Not our finest hour

Part of our last day in Kosice, which was a Sunday, was spent sitting in the Catholic cathedral wondering where everyone else was. The congregation turned up about half an hour later, and we tut tutted about how disorganised it was, and how the notice on the front door giving Mass times hadn't been kept up to date. It was several hours later before we realised that the hour had in fact gone forward. So we had caught the 10;30 Mass rather than the 9am. You'll be glad to hear that we felt suitably foolish. We had read that the Slovaks are a deeply religious people, and it definitely felt like that at Mass. The church was packed, with people kneeling in the aisles (and this was the third Mass of the day). The congregation was a real mix: young families with lots of children, teenagers, students, elderly people, and the atmosphere was very devout. After Mass, pretty much the entire congregation transferred next door to an ice-cream parlour. Being good tourists, we felt that we ought to blend in with the locals, so we followed them in to have coffee and cake.

As the day wore on, we really had run out of things to do in Kosice, so the evening was spent in the youth hostel singing as many things in harmony as we could remember: three years in a college choir were not spent in vain! The next morning, we packed up and hopped on a train to Bratislava, which took 5 and a half hours as it went all round the country in two sides of a triangle rather than directly across. We did manage to glimpse the snow covered Tatras on the horizon, which was about as exciting as the journey got.

On arriving in Bratislava, we walked a long way through the industrial and commercial outskirts of the city to get to the apartment we had booked. After about two miles, the poor armadillo and tortoise were feeling their shells rather, and as we were completely lost, we decided to give up and take a taxi. The taxi driver, carefully selected for being a cuddly looking grandpa figure with a white moustache, welcomed us cheerily, smiled from ear to ear, and drove us 30 seconds round the corner to the address we had given him! He then proceeded to charge us 5 euros for the privilege, assuring us that this was the minimum charge. We attempted to argue the case, but his English mysteriously dried up, and our Slovakian wasn't really up to the job. Another triumph for the ILTDC (International League of Taxi Driving Conmen).

The flat, though looking rather shabby and decrepid on the outside, turned out to be spacious, clean and modern, and about five minutes walk from the old town and a local supermarket - perfect for our purposes! Sarah and I had the rest of the day, and the whole of the day after in the flat by ourselves before everyone else arrived on Wednesday so took the opportunity to sleep a lot, wash clothes, eat baked potatoes and watch a lot of very odd Slovakian tv (there was some international tennis on too which made me very happy, and which Sarah tolerated with much patience). Then on Wednesday, it was time for Bratislava to become Durham for a week, as the Chadsians arrived......(imagine the Dance of the Capulets in the background).