August 5
Today was a long drive from Levoca to Košice. It took about 2 hours to drive here. We had booked some nice cabins in the campground this time and it was really nice to sleep in a bed for a few nights! The campground is really cool – they have pet sheep that cut the grass!
Unfortunately Liam got sick on our car ride from Levoca and once we got to the campsite he had to stay with my mom at the cabin while Dad , Brendan and I went out exploring!
We found a LEGO museum and spent ages touring around all the displays and then we had a fun time building our own LEGO creations!
Dad let us pick a LEGO set for us to take home and we picked an extra big set for Liam, because he didn’t get to come with us.
We headed back to the campground and had a great night sleep!
August 6
Today we decided to go into the town of Košice and explore. We took the Tram from just outside of our campground and we got off just beside the old town. The first thing we saw was a street market - we stopped and got some yummy fruit and some fresh pastries.
It is a beautiful old town with any beautiful old Churches that were built as long ago as the in the 1300’s. The town used to have an old wall that went all the way around the town, but it is totally gone now. The only things left from the original old town were the central street.
We saw St Elizabeth Cathedral, the Chapel of St. Michael, and old Slovak wooden Church and the beautiful Plague Column. The Plague Column was built in 1723 to remember the victim of the Plague of 1709. It was built over the former site of the city gallows.
The main street of the old town is the only reminder of the old city however, once we left the main street – the cold war era apartment blocks took over and we were able to see so many of them as we had a lovely walk over to the Botanical gardens – unfortunately, the gardens were closed for renovations.
We had a nice Slovak lunch: My parents had Garlic soup (Cesnaková), potato dumplings with bacon and sheep cheese (Halušky s bryndzou), and a pancake filled with 3 types of meat (Spišská Pochúťka v zem.plac), we had chicken soup, and spaghetti!
After lunch we had a fun time taking pictures (my cute little daughter Brenny!!) and then we went for yummy ice cream!
We then found a really cool archaeological museum that went underneath the old city. It showed the original foundations of the city walls, the barracks, the barbican and we even got to walk in the old sewers!!
There was a copy of the town as it looked from a copper plate drawing from 1684 .
We had a great time walking around Košice today. The central town was filled with fountains and amazing things!
We have really enjoyed Slovakia. It is a very different country, the food was really good, wholesome and filling!! The country side and the cities have been really beautiful.
Liam says "Do videnia Slovakia!"
Tia and Mari
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