. Inside is an eclectic mix of old and new which both of us really liked. There is a really modern, smooth stone lecturn and altar with a traditional gold panel behind, a gothic twisty staircase up to a huge statue of Mary and a crucifix, really old frescoes of the Last Judgement the Mount of Olives and modern stained glass. It reminded both Lucy and I of Durham in its feel.

The cathedral is surrounded by a little beautifully kept garden where there is a little chapel in a similar style. All across this pedestrianised area are the excavations of tunnels from the Middle Ages, which are quite cool and there is a town tower with an apparently interesting waxworks museum, although we didn't feel the need to explore... There are more gardens, complete with an apparently singing fountain (this was 'under renovation' so sadly tuneless, although this might have been a blessing in diguise) before one comes to the small and elegant Opera House. It is all very lovely, although you can't help but feel that it is a lot more provincial than its second city status would lead you to suggest.

We headed into the tourist office to find out about how to get to Medzev the following day. This is the main reason for visiting this side of Slovakia, as it is the village where my grandfather came from and I wanted to see what I could discover there. It is very close to Kosice and so far I had been unable to stop myself imagining my relatives in what then must have been there county town. In any case, having sorted out transport, Lucy and I went for a posh cup of tea at the Art Nouveau Slavia which the guidebook describes as 'too snooty to be relaxing'. It is, but we had a good time mocking its pretentions.

Our afternoon was spent in the East Slovak Museum, which we thought would be a good grounding for understanding Medzev. It was a hilarious failure. First we tried to pay and the woman had no change, so we bought a packet of crisps with a 50 euro note (I don't think the lady at the til was overly impressed...) Finally managing to buy our ticket, we were lead into a room with a solar system model in it. Sharing slightly bemused looks, Lucy and I dutifully admired the model and appreciated the information displayed about the universe, all the while wondering how especially this related to East Slovakia. The second room shed no further light - it was full of rocks from around the world, which, whilst fascinating wasn't quite what we were expecting. By the third room, all became clear; the two previous rooms were setting the scene for the natural history of East Slovakia and the following rooms were full of stuffed animals native to this part of the world.

Well, we enjoyed wandering, but it can't be said that either of us are particularly interested in natural history. At the end of the section, we tried to go to a different area of the museum, only to be told in Slovakian that our ticket didn't cover this. By this stage it was 4.30 and we decided that we would leave the rest for another day. Dinner was in a lovely pizza restaurant, popular with locals called Kleopatra and we headed in for an early night.