Hey people! It was a gorgeous day here in Ljubljana! I went on foot wherever I could and then even went jogging, it was so awesome. Right now I'm hungry as hell and have to work on a paper, but I still owe you a few road trip moments that I'd love to share with you!
We left Spiš Castle rather late, being so impressed with it, and were rushing to Žilina, a town close to the Slovak border with Czech Republic, where our first concert on this trip occurred. Honestly, it was more of my BF's interest than mine, 4 local (3 Slovak & 1 Czech) metal bands, I didn't know any of them, but the ticket was cheap and well, I don't say no to a good night out.
The hotel Grand in Žilina was so-so. Very cheap equipment, better said - very old and it showed. A lot. But the restaurant next to it was awesome. Seriously awesome, one of the best Caesar salad I ever had and the coffee was amazing! It's an open restaurant/bar, it's not hotel-only, so I really recommend it.
But I'm skipping things, let's start with our arrival to Žilina, being very late for the concert that started at 6 p.m. already (4 bands and all). When we realised we'll have to walk around 20 minutes just to the place where they were playing I totally saw us missing half of the concert. Since there was one band that my boyfriend wanted to see particularly, that wasn't the best position for us. In the end we missed one band, and luckily it wasn't the most wanted one. I must say the band itself REALLY surprised me, it was fantastic! They don't even have a web page or a CD out yet, but the concert was freaking awesome. Plus the beer was 1 € only, ah, the good old low prices that are no where to find in Slovenia anymore. :)
Žilina wasn't interesting for us just because of the concert, it was also interesting because of the Strečno castle, Slovaks call it Strečniansky hrad, that is located nearby Žilina. Again info on the net told me the thing closes up at 4 p.m. and that there are no guided tours in November. As we came there, we saw naturally there are guided tours but that we missed them. Figures. Then again, they were in Slovak language, as far as I could figure, but we could at least go inside the castle with a guide. Luckily, the castle itself was beautiful on the outside too. Pictures!
IMHO this view alone was worth the walk up hill.
The path to the castle is gorgeous.
The view from the castle hill.
A poor picture of otherwise awesome scene. This is where you have to park your car and then walk up to the castle, off the road it looks kinda like this.
Strečno castle is beautiful. Really, I want to go there again and take the tour too. Slovakia, like Czech Republic has a lot of castle, that's why I'm probably a fan of both forever. :)
I have one more post prepared. From Žilina and Strečno castle we went to the Slovak neighbours, Czech, very close to their border with Austria, where *the* concert happened. :)
Hope you liked the entry, thank you for reading and commenting!
