weekend in slovakia

well, the benefits of living in poland have started. on friday night i hired a car and drove with michelle and steve down to slovakia. it was the most nervous i've ever been when driving as i've hardly driven in the past 3 and a half years, i had to drive on the right hand side of the road in busy traffic with manic drivers and it was raining. still, with steve's navigating we managed to make it safely out of krakow with only one close call. the journey down was quite magic. at one point we were driving through the mountains with snow piled up against the sides of the road when it started snowing again with the wind blowing it fiercely across the road. there were no lights anywhere and no other cars on the road. it was a truly exhilarating experience. we crossed the border into slovakia and then tried to navigate to the town of levoca. steve did a great job of map reading and we finally drove into the walled town at about midnight. amazingly we were able to find a hotel that was still open and got a room for the night.

the old town of levoca is still completely surrounded by a wall and you enter through a couple of gates. it is such a quaint little old town and has been done up quite nicely. we spent a bit of time on the saturday morning walking around town, taking photos and freezing our arses off. leaving levoca we headed towards the spis castle which was built in the 11th century and has been empty since a fire went through it in the 17th century. it's now a unesco world heritage site and we spent some time wandering though it after having a really good (and exceptionally cheap) lunch of pierogi. we also picked up a middle aged german lady who was hitchhiking and gave her a lift back to levoca as our good deed for the day. we stopped at another lovely little town which was almost completely empty.. very strange for a saturday arvo.

from here we headed towards the mountains near the border and found a lovely little place to stay for the night. of course the guys running the place spoke no english and we speak no slovakian but we still managed to communicate with them and arranged a couple of rooms and some beers.

sunday was time to head back to poland so we made it through the border crossing and stopped for lunch at a mini ski resort. again, the food was lovely but way too filling.

all in all, it was a fantastic weekend with good company, good tunes (from our various ipods) and great scenery.

anyhoo.. pics are here

cousins

yep, i hate west coast as much as the next guy (well, as much as the next guy if he's a fair dinkum freo supporter) and i've been pretty hyper-critical of ben's off field antics for a long time but to be really honest, i'm getting no pleasure with this week's developments. as much as i think the guy's a self-obsessed, arrogant, pretty-boy jerk, i can't deny that he has a pretty rare footballing talent and it is sad to see his life spiralling out of control. as was the case with michael gardiner last year, benny-boy is a guy with amazing ability who had the world at his feet and has thrown it away through some pretty poor choices. hopefully he can pull himself together and get healthy.

i've gotta say that i'm rather (begrudgingly) impressed with west coast for taking the tough decision to suspend him indefinitely. given how integral he is to their side and how well he can play even when abusing his body i really didn't think they would be prepared to make such a big sacrifice. ultimately though it is the best thing for the team cos if cousins can be axed then anyone can.

new beginnings

well, it's been a long time coming but finally my stint in krakow has commenced. i arrived on saturday evening and was met at the airport by someone holding a sign with my name on it.. i actually felt quite important. from the airport i got taken straight to the apartment shell is renting for me. it's a bit smaller than i was led to believe as there was a mixup and i got a studio apartment rather than a one bedroom one. still, it is quite comfortable and once i get an internet connection there it will feel more like home. i'll be here in poland until early june and then return to the UK.

the office here is very big and in a completely open plan setting which i don't particulary like but i'm getting used to it. the guys in the service team here that i helped train are all really nice and i enjoy their company. hopefully they'll be able to take me out on the town sometimes as my polish is pretty awful and doesn't extend beyond a few words.

of course, i'm sure a lot of people have heard the sad news that hols and i have split up. naturally we're both pretty devastated cos we both went into the marriage believing that it would be forever. i spose most people enter marriage with this belief and a lot don't make it but even so, i'd not thought that we'd be one of the couples who didn't last. the one positive is that we've remained good friends and are still in constant touch. i guess it will be good for me to spend this time in poland and get away from london for a while. it snowed here in krakow last night and so all is looking fresh and beautiful. perhaps it's a sign. or perhaps it's just really cold weather

mr johnson

yesterday i heard the very sad news of the death of mr johnson following an accident on the farm in wagin recently. i don't know many of the details but am really sorry to hear of his passing. in my younger days i visited the johnson farm on a number of occasions as i was pretty good mates with two of his children, dale and paula, and found him to be a true blue country bloke who was always very welcoming and happy to sit around and share a yarn. he was someone i had a lot of respect for and i certainly send my condolences to the family.

katie's little finger

i thought my story about getting chased by a bear in romania and breaking my hand was good but i've been completely outdone by katie's story of how she lost part of her little finger. naturally if it was going to happen to anyone it would be either murray or katie.

read the story and see the pics here.. it's a good read!!